_GOD HATH NOT CAST OFF ALL ISRAEL. THE GENTILES MAY NOT INSULT OVER THEM. GOD'S JUDGMENTS ARE UNSEARCHABLE._ _Anno Domini 58._ OUR Lord having declared to the chief priests and elders of the Jews, that the kingdom of God was to be taken from the Jews and given to the Gentiles, Matthew 21:43 also h... [ Continue Reading ]
_ROMANS 11:1_, &C. _I SAY THEN,_ &C.— This chapter is of the prophetic kind. It was by the spirit of prophesy that the Apostle foresaw the rejection of the Jews, which he supposes in the two foregoing Chapter s; for when he wrote this Epistle, they were not in fact rejected, seeing that their church... [ Continue Reading ]
DIGGED DOWN THINE ALTARS— It hence seems, that though, according to the law there was only _one altar_ for sacrifice, and that in the place where God had fixed his peculiar residence; yet, by some special dispensation, pious persons in the ten tribes built altars elsewhere. It is well known, at leas... [ Continue Reading ]
AND IF BY GRACE— Here the Apostle has his eye upon the remnant of the Jews who had embraced the Gospel, mentioned in the foregoingverse; and he throws in this verse to shew them, that their standing in the Christian church had no relation to or dependence upon their past or present observance of the... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT WHICH HE SEEKETH FOR— Namely, that righteousness, whereby he was to continue the people of God. See ch. Romans 9:31. It may be observed, that St. Paul's discourse being concerning the national privilege of continuing the people of God, he speaks here, and all along, of the Jews in the collectiv... [ Continue Reading ]
ACCORDING AS IT IS WRITTEN— We need not suppose that the Apostle quotes these passages of Scripture as if they predicted the blindness and obduracy of the Jews in his time. It is sufficient for his purpose, if the case of wicked Jews in former ages shews the true reason of the infidelity, obstinacy,... [ Continue Reading ]
HAVE THEY STUMBLED—? &C.— The English reader may imagine that as the same word _fall_ is used in the translation, so it is in the same word in the Greek. But _their fall,_ and _the fall of them,_ is παραπτωμα, the same word which we render _offence,_ ch. Romans 5:15; Romans 5:17 whereas _that they s... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR I SPEAK, &C.— Some read these verses in a parenthesis, thus: (_I say to you, Gentiles, so far as I am the Apostle of the Gentiles, I am used to honour my ministry,_ Romans 11:14. _That I may by any means excite to emulation them who are of my flesh, and may save some of them:_). _Magnify,_ unles... [ Continue Reading ]
IF BY ANY MEANS, &C.— The Apostle has generally very extensive and complicated views in writing; and it seems very evident, that he had not only intended to excite the Jews to emulation by turning their thoughts to the consideration of the privileges they had lost, but also that it was his aim to in... [ Continue Reading ]
THE RECONCILING OF THE WORLD— See ch. Romans 5:11. _But life from the dead,_ means "to the world; to us Gentile Christians; the world, reconciled and enriched by the casting off of the Jews." When we were at first reconciled by being converted to the power of Christianity, we were raised from the de... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR IF THE FIRST-FRUIT BE HOLY, &C.— _Now if,_ &c. The Apostle makes use of these allusions to shew that the patriarchs, the _root_ of the Jewish nation, being accepted by God, and the few Jewish converts who at first entered into the Christian church, being also accepted of God, are as it were _fir... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU, BEING A WILD OLIVE-TREE, &C.— This is another way of expressing the justification and election of us Gentiles; and it is also an incontestable proof, that we Gentile Christians are taken into the Abrahamic covenant, (for the Sinai covenant is abolished) as truly and fully as ever the nation of... [ Continue Reading ]
BOAST NOT AGAINST THE BRANCHES— Though the great fault which most disordered the church, and principally exercised the Apostle'scare in this Epistle, was from the Jews pressing the necessity of legal observances, and not brooking that the Gentiles, though converts to Christianity, should be admitted... [ Continue Reading ]
BE NOT HIGH-MINDED, &C.— Dr. Heylin connects this with the next verse, thus: _Be not presumptuous, but fear, lest God should not spare you, since he did not spare even the natural branches._... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD THEREFORE THE GOODNESS, &C.— What is here meant by _goodness_ to the believing _Gentile,_ as it stands opposed to _severity_ against the rejected _Jew,_ is very evident. It is the same with _salvation being come to them,_ Romans 11:11 with their being _enriched,_ Romans 11:12 with their being... [ Continue Reading ]
THE OLIVE-TREE, WHICH IS WILD BY NATURE—WHICH BE THE NATURAL BRANCHES— The original in both these places is κατα φυσιν, and therefore our translators should either have rendered it in the first clause, _The natural wild-olive tree,_ or in the latter, _Which are branches by nature._ See Heylin.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE FULNESS OF THE GENTILES— The _fulness_ of the _Jews,_ Romans 11:12 is the whole body of the Jewish nation professing Christianity, and therefore the _fulness of the Gentiles_ here must be the whole body of the Gentiles professing Christianity. It is well remarked by Dr. Harris, that as this Epis... [ Continue Reading ]
AND SO— That is, _by that means:_ so the word ουτως signifies, John 8:59. The reference in this and the next verse to the Old Testament, is commonly supposed to point at Isaiah 59:20. But whether the Apostle directs to any particular prophesy, or to the current sense of all the prophets, is uncertai... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY ARE ENEMIES FOR YOUR SAKES— _Enemies_ signify _strangers,_ or _aliens;_ that is to say, such as are no longer to be the _peculiar_ people of God: for they are called _enemies,_ in opposition to _beloved_ in this verse; and the reason given why they are _enemies,_ makes it plain that this is the... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THE GIFTS AND CALLING OF GOD, &C.— "For the favours which God shewed to those their fathers in calling them and their posterity to be his people, he does not repent of; but his promise, that they shall be his people, shall stand good." So _God's repenting_ is explained, Numbers 23:19. See Elsner... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR AS YE IN TIMES PAST, &C.— When the promise was made to Abraham, the calling of the Gentiles was not a secondary design,to take effect in case the Jew rejected the Gospel, but an absolute purpose, to be accomplished whether the Jews complied or refused. The refusal of the Jew was no way necessary... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR GOD HATH CONCLUDED THEM ALL, &C.— _Them_ is not in the original, and should not be in the translation. _Concluded_ is no English word in this place; the sense of the Greek verb συνεκλεισε is, _he hath locked,_ or _shut up together,_ which may be properly rendered by the Latin word _concludo;_ bu... [ Continue Reading ]
O THE DEPTH, &C.— This emphatical conclusion seems in an especial manner to regard the Jews, whom the Apostle would hereby teach modesty and submission to the over-ruling hand of the all-wise God, unfit as they are to call him to account for his dealing so favourably with the Gentiles. "His wisdom a... [ Continue Reading ]
OR WHO HATH FIRST GIVEN TO HIM, &C.— This has a manifest respect to the _Jews,_ who claimed a right to be the people of God so far, that St. Paul (chap. Romans 9:14.) finds it necessary to vindicate the justice of God in the case; and here also, in this question, he exposes and silences the folly of... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR OF HIM, &C.— _Of him,_ as the original author; _through him,_ as the gracious preserver; and _to_ or _for him,_ as the ultimate end,—_are all things:_ For his pleasure all things were created; by his providence all things are preserved; to his gloryall things terminate. Antoninus, speaking of _n... [ Continue Reading ]