Romans 11:11

Moreover, the rejection is not final: it has a providential purpose to serve; but a great reversal of it is in store

11. I say then Same word as Romans 11:1. Here begins a new section of the discussion, lasting to the end of the chapter, and of the subject. St Paul has shewn that the rejection of Israel was never total; he now declares that it is not final. A time is to come when the mass of the bodily Israel shall believe, and be restored to the Church.

Have they stumbled Lit. and better, Did they stumble; i.e. when they, as a nation, rejected Messiah. Cp. the figure of the "stumbling-block" to illustrate Jewish unbelief, 1 Corinthians 1:23; Galatians 5:11.

that they should fall Q. d., "Was their stumbling permitted by God with a view totheir fall?" Evidently here "fall" (by contrast with "stumble") bears the sense of final and fatal rejection. Was the nation then and there for ever cut off from becoming, on any national scale, Christian?

God forbid For the spiritof these words here, see Romans 9:1-5.

through their fall Better, on occasion of their sinful stumbling. The word rendered "fall" is that elsewhere (e.g. Romans 4:25; Romans 5:15, &c.; Galatians 6:1; Ephesians 2:1;) rendered "trespass," "fault," "offence," &c. Literally it is "a falling aside;" and thus nearly approaches the idea of "stumbling." Since elsewhere in N. T. it always conveys the idea of guilt, we attempt to combine the moral and literal meanings as above. No doubt the word is chosen by St Paul with reference to the metaphors, just used, of stumblingand prostration;and it is intended to mark a temporary, not final, "false step." The E. V. fails to keep this point. The salvation of Gentiles was indeed always in the Divine purpose; but Jewish unbelief was the occasionwhich that purpose took for its actual developement.

salvation Lit. the salvation; that salvation which was "of the Jews;" Messiah's way of peace. Cp. Acts 28:28.

for to provoke them i.e. the Jews. See Romans 10:19. Here is seen, as through a veil, a suggestion of mercy conveyed in the warning of judgment in Deuteronomy 32:21. The "provocation to jealousy" was indeed in numberless instances to result only in mortification and hatred; but in numberless other instances (this surely is in view here) it was to result in an intense desire to regain the blessings of the covenant side by side with Gentile believers. Cp. perhaps, Revelation 3:9 [43].

[43] See Abp. Trench's Commentary there.