SECOND PART. SUPPLEMENTARY. CHAPS. 9-11. THE REJECTION OF THE JEWS. IN stating the theme which he proposed to discuss (Romans 1:16-17), the apostle had introduced an element of an historical nature which he could not fail to develop at some point or other of his treatise. It was this: “to the Jew _f... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have a great grief and a continual lamentation in my heart._ ” No connecting particle joins this part to the preceding. The _asyndeton_ is here, as always, the evidence of a lively emotion which break... [ Continue Reading ]
TWENTY-FIRST PASSAGE (9:1-29). THE LIBERTY OF GOD IN REGARD TO THE ELECTION OF ISRAEL. The apostle opens this passage with a preface expressing the profound grief he feels in view of the mysterious fact which is about to occupy him (Romans 9:1-5); then he shows how the liberty of God is set in its f... [ Continue Reading ]
Paul expresses all the intensity of his grief on account of his people (Romans 9:1-3), and he justifies it by the magnificent prerogatives wherewith this unique people had been honored (Romans 9:4-5).... [ Continue Reading ]
Rom 9:2-3 contain the matter of that _truth_ so solemnly announced in Romans 9:1. The parallelism of the two propositions of the verse, as always, is the indication of a rising feeling. A triple gradation has been remarked between the two propositions. First, between the two subjects: λύπη, _grief_,... [ Continue Reading ]
_ VV._ 4 and 5 are intended to justify the wish expressed in Romans 9:3, by declaring the glorious prerogatives which are fitted to render this people supremely precious to a truly Israelitish heart. VV. 4. “ _Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants_, _... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _Not as though the word of God were made of no effect; for they are not all Israel_, _which are of Israel. Neither because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children; but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called;' that is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of... [ Continue Reading ]
The first proposition of this verse has almost the same meaning as the second of Romans 9:6, but with a different shade intimated by the particle οὐδέ, _neither further._ The apostle, by way of transition to the following discussion, Romans 9:8-9, for the expression: _which are of Israel_, substitut... [ Continue Reading ]
In this verse Paul detaches the general principle from the particular fact which has just been cited. The τουτέστι, _that is_, exactly expresses his intention to derive from the historical fact the principle on which it rests. Ishmael's birth proceeded _from the flesh_, that is to say, had nothing i... [ Continue Reading ]
This verse is simply intended to justify the expression: _children of the promise_, Romans 9:8. When the apostle says: _a word of promise_, he means: a word which had the free character of a promise, and which did not in the least imply the recognition of a right. The quotation is a combination of R... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac (for the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil_, _that the purpose of God according to election may stand, not of works, but of Him that calleth); it was said unto her, The elder sh... [ Continue Reading ]
Nay more, the preference given to Jacob was expressed even before the birth of the twins, before they had done any act whatever; so true is it, that it was not founded on any particular merit which Jacob might possess. The two subjective negations μήπω and μηδέ are used here because they contain a r... [ Continue Reading ]
The oracle quoted is taken from Genesis 25:23. The question whether it refers to the two _brothers_ personally, or to the two _peoples_ who shall spring from them, is settled by the words preceding: “Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall issue from thee.” Hence it follows that... [ Continue Reading ]
A second quotation, meant to confirm the first; it is taken from Malachi 1:2-3. The conjunction _as_ may be understood in two ways: either in the sense that God's love to Jacob and His hatred to Esau were the _cause_ of the subjection of the latter to the former; or it may be thought that Paul quote... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _What shall we say then? Is there not unrighteousness with God? Let it not be! For He saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy._ ” Seve... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _For the Scripture saith unto Pharoah, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath He mercy on whom He will, and whom He will He hardeneth._ ” Having given an instance of the liber... [ Continue Reading ]
From this particular example Paul deduces, as in Romans 9:16, the general principle, while reproducing by way of antithesis the maxim of Romans 9:16, so as to combine the two aspects in which he wishes here to present divine liberty: “No man can say either: I am, whatever I may do, safe from the jud... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who can resist His will? Much rather_, _O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the vessel of clay say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Or hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make o... [ Continue Reading ]
Most commentators do not hold that in the following answer Paul comes seriously to discuss the objection. _Abrumpit quaestionem_, says Melanchthon. Holsten observes that Paul raises the question, not to resolve it, which would be impossible, but to crush it. We acknowledge that in Romans 9:19-20 Pau... [ Continue Reading ]
VV. 22 describes God's dealing with the vessels unto dishonor; Romans 9:23-24 will describe His dealing with the vessels of value. The relation between the participle θέλων, _willing_, and the verb ἤνεγκεν, _He endured_, may be explained in three ways, expressed each by one or other of the conjuncti... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _Now if God, willing to show His wrath, and to make His power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: And_ [_if_] _that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, us, whom he also called,... [ Continue Reading ]
Here God is presented to us as the potter, laboring to form the vessels of honor. How are we to construe the proposition: _And that He might make known?_ The most forced construction is that of Ewald, Hofmann, and Schott, who find here the principal clause on which depends the subordinate: Now, if... [ Continue Reading ]
And those predestined to glory, He has drawn by long-suffering, not only from the midst of the lost mass of the Jews, but also from among the Gentiles. This was what Jesus had declared: “I have yet other sheep which are not of this fold” (John 10:16). And this Paul had in view in the words: _the ric... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _As He saith also in Osee, I will call that my people, which was not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved. And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called sons of the living God._ ” The words _as also_ evidentl... [ Continue Reading ]
And, first, Romans 9:25-26: the proclamation by the prophets of the calling of the Gentiles; then Romans 9:27-29: that of the rejection of the mass of the Jewish people.... [ Continue Reading ]
_ VV._ 26. The second saying quoted (Hos 1:10) is attached to the preceding as if it followed it immediately in the prophet. More than once in the following Chapter s we find this combination of originally distinct sayings. Some apply the expression in Hosea: _in the place where_, to the land of Sam... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _But Isaiah crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant_ [_only_] _shall be saved: for the Lord will make a short and summary reckoning on the earth:and, as Esaias foretold, Except the Lord of hosts had left us a seed, we had become as S... [ Continue Reading ]
VV. 28 explains this idea of a _saved remnant._ This time, indeed, judgment will be carried out neither by halves nor over a long period. It will be, says Isaiah, a sudden and summary execution which will fall not upon this or that individual, but on the nation as a whole. Such is the meaning of the... [ Continue Reading ]
TWENTY-EIGHTH PASSAGE (14:1-15:13). EXHORTATION RELATIVE TO A PARTICULAR DIFFERENCE OF VIEW IN THE CHURCH OF ROME. The following passage is a practical application of the law of love expounded, chaps. 12 and 13. It is an immediate illustration of the selfsacrifice which Paul has just been requiring... [ Continue Reading ]
In Romans 9:30-33 the apostle gives summarily the solution of the problem; then he develops it in Romans 10.... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have obtained righteousness, but the righteousness which is of faith; and that Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness._ ” The question: _What shall we s... [ Continue Reading ]
The lot of the Gentiles presents a contrast fitted to bring out more clearly the tragical character of that of Israel. This people, which alone followed the law of righteousness, is precisely the one which has not succeeded in reaching it. Some (Chrys., Calv., Beng., etc.) have stumbled at this expr... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _Wherefore? Because [seeking] not by faith, but as it were by works_, _they stumbled at the stumbling-stone; as it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumbling-stone and rock of offence: and he who believeth on Him shall not be ashamed._ ” The apostle has just declared (Romans 9:30) the moral fac... [ Continue Reading ]
Paul combines in this quotation Isa. 27:16 and Isaiah 8:14, and that in such a way that he borrows the first and last words of his quotation from the former of these passages, and those of the middle from the latter. It is hard to conceive how a great number of commentators can apply the saying of I... [ Continue Reading ]