Romans 11:19-21

“ Thou wilt say then, Branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in. Well! because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith; be not high-minded, but fear! For if God spared not the natural branches, [it may be] that neither will He spare thee. ”

The objection Paul puts in the mouth of his reader is taken from the very answer which he had just made to him in Romans 11:18; hence the then: “Since branches have been cut off the stem to make place for me, who was foreign to it by nature, the preference of God for me appears thereby still more striking than if God had confined Himself to engrafting me on the same stem with them.”

The article οἱ, the, before the word branches, is to be rejected, according to the majority of the documents. Paul means, in reality: “beings who had the character of branches.” The particular emphasis resting on the ἐγώ should be remarked; literally: “that I on my part should be grafted in.” To make place for me, even me, God rejected branches!