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2 The course of thought here may be thus exhibited: God in his gracious promise made simple faith the condition of salvation, but Israel sought it in the line of works and has not attained it. But the election obtained it because the avowed principle of the election was grace, to which corresponds faith. In other words: those who complied with the express principle of the election and who sought salvation by faith, receiving it as a gift of divine grace, were accepted. Those who thought to establish their own righteousness have failed, and this failure corresponds to that judicial hardening with which God through Moses and Isaiah threatens the disobedient Israelites in the Old Testament.-G. B. S.
3 Or "language." He has before remarked on the term election as implying an approved character; see on v. 5, p. 483.
4 So on x. 21. But see on viii. 26, and xi. 22.
5 Accommodated to the A. V. Gr. "to feel compunction": the word is used thus on Rom. viii. 26, p. 447. In Is. xxix. 10, it is for hmrrh
a deep (often supernatural) sleep, as Gen. ii. 21, Gen. xv. 12; 1 Sam. xxvi. 12; Ps. lxxvi. 7. In Ps. xxx. (al. 29), Ps. xxx. 13, the verb is u#&ir#&/md
which signifies stillness (from horror or amazement). We speak of being penetrated with horror; here the notion of piercing is taken, and applied to fixing. See Schleusner on katanussomai.
6 Most mss. "prophecy," which if right must be interpreted "theocracy."
7 The following paraphrase of the apostle's argument in vv. 16-24 by which he would show that the Jews' rejection is but temporary may be serviceable in connection with the exposition of Chrysostom: granting then that the Jews have sadly stumbled, have they done so in order that (ina, according to a providential intention) they may fall (completely away from God and be lost to all hope)? No. There is a providential purpose in this sad lapse. God has overruled it for the salvation of the Gentiles. When the Jews rejected Christianity, then the gospel turned from them and went to the Gentiles, so that the rejection of the Jews facilitated the conversion of the heathen. And the acceptance of the Gentiles reacted again in favor of the Jews because it provoked them to jealousy and so stimulated them to accept the blessings which the Gentiles were receiving. Thus their fall has a twofold beneficial effect, (a) on the Gentiles, (b) through them on themselves. (vv. 11-12) Now, if so much good can come out of their fall, how much more out of their restoration! If their fault, by which they come so far short of their ideal mission, could be such an (indirect) blessing to the Gentiles how much greater a blessing will the repairing of that defect prove? (vv. 13-16.) I say the return of the Jews will be a great blessing to you, my Gentile Christian brethren, and I urge this point with you. It is all to be to your advantage. In hoping and laboring for the conversion of my own people, I am still laboring in the line of my mission as apostle to the Gentiles. If I can save any of the Jews and stimulate their jealousy so that they will be desirous of availing themselves of the blessings of the gospel, I shall be doing the greatest possible good to the Gentile world. Why? (15) Because if their rejection is the "reconciliation of the world"-the means of securing salvation to the Gentiles, their reception back again shall be a veritable "resurrection from the dead,"-from it shall flow streams of spiritual life, compared with which that indirect blessing which sprang from their rejec tion is as nothing (16). And such is the divine, final destination of the Jewish people. They are still holy unto the Lord, a peculiar possession, and cannot be finally and utterly cast away. (vv. 17-24) Hence you Gentiles have no ground of glorying over the Jews, either in the fact that some of them have been cut off or that you have been grafted in. Israel is still the stock. At most you are but branches and that wild-olive branches! If now you seize upon what was said (in vv. 11-12) and maintain that the Jews were rejected to make place for you (19), I reply that there is another to the matter (20). From the point of view of the divine providence this is true, but from the point of view of the Jews' own action, unbelief explains their rejection. You have nothing to do, with God's providential purposes in the case. What you have to do is to be obedient and faithful. If you draw an assurance from the one view, I shall draw a warning from the other and that too from the side with which you have to do and for which you are responsible. "Be not high-minded but fear." God will deal with you on the same principles upon which he has dealt with the Jews (21). These ispensations reveal the two sides of God's nature-his severity toward disobedience and his goodness to all who continue in relation to his goodness (22). Those portions of the nation which have been cut off shall be grafted in again unless they persist in unbelief (23). And if the branches from a wild-olive tree were grafted into the genuine olive tree, contrary to their nature, how much more natural to suppose that the branches which originally belonged to the true olive stock shall be returned and grafted again into that stock to which they naturally belong (24). There is no good ground for the opinion of Chrys. (11) that the salvation of Israel is to occur at the second coming and the end of the world.-G. B. S.
8 So all mss. but one, but we need not suppose a various reading in the text, as there is no authority for it: rec. t. standest.
9 eceklasqhsan. In earlier Greek this use of the passive belongs to the second aorist, but in later times it extends to the first.
10 Most mss. "cut thee not off," which is perhaps the better reading. See on the last verse.
11 There is no authority for the reading of the old edd., "these, if according to nature they be grafted."
12 Ms. "from these that were his by nature by others."
13 Ben. and several mss. fusika for fusei. Savile's reading would be a general position which is not so much to the purpose, such as that of St. Augustin, nullam esse naturam mali. This reading however will also bear that meaning.
14 So LXX. except in when, etc., which the sequel implies. See Jer. xxxi. 31, Jer. xxxi. 34.
15 Field reads, So also Timothy was called Paul's son from goodness.
1 Reasonable is here used for what has been termed super-sensuous, as in the Syriac, and later Latin, see p. 498.
2 Evidently Chrys. understands by logikhn here rational as opposed to material service such as the Jews offered in animal sacrifices. Others have understood of it of spiritual service as opposed to the superstitious service of the heathen (Calvin). Others find in it a contrast with the irrational animals (zwa aloga) offered in sacrifice (Theodoret, Grotius). The first view is preferable. Christianus omnia recte reputat, et ex beneficio Dei miserentis colligit offciurn suum, says Bengel.-G. B. S.
3 qeiaij akroasesin. See Suicer in akroaomai. lit. "divine hearings." The place where those stood who were not yet admitted to Communion, but heard the Scriptures read, was called the akroasij or hearing; here the act of hearing is meant.
4 2 or 3 mss. "boileth" which Heyse prefers.
5 semnoteroj, which implies reverence as well as dignity. The word before probably refers also to dress. See Ex. xxviii. 43, but in this case the outward act so truly represents the inward, that it is difficult to separate them.
6 A. V. conformed to. The translation is altered to express the distinction noticed in the comment.
7 morfh. See Phil. ii. 6, Phil. ii. 7, Phil. ii. 8, and St. Chrysostom on the passage, Hom. vi. pp. 363, sqq. O.T.
8 The two words' here rendered: "be fashioned" and "be transformed" differ as the terms (sxhma and morfh) which underlie them differ. "The term morfh, form, strictly denotes, not an external pose suitable for imitation, like sxhma, attitude, but an organic form, the natural product of a principle of life which manifests itself thus." Godet. "Be not conformed, but be transformed" (A. V.) marks well the distinction.-G. B. S.
9 See the note of Matthiae on the place. Nearly all mss. have and know; it seems a slip of memory; see Rom. ii. 18.
10 oiwnizontai v. Jung. ad J. Poll. v. 163. Dem. adv. Aristog. 1. (794, 5), it means to make a sign of detestation on meeting anything counted unlucky.
11 swzousan thn fronhsin, Aristot. Eth. vi.
12 This word has been sometimes translated haughtiness, but means something more; usually the recklessness of despair, but sometimes that of pride.