Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Romans 11:4
But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to [the image of] Baal.
4. the answer of God ] Lit. the oracular answer. The words “ of God ” are an explanatory addition.
I have reserved, &c.] 1Ki 19:18. The Heb. is, “And I have left in Israel seven thousand; all the knees that have not bowed, &c.” (LXX. has “And thou shalt leave, &c.”)
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
4. It is hardly needful to point out how this metaphorical passage, like almost every other, secular or sacred, carries its qualifications and corrections with it. For example, the true Church of God existed ages before Abraham; it embraced Abel, Enoch, Noah. And no saint, however great, can be the “root” of the rest in the sense of being their source of life: the Divine Saviour alone can say “Abide in me.” And again, the figure here, if taken alone, would leave us with the impression that the Call of the Gentiles was an accident in the history of the Church, instead of being the great “Purpose of the Ages” (Eph 3:11) to which the privileges and work of the Elder Covenant were but the mighty prelude. But St Paul writes for those who will read his revelation in the full light of Gospel-truth; and therefore he securely leaves the details to self-explanation or self-correction. Carefully so read, the passage tells us not of a higher level of grace and glory hereafter for Jewish saints as above Gentile saints, but of a gracious welcome back, and a special work for God, for repenting and believing Israel.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The answer of God – ho chrematismos. This word is used no where else in the New Testament. It means an oracle, a divine response. It does not indicate the manner in which it was done, but implies only that it was an oracle, or answer made to his complaint by God. Such an answer, at such a time, would be full of comfort, and silence every complaint. The way in which this answer was in fact given, was not in a storm, or an earthquake, but in a still, small voice; 1Ki 19:11-12.
I have reserved – The Hebrew is, I have caused to remain, or to be reserved. This shows that it was of God that this was done. Amidst the general corruption and idolatry he had restrained a part, though it was a remnant. The honor of having done it he claims for himself, and does not trace it to any goodness or virtue in them. So in the case of all those who are saved from sin and ruin, the honor belongs not to man, but to God.
To myself – For my own service and glory. I have kept them steadfast in my worship, and have not suffered them to become idolaters.
Seven thousand men – Seven is often used in the Scriptures to denote an indefinite or round number. Perhaps it may be so here, to intimate that there was a considerable number remaining. This should lead us to hope that even in the darkest times in the church, there may be many more friends of God than we suppose. Elijah supposed he was alone; and yet at that moment there were thousands who were the true friends of God; a small number, indeed, compared with the multitude of idolaters; but large when compared with what was supposed to be remaining by the dejected and disheartened prophet.
Who have not bowed the knee – To bow or bend the knee is an expression denoting worship; Phi 2:10; Eph 3:14; Isa 45:23.
To Baal – The word Baal in Hebrew means Lord, or Master. This was the name of an idol of the Phenicians and Canaanites, and was worshipped also by the Assyrians and Babylonians under the name of Bel; (compare the Book of Bel in the Apocrypha.) This god was represented under the image of a bull, or a calf; the one denoting the Sun, the other the Moon. The prevalent worship in the time of Elijah was that of this idol.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 4. But what saith the answer of God] The answer which God made assured him that there were seven thousand, that is, several or many thousands; for so we must understand the word seven, a certain for an uncertain number. These had continued faithful to God; but, because of Jezebel’s persecution, they were obliged to conceal their attachment to the true religion; and God, in his providence, preserved them from her sanguinary rage.
Who have not bowed the knee] Baal was the god of Jezebel; or, in other words, his worship was then the worship of the state; but there were several thousands of pious Israelites who had not acknowledged this idol, and did not partake in the idolatrous worship.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The answer of God; the word properly signifieth the oracle, or answer of God given in the tabernacle from the mercy-seat; but it is generally taken for any Divine answer, or direction received from God: see Mat 2:12; Heb 11:7, where the same word is used. The apostle doth not repeat the whole answer of God, as it is recorded in 1Ki 19:15-18, but so much only as was pertinent to his purpose.
I have reserved to myself; he saith not: They have reserved themselves, but, I have reserved them: q.d. Of my own free grace I have kept them from idolatry and apostacy.
Seven thousand men; a certain number for an uncertain. There were doubtless women amongst them; but they are noted by the more worthy sex.
Who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal; the word image is not in the Greek; but the article being of the feminine gender, it was necessarily understood.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
4. seven thousand, that have notbowed the knee to Baalnot “the image of Baal,”according to the supplement of our version.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
But what saith the answer of God unto him?…. The divine response, or oracle, the , “Bath Kol”, or voice from heaven; the still small voice of the Lord, which Elijah heard, 1Ki 19:12:
I have reserved to myself; for his worship and service, to be partakers of his grace, inheritors of his kingdom, to show forth his praise, and for his name’s sake, for his honour and glory: these he reserved in eternal election, in the council and covenant of peace; separated them in time from others by his grace, and preserved them from the general defection and apostasy: even
seven thousand men: meaning either that precise and exact number, which was but small in comparison of the very large multitude of persons that were in the ten tribes, or else a certain number for an uncertain:
who have not bowed the knee; a sign of reverence and adoration:
to [the image] of Baal; Jezebel’s god, the god of the Zidonians; a name common to many of the “deities” of the Gentiles, and signifies “lord”, or “master”; we read of “Baalim” in the plural number, for there were “lords many” of this name: in the Greek text the article is of the feminine gender, wherefore our translators have supplied the word image. This word has, in the Septuagint version, sometimes a feminine article as here; see 2Ki 21:3; but in 1Ki 19:18, from whence this passage is taken, the article is masculine, as it is also in Jud 2:11, and in other places. This deity being either of both sexes, or of no distinguished sex; or it may be, the reason it has so often a feminine article is, because it was a young heifer, or in the form of one; so in the history of Tobias 1:5, it is said, that “all the tribes which apostatized together sacrificed”,
, “to Baal the heifer”. The apostle’s view in mentioning this instance is to show, that when the church and cause of God are at the lowest, God has always some true worshippers of him; and that he never casts away his foreknown people, whose numbers are generally more than they are thought to be by the saints themselves; good men, as Elijah, may be mistaken in this matter; all which he accommodates to the then present state of God’s people, in Ro 11:5.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The answer of God ( ). An old word in various senses like , only here in N.T. See this use of the verb in Matt 2:12; Matt 2:22; Luke 2:26; Acts 10:22.
To Baal ( ). Feminine article. In the LXX the name is either masculine or feminine. The explanation is that the Jews put Bosheth (, shame) for Baal and in the LXX the feminine article occurs because is so, though here the LXX has the masculine .
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “But what saith the answer of God to him?” (alla ti legei auto ho chrematismos) “But what says the Divine response (or what does God say), replying to him?” When Elias, had come to the conclusion that he was the only true witness God had left, and said so, God rebuked him. Note, great and good men, by isolation, can become super-pious and develop a, wrong spirit or disposition, measuring all others by themselves, and assuming unknown things with wild, evil imaginations, Gen 8:21; Rom 12:3.
2) I have reserved to myself seven thousand men,” (katelipon emauto heptakischilious andras) “I reserved seven thousands of men to myself,” to my care, use, or service. God oversees his own irrevocable covenants and men are to have faith that what he has promised to, and in Israel, he is able and will perform, as surely as what he has promised every Gentile believer, and every member of our Lord’s church, Rom 4:21; Heb 10:19-25; Mat 16:18-19; Mat 28:20; Eph 3:21; 2Co 11:2; Rev 19:5-9.
3) “Who have not bowed the knee to Baal,” (oitines ouk ekampsan gonu te Baal) “Ones who bowed not even a knee to Baal”; The 3 Hebrew children and Daniel did not bow to “kiss a calf,” or even the Idol of Nebuchadnezzar, 1Ki 19:18; Dan 3:16-18; Dan 3:25-26. To bow down to an idol was for the purpose of “kissing it” as a pledge of sincere heart and emotional allegiance to the idol or imaginary god it symbolized, a thing forbidden in the scriptures, Exo 20:4-5; Hos 8:5-6; Hos 13:2. To kiss the idol calf was blasphemy against God in Israel and before the World, Psa 115:5-9.
To “kiss a calf,” may seem repulsive to true Christians, as it should be, but it is no less idolatry to kiss the toe of a statute of Peter, a pope, or some other fallible man, see? Read again Exo 20:4-5; 1Ki 19:18 Hos 13:2; Rom 14:11-12; Act 4:12; Col 3:17.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(4) To the image of Baal.The name Baal is here, as frequently in the LXX., in the feminine gender, and it is to account for this that our translators have inserted the word image. How the feminine really came to be used is uncertain. Some have thought that the deity was androgynous, others have conjectured that the feminine is used contemptuously. Baal was originally the sun-god. The sun, it may be remembered, is feminine in German and some other languages.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
4. Not I have reserved, as our version, nor I have kept, as Alford misrepresents it; but I have left, that is, I have not cast away, on account of their true faith.
To myself Instead of to Baal.
Image of Baal The words image of, as the italics indicate, are not in the Greek, but interpolated by the English translators. The word Baal here is in the feminine, a fact for which commentators are puzzled to account. The most probable opinion seems to be that this deity was of either sex.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
4 . Finally, what is the condition of the infant at birth, or rather at the first instant of personal existence, under the headship of Christ.
On this point we may note:
1 . As descended from Adam, separated from the tree of life, he inherits Adam’s mental and bodily nature, and is thus (as described in our notes on Rom 5:12) a sinner, as being sure, under a full probation, to sin; and a mortal as being sure in the conditions to suffer and die. Thus far he is in the position of condemnation, yet never liable, before actual apostasy, to damnation.
2 . Under Christ he is (as said by Dr. Fisk as quoted on Rom 5:18) in a position of non-condemnation or justification unto life; he is endowed even in infancy with the blessed spirit, (Luk 1:15; Luk 1:44; he possesses, as Watson says, “a seed of life;” and, living or dying, is an heir of heaven.
3 . Our seventeenth Article of Faith pronounces him entitled to receive baptism as the “sign of regeneration” baptism being the “outward sign of an inward grace.” (Note Luk 1:59.) He is thus held a virtual believer. He is entitled to all the privileges of a believer so fast as he shows himself, in time, fitted and desirous to take upon himself the responsibilities of a believer.
4 . Hence it is essentially the doctrine of our best writers, in beautiful harmony with Arminian theology, that all actual sinners are actual apostates from a state of grace. Thus Dr. Fisk says that “sin is not imputed” until their “making their depravity the object of their choice.”
Fletcher (who explicitly teaches infant regeneration) says they “have sinned away the justification of infants.” And Wesley (who also taught the regeneration of baptized infants, and implied that of all others) says, “Children who are baptized, dying before they commit actual sin, are saved;” so that by actual sin they fall from a state of grace.
Have mercy upon all God never (as predestination affirms) concluded all under eternal damnation, or compulsory desert of hell, in order that he might, of his own “mere good pleasure,” from pure “divine sovereignty,” pick out a part and leave the rest to their awful, unavoidable fate. Nor does it avail to tell us that these so left deserve nothing at the hand of God. Every creature deserves at least justice at the hand of God. (Note on Rom 11:35.)
The divine idea is mercy upon all, by mercy being placed within the power of all through Christ; or, as the parallel passage reads, “that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Rom 11:4 . ] But , although Elijah complained that he had been left sole survivor.
] the divine oracular utterance (replying to this accusation). Found here only in N. T. (in the Apocrypha, Mal 2:4Mal 2:4 ; 2Ma 11:17 ); but see Diod. Sic. i. 1, xiv. 7, and Suicer, Thes . II. p. 1532; and respecting , on Mat 2:12 .
. . .] 1Ki 19:18 , with free deviation, bearing on his object, both from the LXX. and from the original. It means: I have left remaining , so, namely, that they are not slaughtered with the rest. Comp. Xen. Anab . vi. 3. 5 : ( superstites, vivos reliquerunt); 1Ma 13:4 . Hofmann incorrectly takes . as the third person plural , having the same subject as . A groundless departure from the Hebrew text and from the LXX., according to which God is the subject. And it is God who has guided and preserved those who remained over.
] i.e. to myself as my property, and for my service, in contrast to the idolatrous abomination.
. . .] ita comparatos ut , etc.
] Not a knee has been bowed by them; hence the singular , comp. Phi 2:10 .
] Dative of worship . Bernhardy, p. 86. Comp. Rom 14:11 . The Phoenician divinity , the adoration of which was very widely diffused (Keil, 91) amongst the Jews, especially under the later kings, though not of long subsistence (see Ewald, Alterth. p. 304), is most probably to be regarded as the sun-god (Movers, Phnicier, I. p. 169 ff.; J. G. Mller in Herzog’s Encyklop. I. p. 639 f.), not as the planet Jupiter (Gesenius in the Hall. Encyklop. VIII. p. 384 ff.). It is remarkable seeing that (according to different local and ritual forms also in the plural) is a masculine noun that in the LXX. and in the Apocrypha it has sometimes, and most frequently, the masculine article (Num 22:41 ; Jdg 2:13 ; 1Ki 16:31 , et al.), sometimes the feminine (Zep 1:4 ; Hos 2:8 ; 1Sa 7:4 ; always in Jer.; Tob 1:5 , et al.). That the LXX. should have thought to be of the common gender, and to denote also Astarte (Reiche), is not probable for this reason, that in the LXX. not merely are the masculine Baal and Astarte often mentioned together (Jdg 2:13 ; Jdg 10:6 , et al.), but also the feminine Baal and Astarte (1Sa 7:4 ). The view that the feminine article was assigned to contemptuously (Gesenius, in Rosenmller’s Repert. I. p. 139), as also Tholuck and Ewald, Alterth. p. 302, assume, finds no sufficient support seeing that was a very well known divinity in the feminine designation of idols unknown to them in the LXX. at 2Ki 17:30-31 ; cannot be justified by comparison of the Rabbinical designation of idols as ; and cannot be made good in the particular passages where the LXX. have the masculine or the feminine. To refer the phenomenon solely to an opinion of the LXX., who held to be the name of a god and also that of a goddess, and therefore, according to the supposed connection, used now the masculine and now the feminine article, the latter particularly, where the word occurs along with (Fritzsche), as in Jdg 2:13 ; Jdg 10:6 , 1Sa 7:4 , is improbable in itself (because of the unity of the Hebrew name), and cannot be maintained even in passages like Jdg 3:7 , 2Ki 21:3 (comp. with 1Sa 12:10 ; Hos 2:10 ; Hos 2:15 ), without arbitrariness. An historical reason must prevail, and it appears the most feasible hypothesis that Baal was conceived as an androgynous divinity (Beyer, ad Selden. de Diis Syr. p. 273 f., Wetstein, Koppe, Olshausen, Philippi), although more precise historical evidence is wanting. The feminine article has been also explained by supplying a substantive ( by Erasmus, Luther, Beza, Grotius, Bengel, and others; by Glass, Estius; by Cramer; even by Drusius, after Tob 1:5 , but see Fritzsche on Tob.); but this is both erroneous and arbitrary, because at least the expression must have run , since has always the article. This linguistic incongruity van Hengel avoids only by the precarious conjecture that signifies the column of Baal, and the god Baal.
We have to remark, moreover, that the LXX. have in our passage the masculine article; but Paul, acquainted with the use also of the feminine article, has, in quoting from memory, changed the article. According to Fritzsche and Ewald, he had found in his copy of the LXX.; but is now found only in more recent codd. of the LXX., into which it has found its way merely from our passage.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
4 But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal.
Ver. 4. The image of Baal ] , to that lady, as our modern idolaters also call the Virgin Mary, whom they despight with seeming honours. They would persuade the world, that Christ by dying obeyed not his Father only, but his mother too, that she is the complement of the Trinity, that she entreateth not, but commandeth her Son, is the most imperious mother of our Judge, with many like horrid blasphemies, which I tremble to relate. a
a
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
4 .] But what saith the divine response to him ( , see reff. and reff. to the verb, Act 10:22 )? I have left to myself (here the Apostle corrects a mistake of the LXX, who have for , in the Complut. ed. . He has added to the Heb. , ‘ I have left,’ ‘kept as a remainder ,’ , a simple and obvious filling up of the sense) seven thousand men, who (the sense of the saying, as far as regards the present purpose, viz. to shew that all these were faithful men ; in the original text and LXX, it is implied that these were all the faithful men, , (om. A) B. . ( A) . But this was not necessary to be brought out here) never bowed knee to Baal . “Here the LXX, according to the present text, have , not : but elsewhere (see reff.) they write the fem.: and probably the Apostle read it so in his copy.” Fritz. According to this Commentator, they wrote the fem., taking Baal for a female deity; according to Beyer, Addit. ad Seld. de diis Syr., Wetst., Koppe, Olsh., Meyer, because Baal was an androgynous deity; according to Gesenius, in Rosenmller, Rep. i. 39, to designate feebleness , compare the Rabbinical , ‘false gods,’ and other analogous expressions in Tholuck. “The regarding as put for , scil. or , as Erasm., Beza, Grot., Estius, al., and Bretschneider, is perfectly arbitrary.” De Wette. In Tob 1:5 [99] [100] , we have, , where the golden calves of the ten tribes seem to be identified with Baal, and where a curious addition in [101] (in this part published by Tischdf. as Codex Friderico-Augustanus) refers expressly to their establishment by Jeroboam.
[99] The MS. referred to by this symbol is that commonly called the Alexandrine, or CODEX ALEXANDRINUS. It once belonged to Cyrillus Lucaris, patriarch of Alexandria and then of Constantinople, who in the year 1628 presented it to our King Charles I. It is now in the British Museum. It is on parchment in four volumes, of which three contain the Old, and one the New Testament, with the Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians. This fourth volume is exhibited open in a glass case. It will be seen by the letters in the inner margin of this edition, that the first 24 chapters of Matthew are wanting in it, its first leaf commencing , ch. Mat 25:6 : as also the leaves containing , Joh 6:50 , to , Joh 8:52 . It is generally agreed that it was written at Alexandria; it does not, however, in the Gospels , represent that commonly known as the Alexandrine text, but approaches much more nearly to the Constantinopolitan, or generally received text. The New Testament, according to its text, was edited, in uncial types cast to imitate those of the MS., by Woide, London, 1786, the Old Testament by Baber, London, 1819: and its N.T. text has now been edited in common type by Mr. B. H. Cowper, London, 1861. The date of this MS. has been variously assigned, but it is now pretty generally agreed to be the fifth century .
[100] The CODEX VATICANUS, No. 1209 in the Vatican Library at Rome; and proved, by the old catalogues, to have been there from the foundation of the library in the 16th century. It was apparently, from internal evidence, copied in Egypt. It is on vellum, and contains the Old and New Testaments. In the latter, it is deficient from Heb 9:14 to the end of the Epistle; it does not contain the Epistles to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon; nor the Apocalypse. An edition of this celebrated codex, undertaken as long ago as 1828 by Cardinal Angelo Mai, has since his death been published at Rome. The defects of this edition are such, that it can hardly be ranked higher in usefulness than a tolerably complete collation, entirely untrustworthy in those places where it differs from former collations in representing the MS. as agreeing with the received text. An 8vo edition of the N.T. portion, newly revised by Vercellone, was published at Rome in 1859 (referred to as ‘Verc’): and of course superseded the English reprint of the 1st edition. Even in this 2nd edition there were imperfections which rendered it necessary to have recourse to the MS. itself, and to the partial collations made in former times. These are (1) that of Bartolocci (under the name of Giulio de St. Anastasia), once librarian at the Vatican, made in 1669, and preserved in manuscript in the Imperial Library (MSS. Gr. Suppl. 53) at Paris (referred to as ‘Blc’); (2) that of Birch (‘Bch’), published in various readings to the Acts and Epistles, Copenhagen, 1798, Apocalypse, 1800, Gospels, 1801; (3) that made for the great Bentley (‘Btly’), by the Abbate Mico, published in Ford’s Appendix to Woide’s edition of the Codex Alexandrinus, 1799 (it was made on the margin of a copy of Cephalus’ Greek Testament, Argentorati, 1524, still amongst Bentley’s books in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge); (4) notes of alterations by the original scribe and other correctors. These notes were procured for Bentley by the Abb de Stosch, and were till lately supposed to be lost. They were made by the Abbate Rulotta (‘Rl’), and are preserved amongst Bentley’s papers in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge (B. 17. 20) 1 . The Codex has been occasionally consulted for the verification of certain readings by Tregelles, Tischendorf, and others. A list of readings examined at Rome by the present editor (Feb. 1861), and by the Rev. E. C. Cure, Fellow of Merton College, Oxford (April 1862), will be found at the end of these prolegomena. A description, with an engraving from a photograph of a portion of a page, is given in Burgon’s “Letters from Rome,” London 1861. This most important MS. was probably written in the fourth century (Hug, Tischendorf, al.).
[101] The CODEX SINAITICUS. Procured by Tischendorf, in 1859, from the Monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai. The Codex Frederico-Augustanus (now at Leipsic), obtained in 1844 from the same monastery, is a portion of the same copy of the Greek Bible, the 148 leaves of which, containing the entire New Testament, the Ep. of Barnabas, parts of Hermas, and 199 more leaves of the Septuagint, have now been edited by the discoverer. A magnificent edition prepared at the expense of the Emperor of Russia appeared in January, 1863, and a smaller edition containing the N.T. &c., has been published by Dr. Tischendorf. The MS. has four columns on a page, and has been altered by several different correctors, one or more of whom Tischendorf considers to have lived in the sixth century. The work of the original scribe has been examined, not only by Tischendorf, but by Tregelles and other competent judges, and is by them assigned to the fourth century . The internal character of the text agrees with the external, as the student may judge for himself from the readings given in the digest. The principal correctors as distinguished by Tischendorf are: A, of the same age with the MS. itself, probably the corrector who revised the book, before it left the hands of the scribe, denoted therefore by us -corr 1 ; B (cited as 2 ), who in the first page of Matt. began inserting breathings, accents, &c., but did not carry out his design, and touched only a few later passages; C a (cited as 3a ) has corrected very largely throughout the book. Wherever in our digest a reading is cited as found in 1 , it is to be understood, if no further statement is given, that C a altered it to that which is found in our text; C b (cited as 3b ) lived about the same time as C a , i.e. some centuries later than the original scribe. These are all that we need notice here 6 .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Rom 11:4 . : the word is related to (Mat 2:12 ; Mat 2:22 , Act 10:22 , Heb 8:5 ) as to : it means the oracle, or answer of God. Here only in N.T., but see Mal 2:4Mal 2:4 ; 2Ma 11:17 . The quotation is from 1Ki 19:18 with added, by which Paul suggests God’s interest in this remnant, and the fact that He has a purpose of His own identified with them. God has reserved the seven thousand; He has reserved them for Himself ; it is on this the proof depends that He has not cast off His people. The seven thousand are Israel to Him. Yet His unchanging faithfulness in keeping a people is not represented as a merely unconditional decree, having no relation to anything but His own will, for the seven thousand are described by their character: . is qualitative: such were those whom God reserved for Himself, men who never bowed knee to Baal. takes the fem. art [3] because it was often replaced in reading by (LXX ).
[3] grammatical article.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
answer of God = Divine response. Greek. chrematismoa. Only here. Compare Act 11:26.
unto = to.
men. App-123. Quoted from 1Ki 19:10-18.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
4.] But what saith the divine response to him (, see reff. and reff. to the verb, Act 10:22)? I have left to myself (here the Apostle corrects a mistake of the LXX, who have for -,-in the Complut. ed. . He has added to the Heb. ,-I have left, kept as a remainder,-, a simple and obvious filling up of the sense) seven thousand men, who (the sense of the saying, as far as regards the present purpose, viz. to shew that all these were faithful men; in the original text and LXX, it is implied that these were all the faithful men,- , (om. A) B. . ( A) . But this was not necessary to be brought out here) never bowed knee to Baal. Here the LXX, according to the present text, have , not : but elsewhere (see reff.) they write the fem.: and probably the Apostle read it so in his copy. Fritz. According to this Commentator, they wrote the fem., taking Baal for a female deity; according to Beyer, Addit. ad Seld. de diis Syr., Wetst., Koppe, Olsh., Meyer,-because Baal was an androgynous deity;-according to Gesenius, in Rosenmller, Rep. i. 39, to designate feebleness, compare the Rabbinical , false gods, and other analogous expressions in Tholuck. The regarding as put for , scil. or , as Erasm., Beza, Grot., Estius, al., and Bretschneider, is perfectly arbitrary. De Wette. In Tob 1:5 [99] [100], we have, ,-where the golden calves of the ten tribes seem to be identified with Baal, and where a curious addition in [101] (in this part published by Tischdf. as Codex Friderico-Augustanus) refers expressly to their establishment by Jeroboam.
[99] The MS. referred to by this symbol is that commonly called the Alexandrine, or CODEX ALEXANDRINUS. It once belonged to Cyrillus Lucaris, patriarch of Alexandria and then of Constantinople, who in the year 1628 presented it to our King Charles I. It is now in the British Museum. It is on parchment in four volumes, of which three contain the Old, and one the New Testament, with the Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians. This fourth volume is exhibited open in a glass case. It will be seen by the letters in the inner margin of this edition, that the first 24 chapters of Matthew are wanting in it, its first leaf commencing , ch. Mat 25:6 :-as also the leaves containing , Joh 6:50,-to , Joh 8:52. It is generally agreed that it was written at Alexandria;-it does not, however, in the Gospels, represent that commonly known as the Alexandrine text, but approaches much more nearly to the Constantinopolitan, or generally received text. The New Testament, according to its text, was edited, in uncial types cast to imitate those of the MS., by Woide, London, 1786, the Old Testament by Baber, London, 1819: and its N.T. text has now been edited in common type by Mr. B. H. Cowper, London, 1861. The date of this MS. has been variously assigned, but it is now pretty generally agreed to be the fifth century.
[100] The CODEX VATICANUS, No. 1209 in the Vatican Library at Rome; and proved, by the old catalogues, to have been there from the foundation of the library in the 16th century. It was apparently, from internal evidence, copied in Egypt. It is on vellum, and contains the Old and New Testaments. In the latter, it is deficient from Heb 9:14 to the end of the Epistle;-it does not contain the Epistles to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon;-nor the Apocalypse. An edition of this celebrated codex, undertaken as long ago as 1828 by Cardinal Angelo Mai, has since his death been published at Rome. The defects of this edition are such, that it can hardly be ranked higher in usefulness than a tolerably complete collation, entirely untrustworthy in those places where it differs from former collations in representing the MS. as agreeing with the received text. An 8vo edition of the N.T. portion, newly revised by Vercellone, was published at Rome in 1859 (referred to as Verc): and of course superseded the English reprint of the 1st edition. Even in this 2nd edition there were imperfections which rendered it necessary to have recourse to the MS. itself, and to the partial collations made in former times. These are-(1) that of Bartolocci (under the name of Giulio de St. Anastasia), once librarian at the Vatican, made in 1669, and preserved in manuscript in the Imperial Library (MSS. Gr. Suppl. 53) at Paris (referred to as Blc); (2) that of Birch (Bch), published in various readings to the Acts and Epistles, Copenhagen, 1798,-Apocalypse, 1800,-Gospels, 1801; (3) that made for the great Bentley (Btly), by the Abbate Mico,-published in Fords Appendix to Woides edition of the Codex Alexandrinus, 1799 (it was made on the margin of a copy of Cephalus Greek Testament, Argentorati, 1524, still amongst Bentleys books in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge); (4) notes of alterations by the original scribe and other correctors. These notes were procured for Bentley by the Abb de Stosch, and were till lately supposed to be lost. They were made by the Abbate Rulotta (Rl), and are preserved amongst Bentleys papers in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge (B. 17. 20)1. The Codex has been occasionally consulted for the verification of certain readings by Tregelles, Tischendorf, and others. A list of readings examined at Rome by the present editor (Feb. 1861), and by the Rev. E. C. Cure, Fellow of Merton College, Oxford (April 1862), will be found at the end of these prolegomena. A description, with an engraving from a photograph of a portion of a page, is given in Burgons Letters from Rome, London 1861. This most important MS. was probably written in the fourth century (Hug, Tischendorf, al.).
[101] The CODEX SINAITICUS. Procured by Tischendorf, in 1859, from the Monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai. The Codex Frederico-Augustanus (now at Leipsic), obtained in 1844 from the same monastery, is a portion of the same copy of the Greek Bible, the 148 leaves of which, containing the entire New Testament, the Ep. of Barnabas, parts of Hermas, and 199 more leaves of the Septuagint, have now been edited by the discoverer. A magnificent edition prepared at the expense of the Emperor of Russia appeared in January, 1863, and a smaller edition containing the N.T. &c., has been published by Dr. Tischendorf. The MS. has four columns on a page, and has been altered by several different correctors, one or more of whom Tischendorf considers to have lived in the sixth century. The work of the original scribe has been examined, not only by Tischendorf, but by Tregelles and other competent judges, and is by them assigned to the fourth century. The internal character of the text agrees with the external, as the student may judge for himself from the readings given in the digest. The principal correctors as distinguished by Tischendorf are:-A, of the same age with the MS. itself, probably the corrector who revised the book, before it left the hands of the scribe, denoted therefore by us -corr1; B (cited as 2), who in the first page of Matt. began inserting breathings, accents, &c., but did not carry out his design, and touched only a few later passages; Ca (cited as 3a) has corrected very largely throughout the book. Wherever in our digest a reading is cited as found in 1, it is to be understood, if no further statement is given, that Ca altered it to that which is found in our text; Cb (cited as 3b) lived about the same time as Ca, i.e. some centuries later than the original scribe. These are all that we need notice here6.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Rom 11:4. , I have left [Engl. Vers. not so well, reserved]) who were not to be slain by Hazael, Jehu, or Elisha. The LXX., 1Ki 19:18, have , . And I will have in Israel seven thousand men, all the knees, which have not bowed to Baal. From the verb [in , I have left] we derive a remnant [a portion left]; see what follows.-, to myself) Paul adds this for the sake of emphasis, in antithesis to the complaint of Elias about his being left alone. The Lord knows His own people.-, seven thousand) among a people, who had become reduced to a wonderfully small number, the number is not small, nay it was itself the whole people, 1Ki 20:15. From these the whole posterity of the ten tribes at least were descended. Heb. , i.e. purely such as these, without any admixture of the worshippers of Baal. I do not say, that they were the same individuals, who are mentioned in 1Ki 20:15; 1Ki 19:18; but the number is equal, viz., seven thousand, in 1Ki 20:15, and about seventy years afterwards, in ch. 1Ki 19:18, after the time of Hazael, Jehu and Elisha, comp. 2Ki 13:7; 2Ki 13:14.-, men) Men were chiefly taken into account in reckoning, and were present at public worship; therefore their wives and children also are to be added to the seven thousand.- ) In the feminine gender, supplying , the image of Baal, used by way of contempt, and antithetic to men. So the LXX. also Jdg 2:11, etc. Under the assertion of guiltlessness as to the worship of Baal, guiltlessness as to the worship of the golden calves[120] is included.
[120] Set up by Jeroboam in Dan and Bethel, 1Ki 12:29.-ED.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Rom 11:4
Rom 11:4
But what saith the answer of God unto him?-God answered him that it was not so bad as it appeared to him.
I have left for myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to Baal.-He had reserved seven thousand true in their worship to him, who had not gone into the idol worship of Baal. [Baal was the principal deity of the Phoenicians, and represented the sun. Jezebel, the queen of Ahab, was a Phoenician, and sought to supplant the worship of Jehovah with the worship of Baal. (1Ki 16:31-33).]
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
I have reserved: 1Ki 19:18
Baal: Num 25:3, Deu 4:3, Jdg 2:13, 1Ki 16:31, 2Ki 10:19, 2Ki 10:20, Jer 19:5, Hos 2:8, Hos 13:1, Zep 1:4
Reciprocal: Isa 1:9 – a very Isa 4:2 – them that are escaped Isa 17:6 – General Isa 45:23 – That unto Jer 3:14 – one of a city Eze 12:16 – I will Hos 13:2 – kiss Amo 3:12 – so shall Mic 5:3 – then Mic 7:18 – the remnant Zep 3:13 – remnant Zec 3:2 – a brand Mar 15:19 – and bowing Luk 17:34 – two Act 28:24 – General Rom 9:17 – For Rom 9:27 – a remnant Phi 2:10 – every Heb 3:16 – not Heb 10:24 – to provoke Rev 3:4 – even
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1:4
Rom 11:4. God told the prophet that seven thousand men were still faithful to Him, although tie majority had gone into idolatry.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Rom 11:4. But what saith the divine response. The word answering to divine response occurs only here in the New Testament. But in a number of cases (see marginal references) the cognate verb occurs, and is usually rendered warned of God. The meaning here is obvious; but the noun first had the sense of business, the formal audience given to an ambassador, then a response from an oracle; this was not the classical sense, but occurs in 2Ma 2:4; 2Ma 11:17.
I have left remaining, etc. The citation is from 1Ki 19:18, and varies, though not materially, from both the Hebrew and the LXX. The mistake of the latter in reading the verb is corrected by the Apostle. Reserved is inexact; left is bald; left remaining brings out the thought that these had not been killed (Rom 11:3).
To myself; this addition of the Apostle fairly presents the sense of the original: as my possession and for my service, over against the idolatrous abomination (Meyer).
Seven thousand men. Probably a definite expression for an indefinite number; seven need not be regarded as significant.
Who; of such a kind as, emphasizing the faithful character of the men; the Hebrew shows that these were all that remained faithful.
Never bowed the knee; on any occasion.
To Baal. The feminine article is used by Paul, while the LXX. has the masculine article. Explanations: (1.) An ellipsis, hence the rendering to the image of Baal. The fact that the LXX. sometimes uses the feminine article with the name of the false deity, renders this improbable, and this sense would require a second article with Baal. (2.) This heathen deity was conceived of as of both sexes (androgynous). This is quite probable, but not historically proven. It should be observed, however, that Astarte (Ashtaroth), the Phoenician goddess, is distinguished from the feminine Baal. (3.) Some regard the feminine as an expression of contempt; but this is the least probable explanation. Baal (signifying lord, ruler) was the sun-god, representing the active generative principle in nature. The greatest idolatrous apostasy among the Israelites was to the worship of this Phoenician deity, and the name occurs in the Old Testament history from the time of Moses to that of Jeremiah.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Rom 11:4-6. But what saith the answer Recollect the answer which God gave to this doleful complaint; I have reserved to myself To maintain my honour and true worship, I have preserved by my providence and grace not fewer than seven thousand; who have not bowed the knee to Baal Nor to the golden calves, nor complied with any of those idolatrous rites which have been established by iniquitous laws. Even so at this present time As it was then, so it is now; bad as this generation of Israelites is, there is a remnant who continue faithful to God; according to the election of grace According to that gracious purpose of God, whereby he hath chosen those, whether Jews or Gentiles, for his people, that break off their sins by repentance, and believe on Jesus, as the true Messiah and Saviour of the world, with their hearts unto righteousness. Among those who thus repented and believed, in the first age of Christianity, were many thousands of Jews. Of the election here spoken of, see notes on Rom 8:28-30. And if by grace, then it is no more of works That is, of the merit of works, whether ceremonial or moral; whether of the Mosaic or any other law, except that of faith. In other words, it is no more an election according to any covenant of justice, like that made with our first parents before the fall, which required unsinning obedience, but according to the covenant of grace, made with man since the fall, which makes provision for pardoning his past sins, and renewing his fallen nature, and by which alone a sinful creature can be saved: otherwise grace is no more grace The very nature of grace is lost. But if it be of the merit of works, then it is no more grace, otherwise work is no more work No longer deserving the name, or is no longer meritorious, but the very nature of it is destroyed. There is something so absolutely inconsistent between the being justified by grace, and the being justified by the merit of works, that if you suppose either, you of necessity exclude the other. For what is given to works is the payment of a debt; whereas grace implies an unmerited favour. So that the same benefit cannot, in the very nature of things, be derived from both.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Vv. 4, 5. But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to Baal. Even so then, at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.: the direction of a matter, and hence: a decision of authority; then: a divine declaration, an oracle (Mat 2:12).
It is impossible to apply the words: I have reserved to myself, to the temporal preservation of this elect body of pious Israelites, in the midst of the judgments which are soon to burst on Israel. It is in the spiritual sense, as faithful worshippers in the midst of reigning idolatry, that God reserves them to Himself. They are the leaven kept by His faithfulness in the midst of His degenerate people.
It is impossible to understand what leads Hofmann to take as the third person plural: They (the persecutors) have left me seven thousand men. This cannot be the meaning in the Hebrew, where the grammar is opposed to it; and as little the sense meant by Paul, where the words to myself and according to the election of grace, Rom 11:5, prove that he is speaking of the action of God Himself. The pronoun to myself does not belong to the Hebrew text; it is added by Paul to bring more into relief the settled purpose of grace in this preservation.
The substantive , Baal, is preceded by the feminine : the (female) Baal. This form is surprising, for Baal, the god of the sun among the Phoenicians, was a masculine divinity, to whom Astarte, the goddess of the moon, corresponded, as the female divinity. By the LXX. the name Baal is sometimes used as feminine, sometimes as masculine. In our passage this version uses it in the latter way. To explain the female form as used here by Paul, it has been thought that Baal was sometimes regarded as a hermaphrodite divinity. But in 1Sa 7:4, we find Baal put along with Astarte, and both in the feminine form. It seems to us more natural simply to understand the feminine substantive , the image, in the sense of: the statute Baal. Meyer objects that in that case the article would be required before . But the Jews took pleasure in identifying false gods with their images, as if to say that the god was nothing more than his material representation. The Rabbins, in this same contemptuous spirit, had invented the term Elohoth to designate idols, a feminine plural of Elohim, and several have been thereby led to suppose that our feminine article might be explained by a feeling of the same kind. This explanation is not impossible, but the previous one seems to me the more simple.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have left for myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to Baal. [Jezebel and Ahab, in their zeal for the Phoenician god, Baal, had apparently exterminated the worship of the true God. At least, Elijah was deceived into so thinking. But the answer of God corrected his mistake. Paul inserts the words “for myself.” “I. e.,” says Meyer, “to myself as my property, and for my service, in contrast to the idolatrous abomination,” or service of idols. The feminine article te is inserted before Baal, and this has greatly puzzled expositors, for the LXX. have the masculine article. It has been explained in various ways; Erasmus and others by supposing a feminine noun such as eikoni (image) to be understood; Estius, etc., by supposing stele (statue) to be supplied, or, as Lightfoot and Alford think, damalei (calf); or, according to Reiche, that there was a female Baal; or, as Wetstein and Olshausen, that Baal was androgynous (an hermaphrodite); or, as Gesenius and Tholuck, that the feminine was used of idols in contempt; or, as Fritsche, Ewald and Barmby, that Paul may have happened upon a copy of the LXX. which gave the feminine instead of the masculine. Of the above we prefer to supply damalei, calf, following the reasoning of Lightfoot. Baal was both a specific name for the Phoenician god, and also a common name for idols, hence the plural, Baalim. Of idols it the time referred to, Israel had two of great prominence: 1. The idol to the Phoenician god Baal, whose image was a bull. 2. The golden calves set up by Jeroboam, at Bethel and Dan. Now, it would avail nothing if Israel rejected one of these idols, yet worshipped the other, as in the case of Jehu, who rooted out the Phoenician, but accepted the calf of Jeroboam. But calf Baal would be an inclusive expression, striking at both forms of idolatry. (Comp. also 1Ki 19:18 with Hos 13:2) Moreover, the Phoenician worship was but recently re-established and had received a terrific blow at the hand of Elijah, while Jeroboam’s calves were old and popular, hence we find in Tobit the expression, “And all the tribes that revolted together, sacrificed to the calf Baal” (literally. te Baal, te damalei; to Baal, to the calf– Tob. 1:5). Here we have an instance where the word damalei is actually supplied, and that by a Hebrew writer, and “where,” as Alford adds, “the golden calves of the ten tribes seem to be identified with Baal, and were a curious addition in [the manuscript] Aleph refers expressly to their establishment by Jeroboam.]
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
4. But what saith the divine response to him? I have left unto myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
11:4 But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have {b} reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to [the image of] {c} Baal.
(b) He speaks of remnants and reserved people who were chosen from everlasting, and not of remnants that should be chosen afterwards: for they are not chosen, because they were not idolaters: but rather they were not idolaters, because they were chosen and elect.
(c) “Baal” signifies as much as “master” or “patron”, or one in whose power another is, which name the idolaters in this day give their idols, naming them “patrons”, and “patronesses” or “ladies”.