Religion Historical Purpose of Romans 11 Exegesis

Religion

Historical Purpose of Romans 11

Exegesis of Romans 11

Israel Not rejected

A Remnant is Left

Warning to the Gentiles

The Eventual Blessing of Israel

The Epistle to the Romans: Chapter 11

It seems that there is more writing about Romans than there is any other book outside of the actual Gospels themselves. The reason for this can be explained in the fact that most regard Romans as a fifth inspired Gospel tract. Even though there are other versions of gospels that were supposedly written by the apostles (Thomas, James, and others), they were not authenticated or endorsed by God as worthy of inclusion into the final tome. Some even believe that some of the later writings of people who knew Jesus, but were not considered apostles deserved to be accepted as books of the New Testament. But, ultimately, it was not up to any person what books were included in the Gospels or in the New Testament. If Christians are to be believed then God personally inspired the writing of these books and set the order in which they were to be placed. Thus, Romans is a final revelation that completes the Gospels.

One of the reasons it can be said to be a completion, is that it is written as one author puts it as "A Jewish theology for the gentile world, and a welcome for gentiles designed to make the Jewish world jealous."[footnoteRef:1] This treatment may be a little bit tongue-in-cheek from the author because he admits to believing that Paul was trying to play a small joke on his readers[footnoteRef:2] who were, in reality, mostly Jewish exiles from Israel. This was a book that discussed the lives of the followers of Christ as they were to be after the ascension. He (Paul) believed this message was especially needed by the Jewish believers because they should have known who the Messiah was to be and what form He would take.[footnoteRef:3] Paul, being a Jew by birth, knew the education the Jewish believers had, and he was concerned that they still did not completely accept the Gospel message of Christ. Basically, as one writer puts it "To know Romans is to know Christianity."[footnoteRef:4] Thus, Paul discussed with the Roman, Jewish believers the structure of the church as it was set by Christ. [1: Wright, N. T. 'Romans and the Theology of Paul', 1995, viewed on 6 April 2012, ] [2: Ibid. ] [3: Utley, Bob. 'The Gospel According to Paul: Romans', 2010, viewed on 7 April 2012, ] [4: Ibid, 1.]

In Romans Paul has a twofold purpose of "addressing himself to the church at Rome," and "addressing the problem in the Roman church between believing Jews and believing gentiles."[footnoteRef:5] This second seems to be the primary purpose of the epistle because he continuously reinforces the idea of Christian unity to the Christians there. Thomas [footnoteRef:6] said that "In the book of Romans, chapters 9,10, and 11 are a pause in Paul's thesis of justification to deal with the problem of God's old covenant people - the Jews - and their rejection of this gospel provision." In particular, chapter 11 (the subject of this paper) discusses whether the promises to the Israelites still remained in effect and that a faithful remnant had been established as it has been in Elijah's day.[footnoteRef:7] Paul was also interested in the unity that had formed in some areas of the Christian realm, but was not seen in areas where there were a large amount of Jewish believers. This paper will examine Paul's letter to the Romans the eleventh chapter from a historical, exegetical, and from contemporary philosophical perspectives. [5: Ibid, 3.] [6: Thompson, Daniel. 'Romans 11:11-32: A Commentary', from Milpitas Bible Fellowship, 2010, viewed on 5 April 2012, .] [7: Ibid.]

Historical Purpose of Romans 11

The book is considered by many as the greatest of Paul's works and it is also regarded as something of a "hodgepodge." [footnoteRef:8] But, in the eleventh chapter of the book he tries to explain what he has been saying to the Jews. He draws upon their knowledge of the ancient texts when he uses them nine times in seven of the verses. This history lesson though is not to be lost on the gentiles either. They are to know that God has given riches to the gentiles because He sent them Paul as an apostle, but the greater riches are reserved for the Jewish remnant that was brave enough to stand up for God.[footnoteRef:9] [8: Kulikovsky, Andrew S. 'The historical context of Paul's letters to the Galatians and the Romans', 1999, viewed on 7 April 2012, ] [9: Rom. 11:12 (New International Version).]

This is a theme that has echoed throughout the history of the Jews. It started with Noah and his family. God determined that only Noah, and by association his wife, sons and their wives, were worthy of salvation. Only Noah had been faithful to God throughout his life.[footnoteRef:10] Another remnant was established when God would not allow the Israelites to enter into the promised land and made them wander in the desert for 40 years. God said "22 not one of those who saw my glory and the signs I performed in Egypt and in the wilderness but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times -- 23 not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their ancestors. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it."[footnoteRef:11] Others that God endorsed because of their faithfulness to Him were Job because God knew that he would remain faithful despite all that Satan could do, those who went back to Jerusalem after the Babylonians allowed them to leave, and the diaspora Christians which Paul was talking to through his epistles. [10: Gen. 6:8 (NIV).] [11: Num. 14: 22, 23 (NIV).]

The history of the gentiles and the Jewish Christians was not a good one because they came from different sets of belief. The Jews thought that they had a superior knowledge of God, and that the gentiles joining the church should adhere to what they were saying. They were correct in believing that they had a greater knowledge of the original books of the Bible because they had been taught from them from birth. But, instead of assisting the gentiles with this knowledge, they were also adhering to the laws which forbade them from even being in contact with a gentile. However, the population of Jewish believers was small in comparison to the gentiles who would join the church eventually[footnoteRef:12], and Paul realized that this was to be the truth of the church going forward. Thus, the remnant, as can be taken from a historical perspective, was not the entire church, but the Jewish portion of it. This remnant was a "grace"[footnoteRef:13] to the rest of the church. Paul was trying to show the people of the church that they were brothers and sisters in Christ regardless what their particular heritage was, and he tried to prove this to the Jews by using historical references that he knew they would understand. [12: McClaren, James. 'From Jewish Movement to Gentile Church', viewed on 5 April 2012, ] [13: Rom. 11:5 (NIV).]

Exgesis of Romans 11

It is not difficult to see Paul's passion and purpose from the very first few verses of the chapter. He was unhappy with the way that the Jewish and gentile Christians were treating each other (with special emphasis for the Jews because he understood their motives), and he used strong language, as he often did, to convince them of the path that they should be following. Paul was not shy about his revelations from God. He was willing to take on governments[footnoteRef:14], stubborn people who wanted to throw him out of town, Christians, and the other apostles.[footnoteRef:15] So, when it came to writing to the Roman Christians regarding the unity that they were supposed to have with each other, he did not quail. Paul was a man of strong convictions and close to the heart of God. He said himself that he was the worst of men, and that he still did things that he knew God did not want him to,[footnoteRef:16] but they knew that he was always striving to be Christ's man. He was a modern day David; a "man after [God's] own heart" as Paul had recounted in a speech on Cyprus and recorded in Acts 13:22.[footnoteRef:17] [14: Acts 13:49 (NIV).] [15: Gal. 2:11 (NIV).] [16: Rom. 7:15-21 (NIV).] [17: Acts 13:22 (NIV).]

Paul was also not willing that the gentiles would somehow look on what he was writing them as a license to defame the Jews and declare what Paul said as ammunition against them. In the chapter he gives the gentiles just as strong a warning as he does the Jews because he realizes that they could also think that they are somehow blessed by God over the original chosen people. The new Christians may have joined the chosen, but they were grafts that God had added. They were not the original branches, though broken, that God had loved and made a part of His intended kingdom since the days of Abraham. Paul's use of strong language in both their cases is meant to ensure that Jews and gentiles understand there place in the family of God, and what the lot of the other is also.

Israel Not Rejected

Paul was from the class of Israelites, a Pharisee, who knew the most about the law and the prophets. To be a member, he had to be able to quote easily from the Law (Torah) and the Prophets (Neviim). But, he knew that the people he was speaking to could also. He did not have to explain to the Jewish Christians what he meant when he said in verse three "Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me."[footnoteRef:18] He is recounting the familiar lesson regarding Elijah when he believed that he was alone. Paul was saying that there are those who are faithful among the Jews; that, like Elijah, God has saved a remnant "who have not bowed the knee to Baal."[footnoteRef:19] This is a message to those who have been dispersed, and now have to make a life beyond their homeland. He is also talking about himself, not putting himself on an equal plane with Elijah necessarily, but telling the people that he was among the last of the prophets. Others had already died as martyrs for the church and these very romans could be (and most likely were) next. [18: Rom. 11:3 (NIV).] [19: Rom. 11:4 (NIV).]

He is speaking directly to the Jews in Rome here, but he is also speaking across the ages to Christians. Paul had to realize the importance of his words to the gentiles also. Much as it is with people who live in the Middle East now, to become a Christian often meant that a person had to give up home and family. Although it talks about whole families believing under Paul's or Peter's tutelage, there were many more cases of people being shunned by their families. In this case, it was much more common if the person was a Jew than a gentile, but it was common among the gentiles also. Christians were all in the diaspora because of the belief they chose to cling to, and Paul was helping them realize that they were now a unified family.

A Remnant is Left

Some have said that Paul also had an ulterior motive in saying what he did to the Jews. The Jews were not allowed, by law, to even touch a gentile (actually this was more a part of the tradition that developed into the Talmud years later), so the Jewish Christians found it difficult to accept the gentile Christians. But, the fact was that the gentile Christians outnumbered the Jewish Christians by far in Rome.[footnoteRef:20] So, when Paul talked about how there was always a remnant that stayed true to God, the Jews had to think back to what that meant. To them it is a certainty this meant that there were also those who had hardened their hearts to God.[footnoteRef:21] Paul wanted them to know that the acceptance of the gentiles was two-fold. God had already shown Peter that anything that He created was clean when Peter was having difficulty with helping Cornelius [footnoteRef:22], so one meaning was that God had opened the way for the gentiles to become members of the kingdom. However, the other part was to win the Jew. Many hardened their hearts, became stiff-necked, became stubborn before God. They believed that their true religion was only for them and they were loath to allow any others to join it. Those that had stubbornly refused to accept the gentiles were being shown that they were accepted by God. The Gospel came first to the Jews and then to the gentiles[footnoteRef:23], so that made the gentiles members of the remnant also. [20: Kulikovsky, Andrew S. 'The historical context of Paul's letters to the Galatians and the Romans', 1999, viewed on 7 April 2012, ] [21: Copeland, Mark A. 'The Epistle to the Romans', from Executable Outlines, 2011, viewed on 5 April 2012, ] [22: Acts 10:15 (NIV).] [23: Romans 1:16 (NIV).]

This is a significant part of the theology here. Paul was making a statement that was to rock Judaism to its core in the coming millennia. He was saying that the remnant that God had left was composed of Christians, all Christians, and not just Jews. Those who were stiff-necked and would not accept his Son were those who had been left behind with the old covenant. The Jewish/Pharisaical belief in the Messiah was that He would be someone who would rise up to defeat the enemies of Israel and reclaim the world in a peaceful, theocratic kingdom[footnoteRef:24], but that was a belief of the people not the teaching of God. The Pharisees, and the rest of the Jews had forgotten the message of a rejected Christ told in the writings of the prophet Isaiah.[footnoteRef:25] Paul was saying that the new Jew, the children of the patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob) were Christians. This was a significant shift, and one that was difficult for the Jewish Christians to digest. [24: Young, Brad H. 'Paul the Pharisee', Yavo Digest, 1997, viewed on 10 April 2012, ] [25: Is. 53:5 (KJV).]

Paul was trying to build this new remnant from the ground up by reminding the Jews of what God had said, and he was instructing the gentiles about who they were. Before Paul began writing Romans, the Christians in Rome probably had very little idea who they were and what God expected of them. Paul was telling them of the remnant because he wanted them to know what God considered them. God realized how small the number of people who believed in Him was (and are), and He was, through Paul, preparing the Christians for what was to come. This particular part of Romans can be looked at as a piece of foreshadowing done through history. Looking back through history at the tribulation that was to befall Christians, Paul was both telling the Romans how blessed they were in the eyes of the Father, and what they would have to endure. The Jews who made up the various remnants of those loyal to God were always the ones who received the harshest punishment from the leaders of the day. This part of the chapter explains the future through the Jews history.

Warning to Gentiles

The imagery that Christ had used earlier in the Gospels placing Himself as the Vine and His followers as the branches[footnoteRef:26] is imported to this portion of Romans 11. In this scenario, the nation of Israel comprises the branches, and some have been broken and need replacing. God accepts the people who accept Him and rejects those who do not. Thus, the broken branches, those who have rejected God's Son, are replaced by new branches that are grafted onto the Vine. [26: John 15:5 (NIV)]

This symbolism has several meanings that is important to the understanding of the verses. First of all, Paul was using imagery that all would have been familiar with. The apostles had been using the words of Christ in worship services and the new believers understood who the Vine was and who the branches were. Now Paul is using the symbolism to tie into the former verses which calls the Christians from all nations the new Israelites. God still has a special place for His chosen people, but the grafted branches have the same inheritance as those that were originally with the Vine and are now broken off. The grafting of new branches was also the action of a vine grower and a husbandman. The Vine could not graft the branches onto itself, it had to have the handiwork of the husbandman to revitalize it and make it new again. God, in his care for all of the Christians was telling them that He was adding them to His flock. The gentiles and the Jews were being told that this situation was endorsed by God. In His mercy, He was including the peoples of every nation into the fold of His people.

However, there is a warning that goes along with this gospel. Because they have been accepted by God in the stead of the branches that have broken off, Paul warns the gentiles not to be arrogant. He wants to make sure that they realize who the people of God truly are. He likens the non-Jews to a branch from a wild olive tree. Yes, they were grafted on when the original branches were broken off, but if God's people return to Him, they will be added again.[footnoteRef:27] Of course, this does not mean that the lately grafted branches will be removed, but they will still be wild and not the pure branches of the original vine. [27: Rom. 11:19-24 (NIV).]

The imagery of the wild branches being grafted onto the vine speaks of the foreign nature of the Christian life that the gentiles were accepting. Hey had been used to a life that was not only apart from God, but did not know Him at all. They were content in their worship of other gods, but they were always God's children in the respect that they were His creation just as the Jews were. The idea that Paul was trying to convey was that they were no more special because they had been rescued from the wilderness, or not a part of the family because they were newly grafted. All were of the same vine now, and all would be treated the same by the Father.