Romans 11:25

‘For I would not, brothers and sisters, have you ignorant of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own conceits, that a hardening in part has befallen Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in,'

Paul now makes clear to the Roman church as a whole, a ‘mystery', (a secret that has now been revealed) concerning which he does not want them to be ignorant, in order that they might not cherish wrong ideas which might make them conceited (i.e. that the Gentiles among them might feel that they are somehow superior to the Jews). And the revealed secret is that a hardening in part has happened to Israel, until ‘the full number of the Gentiles has come in', (that is, until all the elect among the Gentiles have become Christians). He has already explained how and why this was true. It was by their being joined with the Messiah and with the true Israel. And it was in order that it might provoke the unbelieving Jews to jealousy, so that they too might seek their Messiah. The hardening is, of course, that hardening which is the consequence of obstinacy and unbelief, which is nevertheless seen as the work of God (Romans 9:18; Romans 11:8). It makes them enemies of the Gospel (Romans 11:28). As this hardening is said only to affect ‘Israel' in part, ‘Israel' here clearly signifies the whole of Israel, both believing and unbelieving, and there is no reason why we should not see it as incorporating Gentile believers (as it certainly includes Gentile proselytes). It is we who tend to exclude Gentile believers from Israel, not Paul (see the excursus at the end of this chapter). So while there has been a hardening, it has not affected the Israel within Israel as defined in Romans 9:6, nor any believing Gentiles who have been incorporated into Israel.

‘That a hardening in part has befallen Israel, until --.' It will be noted that such a hardening is mentioned twice in chapter 9-11 and in both cases it is permanent and thus results in judgment. See Romans 9:17; Romans 11:7; and compare also Mark 8:17. There is thus no reason for thinking that ‘until' means ‘then once that is over something else will happen', i.e. the process of saving Israel will begin. It can equally mean that the hardening will go on until the last Gentile has come in, and then will come the judgment. In this respect we should note the uncertainty lying behind Paul's references to Israelites being restored in Romans 11:12. He hopes it will happen, with happy consequences, but he is not sure. There is no confident certainty. See Romans 11:12; Romans 11:14 (note ‘some of them'), Romans 11:15; Romans 11:23 (note the ‘if'). This does not sound like a triumphant confidence in the salvation of large numbers of Jews. It is an expressed hope. One cannot but feel that if he was aware that he was building up to declaring that large numbers of extra Israelites would be saved, his expressions in these verses would have been more positive.

‘Until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.' In this case pleroma probably means full number. However, if we translate as ‘completeness' we get the same result. (Either is possible). The point is that all Gentiles who are elect will have been saved as a necessary part of ‘all Israel' being saved (compare Matthew 8:11). But what then have the Gentiles ‘come in' to? The most obvious answer in the context is that they have ‘come in to Israel', that is, into the community of the elect. This is suggested by the context. See Romans 11:16 taken in context with Romans 11:6. They have been grafted into the olive tree. They have come into the ideal Israel. In this connection it should be noted that Jewish sects at the time (such as those in Qumran) were also speaking of ‘entering into the elect community'.

Other suggestions are that it refers to ‘coming in to the Kingly Rule of God' (e.g. Matthew 18:3; Matthew 19:23; Luke 18:7; Luke 18:20; Luke 18:25;), translated as ‘entering into the Kingly Rule of God/Heaven', or that it refers to ‘coming in' to the sphere of salvation (found nowhere in the New Testament), or to ‘coming in to life (Matthew 18:8; Matthew 19:17; Mark 9:43; Mark 9:45), or to ‘coming in to their rest' (Hebrews 3:18; Hebrews 4:6). The verb is only rarely used by Paul, see Romans 5:12; 1 Corinthians 14:23 neither of which are relevant here, which would suggest that it has to be interpreted by the context, i.e. entering in to Israel, or entering into salvation, compare verse Romans 11:11. On the other hand it should be noted that the latter reference speaks of salvation as ‘coming to them', which is the common idea in the New Testament, and may therefore exclude our seeing a reference here to entering into salvation. The New Testament nowhere speaks of entering into salvation. It is ‘obtained' not entered into. Thus the Pauline background suggests that ‘entering in' means entering into the true Israel.