SECOND PART. SUPPLEMENTARY. CHAPS. 9-11. THE REJECTION OF THE JEWS.
IN stating the theme which he proposed to discuss (Romans 1:16-17),
the apostle had introduced an element of an historical nature which he
could not fail to develop at some point or other of his treatise. It
was this: “to the Jew _f... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience bearing me
witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have a great grief and a continual
lamentation in my heart._ ”
No connecting particle joins this part to the preceding. The
_asyndeton_ is here, as always, the evidence of a lively emotion which
break... [ Continue Reading ]
TWENTY-FIRST PASSAGE (9:1-29). THE LIBERTY OF GOD IN REGARD TO THE
ELECTION OF ISRAEL.
The apostle opens this passage with a preface expressing the profound
grief he feels in view of the mysterious fact which is about to occupy
him (Romans 9:1-5); then he shows how the liberty of God is set in its
f... [ Continue Reading ]
Paul expresses all the intensity of his grief on account of his people
(Romans 9:1-3), and he justifies it by the magnificent prerogatives
wherewith this unique people had been honored (Romans 9:4-5).... [ Continue Reading ]
Rom 9:2-3 contain the matter of that _truth_ so solemnly announced in
Romans 9:1. The parallelism of the two propositions of the verse, as
always, is the indication of a rising feeling. A triple gradation has
been remarked between the two propositions. First, between the two
subjects: λύπη, _grief_,... [ Continue Reading ]
_ VV._ 4 and 5 are intended to justify the wish expressed in Romans
9:3, by declaring the glorious prerogatives which are fitted to render
this people supremely precious to a truly Israelitish heart.
VV. 4. “ _Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and
the glory, and the covenants_, _... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _Not as though the word of God were made of no effect; for they
are not all Israel_, _which are of Israel. Neither because they are
the seed of Abraham, are they all children; but, In Isaac shall thy
seed be called;' that is, they which are the children of the flesh,
these are not the children of... [ Continue Reading ]
The first proposition of this verse has almost the same meaning as the
second of Romans 9:6, but with a different shade intimated by the
particle οὐδέ, _neither further._ The apostle, by way of
transition to the following discussion, Romans 9:8-9, for the
expression: _which are of Israel_, substitut... [ Continue Reading ]
In this verse Paul detaches the general principle from the particular
fact which has just been cited. The τουτέστι, _that is_,
exactly expresses his intention to derive from the historical fact the
principle on which it rests. Ishmael's birth proceeded _from the
flesh_, that is to say, had nothing i... [ Continue Reading ]
This verse is simply intended to justify the expression: _children of
the promise_, Romans 9:8. When the apostle says: _a word of promise_,
he means: a word which had the free character of a promise, and which
did not in the least imply the recognition of a right. The quotation
is a combination of R... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one,
even by our father Isaac (for the children being not yet born, neither
having done any good or evil_, _that the purpose of God according to
election may stand, not of works, but of Him that calleth); it was
said unto her, The elder sh... [ Continue Reading ]
Nay more, the preference given to Jacob was expressed even before the
birth of the twins, before they had done any act whatever; so true is
it, that it was not founded on any particular merit which Jacob might
possess. The two subjective negations μήπω and μηδέ are used
here because they contain a r... [ Continue Reading ]
The oracle quoted is taken from Genesis 25:23. The question whether it
refers to the two _brothers_ personally, or to the two _peoples_ who
shall spring from them, is settled by the words preceding: “Two
nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall issue from
thee.” Hence it follows that... [ Continue Reading ]
A second quotation, meant to confirm the first; it is taken from
Malachi 1:2-3. The conjunction _as_ may be understood in two ways:
either in the sense that God's love to Jacob and His hatred to Esau
were the _cause_ of the subjection of the latter to the former; or it
may be thought that Paul quote... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _What shall we say then? Is there not unrighteousness with God?
Let it not be! For He saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have
mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then
it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God
that showeth mercy._ ”
Seve... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _For the Scripture saith unto Pharoah, Even for this same purpose
have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that my
name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath He
mercy on whom He will, and whom He will He hardeneth._ ”
Having given an instance of the liber... [ Continue Reading ]
From this particular example Paul deduces, as in Romans 9:16, the
general principle, while reproducing by way of antithesis the maxim of
Romans 9:16, so as to combine the two aspects in which he wishes here
to present divine liberty: “No man can say either: I am, whatever I
may do, safe from the jud... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who
can resist His will? Much rather_, _O man, who art thou that repliest
against God? Shall the vessel of clay say to him that formed it, Why
hast thou made me thus? Or hath not the potter power over the clay, of
the same lump to make o... [ Continue Reading ]
Most commentators do not hold that in the following answer Paul comes
seriously to discuss the objection. _Abrumpit quaestionem_, says
Melanchthon. Holsten observes that Paul raises the question, not to
resolve it, which would be impossible, but to crush it. We acknowledge
that in Romans 9:19-20 Pau... [ Continue Reading ]
VV. 22 describes God's dealing with the vessels unto dishonor; Romans
9:23-24 will describe His dealing with the vessels of value. The
relation between the participle θέλων, _willing_, and the verb
ἤνεγκεν, _He endured_, may be explained in three ways,
expressed each by one or other of the conjuncti... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _Now if God, willing to show His wrath, and to make His power
known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to
destruction: And_ [_if_] _that He might make known the riches of His
glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,
us, whom he also called,... [ Continue Reading ]
Here God is presented to us as the potter, laboring to form the
vessels of honor.
How are we to construe the proposition: _And that He might make
known?_ The most forced construction is that of Ewald, Hofmann, and
Schott, who find here the principal clause on which depends the
subordinate: Now, if... [ Continue Reading ]
And those predestined to glory, He has drawn by long-suffering, not
only from the midst of the lost mass of the Jews, but also from among
the Gentiles. This was what Jesus had declared: “I have yet other
sheep which are not of this fold” (John 10:16). And this Paul had in
view in the words: _the ric... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _As He saith also in Osee, I will call that my people, which was
not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved. And it shall
come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are
not my people; there shall they be called sons of the living God._ ”
The words _as also_ evidentl... [ Continue Reading ]
And, first, Romans 9:25-26: the proclamation by the prophets of the
calling of the Gentiles; then Romans 9:27-29: that of the rejection of
the mass of the Jewish people.... [ Continue Reading ]
_ VV._ 26. The second saying quoted (Hos 1:10) is attached to the
preceding as if it followed it immediately in the prophet. More than
once in the following Chapter s we find this combination of originally
distinct sayings. Some apply the expression in Hosea: _in the place
where_, to the land of Sam... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _But Isaiah crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the
sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant_ [_only_] _shall
be saved: for the Lord will make a short and summary reckoning on the
earth:and, as Esaias foretold, Except the Lord of hosts had left us a
seed, we had become as S... [ Continue Reading ]
VV. 28 explains this idea of a _saved remnant._ This time, indeed,
judgment will be carried out neither by halves nor over a long period.
It will be, says Isaiah, a sudden and summary execution which will
fall not upon this or that individual, but on the nation as a whole.
Such is the meaning of the... [ Continue Reading ]
TWENTY-EIGHTH PASSAGE (14:1-15:13). EXHORTATION RELATIVE TO A
PARTICULAR DIFFERENCE OF VIEW IN THE CHURCH OF ROME.
The following passage is a practical application of the law of love
expounded, chaps. 12 and 13. It is an immediate illustration of the
selfsacrifice which Paul has just been requiring... [ Continue Reading ]
In Romans 9:30-33 the apostle gives summarily the solution of the
problem; then he develops it in Romans 10.... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not
after righteousness, have obtained righteousness, but the
righteousness which is of faith; and that Israel, which followed after
the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of
righteousness._ ”
The question: _What shall we s... [ Continue Reading ]
The lot of the Gentiles presents a contrast fitted to bring out more
clearly the tragical character of that of Israel. This people, which
alone followed the law of righteousness, is precisely the one which
has not succeeded in reaching it. Some (Chrys., Calv., Beng., etc.)
have stumbled at this expr... [ Continue Reading ]
“ _Wherefore? Because [seeking] not by faith, but as it were by
works_, _they stumbled at the stumbling-stone; as it is written,
Behold, I lay in Sion a stumbling-stone and rock of offence: and he
who believeth on Him shall not be ashamed._ ”
The apostle has just declared (Romans 9:30) the moral fac... [ Continue Reading ]
Paul combines in this quotation Isa. 27:16 and Isaiah 8:14, and that
in such a way that he borrows the first and last words of his
quotation from the former of these passages, and those of the middle
from the latter. It is hard to conceive how a great number of
commentators can apply the saying of I... [ Continue Reading ]