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For the reader’s convenience I have listed all five of the definitions given in BDAG. This makes it clear that only one item (#4) of the five definitions indicates contrast; but those who depend on the English translations would not know this and, consequently, suppose that Ro.10.6 states something contrary to 10.5 though that is not the case. Then there is another objection to seeing Paul’s identification of the Law with Christ. That is the way Ro.10.4 is generally understood. The verse reads, “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” “The end” generally indicates the conclusion or termination of something, and if that is the case in regard to the Law, then what sense is there to speak of any identification of Christ with the Law? Again, the only translation to put the matter differently is NJB: “But the Law has found its fulfilment in Christ so that all who have faith will be justified.” What accounts for this difference in the translations? The answer is that the word translated as “end” or as “fulfillment” could have either of these meanings; so the choice was, in most cases, determined by the theological inclinations of the translators. The word translated as “end” is telos (te,loj). This is one of the definitions given in BDAG: “3. the goal toward which a movement is being directed, end, goal, outcome.” Under this heading the BDAG makes this observation: “Perh. this is the place for Ro 10:4, in the sense that Christ is the goal and the termination of the law at the same time”. (Italics mine) It seems that NJB’s “fulfillment” is precisely such an attempt to combine the two ideas of telos as goal and as end, thus indicating that in Christ the Law has finally (“end”) reached its goal, attaining its “fulfillment” in him. This expressed the idea that the Law, the “Word” (Dt.30.14 and Ro.10.8), has become embodied or incarnate in Christ, so that to obey Christ is to obey the Law, thereby fulfilling it.
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