Romans 11:17

“ Now, if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in their place, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree, boast not against the branches; and if thou boast, it is not thou that bearest the root, but the root thee. ”

We might give δέ the sense of but (“ but if, notwithstanding their natural consecration, the branches were broken off”); or that of now, which is better, as the argument continues down to the inference drawn in Romans 11:18.

Undoubtedly an event has happened which seems to be in contradiction to this people's character of holiness; a certain number of its members, like branches struck down with an ax, have been rejected. The term some indicates any fraction whatever, small or considerable matters not (see on Romans 3:3). Σὺ δέ, and if thou. Some commentators think that this style of address applies to the Gentile-Christian church personified. But in that sense would not the article ὁ have been needed before ἀγριέλαιος, the wild olive? Without an article the word is an adjective, and denotes the quality, not the tree itself. Besides, it is not one tree that is engrafted on another. By this style of address, therefore, Paul speaks to each Christian of Gentile origin individually, and reminds him that it is in spite of his possessing the quality of a wild tree that he has been able to take a place in this blessed and consecrated organism to which he was originally a stranger.

The words ἐν αὐτοῖς, which we have translated: in their place, properly signify: in them, and may be understood in two ways: either in the sense of among them that is to say, among the branches which have remained on the trunk, converts of Jewish origin or: in the place which they occupied, and, as it were, in the stump which has been left by them, which would apply solely to the branches which have been cut down. The prep. ἐν, in, which enters into the composition of the verb, might favor this latter meaning, which is, however, somewhat forced.

Once engrafted on this stem, the wild branches have become co-participants (συγκοινωνοί) of the root. This expression is explained by the following words: and of the fatness of the olive, of which the meaning is this: As there mounts up from the root into the whole tree a fruitful and unctuous sap which pervades all its branches, so the blessing assured to Abraham (ἡ εὐλογία τοῦ ᾿Αβραάμ, Galatians 3:14) remains inherent in the national life of Israel, and is even communicated by believing Jews to those of the Gentiles who become children of the patriarch by faith; comp. Galatians 3:5-9. The Alexs. reject the word καί, and, after ῥίζης, root: “the root of the fatness of the olive.” It would be necessary in that case to give to the word root the meaning of source, which is impossible. This reading must therefore be rejected, as well as that of the Greco-Latins, which omit the words: of the root and of: “co-participant of the fatness of the olive.” The meaning would be admissible; but this reading is only a correction of the text once altered by the Alex. reading.

This passage demonstrates in a remarkable way the complete harmony between St. Paul's view and that of the twelve apostles on the relation of the church to Israel. The Tübingen school persists in contrasting these two conceptions with one another. According to it, the Twelve regarded Christians of Gentile origin as simply members by admission, a sort of plebs in the church; while Paul made them members of the new people, perfectly equal to the old. The fact is, that in the view of Paul, as in that of the Twelve, the believers of Israel are the nucleus round which are grouped the converts from among the Gentiles, and God's ancient people, consequently, the flock with which the Gentiles are incorporated. “I have yet other sheep, said Jesus (John 10:16), who are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and there shall be one flock, one Shepherd.” Excepting the figure, the thought is identical with our passage.

It has been objected to the figure used here by the apostle, that a gardener never engrafts a wild branch on a stem already brought under cultivation; but, on the contrary, a stem is taken which still possesses all the vigor of the wild state to insert in it the graft of the cultivated tree. There are two ways of answering this objection. It may be said that, according to the reports of some travellers, the course taken in the East is sometimes that supposed by the figure of the apostle. A wild young branch is engrafted in an old exhausted olive, and serves to revive it. But there is another more natural answer, viz. that the apostle uses the figure freely and without concern, to modify it in view of the application. What proves this, is the fact that in Romans 11:23 he represents the branches broken off as requiring to be engrafted anew. Now this is an impracticable process, taken in the strict sense.