Chapter S 9 11. With the eighth chapter Paul concludes the positive exposition of his gospel. Starting with the theme of Romans 1:16 f., he showed in Romans 1:18 to Romans 3:20 the universal sinfulness of men Gentile and Jew; in Romans 3:21 to Romans 5:21 he explained, illustrated and glorified the... [ Continue Reading ]
ἀλήθειαν λέγω ἐν Χριστῷ, οὐ ψεύδομαι. The solemn asseveration is meant to clear him of the suspicion that in preaching to the Gentiles he is animated by hostility or even indifference to the Jews. Yet _cf._ 2 Corinthians 11:31; Galatians 1:20. ἐν Χριστῷ means that he speaks in fellowship with Christ... [ Continue Reading ]
The intense pain with which Paul contemplates the unbelief of his countrymen.... [ Continue Reading ]
The fact of Paul's sorrow is stated here; the cause of it is revealed in Romans 9:3. Weiss remarks on the triple climax: λύπη being intensified in ὀδύνη, μεγάλη in ἀδιάλειπτος, and μοι in τῇ καρδίᾳ μου. Paul cannot find words strong enough to convey his feeling.... [ Continue Reading ]
ηὐχόμην γὰρ ἀνάθεμα εἶναι κ. τ. λ. For I could wish that I myself were anathema, etc. For the omission of ἂν see Acts 25:22; Galatians 4:20. Paul could wish this if it were a wish that could be realised for the good of Israel. The form of expression implies that the wish had actually been conceived,... [ Continue Reading ]
f. The intensity of Paul's distress, and of his longing for the salvation of his countrymen, is partly explained in this verse. It is the greatness of his people, their unique place of privilege in God's providence, the splendour of the inheritance and of the hopes which they forfeit by unbelief, th... [ Continue Reading ]
οὐχ οἷον δὲ ὅτι : this unique expression is explained by Buttmann (_Grammar_, p. 372, Thayer's Transl.) as a blending of two formulas οὐχ οἷον followed by a finite verb, and οὐχ ὅτι, which is common in the N.T. The meaning is, But, in spite of my grief, I do not mean to say any such thing as that th... [ Continue Reading ]
Nor because they are Abraham's seed, are they all τέκνα, _i.e._, children in the sense which entitles them to the inheritance, Romans 4:11; Romans 8:17. God from the very first made a distinction here, and definitely announced that the seed of Abraham to which the promise belonged should come in the... [ Continue Reading ]
f. τοῦτʼ ἔστιν : the meaning of this action of God is now made clear. It signifies that not mere bodily descent from Abraham makes one a child of God that was never the case, not even in Abraham's time; it is the children of the promise who are reckoned a seed to Abraham, for the word in virtue of w... [ Continue Reading ]
ff. But the argument can be made more decisive. A Jewish opponent might say, “Ishmael was an illegitimate child, who naturally had no rights as against Isaac; we are the legitimate descendants of the patriarch, and our right to the inheritance is indefeasible”. To this the Apostle replies in Romans... [ Continue Reading ]
μήπω γὰρ γεννηθέντων μηδὲ πραξάντων : “the conditional negatives (μήπω, μηδὲ) represent the circumstances not as mere facts of history, but as conditions entering into God's counsel and plan. The time of the prediction was thus chosen, in order to make it clear that He Who calls men to be heirs of H... [ Continue Reading ]
τί οὖν ἐροῦμεν; _cf._ Romans 6:1; Romans 7:7; Romans 8:31. It is Paul who speaks, anticipating, as he cannot help doing, the objection which is sure to rise, not only in Jewish minds, though it is with them he is directly concerned, but in the mind of every human being who reads his words. Yet he st... [ Continue Reading ]
In the second part of his theodicy Paul meets the objection that this sovereign freedom of God is essentially unjust.... [ Continue Reading ]
τῷ Μωυσεῖ γὰρ λέγει. τῷ Μωυσεῖ is emphatic by position: the person to whom this declaration was made, as well as the voice which made it, render it peculiarly significant to a Jew. The words (exactly as LXX, Exodus 33:19) occur in the answer to a prayer of Moses, and may have been regarded by Paul a... [ Continue Reading ]
Conclusion from this word of God. It (namely, the experience of God's mercy) does not depend on man's resolve or effort (for τρέχειν _cf._ 1 Corinthians 9:24 ff.), but on God's merciful act. This, of course, merely repeats Romans 9:12-13, buttressing the principle of God's sovereign freedom in the e... [ Continue Reading ]
f. But Paul goes further, and explains the contrary phenomenon that of a man who does not and cannot receive mercy in the same way. λέγει γὰρ ἡ γραφή : it is on Scripture the burden of proof is laid here and at Romans 9:15. A Jew might answer the arguments Paul uses here if they were the Apostle's o... [ Continue Reading ]
From the two instances just quoted Paul draws the comprehensive conclusion: So then on whom He will He has mercy, and whom He will He hardens. The whole emphasis is on θέλει. The two modes in which God acts upon man are showing mercy and hardening, and it depends upon God's will in which of these tw... [ Continue Reading ]
ff. But human nature is not so easily silenced. This interpretation of all human life, with all its diversities of character and experience, through the will of God alone, as if that will by itself explained everything, is not adequate to the facts. If Moses and Pharaoh alike are to be explained by... [ Continue Reading ]
ὦ ἄνθρωπε is not used contemptuously, but it is set intentionally over against τῷ θεῷ : the objector is reminded emphatically of what he is, and of the person to whom he is speaking. It is not for a _man_ to adopt this tone toward _God_. For μενοῦνγε _cf._ Romans 10:18; Philippians 3:8 : the idea is... [ Continue Reading ]
ἢ οὐκ ἔχει ἐξουσίαν ὁ κεραμεὺς τοῦ πηλοῦ κ. τ. λ. The ἢ puts this as the alternative. _Either_ you must recognise this absoluteness of God in silence, _or_ you must make the pre-posterous assertion that the potter has not power over the clay, etc. The power of the potter over the clay is of course u... [ Continue Reading ]
Paul's argument, to speak plainly, has got into an _impasse_. He is not able to carry it through, and to maintain the sovereign freedom of God as the whole and sole explanation of human destiny, whether in men or nations. He does, indeed, assert that freedom to the last, against the presumptuousness... [ Continue Reading ]
f. The sentence beginning with εἰ δὲ θέλων is not grammatically completed, but Romans 9:23 is an irregular parallel to Romans 9:22. God's purpose is regarded as twofold. It is on the one hand to show His wrath and make known His power; it is on the other hand to make known the riches of His glory (_... [ Continue Reading ]
f. This result of God's ways with man His calling not only from the Jews but from the Gentiles agrees with His own declarations in Scripture. Romans 9:25 answers roughly to Hosea 2:23, LXX: I will love her who was not beloved, and will say to that which was not My people, Thou art My people. Not My... [ Continue Reading ]
f. From the calling of the Gentiles, as foretold in prophecy, Paul passes now to the partial, but only partial, calling of Israel, as announced by the same authority. The Jews cannot quarrel with the situation in which they find themselves when it answers so exactly to the Word of God. ὑπὲρ is here... [ Continue Reading ]
But his last quotation is in verbal agreement with the LXX Isaiah 1:9, and transparently clear. The σπέρμα or seed which God leaves is the same as the ὑπόλειμμα. The figure is not to be pressed. The remnant is not the germ of a new people; Paul expects Israel as a whole to be restored. With this the... [ Continue Reading ]
to Romans 10:21. We come now to the second main division of that part of the epistle in which Paul discusses the problem raised by the relation of the Jews to the Gospel. He has shown in chap. Romans 9:6-29 that they have no claim as of right to salvation: their whole history, as recorded and interp... [ Continue Reading ]
διὰ τί; Why? A result so confounding needs explanation. ὅτι οὐκ ἐκ πίστεως ἀλλʼ ὡς ἐξ ἔργων : it seems too precise to supply with Weiss ἐδίωξεν νόμον δικαιοσύνης. The reason of Israel's religious failure was that its whole religious effort and attitude was not of faith, but (so they conceived the ca... [ Continue Reading ]
Yet paradoxical as this may seem, it agrees with the words of Scripture. The quotation is a mixture of Isaiah 28:16; Isaiah 8:14 : and it is interesting to remark that the same passages are quoted in conjunction, though they are not mixed as here, in 1 Peter 2:6-8. The original reference of them is... [ Continue Reading ]