2 Corinthians 11:22

22. He begins by comparing himself point by point with the Judaizers, who had, no doubt, urged these very points in their own favour. He has been answering their attacks on him, implying throughout that their accusation recoiled on themselves. He now answers the claims which they made on their own behalf, and urges that he can make such claims with still more truth. Comp. the similar passage Philippians 3:5 and see Lightfoot’s note.

Ἐβραῖοί εἰσιν; These four sentences are much more vigorous if we take them (with A.V. and R.V., following Beza, Calvin, and Luther) as questions. Earlier English Versions, following the Vulgate, take them as assertions; They are Hebrews, &c. The claims are perhaps roughly arranged to form a climax, the least important point coming first, and the most important, last. But in some respects Ἰσραηλεῖται would be more important than σπέρμα Ἀβραάμ: see Sanday and Headlam on Romans 9:4-7. Yet in Romans 9:7, and again in Romans 11:1, ‘seed of Abraham’ comes after ‘Israelite,’—apparently as more important. The first point is that of nationality; he belongs to the same race as his opponents. For, although ‘Hebrews’ originally meant ‘men from the other side’ of Euphrates (?), yet it is gentilic, and not local; it describes a race, and not where they dwell (see Hastings’ DB. 2. p. 326). S. Paul goes on to say that he enjoys the same special privileges as his opponents. These are covered by ‘Israelites’ and ‘seed of Abraham.’ The difference between the two is perhaps this; that ‘Israelite’ looks to the special relations between the peculiar people and Jehovah, while ‘seed of Abraham’ looks rather to their share in the promises that the Messiah should be of that seed (Genesis 22:18). Therefore Ἰσραηλεῖταί εἰσιν; would mean, Are they members of the theocracy? σπέρμα Ἀβραάμ εἰσιν; Have they a share in the Messianic rights of the nation? (See Lightfoot on Galatians 6:16 and Philippians 3:5, and comp. the climax in Romans 9:5.) The thought of the Messianic glories naturally leads on to the fourth point, of being Messiah’s ministers.

For obvious reasons S. Paul omits here, what he states in Romans 11:1 and Philippians 3:5, that he is φυλῆς Βενιαμείν, to which fact we may trace his name of Saul, the Benjamite who was the first king of Israel. It is remarkable that, in a Church almost entirely Gentile, so much stress should have been laid upon being of Hebrew descent. It is possible that his enemies had professed to doubt whether this man of Tarsus (Acts 22:3) was really of the seed of Abraham. A little later the Ebionites said that Paul was a Gentile, who had been circumcised, that he might marry the high-priest’s daughter (Epiphan. Haer. xxx. 16). On the smooth breathing for Ἐβραῖος see WH. II. p. 313. The aspirate in Latin and English is comparatively modern. Not only Wiclif, but Tyndale and Cranmer, have ‘Ebrues’ here. Coverdale starts the aspirate in 1535. Only here, Philippians 3:5, and Acts 6:1 does Ἐβραῖος occur in the N.T. Ἰσραηλείτης is common in Acts in addresses, ἄνδρες Ἰσραηλεῖται (Acts 2:22,Acts 3:12, &c.); elsewhere only Romans 9:4; Romans 11:1 and John 1:48. The common word is Ἰουδαῖος. Comp. Romani and Quirites.