Romans 11:16

For Lit., and much better, But, or Now. The word marks transition to a new fact in connexion with the "receiving" of Israel; the fact of the peculiar position of Jews with regard to the Divine Promise. The main effect of the following passage, to Romans 11:24, is to prove that the restoration of Jews to the Church of Messiah, so far from being unlikely, is in the nature of the case likely. Their peculiar connexion, by lineal descent, with the Fathers, makes it certain that their returnwill be as abundantly welcome to their God as the admissionof the Gentiles. We might say morewelcome, but for the fact that nowelcome can be fuller than that which awaits the true believer of whatever nation. But St Paul wishes to meet the rising prejudice (so strong and stubborn in after ages) of Gentile against Jewish believers, by emphasizing the grand fact that the whole Church springs, so to speak, from a Jewish root; and that thus nothing could be, in a certain sense, more naturalthan the restoration of Jews to the Church. He has also to announce that there is reserved for Israel, in the future, not merely restoration to the Church, but a work of special importance and glory in it for the world.

the firstfruit The Jewish Patriarchs, but perhaps specially Abraham, who was eminently "holy" in the sense of consecration to the purposes of God. For the figure here cp. Numbers 15:21; "Of the first of your dough ye shall offer unto the Lord an heave-offering." The words just below here point to the idea of "firstfruits" not of grainbut of bread.

holy In the sense indicated in the last note. The Patriarchs were, by the Divine purpose, separatedto be special recipients of Divine light, in trust for their descendants and the world. In a sense somewhat similar their descendants, viewed as a nation, are still separatedin the Divine purpose to a special work connected with Divine mercy. The reference is not, of course, to a supposed superior personal sanctity of individual Jews as such, (which would be to contradict the whole reasoning of cch. 2, 3, 4,) but to the special purpose towards Israel as a nation, in view of which they are reserved (scattered but never vanishing) for a time of grace.

the root Here again the figure points to the Patriarchs, and especially to Abraham. (Cp. Isaiah 51:1-2, for yet another figure, that of the Quarry, with the same reference.) The "root" and "branches" are here brought in to form the main illustration of the passage following as far as Romans 11:25. The passage is one of much importance and some difficulty, and calls for a few preliminary remarks.