Romans 11:1

“ I say, then, Hath God cast away His people? Let it not be! For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. ”

From all that preceded, chaps. 9 and 10, the reader might have concluded that God had completely and finally broken with all that bore the name of Israel; hence the then.

The form of the question is such (μή) that only a negative answer can be expected. This is likewise indicated by the pronoun αὐτοῦ, his, which of itself implies the moral impossibility of such a measure.

The expression His people does not refer, as some have thought, to the elect part of the people only, but, as the expression itself shows, to the nation as a whole. It is evident, indeed, that the rest of the chapter treats not of the lot of the Israelites who have believed in Jesus, but of the lot of the nation in its entirety. Thus then, this question of Romans 11:1 is the theme of the whole chapter.

The apostle takes a first answer, by way of preface, from his own case. Is not he, a Jew of well-approved Israelitish descent, by the call which he has received from above, a living proof that God has not cast away en masse and without distinction the totality of His ancient people? De Wette and Meyer give a wholly different meaning to this answer. According to them, Paul would say: “I am too good an Israelite, too zealous a patriot, to be capable of affirming a thing so contrary to the interests of my people.” As if the interests of truth were not supreme, in Paul's view, over national affections! And what in this case would be meant by the epithets descendant of Abraham and of Benjamin, which Meyer alleges against our explanation? May not one, with his civil status as an Israelite perfectly unquestionable, comport himself as a bad patriot? What Paul means by them is this: “It is nothing my being an Israelite of the purest blood; God has nevertheless made of me such as you see me, a true believer.” Meyer still urges the objection of the exceptional position of a man like Paul; but the apostle does not confine himself to pleading this personal fact; he adds to it immediately, from Romans 11:2 onward, the patent fact of the whole Judeo-Christian portion of the church.

Weizsäcker makes the important remark on this Romans 11:1: “Paul could not possibly take his proof from his own person, if the mass of the Christians of Rome were Judeo-Christian, and so themselves the best refutation of the objection raised.”