Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Romans 11:17

And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;

17. some of the branches ] A tender statement of what, alas, was so great an amount of unbelief. See below again, Rom 11:25; “blindness in part.”

be broken off ] The reference of time is specially to the crisis of the rejection of Messiah by Israel. It was true, of course, that at no period of the Church was any worldly and unbelieving Jew otherwise than “broken off” from God’s covenant of peace; but not till Messiah was rejected was it ever possible to think of the Jews, as a class, as being so situated.

thou ] The Gentile Christian, who is throughout in view.

a wild olive tree ] A scion of a race alien from the special Covenant of Salvation. This word, from St Paul’s pen, implies no Pharisaic contempt of the Gentiles. He merely points to the Divine choice, equally sovereign for nations and for persons, which had willed that Israel, and not Greece, Rome, or India, should be the recipient and keeper of Revelation; the heaven-cultured subject of its privileges and ordinances. Not merit, but grace, made the difference. But a real difference it was, none the less, and it left the wonder and mercy of the call of the Gentiles as great as ever.

graffed in ] Grafting, as is well known, is always of the good scion into the inferior stock. St Paul reverses this, no doubt quite consciously. The mere outline of his language is borrowed from the olive-yard, and that is enough for him. The union of true believers to the true Church is vividly illustrated (cp., but with care, the Lord’s own great metaphor, Joh 15:5,) by the union of branches to a stem; the bringing of alien believers into a Church originally Jewish is vividly illustrated by grafting a piece of one tree into another. Here the likeness ends.

partakest ] Lit. and better, didst become a partaker.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

If some of the branches – The illustration here is taken from the practice of those who ingraft trees. The useless branches, or those which bear poor fruit, are cut off, and a better kind inserted. If some of the natural descendants of Abraham, the holy root, are cast off because they are unfruitful, that is, because of unbelief and sin.

And thou – The word thou here is used to denote the Gentile, whom Paul was then particularly addressing.

Being a wild olive-tree – From this passage it would seem that the olive-tree was sometimes cultivated, and that cultivation was necessary in order to render it fruitful. The cultivated olive-tree is of the a moderate height, its trunk knotty, its bark smooth and ash-colored, its wood is solid and yellowish, the leaves are oblong, and almost like those of the willow, of a green color, etc. The wild olive is smaller in all its parts. (Calmet.) The wild olive was unfruitful, or its fruit very imperfect and useless. The ancient writers explain this word by unfruitful, barren. (Sehleusner.) This was used, therefore, as the emblem of unfruitfulness and barrenness, while the cultivated olive produced much fruit. The meaning here is, that the Gentiles had been like the wild olive, unfruitful in holiness; that they had been uncultivated by the institutions of the true religion, and consequently had grown up in the wildness and sin of nature. The Jews had been like a cultivated olive, long under the training and blessing of God.

Wert grafted in – The process of grafting consists in inserting a scion or a young shoot into another tree. To do this, a useless limb is removed; and the ingrafted limb produces fruit according to its new nature or kind, and not according to the tree in which it is inserted. In this way a tree which bears no fruit, or whose branches are decaying, may be recovered, and become valuable. The figure of the apostle is a very vivid and beautiful one. The ancient root or stock, that of Abraham, etc. was good. The branches – the Jews in the time of the apostle – had become decayed and unfruitful, and broken off. The Gentiles had been grafted into this stock, and had restored the decayed vigor of the ancient people of God; and a fruitless church had become vigorous and flourishing. But the apostle soon proceeds to keep the Gentiles from exaltation on account of this.

Among them – Among the branches, so as to partake with them of the juices of the root.

Partakest of the root – The ingrafted limb would derive nourishment from the root as much as though it were a natural branch of the tree. The Gentiles derived now the benefit of Abrahams faith and holy labors, and of the promises made to him and to his seed.

Fatness of the olive-tree – The word fatness here means fertility, fruitfulness – the rich juices of the olive producing fruit; see Jdg 9:9.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Rom 11:17-24

And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive-tree, wert grafted in.

The olive-tree

I. Why it is a symbol.

1. Of Gods faithful witnesses (Zec 4:5; Rev 11:3).

2. Of the Church, as the channel of grace to men.

II. Why it was chosen by Paul. Because of

1. The holy anointing oil produced by it (Exo 25:6).

2. Its beauty (Hos 14:6).

3. Its constant greenness (Psa 52:8).

4. Its fruitfulness.

5. Its usefulness.

6. Its long duration: (T. Robinson, D.D.)

The parable of the olive

This teaches us–

1. To compassionate the outcasts of Israel.

2. To watch lest we also fall.

3. To reverence and magnify the goodness and severity of God.

4. To look for the recovery of Gods ancient people. (J. Lyth, D.D.)

The parable of the olive

I. We were before our engrafting wild olives. Without God, strangers from the commonwealth of Israel. This Paul bids us remember, that we may praise God for His mercy.

II. Having received grace let us carry ourselves without boasting against them that want grace. When thou seest a profane man disdain him not, but pray for him, remembering thy former estate.

III. Those which partake of the fatness of the olive are engrafted. This fatness is the grace given to the root.

1. The grace of justification. Oil is good for medicine-healing wounds and assuaging pain. Also it makes the countenance cheerful; so the grace of Christ, which is called the oil of gladness, maketh the righteous joyful.

2. The grace of sanctification. This may be known by its effects, which are–

(1) In the heart. If thou art engrafted thou hast the heart of Abraham: thou lovest goodness and hatest evil. The wood of the olive will not rot. This denotes soundness. The nature also of the oil is not to be mixed with other things. You may as soon mix light and darkness as grace and sin. The nature of oil, too, is to keep metal from rusting. So the virtue of this grace preserves the soul from sinning, which would eat in and perish the soul.

(2) In the tongue. The blossom of the olive is wonderful sweet; so if thou art of this tree thy speech will be gracious to the hearers. It is a vain thing for a man to seem religious if he refrain not his tongue.

(3) In the life if thou art engrafted thou wilt bring forth much fruit, for the olive is exceeding fruitful.

(a) For God. Oil was consecrated to the Lord, was used in sacrifice, and for the holy lamps.

(b) For man. It is both for medicine and meat. Our lives must be fruitful and profitable to the Church.

3. Sanctification may also be known by its properties.

(1) The olive is a quick bearer; so we must bring forth fruit quickly.

(2) An olive branch was a token of peace. If you pour out water it maketh a noise, but oil falls down softly and with great silence. So the servants of God must be peaceable.

(3) The olive is always green, and never casts the leaves, noting the constant tenor we should keep in our obedience (Psa 92:14).

(4) Our obedience must be cheerful and free. Anointing with oil makes us nimble, for if we have received hereof we shall not be stiff in the joints, but will run in the ways of the commandments. The olive requires no great cost to make it fruitful, nor a man truly sanctified great entreaty to persuade him to do good. (Elnathan Parr, D.D.)

The privilege and duty of the Gentile

His–

1. Past condition.

2. Gracious acceptance.

3. Present privilege.

4. Consequent duty. (J. Lyth, D.D.)

Our duty to the Jew

I. The duty.

1. Boast not, etc.

2. Despise not.

3. Insult not.

4. But pity and pray for him.

II. The reasons. Remember–

1. What you were.

(1) Wild.

(2) Uncultivated.

(3) Unfruitful.

2. Your calling.

(1) Grafted in.

(2) Through grace at his expense.

3. Your privileges; enjoying the blessings of the covenant.

4. Your dependence. (J. Lyth, D.D.)

The Gentiles may not despise the Jews

They which are advanced by grace are not to boast against them which are in misery (Psa 12:1; Exo 3:9; Deu 10:19; Deu 10:1; Corinthians 13:4, 5): The Pharisee disdained the publican, but the publican disdains not him, nor is disdained of God. The use of this.

I. In respect of the Jew. Some are broken off, not all. The Church of the Jews was never east away, only the unbelievers. The olive-tree is pruned, but not stocked up. The body and some of the branches remain, among whom we are grafted. We are grafted in among them, and receive of the fatness with them. The Church of the Jews, not of Rome, is our mother Church. We must be the seed of Abraham if we will have the promises, and therefore believing Gentiles are called the children of Abraham, not naturally, but by incision.

II. In regard of the Gentiles. Thou art made partaker of the fatness. The same fatness nourisheth the natural and ingrafted branches. The Jew is saved by faith in Christ, so are we. There is no difference between the way of salvation in the Old and New Testament, but as this, in grafting there is clay and binding about. The Jew is bound about with a red ligature in regard of circumcision, we with a white in regard of baptism and the white garments then used. Let us not then boast ourselves against the branches, for though they deserve contempt, woe be to them which are instruments to vex them. Let us love them, as we have good cause, for the roots sake. There is no name so honourable as that of a Jew; take heed thou use it not in contempt. (Elnathan Parr, B.D.)

Gentile and Jew

I. The exhortation. Glory not with supercilious contempt. Gentile Christians probably already began to show–

1. An overbearing disposition towards the Jews.

2. A policy of complacency in themselves. Such a spirit soon and long manifested by Gentile Churches. Faith excludes boasting either of ourselves or over others, and charity vaunteth not itself.

II. The reasons.

1. Thou bearest not the root. The Church not sprung from the Gentiles, and the Jews owe nothing to them.

2. But the root thee. Gentiles owe all to the Jews. Salvation is of the Jews (Joh 4:22). Christ Himself was a Jew. The Jewish Church was the foundation; Gentiles were built upon it (Eph 2:20). The true Christian and Jewish Church but one. (T. Robinson, D.D.)

Gentile and Jew

The Gentile–

I. Has no ground to exult over the jew.

1. The Jew fell by unbelief.

2. Privileged by His fall the Gentile only stands by faith.

II. But much more ground for humility.

1. God, who spared not His chosen people.

2. Will not spare the unbelieving Gentile.

3. Therefore be not highminded, etc. (J. Lyth, D.D.)

Boasting

Observe–

1. The disposition in man to boast of his privileges.

2. The folly of this.

3. Its danger. (J. Lyth, D.D)

.

Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in.

The natural branches broken,

And the sinner for whose conversion things are working, spared a time.

I. A fact stated.

1. These branches were broken off.

2. For a double cause.

(1) That I might be grafted in.

(2) Because of unbelief.

II. A caution given–against–

1. Pride.

2. Indifference to God.

3. Carelessness.

III. An awful judgment implied. If we take not heed we too shall be broken off. Therefore, serve the Lord, and fear and love Him now. (W. P. Taylor.)

Well; because of unbelief they were broken off; and thou standest by faith.–

Standing by faith

I. The jews have ever fallen through unbelief.

1. They came to the confines of the land flowing with milk and honey; the Anakims, and the cities fenced and walled up to heaven, stood before them for their prey. They measured the men and the walls accurately, but they did not measure how He that was for them was greater than all that was against them, and therefore they were sent back to wander and perish in the wilderness.

2. Presently we see them with God only as their King, but they could not appreciate an invisible King. As they had before shown no faith in Gods protection, so now they disbelieved His sovereignty. He gave them a king in His anger, and He took him away in His wrath.

3. In the midst of their distresses they began to lean on idols and arms of flesh, until unbelief, ripening into apostasy, they were carried away into Babylon. Because of unbelief they were broken off.

4. But in mercy God brought them back again, and infinite was their privilege and opportunity when Christ walked their streets. But their eyes were blinded, the living Truth was before their eyes, but they perceived Him not. The Holy Ghost descended upon them, they witnessed His wonder-works, they felt the drawings of His grace, but they denied His convictions and blasphemed His glory. And such as was their unbelief, so is their punishment. They were broken off, and there they lie, fruitless, despised, but never dead, till they shall be grafted in again.

II. What it is to stand by faith. Faith is simply a medium to transmit pardon and grace. But every saved man finds faith the actual instrument which holds him up. In the one case it is as the wire which conveys the message; in the other it is the invisible chain which holds the planet in its course.

2. There is an inferior sense in which a man stands by faith, since confidence is always the secret of composure, as composure is the secret of power. The little child will walk, and what is much harder, will stand as soon as he has confidence enough.

3. But in its truer signification to stand by faith is–

1. To have thrown away every other dependence. I am unable, everything in the universe is unable to keep me, Hold Thou me up and I shall stand.

2. To believe, and not doubt, that you are in a state of full acceptance with God. Without this there never will be firmness of principle enough to make you stand.

3. To be in continual communication with the Unseen. It is the strength of secret prayer. It is to feel yourself in the deep waters, upheld by an arm that will never, never let you sink.

4. To have the most entire conviction that the work is Gods work, and that He will complete it.

Conclusion:

1. Let us be very humble, for it is an easy thing to fall, seeing we only stand by faith, and faith is a fine, delicate thing, and we all know how hard it is to believe at all times.

2. Nevertheless, let us have a holy confidence, for Christ says, I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not.

3. And by and by the Jews will stand as never a nation stood, and then that word will be true to them also, thou standest by faith. To help along, to help along one single child of Abraham to that stand of faith is the present duty. (J. Vaughan, M.A.)

Be not highminded, but fear.–

Highmindedness

1. At every turn remember this saying, Be not highminded. Hath God given thee riches, wit, beauty, etc.? Let this sentence alway sound in thine ears. Hearest thou any say: few have the knowledge you have, or can speak as you do? Let this sentence stand sentinel to keep thee from pride.

2. All other sinners fly from God. The proud man resists Him (Jam 4:6). God gives grace to the lowly. The rain stays not on the tops of the mountains, but the valleys are watered and made fruitful. God teacheth the humble. The proud man is empty. Height weakens a thing; and an empty vessel makes the loudest sound. They which brag most have least in them. The chaff is above the corn, not because it is best, but because it is lightest. Observe–

I. The signs of this highmindedness.

1. Impatience of admonition. The Pharisees take it in great scorn, that Christ reproveth them of blindness, when indeed they were beetle blind. Proud Zedekiah cannot endure Micahs admonition.

2. Diminishing the gifts of others while boasting of our own. The proud Pharisee abased the publican and exalted himself. Dost thou impute unto others coldness, covetousness, etc., saying thou wouldest be ashamed if thou wert no better than they, never looking at thine own infidelity, hypocrisy, etc.

3. Meddling with things above us. Many presently upon their supposed conversion enter into controversies and censure whole Churches. David approved his humility by not meddling with things which were too high for him.

4. Contention (Pro 13:20).

II. The remedy.

1. The place to which the remedy is to be applied. The heart, as Peter adviseth, Deck yourselves inwardly with lowliness of mind. There may be an abatement of pride outwardly, and none within. There may be as much pride under a leather jacket as under a velvet gown: who seemed more humble or was more proud than Diogenes in his tub?

2. The remedy itself–

(1) A continual remembrance of this and the like Scriptures. Draw these as a sword to take down this peacock.

(2) Remember the example and monition of Christ: Learn of Me (not to walk upon the sea, or to make a world), but to be humble and lowly in spirit.

(3) Consider how God hath judged the proud. Pride thrust angels out of heaven; our first parents out of paradise; hanged Haman upon his own gallows; made Nebuchadnezzar a beast, etc.

(4) Consider that if thou hast any excellency, it is the gift of God (1Co 4:6-7). It is an ass that will be proud of a lions skin, which is not his own. And God can take away thy knowledge, and make thee an idiot; and if thou beest rich, He can make thee poor.

(5) Doth thy heart tickle thee because of thy knowledge, faith, patience, etc.? Cast thy account, thou shalt find that thy wants are more than thy receipts. For one thing thou knowest thou art ignorant of ten. If thou hast one good thought, thou hast a thousand ill ones. Pliny records a secret of the bee–that in a storm it getteth up a little stone, by the weight of it to fly the more steadily, and to get home in safety. If thou be in danger to be blown away with pride, let the thoughts of thy wants be to thee as this little stone.

3. The parties that stand in need of it. All men, specially those which are extraordinarily graced by God. All other sins are in evil, this is in that which is good, and therefore the harder to be avoided. We are all of his mind, who, being asked what song he delighted most to hear, said that wherein his praises were set forth. Even Paul must be taken down with the buffetings of Satan, lest he be proud. Study and pray for humility, the honour of a Christian. Moses face shone when he had talked with God, and he wist not. An excellent degree of grace is it to be excellent and not to take notice of it. As boughs the more laden with fruit are the more lowly, and as when the sun is at the highest our shadows are at the lowest, so the more graze would be adorned with the more humility. The devil will tempt thee to all viciousness; if he cannot prevail that way, he will tempt thee to be proud of thy goodness; yea, to be proud because thou art not proud. In the midst of grace pray for a humble heart. (Elnathan Parr, B.D.)

Highmindedness and fear

There is no sin so heinous as self-satisfaction, and no virtue so agreeable to God as humility. These words are addressed to Christians, so highmindedness is not confined to worldly men. Notice–

I. The particulars of the failing. It includes–

1. Presuming on our privileges. The Christian has many privileges above the world.

(1) Liberty. But he must not presume on that liberty for egotism.

(2) Enlightenment. But he must not make the light to be a pretext for self-assertion.

(3) Holiness. This must not cause him to think more highly of himself than he ought to think.

2. Trusting too much in worldly advantages.

(1) Wealth will make a man high-minded if not properly used.

(2) Ancestry and pedigree.

(3) Beauty of person, strength of limb, a high education, even personal liberality or usefulness.

3. Haughtiness towards others. The man who thinks highly of himself will act it, and treat his fellows with contempt. Like the Pharisee.

II. The antidote. In this case fear indicates self-mistrust, dread of falling, and reverence for God.

1. Fear is a restraining power. Dread of consequences is an important factor in society. Fear of God is not a slavish torment, but awe and self-abnegation.

2. But fear. It is the picture of one feeling his way in the gloom, knowing his own weakness and the awful consequences of a fall, and so taking all needful precautions. It induces therefore–

(1) Prudence.

(2) Watchfulness.

(3) Vigilance.

III. The details of the fear. Fear what?

1. The natural pride and teaching of the human heart.

2. The effects of self-righteousness. Pride goeth before a fall.

3. The danger of being a castaway.

4. The danger of perverting truth. (Homilist.)

Haughtiness of mind and its antidote

I. Be not highminded is good counsel Men of lofty eyes (Psa 131:1), being busy in the pursuit of things out of reach, oversee those more necessary things which are at hand. The malady here aimed at is an overweening conceit of our own worth, in respect of either knowledge or virtue. A disease fatal to the Jew, and to which the Gentile was most obnoxious. Men raised from the dung-hill to great fortunes have commonly all the vices of rich men, and more.

1. The cause of this malady is not in the gospel, or in the riches of the gospel; but in ourselves, who are willing to be deceived; and in the devil, the forger of all error and deceit. For as God, whose very essence is goodness, doth manifest that goodness out of sin itself, so the devil abuseth good unto evil; and when he cannot drive us to despair by reason of our sin, he makes us presume upon conceit of our righteousness. And all this proceeds from our own wilful error: for, Pride is the daughter of ignorance. We see the gospel ex uno situ, but on one side, and that the wrong side. We behold Christ as a Saviour, not as a Lord as well. We entertain prerogatives as prerogatives, and not as obligations also. We contemplate virtues as the work of our own hands, but are blind to their imperfections. We consider ourselves as branches grafted in, but cannot see that we may be cut off (verse 22). We consider our strength, not our weakness.

2. This haughtiness of mind hinders the very continuance of goodness: it doth not only wither the branch, but it also cuts it off. The Christian may fall, as the Jew; and, if he continue not in Gods goodness, he also shall be cut off (verse 22). When we have gone but a sabbath-days journey with the Jew and done but what was said to them of old, do we not begin to canonise ourselves? But if we forgive and do good to an enemy; if we fast a day, and give our provision to the poor; then straight, with Absalom, we raise up a pillar and write upon it, We shall never be moved. A cup of cold water shall answer for our oppression, an alms at our door for the fraud in our shop, our frequenting of sermons for our neglect of prayer. And all is now quiet within us; we seem to walk on the pavement of heaven, and from thence to behold our brethren (who have more piety, with less noise) as nothing in respect of ourselves. When our hypocrisy hath edge enough to cut us from the olive, our spiritual pride keepeth us in. But one day they will find it true, that doubting out of humility may find heaven-gates wide open, when bold presumption shall be shut out of doors.

II. But fear. Fear and hope are hewed out of the same rock. As hope is an expectation of good to come, so fear is the apprehension of some approaching evil. And seldom is any hope so strong as to be without some tincture of fear; seldom any fear so strong as to admit of no mixture of hope. For if they be alone and in excessu, they lose their names. Hope without fear is but confidence; and fear without hope is but despair (verse 21). Fear of being cut off, if St. Pauls reason be good, is the best means to repress in us all proud conceit.

1. And in a matter so great no care and circumspection can be enough. And the reasons are plain. For–

(1) There is an over-easiness to persuade ourselves that we are in favour with God. Men are more apt to presume than to despair, and if despair hath killed her thousands, presumption hath killed her ten thousands. The difference between the sicknesses of the body and of the mind is that in the one we are sensible of our grief, we send for the physician; but in the other we are senseless, and are more afraid of our physic than of our disease. We admit of miserable comforters, that will flatter us to death; and rather than we will want flatterers, we take the office on ourselves.

(2) There is the uncertain knowledge we have of the quality of our works. For in our best intentions there may be imperfections which we know not. My devotion may be irregular; my patience, stupidity; my zeal, rage. With what good meaning do many poor souls do evil! Who can tell how oft he offendeth? (Psa 19:12); therefore let us work out our salvation with fear and trembling.

(3) There is the over-ripe conceit and too speedy apprehension of our sufficiency and growth in the duties of Christianity. We are very apt to flatter ourselves that, when we are but newly set forth, we are at our journeys end. All excellency we can put off to others that have more time to learn it. The Jew is content with his ceremonies; and the Christian, with his outward profession, but less significant than they. But this fear is most requisite in respect of those enemies of our souls which are ever in readiness to surprise us (1Jn 2:16). Many men are cut off by themselves and their own folly, when the devil beareth the blame.

2. And, therefore, to keep this jealousy awake in us, the apostle awakes one fear with another, the fear of circumspection with the fear of being cut off. For, naturally, fear of evil works a fear of circumspection: and this fear ushers in that fear by which we may call, Abba, Father (Rom 8:15). For, seeing evil before us ready to seize upon us, we begin to advise with ourselves how to avoid it (Luk 16:3; Luk 14:31). Fear is the mother of advice; and consultation dies with fear (Luk 16:4). When we presume, counsel is needless; and when we despair, it is too late. The best preservative of a branch new-grafted is the sight and fear of that knife which may cut him off; and for want of it many branches have been cut off and cast away. (A. Farindon, D.D.)

For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest He also spare not thee.–

All which continue not in grace shall be broken off

(Luk 13:3; Luk 13:5; Rev 2:1-29.):–God is not moved with outward privileges to tolerate in His orchard those which only cumber the ground. Thou art planted in the Church, which is Paradise, and art watered with those rivers of God, the Word and sacraments. If thou bringest forth no fruit, though Christ Himself had come of thy stock, thou shalt be broken off and thrown away. Here is a good take-heed for many.

I. For England, Germany, all reformed Churches. The Jews were the famous people of God, and yet cast away for their faithlessness. Where are those renowned Churches of Asia, of Greece? If we continue not to bring forth fruit we must look for the same measure which God hath meted out to them.

II. For profane persons. If judgment begin at Gods own house, how shall the wicked escape? If an Israelite go to the pot, what should a Canaanite, a hypocrite, a rebel look for?

III. For the children of God. Art thou one? Walk according to thy profession; if thou growest cold as others, take heed. Hast thou faith? keep it. Hast thou a good conscience? better the peace of it every day by righteous living. Hold that thou hast. Remember what is come to the Jews. When thou seest thy neighbours house on fire, it is time to provide water to save thine own. When two ships set forth, if the foremost run upon a rock and split, her consort will be warned. Thou seest covetousness to be the destruction of this man, pride of that, whoredom of another; pray thou against these sins and all other, and be careful. (Elnathan Parr, B.D.)

The rejection of the Jews a warning to Christians

There are two general remarks suggested by the language of the text.

1. The principle of Gods displeasure against sin and sinners is the same, whether it has reference to nations or to individuals. Hence the dismemberment of the Jewish community is adduced as a warning to every professor of the gospel of Christ.

2. The language of the text derives force from the contrast which it involves. Compare it with verse 24.

I. It is a dreadful thing to abuse spiritual blessings. Yes, it is so dreadful that, in the instance referred to, Jehovah, in His fiery indignation, turned the highest favours He could impart to a nation into a tremendous national curse. God spared not the natural branches. He spared them for a while, tis true; just as He spared the old world in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing; but in the end He destroyed them, and that with a sore destruction! The pleading voice of Christ in His gospel, accompanied as I believe it to be in every instance with some degree of Divine visitation, as regards the conscience, tends either to raise the soul to glory, and honour, and immortality, or to sink it into the lowest depths of misery and woe. Men walk in gospel pastures, but they do not feed upon them. The broad sunshine of mercy beams around them, but it finds no avenue to the recesses of their hearts. They approach just so near to the Saviour as to receive from His Spirit an influence, the abuse of which ripens them for destruction, and prepares them as fuel to feed the hottest flames of hell!

II. How highly it behoves all those who are privileged to enjoy spiritual blessings to look diligently to themselves lest they should fail of the grace of God.

1. Beware of procrastination, that is of putting off till to-morrow what ought to be done to-day. St. Augustine prayed for victory over his besetting sin; but then he acknowledges that he did not wish his prayer to be answered just then. This is human nature; conscience and passion pleading against each other; reason warning and inclination rebelling. To put off coming to Christ until you have tasted more of the pleasures of the world is to create a fearful probability that you will never come to Him at all. If God, when His justice has been insulted, and His patience long tried, has refused to spare others, O take heed lest He spare not thee.

2. The subject says to us all–Beware of self-imposition. In other words, it says–Beware of a religion which is unable to protect the soul in an hour of emergency.

3. The subject says to each of us–Beware of trifling or tampering with conscience, and that not merely in reference to delays, but in reference to every other point. One will give up everything save a single prohibited indulgence; and another will give up everything except a single unhallowed pursuit; and each is willing to balance accounts by giving an overmeasure of piety in some other point: for example–the covetous man will be scrupulously honest, and the licentious man will be profusely liberal; but neither will yield, to the claims of the gospel, his besetting sin. Here is the solitary leak which sinks the vessel! You cannot compromise with Heaven. It were more easy to alter the laws of nature, to shiver a sunbeam, or to wrench a planet out of its orbit, than to change one iota of the Divine purpose, in regard to the terms of a sinners salvation. (W. Knight, M.A.)

Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God.–

The goodness and severity of God

I. In every revelation we have of God these two phases appear. Look to–

1. Nature.

2. Providence.

3. The Bible.

4. The Cross.

5. The Jewish nation.

II. The display of these two phases is necessary to man in this world.

1. To keep the mind from extremes.

2. To induce sinners to repent. (T. Levi.)

The goodness and severity of God

Let me endeavour–

I. To expose the partiality, and therefore the mischief, of two different views which might be taken of the Godhead.

1. One is incidental to those who bear a single respect to the attribute of goodness.

(1) They look to Him as a God of tenderness and nothing else, and ascribe to Him the fondness rather than the authority of a father. They would admit of no other aspect for religion than that of uniform placidness; and to decorate this bland and beauteous imagination the more, they would appeal to all that looks mild and merciful in the scenery of nature, and it is inferred that surely He, at whose creative touch all this loveliness hath arisen, must Himself be placid as the breeze, and gentle as the zephyr which He causes to blow over it. But Nature has her hurricanes, earthquakes, and thunder, as well as these kindlier exhibitions.

(2) This beholding of the goodness, without the severity of God, lulls the human spirit into a fatal complacency to its own state and prospects, and serves, in practice, to break down the fence between obedience and sin, and to nullify all moral government.

2. But there is also a mischief in looking singly to the sovereignty of God apart from His goodness.

(1) Theologians who have thus erred, and not so much by the views they have given forth of His inviolable sanctity; but rather by the views which they have given forth of such a dread and despotic sovereignty, as to impress the conception of a fatalism, against which all prayer and all performance of man are unavailing. However difficult it may be to adjust the metaphysics of the question, there is one thing unquestionable, and that is an amnesty, offered to all; a propitiation for the sins of the whole world. And, therefore, we would not that so much as one individual should be chilled into hopelessness by the dogmata of a hard or unfeeling theology, against returning to a God who waiteth to be gracious.

(2) But independent of all lofty speculations, there is abroad an impression of severity to which much of this worlds irreligion is owing, and it is a frequent anomaly that they who at times can take comfort in sin under an impression of His goodness have at all times such a sense of His severity as never to attain a thorough confidence in His favour. And just as a man would shut his eyes against a spectacle that pains them, so will they shrink from a contemplation that only serves to put dread into their bosoms, and there is an habitual distance kept up between the spirits of all flesh and Him who is the Father of them. Just as you would rather avoid than encounter the man with whom you are not perfectly at ease, so you have the same motive for shunning God. But it is our very distance from God that sheds a dimness over His character and ways, over His wrath, as well as over His love.

II. To point to the way in which these two views of the Godhead are so united in the gospel of Jesus Christ, as to form one full and consistent representation of it.

1. There is a severity. There is a law that will not be trampled on, a lawgiver that will not be insulted. The face of God is unchangeably set against evil.

(1) We cannot light upon a single instance of God so falling back from the severity of His denunciations against sin, as at all to soften the expression of His hatred towards it: not at the Fall, not at the Flood, not at the promulgation of the law on Mount Sinai, not at the entrance of Israel into the Promised Land, not in the subsequent dealings of many centuries with His own perverse and stiff-necked children, and, lastly, not at that terrible period when the Jewish economy was swept away, and even the tears of a compassionate Saviour did not avert the approaching overthrow. In all this there is an admonition to us.

(2) There is an immense delusion on this subject. We estimate God by ourselves–His antipathy to sin by our own slight and careless imagination of Him. Now if we measure God by ourselves, we should have little fear indeed of severity from His hand; for, save when there is gross and monstrous delinquency, we can bear very well, both with our own transgressions and those of others. No man, e.g., would ever think of vehemently denouncing another just because he thought little of God. This is adverted to by the Psalmist, Thou thoughtest I was altogether such an one as thyself, etc. Not therefore to you who are disgraced by profligacy, but even to you who live in a state of total and practical unconcern about another world, would we ask, Behold the severity of God. I am perfectly aware of many who look upon such representations as these to be too strong. They can see, and be impressed by it, as a great moral delinquency, when an earthly parent is thus robbed of the love and loyalty of his own offspring; but how then can you miss the more emphatic application of the same principle, though far more intense in degree to our Father who is in heaven? You know how to feel for the wounded feelings of the parents; and is there no reply to the complaining voice of Him who saith to us from heaven, Behold I stretch out My hand, but no man regardeth?

2. But along with this severity there is a goodness, and they meet together in the fullest harmony. It is this, in fact, which constitutes the leading peculiarity of the gospel. When God is severe it is never because of His delight in the sufferings of His creatures, but always because of His justice, holiness, and truth. Could a way be devised by which these might be inscribed as legibly in a deed of amnesty, then we may be assured that He who hath no pleasure in the death of His children, but who hath sworn by Himself that He would rather that they should all live, cause it richly to flow over to the utmost limits of this sinful creation. Now it is precisely this which distinguishes the evangelical system. The gospel is a mercy in full and visible conjunction with righteousness. With the pardon which it deals out for sin it makes most impressive demonstration of the evil of it, the mercy of the gospel meets with the truth of the law, and God can at once be a just God and a Saviour. A Saviour has been born, on whom God did lay the iniquities of us all. The Holy One of Israel now sitteth upon a throne of grace, The uncompromising doctrine of Scripture is this, if you refuse the mercy of God upon this footing, you will receive it upon no other. No man cometh unto the Father, but by the Son: while all that enter into His presence by the open door of the Sons mediatorship shall be saved. The mighty problem was resolved by God. You will meet with several expressions in Scripture on that subject: God being just, and a Saviour; God being just, and the justifier of them that believed in Jesus; Mercy and truth meet each other; righteousness and peace kiss each other.

III. Application.

1. Such is the goodness of God, now that this goodness has been harmonised with the other attributes of His nature, that it overpasses the guilt even of the most daring and stout-hearted offender among you.

2. In every proportion to this goodness will be the severity of God on those who have rejected Him.

3. None truly embrace Christ as their Saviour who do not submit to Him as their Master and Lord. (T. Chalmers, D.D.)

The goodness and severity of God

I. Goodness and severity are elements of a perfect character even among men.

1. Without goodness, the character repels instead of winning. There may be certain qualities which command our respect in a Draco, who ordains death as the penalty for every trifling violation of the law, or in a Brutus, who with tearless eye gives orders, in the way of duty, for the execution of his sons; but from such untempered austerity we recoil.

2. Without severity goodness degenerates into that moral pliancy which, under the name of good-nature, has often made men consent to the enticement of sinners, and has given them nothing in return, but the insipid reputation of having been enemies to none but themselves.

3. In a perfect character, if such existed among men, you would see the counterbalancing powers of goodness and severity held in exact equilibrium. And such, the Word of God assures us, is the character of Him with whom we have to do.

II. An illustration of this twofold element of the Divine character may be drawn from nature. God is light, says the Scripture. Now light is compounded of seven different rays; but it has two main ingredients: the sombre rays (blue, indigo, violet); the bright rays (orange, red, yellow, green). Both are essential to the delicacy and purity of the substance. Without the sombre rays light would be a glare–the eyeball would ache beneath it; without the bright rays light would approximate to darkness, and lose the gay smile which lights up the face of nature, and twinkles on the sea. Similarly, the holiness, justice, and truth of God (attributes which wear an awful aspect to the sinner), are an element of His nature as essential to its perfectness, as mercy, love, and goodness. Suppose in Him, for a moment, no stern defiance against moral evil, but an allowance and admission of it, and you degrade Jehovah to the level of a pagan deity. Suppose in Him, on the other hand, an absence of love, and you supplant the very being of God, for God is love. But combine both righteousness and love, intensified to the highest conceivable degree, and you are then possessed of the Scriptural idea of the Most High.

III. It is this essential character of the Divine being which forms the basis of the great doctrine of the Atonement. God presents us in this with the highest illustration of both His attributes. He may be conceived as standing by the Cross and pointing to it, saying, Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God. (Dean Goulburn.)

Severity and goodness

Two cases are here set before us. There are those who have fallen, and have consequently been broken off from the olive-tree. There are those too who continue in Gods goodness, and who still therefore partake of the root and fatness of the olive-tree. These are the present most opposite conditions of the two classes of persons described. It is added that, as the former may by Gods power and mercy be restored, so the latter must take heed lest they also be cut off. And, finally, as one great means of keeping themselves in their steadfastness, they are counselled to dwell earnestly upon the thought of the goodness of God, and of His severity, as displayed in the two examples brought to their recollection.

1. First, then, there are those who have fallen, and have consequently been broken off from Gods olive-tree. Who in our days are they? St. Paul, in his first Epistle to Timothy, makes a distinction which may assist us here. He says, Some mens sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment: and some men they follow after. There are some whose sins are so manifest, that they speak for themselves, and almost challenge the judgment which overtakes them. In our own days, amidst a very general toleration of some kinds of sin, there are others which even the world calls scandalous; which the common language of the least religious condemns; and which are visited even by them with a severity which, if not excessive in itself, is at least most inconsistent with their estimate of the criminality of other transgressions. Of this kind are acts of dishonesty and of meanness, of cowardice and open falsehood. One who has thus fallen meets with no tenderness. His sin goes before unto judgment. He has fallen; and even by the worlds sentence he is cut off from Gods olive-tree. Now what in such a case says the infallible Word of God? It does not palliate the grievousness of this mans transgression. It echoes the judgment already pronounced upon him by the conscience of his fellow-men; and adds to it, in tones yet more alarming, The soul that sinneth, it shall die. But is this all? Has the gospel no word of encouragement for the fallen sinner, none of special warning to those who have cast him out? To him its language is, Thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Thou hast lived as if there were no God, no Christ; no death, no judgment, no eternity. Because of unbelief therefore thou hast been broken off. God in His infinite mercy–because He desires not the death of a sinner, but rather that he should be converted and live–has cut thee off for a while as it were from His olive-tree. He has brought thee to shame and suffering in this life, if perhaps thy soul may be saved in the day of the Lord. And know now that, if thou abide not still in unbelief: if thou refuse not still to hear the voice of Him who has afflicted thee; thy fall is not final: thou shalt be grafted in: thou shalt be restored to far more than thou hast ever yet known of the enjoyment of the grace of God. O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself: but in Me is thy help. And then of warning to all those who may be disposed to judge harshly of one who has thus openly fallen. To them, to all of us, the gospel says, Behold in every such example the severity of God. If for you this particular form of sin seems to have no attraction; if you cannot even conceive yourself to have been tempted to its commission; yet consider, to whom is this blessing due? Remember too that, if there be one class of sins which goes before to judgment, which outruns as it were by its open heinousness the adversary who is haling it to the judge, there is yet another kind which ends in the same result with the former, however much in this life it may seem to differ from it. Your sins may be more secret; you may fence them more carefully from the sight and the hearing of men: yet, if this be all, it amounts only to a postponement of the day of exposure; at last it will come and will not tarry. Or even if your sins be of such a kind that their disclosure in the worlds sight would bring with it no disgrace or punishment; yet a day is before each one of us, which will rectify these erring judgments, and in which even they whose only crime has been that they have forgotten God, that God has not been in all their thoughts, will awake from their sleep in the dust of the earth only to shame and everlasting contempt.

2. But we must turn now, in conclusion, to the other class here spoken of; that of those who, continuing in Gods goodness, are partaking day by day of the root and fatness of the olive-tree. Who amongst us are these? What is it to continue in Gods goodness? It must be something more than merely keeping ourselves from gross transgression; something more than partaking week by week in the ordinances of Christian worship; something more than the merely being appended, as a dead or fruitless branch may be, to the stock of Gods Israel: there must be a vitality in our connection with the olive-tree–a communication ever kept up with its root, with the living centre of all its growth and vigour–to give us any place amongst those Who are truly continuing in Gods goodness. Are we daily applying to Christ Himself, as our living Saviour, for grace and spiritual life? Do we return to Him in hearty sorrow when we have sinned? Do we take refuge in Him when we feel the power of temptation? Do we ask strength from Him to resist sin? Do we day by day commit the keeping of our souls to God through Him as to a faithful Creator and most merciful Redeemer? This and this only is the life of one who continues in Gods goodness. (Dean Vaughan.)

Gods character

I. Erroneous views of God.

1. All goodness.

2. All severity.

II. the evil result of those views.

1. They are partial.

2. The one leads to presumption.

3. The other to despair.

III. His true character.

1. A Sovereign.

2. A Father. (W. W. Wythe.)

And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in.—

The restoration of the Jews

1. Is a matter of promise.

2. Will be effected by Divine power.

3. Is suspended on their reception of Christ. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

The true hope of Israel

I. Wherein it consists–the prospect of restoration to the privileges of Gods people.

II. Whereon it depends.

1. The power of promise of God.

2. Suspended in faith.

III. How it is confirmed.

1. By the calling of the Gentiles.

(1) Once not a people.

(2) Now raised to loftier privileges than the Jews ever possessed.

2. How much more, etc. (verse 24).

IV. What feelings this hope should awaken in us. Zeal and prayer for the Jew that he may–

1. Relinquish his false hopes.

2. Embrace Christ in faith,

3. Become united with the living Church of God. (J. Lyth, D. D.)

Salvation barred by unbelief possible to faith

I. The chief bar to a mans salvation is an unbelieving heart. Our Saviour told the Pharisees, who exceeded all men in morality, that publicans and harlots should go before them into the kingdom of heaven. Why? Because they believed not. Morality is good, but not good enough to save a man. Faith cannot be without it, but it may be without faith. Morality without faith is like a goodly picture, which is fair to look upon, but a man can have no society with because it wants life. Labour therefore for faith, which is the soul of obedience, and it will save thy soul.

II. Here is a singular comfort to consciences distressed for sins. It is a comfort to a sick man if the physician tell him his disease, though dangerous, is yet curable, if it be not driven too long before remedies be appointed. So God is able to save thee if thou deferrest not thy repentance. If we look only to ourselves there is nothing but desperation; but if we look up to see what God is ready to do (only staying for our believing and repenting), there is great hope. Even thou, Jew, which hast crucified Christ, if thou canst cease from unbelief, thou shalt be saved. For as all the promises in the world, so the threatnings are conditional (Jon 3:9).

III. despair not of the salvation of any, neither finally censure even though never so wicked, for God is able to turn the heart of a Jew. He that converted thee can convert thy neighbour also.

IV. God is able to save, so He is able to destroy. Let His power make thee wary how thou livest. Art thou stronger than He that thou shouldst dare by thy sins daily to provoke Him? (Elnathan Parr, B.D.)

For if thou wert cut out of the olive which is wild by nature how much more the natural branches.

The Gentiles like a wild olive-tree

I. They are wild by nature.

1. Nations before Christ were without spiritual culture.

2. The Mosaic law was confined to Israel.

3. The times of this ignorance were winked at by God.

II. They were Christianised contrary to nature. Grafting from a different kind of tree not natural.

1. Gentilism was pervaded with idolatry.

2. Gentile notions and practices were all opposed to a Divine life.

3. It is contrary to every mans nature to be a Christian.

4. This contrariety is increased by sin. (T. Robinson, D.D.)

Gods grace to the Gentile an argument for the recovery of the Jews

I. The past condition of the gentiles.

1. Not a people.

2. Strangers to the covenant of promise.

3. Given up to their hearts lusts.

II. Their gospel privilege.

1. Brought nigh.

2. Accepted.

3. Made children of Abraham.

4. By faith.

III. The consequent hope of israel.

1. Still heirs of the covenant.

2. Beloved for their fathers sake.

3. How much more, etc., when they believe? (J. Lyth, D.D.)

The prospects of Jew and Gentile

I. It is probable the Jews shall be called (2Sa 7:24).

1. A tree is not dead because it buds not in winter. This is the Jews winter, there is yet hope of a summer wherein they may yield fruit. The Jew is oft compared to a fig-tree, which buds first, but whose fruit ripens last. The Jews budded before us, the time of their ripe fruit is at hand.

2. Speak honourably of a Jew, for whatsoever he is in regard of his unbelief, yet Paul calls it a natural branch.

3. The Church is called the Jews own olive, into whom we are grafted; but when they shall be called they shall not be grafted into us, but into their own flock.

II. The Gentile hath not so great (though so sure) a prerogative and right to the promise as the Jew (Act 3:25; Rom 1:16; Rom 2:10).

1. Our natural condition is miserable. We should have been idolaters or savages if God had not given us His special grace. It is contrary to our nature to be in the right olive, to be worshippers of God, to please Him. We delight in good as a fish to be out of the water, we are out of our element.

2. By creation goodness was natural to us, as now evil, and goodness supernatural. We delight to possess the inheritance of our progenitors in us; let us then strive to recover that grace which our first parents spent in the subtilty of the devil.

3. Our conversion is contrary to our present nature. God will invert the nature and course of things for the salvation of His elect.

4. The state of nature and grace is easily discerned. He that despiseth the gospel and liveth wickedly is natural, but to believe and repent is gracious.

5. Contrary to nature, keep diligent watch over thine heart or else Nature will soon run after her Old course. Bend the bough of a tree downward, when thou lettest it go it will strive upward by and by. Waterfowls hatched under a land fowl will quickly to the water by nature. So, though by the warmth of the Spirit we be hatched under the Word, and become Gods chickens, as Christ compared us, yet we will be drawing to corruption if we daily mortify it not. By nature boats go down the stream, but by the force of wind and oars they be got up, and if such means cease they go faster downward than they were forced upward; so to proceed in grace is against the stream of nature. If Gods Spirit like a good wind blow not a prosperous gale upon us and we labour at the means, we are easily carried down the stream of our corruption. (Elnathan Parr, B.D.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 17. And if some of the branches, c.] If the present nation of the Jews, because of their unbelief, are cut off from the blessings of the Church of God, and the high honour and dignity of being his peculiar people and thou, being a wild olive-ye Gentiles, being without the knowledge of the true God, and consequently bringing forth no fruits of righteousness, wert grafted in among them-are now inserted in the original stock, having been made partakers of the faith of Abraham, and consequently of his blessings; and enjoy, as the people did who sprang from him, the fatness of the olive tree-the promises made to the patriarchs, and the spiritual privileges of the Jewish Church:-

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

In this, and some following verses, the apostle digresses a little, and takes occasion to prevent the insulting of the Gentiles over the Jews; as also to persuade them to take warning by their example.

If some of the branches be broken off; the unbelieving Jews.

And thou; a believing Gentile: though he speaks as to a particular person, yet he means the whole body of the believing Gentiles.

Being a wild olive tree; a scion taken from a wild olive tree; i.e. from the heathenish and unbelieving world.

Wert graffed in among them; the believing Jews. Some read, for them, or in the place of the branches that are broken off.

And with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree: by the root he means Abraham, &c. as before: by the olive tree he means the church of Christ; by the root, or sap of the root, and by the

fatness of the olive tree, he means, all the promises and privileges, the graces and ordinances, the spiritual blessings and benefits, which belonged to Abraham and his seed, or to the true church of God.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

17, 18. And ifrather, “Butif”; that is, “If notwithstanding this consecration ofAbraham’s race to God.

some of the branchesThemass of the unbelieving and rejected Israelites are here called”some,” not, as before, to meet Jewish prejudice (see on Ro3:3, and on “not all” in Ro10:16), but with the opposite view of checking Gentile pride.

and thou, being a wild olive,wert“wast”

grafted in among themThoughit is more usual to graft the superior cutting upon the inferiorstem, the opposite method, which is intended here, is not withoutexample.

and with them partakest“wastmade partaker,” along with the branches left, the believingremnant.

of the root and fatness ofthe olive treethe rich grace secured by covenant to the trueseed of Abraham.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

And if some of the branches be broken,…. This is to be understood, not of the exclusion of the Jews from their national church; for the persons designed by the “branches”, were the principal members of it, as the civil and ecclesiastical rulers, the priests, Scribes, and Pharisees, and the far greater part of the people; and on the other hand, the apostles and followers of Christ were put out of their synagogues, and deemed by them heretics and apostates: nor of the destruction of the Jewish nation, city, and temple; for as yet they existed as a nation, their city of Jerusalem was in being, and their temple standing: but of their being left out of the Gospel church, gathered among them, they not believing in the Messiah, but rejected and crucified him; and though afterwards the Gospel was preached to them, they despise it, contradicted, and blasphemed it; so that it pleased God to take it wholly away from them, when they might be truly said to be, “as branches broken off”; which phrase seems to be borrowed from Jer 11:16; they were withered, lifeless, and hopeless, being cast off by God, and neglected by his ministers, the Gospel being removed from them, and they without the means of grace and salvation: and this was the case of the generality of the people; for though the apostle only says “some”, making the best of it in their favour against the Gentiles, and speaking in the softest terms; yet they were only a few, a seed, a remnant, that were taken into the Gospel church, and the rest were blinded, hardened, rejected, and left out for their unbelief:

and thou being a wild olive tree: speaking to the Gentiles, to some, not to all of them; for not a whole tree, but a part of one, what is cut out of it, a scion from it is grafted into another; and so they were a certain number which God took out from among the Gentiles, to be a people for his name and glory, and who before conversion were comparable to a wild olive tree; for though they might have some show of morality, religion, and worship, yet lived in gross ignorance, superstition, idolatry, and profaneness were destitute of a divine revelation, of all spiritual light and knowledge, of true righteousness and the grace of God; were barren and unfruitful in good works, were without hope, God and Christ in the world. This metaphor rather regards their character, case, and manners, than their original; in respect of which they and the Jews were on a level, being by nature equally corrupt, and children of wrath; and yet though a wild olive tree, were

grafted amongst them; meaning either the broken branches, in whose stead they were grafted; the Syriac version favours this sense, reading it , “in their place”; as also in Ro 11:19; and so the Ethiopic version: or rather the believing Jews, of whom the first Gospel church and churches consisted; for the Jews first trusted in Christ, received the firstfruits of the Spirit, and were first incorporated into a Gospel church state; and then the Gentiles which believed were received among them. The first coalition of Jews and Gentiles, or the ingrafting of the Gentiles in among the Jews that believed, was at Antioch, when dropping their distinctive names of Jews and Gentiles, they took the common name of Christians,

Ac 11:19. So that this is not to be understood of an ingrafting into Christ unless by a visible profession, but of being received into a Gospel church state; which is signified by the “olive tree” in the next clause:

and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; the Gospel church is so called for its excellency the olive tree being a choice tree, as they were a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; for its fruitfulness, bringing forth berries that are wholesome, delightful, and useful, so the saints are filled with the fruits of grace, and good works, which are by Christ to the praise and glory of God; for its beauty when laden with fruit, so a Gospel church is beautiful maintaining the purity of Gospel doctrine, discipline, worship and conversation; “his beauty shall be as the olive tree”, Ho 14:6; see Jer 11:16; and for its verdure and durableness, and growing on the mountains, all which may denote the continuance and firmness of the church of Christ. Now the Gentiles being grafted into a Gospel church state with the believing Jews, partook of the same root and fatness as they did, being built upon the same “foundation of the apostles prophets”, Eph 2:20; rooted, grounded, and built up in the same church state they enjoyed the same privileges, had the doctrines of Christ and his apostles preached to them, communicated with them in the ordinances of the Gospel, and were satisfied with the goodness and fatness of the house of God; for they became “fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the Gospel”, Eph 3:6, the apostle speaks according to the nature of the olive tree, which is unctuous, from whence an oil is taken, which makes the face of man to shine, the fruit of which fattens those that are lean; and hence it loses not its leaves, , “because of its heat and fatness”, as Plutarch x says.

x Sympos. l. 8. qu. 10.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Branches (). From , to break.

Were broken off (). First aorist passive indicative of . Play on the word (branch) and , to break off. Condition of first class, assumed as true. Some of the individual Jews (natural Israel) were broken off the stock of the tree (spiritual Israel).

And thou ( ). An individual Gentile.

Being a wild olive ( ). This word, used by Aristotle, occurs in an inscription. Ramsay (Pauline Studies, pp. 219ff.) shows that the ancients used the wild-olive graft upon an old olive tree to reinvigorate the tree precisely as Paul uses the figure here and that both the olive tree and the graft were influenced by each other, though the wild olive graft did not produce as good olives as the original stock. But it should be noted that in verse 24 Paul expressly states that the grafting of Gentiles on to the stock of the spiritual Israel was “contrary to nature” ( ).

Wast grafted in (). First aorist passive indicative of , to cut in, to graft, used by Aristotle. Belongs “to the higher Koine” (literary Koine) according to Milligan.

Partaker (). Co-partner.

Fatness (). Old word from (fat), only here in N.T. Note three genitives here “of the root of the fatness of the olive.”

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Branches were broken off [ ] . See on Mt 24:32; Mr 11:8. The derivation of kladwn branches, from klaw to break, is exhibited in the word – play between the noun and the verb : kladon, exeklasthesan.

A wild olive – tree [] . To be taken as an adjective, belonging to the wild olive. Hence Rev., correctly, rejects tree, since the Gentiles are addressed not as a whole but as individuals. Meyer says : “The ingrafting of the Gentiles took place at first only partially and in single instances; while the thou addressed cannot represent heathendom as a whole, and is also not appropriate to the figure itself; because, in fact, not whole trees, not even quite young ones are ingrafted, either with the stem or as to all their branches. Besides, ver. 24 contradicts this view.”

Wert graffed in among them [ ] . The verb occurs only in this chapter. From kentpon a sting, a goad. See on Rev 9:9. Thus, in the verb to graft the incision is emphasized. Some render in their place, instead of among them; but the latter agrees better with partakest. Hence the reference is not to some of the broken off branches in whose place the Gentiles were grafted, but to the branches in general.

With them partakest [ ] . Lit., as Rev., didst become partaker with them. See on Rev 1:9; and partners, Luk 5:10. With them, the natural branches.

Of the root and fatness [ ] . The best texts omit kai and, and render of the root of the fatness : the root as the source of the fatness.

Paul ‘s figure is : The Jewish nation is a tree from which some branches have been cut, but which remains living because the root (and therefore all the branches connected with it) is still alive. Into this living tree the wild branch, the Gentile, is grafted among the living branches, and thus draws life from the root. The insertion of the wild branches takes place in connection with the cutting off of the natural branches (the bringing in of the Gentiles in connection with the rejection of the Jews). But the grafted branches should not glory over the natural branches because of the cutting off of some of the latter, since they derive their life from the common root. “The life – force and the blessing are received by the Gentile through the Jew, and not by the Jew through the Gentile. The spiritual plan moves from the Abrahamic covenant downward, and from the Israelitish nation outward” [] .

The figure is challenged on the ground that the process of grafting is the insertion of the good into the inferior stock, while here the case is reversed. It has been suggested in explanation that Paul took the figure merely at the point of inserting one piece into another; that he was ignorant of the agricultural process; that he was emphasizing the process of grace as contrary to that of nature. References to a custom of grafting wild upon good trees are not sufficiently decisive to warrant the belief that the practice was common. Dr. Thomson says : “In the kingdom of nature generally, certainly in the case of the olive, the process referred to by the apostle never succeeds. Graft the good upon the wild, and, as the Arabs say, ‘it will conquer the wild; ‘ but you cannot reverse the process with success…. It is only in the kingdom of grace that a process thus contrary to nature can be successful; and it is this circumstance which the apostle has seized upon to magnify the mercy shown to the Gentiles by grafting them, a wild race, contrary to the nature of such operations, into the good olive tree of the church, and causing them to flourish there and bring forth fruit unto eternal life. The apostle lived in the land of the olive, and was in no danger of falling into a blunder in founding his argument upon such a circumstance in its cultivation” (” Land and Book, Lebanon, Damascus and Beyond Jordan, “p. 35). Meyer says :” The subject – matter did not require the figure of the ordinary grafting, but the converse – the grafting of the wild scion and its ennoblement thereby. The Gentile scion was to receive, not to impart, fertility. “

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “And if some of the branches be broken off,” (ei de tines ton kladon ekelasthesan) “Yet, if some of the branches were broken off”; a part of national Israel, in fact the greater part, and they were, Mat 23:37-39.

2) “And thou, being a wild olive tree,” (su de agrillaios on) “And thou being or existing (as) a wild olive”; the Gentiles of Rome, Gentile Christians, or believers who were Gentiles by natural birth. They were grafted into spiritual Israel, when they believed, Joh 1:11-12.

3) “Wert graffed in among them”, (enekentristhes en autois) “Wast grafted in among them”; found an intimate place or position among true believers, who from among the Jews accepted Christ, were saved, baptized and helped constitute his church, as saved Jews, called from among the Gentiles in Galilee, Mat 4:13-20; Act 10:37.

4) “And with them partakest;- (Kai sugkoinonos egenou) “And in close affinity with them did become a common partaker, a sharing one with them”; not only of salvation which came of the Jews, by Jesus Christ, Joh 4:22; but also with the first Christian Jews who were members of our Lord’s church, who were promised positions of ruling and reigning with the Christ, in his coming reign on earth, over Israel, Luk 22:29-30; Rom 8:17-18.

5) “Of the root and fatness of the olive tree,” (tes hrizes tes piotetes tes elaias) “Of the root of the fatness by the olive tree”; the root refers to God’s pledge to Abraham that his offspring should possess the promised land in peace and their Lord would reign in it over them in a prosperous way, a manner of fatness, plenty, etc., a matter that is surely yet to be fulfilled, Isa 2:2-5; Luk 1:32-33; 1Co 15:25; Heb 1:8; Rev 5:9-10.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

17. And if some of the branches, etc. He now refers to the present dignity of the Gentiles, which is no other than to be of the branches; which, being taken from another, are set in some noble tree: for the origin of the Gentiles was as it were from some wild and unfruitful olive, as nothing but a curse was to be found in their whole race. Whatever glory then they had was from their new insition, not from their old stock. There was then no reason for the Gentiles to glory in their own dignity in comparison with the Jews. We may also add, that Paul wisely mitigates the severity of the case, by not saying that the whole top of the tree was cut off, but that some of the branches were broken, and also that God took some here and there from among the Gentiles, whom he set in the holy and blessed trunk. (356)

(356) There is a difference of opinion as to the precise meaning of the words ἐνεκεντρίσθης ἐν αὐτοις [ Calvin ] ’s version is, “ insitus es pro ipsis — thou hast been ingrafted for them,” or in their stead; that of [ Beza ] and [ Pareus ] is the same, and also that of [ Macknight ]; but [ Grotius ] has “ inter illos — between them,” that is, the remaining branches; and [ Doddridge ] renders the words “among them,” according to our version. What is most consonant with the first part of the verse, is the rendering of [ Calvin ]; what is stated is the cutting off of some of the branches, and the most obvious meaning is, that others were put in for them, or in their stead. It has been said, that it was not the practice to graft a wild olive in a good olive, except when the latter was decaying, such may have been the case; but the Apostle’s object was no so much to refer to what was usual, as to form a comparison suitable to his purpose; and this is what our Savior in his parables had sometimes done. Contrary to what the case is in nature, the Apostle makes the stock good and the graft bad, and makes the stock to communicate its goodness to the graft and to improve the quality of its fruit. But his main object is to show the fact of incision, without any regard to the character of the stock and of the graft in natural things; for both his stock and his graft are of a different character. — Ed.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(17) And.Rather, but.

Among themi.e., among the branches of the olive-tree generally, both those which are broken off and those which are suffered to remain. This seems on the whole the more probable view; it would be possible to translate the words, in place of them (the branches broken off).

Partakest of the root and fatness.The meaning of this is sufficiently obvious as it stands. If, as perhaps is probable, we ought to drop the second and, reading, of the root of the fatness, the sense is that the rich flow of sap in which the wild olive par-takes does not belong to the wild olive itself, but is all drawn from the root.

The evidence for the omission of the second and is that of the Vatican, Sinaitic, and rescript Paris manuscripta strong combination.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

(17-24) The admission of the Gentile to the privileges of the Jew is no ground for boasting on his part. It is merely an admission. The Gentile is, as it were, a branch grafted into a stem that was none of his planting. Nor is his position absolutely secured to him. It is held conditionally on the tenure of faith. He ought, therefore, anxiously to guard against any failure in faith. For the moment God has turned towards him the gracious side of His providence, as towards the Jew He has turned the severe side. But this relation may easily be reversed, and the Jew received back into the favour which he once enjoyed.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

17. Wild grafted in The Church of all ages is a cultured olive tree, and Gentilism is a wild olive tree. Contrary to custom, at least western custom, the inferior graft is inserted into the superior trunk. Columella and Propertius are quoted, however, in support of the fact that the wild olive graft in the cultured tree gave freshness and vigour to its growth. This thought, however, forms no part of the apostle’s illustration.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them, and became partaker with them of the root of the fatness of the olive tree,’

It is in this verse that we first learn that the olive tree is in mind, certainly in so far as Rom 11:17 onwards are in mind. It is difficult, however, to avoid the conclusion from the phrase ‘but if some of the branches were broken off’ that these words assume that the branches of the olive tree have already been referred to in some way, i.e. in Rom 11:16 as ‘the root and the branches’, especially as Rom 11:18 refers to the root of the olive tree as though it represented the tree, and sees the branches as arising from it. The passage might just, however, be seen as standing apart from Rom 11:16. But, however we see that, the olive tree is certainly in mind from now onwards, and that points to Jer 11:16 where ‘the green olive tree’ is specifically the name by which God calls Israel (‘He has called your name “Green Olive Tree”). Compare also Hos 14:6 and Jewish tradition which both compare Israel to an olive tree. It will be noted in Jer 11:16 that as such it is burned and its branches are broken, a picture indicating the parlous state of Israel at that time. That was, of course, the situation in Jeremiah’s day, not necessarily the permanent situation of the olive tree as representing Israel. But it does indicate a tree that was marred.

The point being made here is that branches have been broken off the olive tree, and it is clear from the context (e.g. Rom 11:20) that this refers to unbelieving Israel who have rejected their Messiah. A similar picture is given by Jesus in Joh 15:1-6 where ‘abiding in Messiah’ is the test, that is hearing Him and responding to Him and His words, whilst those who do not abide are removed and burned. Additionally in Paul’s illustration other wild olive branches are engrafted in, who clearly represent Gentile believers. The Gentile believers then commence partaking of the root of the fatness of the olive tree, in other words of all its benefits. They begin to partake of the Messiah, and of the ideal Israel that He represents. They have become a part of Israel, for it must be noted here that these branches now become a part of the olive tree, and thus a part of Israel (however defined). From now on they  ‘are Israel’. Thus Israel now consists of Jews and some Gentiles as indeed it did before, but the difference now is that their faith is in the Messiah rather than in the Law. The olive tree in its entirety continues to be ideal Israel. The broken off branches cease to be a part of Israel. Here the true Israel in God’s eyes is seen to be finally composed of the elect, both Jews and Gentiles, as in Rom 9:24.

It should be noted how all this parallels chapter 9, where the chosen remain within the promises of God (Rom 9:7-13), including later the Gentile believers (Rom 9:24), whilst those who are not chosen are separated off (Ishmael, the sons of Keturah, Esau), whilst in chapter 10 it is by being engrafted into the Messiah that men find salvation, whilst those who do not respond to the Messiah are cut off, they fail to hear the report about the Messiah.

Paul has been criticised for not recognising that it is not sound horticulture to graft wild olive branches into a good olive tree, but in fact it is known that exactly this principle was carried out by certain ancient horticulturalists, the wild olive branches revivifying the olive tree. But that is beside the point, for Paul is using an illustration in order to get over a point, not claiming that it is good horticultural practise in real life.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Rom 11:17. Thou, being a wild olive-tree, &c. This is another way of expressing the justification and election of us Gentiles; and it is also an incontestable proof, that we Gentile Christians are taken into the Abrahamic covenant, (for the Sinai covenant is abolished) as truly and fully as ever the nation of the Jews were. Consequently, any argument relating to our church privileges, taken from the nature of the Abrahamic covenant, must be just and valid; for we are grafted into the church, which sprung from that root, and are partakers of its fatness. It is to very little purpose to object, that it is unnatural to suppose an ignoble branch grafted on a rich stock; for it was not necessary that the simile from inoculation should hold in all its particulars; and the engagement to humility, arises in a considerable degree from the circumstance objected against. Had the scion been nobler than the stock, yet its dependence on it for life and nourishment would render it unfit that it should boast against it: how much more, when the case was the reverse of what in human usage is practised; and the wild olive is ingrafted on the good! See Doddridge and Calmet.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Rom 11:17-24 . In pursuance of the figure, a warning to the Gentile Christians against self-presumption, and an exhortation to humility, down to Rom 11:24 .

] some , a portion of the branches; comp. on Rom 3:3 .

.] were broken off (Plat. Rep . p. 611 D), being the proper word for the breaking of the young twigs ( ); Theophrastus, c . pl . i. 15. 1. They were broken off on account of their unfitness for bearing.

] individualizing address to each Gentile Christian .

. ] although being of the wild olive . . is here an adjective , like , Rom 11:24 . This view is assured by linguistic usage (Eryc. 4, in Anthol . ix. 237: , Theocr. xxv. 255; see Jacobs, Delect. Epigr . p. 33; Lobeck, Paralip . p. 376) and necessary; for the traditional interpretation: “oleaster, i.e. surculus oleastri ,” is as arbitrary as the apology for the expression when so explained, on the ground that Paul wished to avoid the prolixity of the distinction between tree and branch, is absurd (in opposition to Hofmann), inasmuch as he would only have needed to employ the genitive instead of the nominative, and consequently to write not a word more , if he wished to be thus sparing. The opinion of Reiche, Rckert, Kllner, Philippi, Krehl, Ewald, van Hengel that the collective body of the Gentiles is conceived as an entire tree is inappropriate to the relation portrayed by the figure , because the ingrafting of the Gentiles took place at first only partially and in single instances, while the addressed cannot represent heathendom as a whole, and is also not appropriate to the figure itself , because in fact not whole trees, not even quite young ones (in opposition to de Wette), are ingrafted either with the stem, or as to all their branches; besides, Rom 11:24 contradicts this opinion. Matthias also takes the right view.

] may grammatically be equally well understood as among them (the branches of the noble olive tree generally ) so Erasmus, Grotius, Estius, and many others, including Rckert, Fritzsche, Nielsen, Tholuck, Philippi, Maier, Reithmayr, Hofmann or as: in the place of the broken-off branches (Chrysostom, Beza, Piscator, Semler, and others, including Reiche, Kllner, de Wette, Olshausen), which, however, would have to he conceived of, not as ordinarily, in locum , but in loco eorum (Olshausen has the right view). The first rendering is preferable, because it corresponds to the notion of the .

. . . . .] of the root (which now bears thee also among its own branches, Rom 11:18 ) and fatness (which now goes jointly to thee) of the olive tree . On the latter, comp. Jdg 9:9 . The assumption of a hendiadys ( of the fat root ) (Grotius and others) is groundless and weakening. The sense without figure is: “Thou hast attained to a participation in holy fellowship with the patriarchs, and in the blessings of the theocracy developed from them,” both which the unbelieving Jews have forfeited.

Has Paul here , Rom 11:17 ff., had in view the process, really used in the East, of strengthening to renewed fertility olive trees by grafting scions of the wild olive upon them (see Columella, v. 9. 16; Pallad. xiv. 53; Schulz, Leit. d. Hchsten, V. p. 88; Michaelis, orient. Bibl . X. p. 67 ff., and note, p. 129; Bredenkamp in Paulus, Memorab . II. p. 149 ff.)? Answer: The subject-matter , which he is setting forth, required not at all the figure of the ordinary grafting of the noble scion on the wild stem, but the converse, namely, that of the ingrafting of the wild scion and its ennoblement thereby. The thing thus receiving illustration had taken place through the reception of Gentile members into the theocracy; and the thing that had taken place he was bound to represent (figuratively depict) as it had taken place . “Ordine commutato res magis causis quam causas rebus aptavit,” Origen. But that, while doing this, he had before his mind that actual pomological practice, and made reference to it (Matthias: in order to exhibit the of the unbelieving Jews, Rom 11:13 ), is not to be assumed for this reason, that here, conformably to the following . . ., there is conceived as the object of the ingrafting the ennobled fertilization of the graft itself; whereas, in the practice referred to, the ingrafted scion was not to receive the fatness from the noble tree, not to become fertilized , but to fertilize; for “ foecundat sterilis pingues oleaster olivas, et quae non novit munera, ferre docet,” Palladius.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

DISCOURSE: 1896
NEGLECT OF THE JEWS REPROVED

Rom 11:17-21. If some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree; boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed 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, take heed lest he also spare not thee.

IT is surprising, considering how minutely the Apostle has explained the subject contained in this chapter, and how strongly he has marked its almost unparalleled importance; it is surprising, I say, that it should so little have attracted the attention of the Christian world. The Apostle, after contemplating it, exclaimed, O the depths! But we, after having read his statement times without number, have seen no depths in it; or, at least, none which we have been at all disposed to fathom. There is one point in particular, which, in considering this subject, we have overlooked; and that is, that God still regards the Jews as to a certain degree, his peculiar people; and that, notwithstanding their degradation and depravity, there is a holiness about their whole nation, and a halo, as it were, around the head of every individual belonging to it. The offering of the first-fruits to the Lord sanctified the whole harvest; and the offering of a cake of the first of the dough sanctified the whole lump [Note: Lev 23:10-17 and Num 15:19-21.]. Thus the consecration of the patriarchs to Jehovah conferred on all their posterity a relative kind of holiness: and still more did the separation of Abraham unto the Lord, as the root of that elect people, impart a federal holiness to all the branches that should ever spring from it. This relative or federal holiness attached to the whole nation; to the ten tribes, as well as the tribes of Judah and Benjamin: and it adhered to the Jews during their captivity in Babylon, as well as before and after that period. It still continued, also, many years after their crucifixion of their Messiah, and after their privileges had been transferred to the Gentile world. The Apostle, in the words before my text, speaks of it as yet existing: and therefore it must exist at this time, because the reason of the thing exists as much as ever: If the first-fruit be holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root be holy, so are the branches. And on this is grounded the admonition to the whole Christian Church, Boast not against the branches.

Now, by marking thus the connexion of our text with the preceding context, we shall see the propriety of noticing the use which we are to make of the rejection of the Jews. This awful dispensation should fill us with,

I.

Compassion for them

There is here, as you will perceive, a fact acknowledged

[Some, even very many, of the branches have been broken off from the olive-tree which Gods right hand had planted: and we Gentiles, who were only a wild olive-tree, have been graffed into their stock, and are with them at this moment partaking of the root and fatness of the olive-tree. This fact it is impossible to deny. They, instead of enjoying the ordinances of Gods worship, as in former ages, are scattered over the face of the whole earth, and are utterly incapable of worshipping God according to their law. They have no temple, no priest, no altar, no sacrifice, wherewith to approach their God. But these blessings are transferred to us; and we enjoy them in all their fulness. Through the one sacrifice once offered upon Calvary, we have the most intimate access to God, and a rich effusion of his blessings upon our souls whensoevever we draw nigh unto him in his Sons name. There is not a privilege that was ever enjoyed by the most favoured of Gods saints in the days of old, but we possess the same, so far as our necessities require it.]
But mark the sad abuse of it that prevails

[Instead of feeling compassion for the Jews in their present degraded state, we are ready to look down upon them with contempt, and to exult over them, as objects of Gods merited indignation. Thus we boast against the branches, and indulge a secret satisfaction in their fall. In fact, we treat them nearly in the way in which they formerly treated the Gentile world. They regarded the Gentiles as dogs; and actually designated them by that opprobrious term: and, though that term is not in use amongst us in reference to the Jews, the contempt expressed by it is as deeply rooted in our hearts as ever it was in theirs. But they, in comparison of us, had reason on their side: for the Gentiles, whom they despised, had no knowledge of God whatever, but were bowing down to gods of wood and stone: whereas the Jews are still worshippers of the true and living God; and have been distinguished by him above all other people upon earth; yea, and are still distinguished by his peculiar care, and are reserved as objects wherein he will yet be more than ever glorified; and as instruments, too, whereby he will hereafter dispense his richest blessings to the whole world. Are these, then, to be treated with contempt? Are these to be regarded as branches, against which it becomes us to boast?]
Let us hear Gods own correction of this abuse

[In what have we any right to glory over them? Have they ever been indebted to us, or received any benefits at our hands? Have not we, on the contrary, received from them every blessing that we enjoy? What knowledge have we of God, that has not been transmitted to us from them? What hope have we towards God, that has not arisen from communications made by them? What comfort have we in life, which is not administered by them? What hope have we in death, which is not founded upon information derived from them? What glory can we look for in another world, but that which has been unveiled to us by them? Take from us the instruction which we have received from them, and we shall be reduced at once to all the darkness and misery in which our early ancestors were involved, and in which the whole heathen world are at this very moment immersed. Admirable is the illustration which the Apostle gives us of this truth. Conceive a branch boasting against the root; and saying, I am more exalted than thou, and more estimable in every respect. Behold my foliage, and my fruit: what hast thou of worth or beauty, in comparison of me? How would this arrogance be silenced in a moment, by the answer which the root would of course return! You boast of your beauty and your fruitfulness. Whence did you derive them, but from me? What would you ever have possessed, if it had not been communicated to you by me? Instead of boasting therefore over me, acknowledge your obligations to me, and confess that all which you either are or have, you have derived from me. Thus, in relation to all that we possess or hope for as the people of the Lord, we stand indebted to the Jews; whilst they, on the contrary, owe nothing to us; but rather have reason to execrate us, for withholding from them the light we have enjoyed, and putting every obstacle in their way, to perpetuate their ruin. What, then, should be our feelings towards them? what, but the tenderest compassion for their state, and the most earnest desire to restore them to Gods favour?]
To our pity for them we should add,

II.

Watchfulness over ourselves

What use is commonly made of their rejection, may be seen in the self-vindicating reply which is here anticipated

Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off that I might be graffed in. The Apostle attempts not to deny this awful and mysterious truth: yea, he accedes to it; saying, Well, it is so. But, granting this, is it any reason for boasting against them? Is it not rather a reason for pitying their undone condition? Were we to see a man deprived of his paternal inheritance, and perishing with hunger; and were we informed, that he had been disinherited, merely that we, who had no worthiness in ourselves, and no relation to his father, might possess his estates; should we feel disposed to glory over him and insult him? Should we not rather wish to administer to him such relief as he stood in need of, if we could do it without injury to ourselves? Would not a want of such consideration for him be justly accounted the greatest cruelty?]

But hear the phenomenon accounted for

[True it is that God has broken them off, and graffed us in; and that he has broken them off, that he might graff us in. But we are mistaken if we think that God has in this matter acted altogether as a sovereign. In the first choice of Abraham and his posterity, he did exercise his sovereignty: but, in rejecting them, he acts upon the grounds of strict justice. And this is a distinction which we are too apt to overlook. In the bestowment of his favours, God finds his motives solely in his own bosom; but in the execution of his judgments, he finds them solely in the conduct of those whom he resolves to punish. They have brought upon themselves his displeasure by their inveterate unbelief. Though they saw all Gods wonders in Egypt, and at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness, they were always full of unbelief, and ready to trust in gods of their own creation, rather than in him. Nay, more: when they had seen all the evidences of Christs Messiahship, instead of believing in him, they cried, Away with him! crucify him! crucify him! For these iniquities God cast them off: and in their rejection it becomes us to see and acknowledge the righteousness of his ways. Had it pleased God so to order it, he could have united us with them on the same stock, which would have borne both as easily as one: but God saw fit to make the Jews monuments of his righteous indignation against sin: and, when we ourselves are so prone to sin, it ill becomes us to triumph over them. Bear in mind this proceeding,]

And attend to the instruction founded upon it

[Hear what the dispensation says to you: You stand by faith; and have the same reason to tremble for fear of Gods judgments as they had. If they had continued to exercise faith in God, they had never been cast out: nor shall you, if you live altogether by faith in the Son of God, who loved you, and gave himself for you. But if you distrust God, and rebel against him, and rely on any thing of your own, instead of the Lord Jesus Christ, Gods anger will smoke against you in like manner; and you also will become monuments of his righteous indignation. If God spared not the natural branches, there is no reason to think he will spare those which have been taken from a wild olive-tree, and graffed in among them. The improvement, therefore, which you are to make of this dispensation, is, Be not high-minded, but fear. Put away all your self-preference and contempt of others: and, under a consciousness of your liability to fall, beg of God to strengthen your faith; and endeavour to walk in the fear of the Lord all the day long.]

And now, brethren,
1.

Accept thankfully this reproof

[You cannot but be sensible, how shamefully the Jews have been neglected, not only by you, but by the whole Christian world, these seventeen hundred years. Any excuse has been quite sufficient to justify your indifference for their welfare. The time for their national conversion is not come. Was it come, then, eighteen hundred years ago? Who has spoken more strongly respecting their rejection than St. Paul? Yet did he labour with all earnestness, if by any means he might save some. And this also we ought to do, even though we had eighteen more centuries to wait for this event. But the time, we have reason to think, is very near at hand; as events, no less than the prophecies, appear to indicate. But, be this as it may, I call on you to blush and be confounded for having so long boasted against them; and henceforth, by every possible means, to concur in promoting their conversion to the faith of Christ ]

2.

Follow diligently the counsel given you

[Improve the situation, wherein, through Gods tender mercy, you are placed. Are you partakers of the root and fatness of the true olive-tree? See to it, that you bring forth such fruits as this root produced in former days Look at Abraham, David, Isaiah, Daniel, Paul; and see that the grace of God operate as effectually in you as it did in them. And when you call to mind what efforts were made by the holy Apostles for your benefit, let a measure of the same love animate you in behalf of those in whose place you stand ]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

17 And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;

Ver. 17. Were grafted in ] Gr. , pricked into the middle, the centre of the olive.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

17 .] But (introduces a hypothesis involving a seeming inconsistency with the just mentioned) if some of the branches (the , as Thol. remarks, depreciates the number, in order to check the Gentile pride) were broken out (from the tree), and thou (a Gentile believer) being a wild olive ( , the tree, spoken of a sprout or branch of it. Better so than, as Fritz., Meyer, to make . an adj., ‘of wild olive,’ which can only be used of that which is made out of the wood , as . Thol.) wast grafted in (Clem [106] Alex. Strom. vi. [15] 119, p. 799 P., enumerates four different kinds of , using it as a general term for grafting and budding. The difficulty here is, that the Apostle reverses the natural process. It is the wilding , in practice, which is the stock , and the graft inserted is a sprout of the better tree . I believe that he does not here regard what is the fact in nature: but makes a supposition perfectly legitimate, that a wilding graft on being inserted into a good tree, thereby becomes partaker of its qualities. No allusion can be intended to a practice mentioned by Columella, de Re Rust. Rom 11:9 , of inserting a wilding graft into a good tree to increase the vigour and growth of the tree: for this would completely stultify the illustration the point of which is, a benefit received by the wilding from the tree, not one conferred by the wilding on it) among them (i.e. among the branches, : or perhaps may imply the remnants of the branches broken off. The renderings, ‘ in their stead ,’ ‘ in locum ,’ as De W. after Chrys., Theophyl., Beza, and ‘ in their place ,’ ‘ in loco ,’ Meyer, Olsh., are surely inadmissible), and becamest a fellow-partaker (with the branches: or perhaps simply ‘a partaker,’ not implying fellows in participation , but merely the participation itself) of the root of the fatness (of that root, on union with which all the development of life and its fertility depend: which is the source of the fatness. With , it will mean, of the source of life, and also of the development of that life itself in all richness of blessing) of the olive-tree ,

[106] Clement of Alexandria, fl. 194

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Rom 11:17-24 . In these verses, which in a sense are a long parenthesis, Paul anticipates an objection which Gentile readers might take to his use of the last figure, the root and the branches; and he draws from it two special lessons one, of humility, for the objectors; the other, of hope, for Israel.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Rom 11:17 . A Gentile Christian might feel that the very fact that Jews were rejected and Gentiles accepted qualified the assurance with which Paul had just spoken of the future of Israel. It is the disposition to think so, and to presume on one’s own favoured position, which the Apostle rebukes in . . : puts the case mildly: cf. Rom 3:3 . , sc. , as fruitless. : is the presumptuous individual before the Apostle’s mind, not the Gentile Church collectively. The is the olive in its natural uncultivated state. , sc. , among the native branches of the cultivated olive. The process here supposed is one that in horticulture is never performed. The cultivated branch is always engrafted upon the wild stock, and not vice vers . This Paul knew quite well (see , Rom 11:24 ), and the force of his reproof to the presuming Gentile turns on the fact that the process was an unnatural one. [ Ordine commutato res magis causis quam causas rebus aptavit (Origen).] It gave the Gentile no room to boast over the rejected Jews. . : there is an argument in . At the best, the Gentile only shares with Jews in the virtues of a root which is not Gentile, but Jewish: he has his part in the consecration of the patriarchs, the one historical root of the people of God, and in the blessings God attached to it. For cf. Jdg 9:7 . The accumulation of genitives is apparently an imitation of such Hebrew constructions as Isa 28:1 ; Isa 28:16 : the meaning is, a partaker in the root of the fat olive tree.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Rom 11:17-24

17But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree, 18do not be arrogant toward the branches; but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you. 19You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” 20Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith. Do not be conceited, but fear; 21for if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you, either. 22Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God’s kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off. 23And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. 24For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these who are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree?

Rom 11:17-24 Surprisingly “you” in this paragraph is singular (the plural reappears in Rom 11:25). What does this mean?

1. one Gentile as a symbol of all Gentiles

2. the problem in the Roman church between Jewish and Gentile leadership, thereby, referring to the leaders of the current Gentile leadership (cf. Rom 11:18-20)

Rom 11:17 “if” See note at Rom 11:12-24.

“the branches were broken off” This refers to the unbelieving Israelites (cf. Rom 11:18-19, “natural branches,” Rom 11:21).

“the wild olive” This refers to believing Gentiles who respond to gospel preaching.

“grafted” Paul continues the agricultural metaphor begun in Rom 11:16. The grafting of wild olive branches into an established tree helped improve yields (cf. Rom 11:24).

“of the rich root” The literal original phrase, “the root of the fatness” (UBS4 gives it a “B” rating [almost certain]), is found in MSS *, B, C. There are several other readings in the Greek manuscript traditions that try to smooth out this asyndeton (Bruce Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, p. 526).

“the olive tree” This is a symbol of national Israel (cf. Rom 11:24; Psa 52:8; Psa 128:3; Jer 11:16; Hos 14:6). This is Paul’s second OT metaphor to describe the relationship between Jews and Gentiles.

Rom 11:18 “do not be arrogant toward the branches” This is a present imperative with negative particle which usually means stop an act already in process. This verse, plus Rom 11:13; Rom 11:20; Rom 11:25, implies that there was a problem in the church of Rome between believing Jews and Gentiles.

Rom 11:19-20 Rom 11:19 is another diatribe (a supposed objector). Paul explains why the Jews were rejected. It was because of their unbelief, not because the Gentiles were loved more! The Gentiles were only included because of God’s love (cf. Gen 3:15) and their faith! They also could cause the Jews to return to God because of jealousy (cf. Rom 11:11; Rom 11:14).

Rom 11:20

NASB”but you stand by your faith”

NKJV”and you stand by faith”

NRSV”but you stand only through faith”

TEV”while you remain in place because you do believe”

NJB”if you still hold firm, it is only thanks to your faith”

This is a perfect active indicative. However, it is in the context of ten conditional sentences. Our standing before God is and continues to be by faith. If faith ceases, our standing ceases. Salvation is (1) an initial faith response; (2) a state of being in faith; (3) an ongoing process of faith; and (4) a final culmination of faith. Be careful of any theological system that only focuses on one of these biblical truths. See Special Topic: Greek Verb Tenses Used for Salvation at Rom 10:4.

God is the author, initiator, sustainer, and culminator of salvation, but in a covenant pattern. He has chosen that sinful mankind must respond and continue to respond by repentance and faith at every step of the process. He expects obedience, Christlikeness, and perseverance!

NASB”Do not be conceited, but fear”

NKJV”Do not be haughty, but fear”

NRSV”So do not become proud, but stand in awe”

TEV”But do not be proud of it; instead, be afraid”

NJB”Rather than making you proud, that should make you afraid”

Both of these statements are present imperatives. The first has the negative particle, which usually means stop an act already in process. It revealed a problem in the Roman church. The reason for the fear is stated in Rom 11:21.

Rom 11:21 “neither will He spare you” As Israel apostatized and went away from YHWH in prideful unbelief and was cut off, so will the church be cut off if she leaves faith in Christ through prideful self-righteousness. Initial faith must be followed by lifestyle faith (cf. Mat 13:1-23; Mar 4:1-12; Luk 8:4-10). Pride must be continually resisted. We are what we are by the grace of God and we are brothers with all who also trust Christ!

SPECIAL TOPIC: APOSTASY (APHISTMI)

Rom 11:22 “the kindness and severity of God” God’s ways always seem paradoxical to fallen humanity (cf. Isa 55:8-11). There are consequences to our choices. God’s election does not negate mankind’s responsibility. The election of national Israel did not guarantee each individual’s salvation.

“if you continue in His kindness” This is a third class conditional sentence with a present subjunctive. This construction meant that believing Gentile continuance is conditional (this is the flip side of God’s sovereignty of Romans 9); we must be diligent to maintain our faith (cf. Php 2:12-13). This refers to the perseverance of both the group and the individual (cf. Gal 6:9; Rev 2:7; Rev 2:17; Rev 3:6; Rev 3:13; Rev 3:22). This is the mystery and tension of corporality and individuality in the Bible. There are both promises (based on God’s character) and conditional covenants (based on human response). See SPECIAL TOPIC: THE NEED TO PERSEVERE at Rom 8:25.

Rom 11:23 This verse follows the grammatical and theological pattern of Rom 11:22. If the Jews repent and believe they will be included. If the Gentiles cease to believe, they will be rejected (cf. Rom 11:20). Initial faith in Christ and continual faith in Him are crucial for both.

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

be, &c. = were broken off. Greek. ekklazo. Only here and verses: Rom 11:19, Rom 11:20.

wild olive tree. The oleaster which bears no fruit. Greek. agrielaios. Only here and Rom 11:24.

graffed in. Greek. enkentrizo. Only here and verses: Rom 11:19, Rom 11:23, Rom 11:24.

among. App-104.

partakest = art partaker (Greek. sunkoinonos. Only here, 1Co 9:23. Php 1:1, Php 1:7. Rev 1:9).

fatness. Greek. piotes. Only here.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

17.] But (introduces a hypothesis involving a seeming inconsistency with the just mentioned) if some of the branches (the , as Thol. remarks, depreciates the number, in order to check the Gentile pride) were broken out (from the tree), and thou (a Gentile believer) being a wild olive (, the tree, spoken of a sprout or branch of it. Better so than, as Fritz., Meyer, to make . an adj., of wild olive, which can only be used of that which is made out of the wood, as . Thol.) wast grafted in (Clem[106] Alex. Strom. vi. [15] 119, p. 799 P., enumerates four different kinds of , using it as a general term for grafting and budding. The difficulty here is, that the Apostle reverses the natural process. It is the wilding, in practice, which is the stock, and the graft inserted is a sprout of the better tree. I believe that he does not here regard what is the fact in nature: but makes a supposition perfectly legitimate,-that a wilding graft on being inserted into a good tree, thereby becomes partaker of its qualities. No allusion can be intended to a practice mentioned by Columella, de Re Rust. Rom 11:9, of inserting a wilding graft into a good tree to increase the vigour and growth of the tree: for this would completely stultify the illustration-the point of which is, a benefit received by the wilding from the tree, not one conferred by the wilding on it) among them (i.e. among the branches,- : or perhaps may imply the remnants of the branches broken off. The renderings, in their stead, in locum, as De W. after Chrys., Theophyl., Beza,-and in their place, in loco, Meyer, Olsh., are surely inadmissible), and becamest a fellow-partaker (with the branches: or perhaps simply a partaker, not implying fellows in participation, but merely the participation itself) of the root of the fatness (of that root, on union with which all the development of life and its fertility depend: which is the source of the fatness. With , it will mean, of the source of life, and also of the development of that life itself in all richness of blessing) of the olive-tree,

[106] Clement of Alexandria, fl. 194

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Rom 11:17. , Thou) O Roman, who art a Gentile.-, a wild olive) the graft of the wild olive; a singularly expressive [. end. ] Synecdoche. [Sad experience even in our age proclaims this fact. A promiscuous multitude, unwilling to bear true Christianity, labour under the wildest ignorance; nor do we even except those, who boast no ordinary attainments in virtue and knowledge.-V. g.]- ) among them: The word, them, is not to be referred to the word, some, but to the branches generally.-) Paul often uses concerning the Gentiles, Eph 2:19; Eph 2:22; Eph 3:6; comp. , Rom 15:10.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Rom 11:17

Rom 11:17

But if some of the branches were broken off, and thou, being a wild olive, wast grafted in among them, and didst become partaker with them of the root of the fatness of the olive tree;-The point before the apostle was: How and why was the one broken off and the other grafted in where life is received? The branches of the tame olive received life from the root. While receiving life from the root, they lost faith; so they bore no fruit, or evil fruit. If Paul intended to say that the branch must bear fruit like the root, whence it had received life, he could not represent that it ceased to bear good fruit while yet connected with the good root as he has done. Then when the branch of the wild olive is grafted into the root, he makes no reference to fruit bearing. The point is: When this olive branch, changed by faith so as to bear good fruit, is grafted into the root, it receives its life from the root, not the root from the branch. But the wild olive branch grafted in among these of the tame that still stand through faith, with them partakes of the root and fatness of the olive tree. The question Paul had before him was: How and why were the branches of the tame olive tree broken off?

How and why are the branches of the wild olive tree grafted in to receive its life from the root, and how can it stand? He says it received its life from the root and fatness of the stock into which it is grafted.

All the facts of horticulture agree precisely with Paul. He says nothing directly about the fruit produced by this ingrafting into the stock. The fruit produced is implied in the standing and continuing in the goodness of God, I apprehend had he followed up the figure to illustrate the conditions more specially of fruit bearing, he would have said : In as much as the branches of the tame olive tree by unbelief had so changed their nature as to bear evil fruit, and in as much as the branch of the wild olive through faith is fitted to bear good fruit, take heed lest through unbelief you be broken off. He did say, Otherwise thou also shalt be cut off, and perish. The root in no part of the figure is represented as giving the quality of the fruit. The character of the branch attained through faith, or the lack of faith, determined the quality of the fruit it bears, and this quality determines whether the branches shall be cut off and die or be grafted in and stand. The parable in all its teachings and implications is in perfect accord with the facts and processes of nature.

These facts show two truths: (1) truth is not to be perpetuated through church organizations perpetuated from age to age; (2) men must follow the law of God if they go alone. We need not think the growth or popularity of parties please God or indicate the success of truth of indicates the favor of God. God blesses those who give up all to follow him, and he is the strength and power of his servants who are faithful and true.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

some: Psa 80:11-16, Isa 6:13, Isa 27:11, Jer 11:16, Eze 15:6-8, Mat 8:11, Mat 8:12, Mat 21:43, Joh 15:6

being: Act 2:39, Gal 2:15, Eph 2:11-13, Eph 3:6, Col 2:13

among them: or, for them

and with: Deu 8:8, Jdg 9:8, Jdg 9:9, Psa 52:8, Zec 4:3, Jon 1:16, Rev 11:4

Reciprocal: Gen 27:28 – the fatness Job 14:9 – and bring Psa 65:11 – fatness Psa 92:13 – Those Isa 30:17 – a beacon Jer 12:16 – built Zec 10:9 – live Mar 12:1 – planted Rom 10:16 – But they Rom 11:16 – and if Rom 11:19 – that Rom 11:21 – if God Rom 11:24 – General Rom 15:27 – and 1Co 1:9 – the fellowship Phi 1:5 – General Col 1:12 – partakers Col 2:7 – Rooted Col 2:19 – nourishment 1Ti 6:2 – partakers Heb 3:1 – partakers Heb 3:14 – we are Jam 1:21 – the engrafted

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

-18

Rom 11:17-18. The olive tree is used as an illustration of the subject. The branches being broken off is the same as the “stumbling and fall” of verses 11, 12. (See comments on those verses.) The Gentiles are compared to a wild olive tree.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Rom 11:17. But if some of the branches were broken off. This was the fact, and the Gentiles are warned against a wrong inference from it. Some does not of itself indicate whether there were many or few; it was, however, probably chosen in order not to promote Gentile-Christian self-exaltation; Rom 11:18 (Meyer). The term broken off is that used of the removing of barren twigs.

And thou, emphatic and addressed to the individual Gentile believer, being, although thou art, a wild olive, i.e., a branch of the wild olive tree, since the word here used may be regarded as an adjective. The reference to the tree is objectionable, for the Gentiles are addressed not as a whole, but as individuals.

Wast grafted in among them, or, n their place. Either view is grammatically admissible, but the former is preferable, especially because of the word fellow partaker which follows, and because, them points to the branches, referring to the Jews in general. It is quite improbable that Paul alludes to the custom of renewing the fertility of olive trees by grafting upon them shoots of the wild olive. There is no evidence that he knew of this custom; nor is the illustration furthered by the thought thus suggested. The Gentile scion was to receive, not to impart, fertility. Moreover Rom 11:24 shows that the Apostle conceives of the matter as taking place through grace and contrary to nature.

And became fellow partaker, i.e., in common with the natural branches, of the root of the fatness of the olive tree. Some of our best manuscripts omit and, thus giving the sense as above; but the other reading is also well supported. The former presents the root as the source of the fatness, the vitality and fertility; the latter indicates that the graft is partaker of both. The ideas are substantially identical. As regards the application: it is historically true that the Roman and Greek civilization, already decaying in Pauls time, was preserved during the succeeding centuries mainly by the new religious life from the patriarchal root. The unity of the church in both dispensations is plainly asserted, and this overthrows all the assumptions of an antagonism between Paul and the Twelve, in regard to the relative position of the Jewish and Gentile Christians.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

The design and scope of our apostle in these words, is to exhort the believing Gentiles not to despise and reproach the rejected and unbelieving Jews; and he draws an argument from the condition of the Gentiles, both past and present: in their past condition they were like a wild olive-tree we understand to visible church of God; by the root he means Abraham, he was the root of the olive-tree, the Jewish church.

But how so? Answer Not the root by way of cmmunication, but in a way of adminstration; not by way of communication, as if either Jew or Gentile did receive any sap of spiritual life from him, as branches receive a natural life from the root; for thus Christ alone is the root of the church. But Abraham alone was the root of the church. But Abraham was the root of the olive-tree in a way of administration, the Lord calling him forth as the first man with whom he was pleased to treat, and enter into covenant with.

Again, by the fatness of the olive-tree, we are to understand all outward privileges and ordinances, all spiritual benefits and blessings, which belong to the Jewish church.

By the branches of the olive-tree, we are to understand the members of the Jewish church; and by the wild olive, the Gentile world.

Now though the Gentiles, through rich grace, were instated in the privileges of the Jews, yet the apostle foresaw, that instead of thankfulness to God for the favours received from him, they would be puffed up with pride, and accordingly he advises them not to be high-minded, but fear; as if he had said, “O ye Gentiles, your state is nigh, let your hearts be humble. The Jews are fallen; and unless you walk in holy fear, you cannot stand: unbelief ruined them, take heed that pride doth not ruin you; for the just and holy God is no respector of persons. He that spared not the natural branches, will no more spare thee.”

From the whole learn, 1. That man is naturally a very proud creature; and although he has nothing but what he has freely received, yet is prone to boast.

2. That man is especially apt to magnify himself, and to glory over those who are fallen before him, either into sin, or under affliction.

3. That the best preservative from falling, is humility and holy fear. If ever we stand in the day of trial, it is the fear of falling must enable us to stand. Take heed you do not fall, by thinking it is impossible to fall.

Be not high-minded, but fear. Timor tuus, securitas tua; Thy holy fear will keep thee from falling, when others’ security and presumption will lay them on the ground. Let not a man that stands on the top of a tree boast of his height, but look to his hold.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Vv. 17, 18. Now, if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in their place, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree, boast not against the branches; and if thou boast, it is not thou that bearest the root, but the root thee.

We might give the sense of but (but if, notwithstanding their natural consecration, the branches were broken off); or that of now, which is better, as the argument continues down to the inference drawn in Rom 11:18.

Undoubtedly an event has happened which seems to be in contradiction to this people’s character of holiness; a certain number of its members, like branches struck down with an ax, have been rejected. The term some indicates any fraction whatever, small or considerable matters not (see on Rom 3:3). , and if thou. Some commentators think that this style of address applies to the Gentile-Christian church personified. But in that sense would not the article have been needed before , the wild olive? Without an article the word is an adjective, and denotes the quality, not the tree itself. Besides, it is not one tree that is engrafted on another. By this style of address, therefore, Paul speaks to each Christian of Gentile origin individually, and reminds him that it is in spite of his possessing the quality of a wild tree that he has been able to take a place in this blessed and consecrated organism to which he was originally a stranger.

The words , which we have translated: in their place, properly signify: in them, and may be understood in two ways: either in the sense of among themthat is to say, among the branches which have remained on the trunk, converts of Jewish originor: in the place which they occupied, and, as it were, in the stump which has been left by them, which would apply solely to the branches which have been cut down. The prep. , in, which enters into the composition of the verb, might favor this latter meaning, which is, however, somewhat forced.

Once engrafted on this stem, the wild branches have become co-participants () of the root. This expression is explained by the following words: and of the fatness of the olive, of which the meaning is this: As there mounts up from the root into the whole tree a fruitful and unctuous sap which pervades all its branches, so the blessing assured to Abraham ( , Gal 3:14) remains inherent in the national life of Israel, and is even communicated by believing Jews to those of the Gentiles who become children of the patriarch by faith; comp. Gal 3:5-9. The Alexs. reject the word , and, after , root: the root of the fatness of the olive. It would be necessary in that case to give to the word root the meaning of source, which is impossible. This reading must therefore be rejected, as well as that of the Greco-Latins, which omit the words: of the root and of: co-participant of the fatness of the olive. The meaning would be admissible; but this reading is only a correction of the text once altered by the Alex. reading.

This passage demonstrates in a remarkable way the complete harmony between St. Paul’s view and that of the twelve apostles on the relation of the church to Israel. The Tbingen school persists in contrasting these two conceptions with one another. According to it, the Twelve regarded Christians of Gentile origin as simply members by admission, a sort of plebs in the church; while Paul made them members of the new people, perfectly equal to the old. The fact is, that in the view of Paul, as in that of the Twelve, the believers of Israel are the nucleus round which are grouped the converts from among the Gentiles, and God’s ancient people, consequently, the flock with which the Gentiles are incorporated. I have yet other sheep, said Jesus (Joh 10:16), who are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and there shall be one flock, one Shepherd. Excepting the figure, the thought is identical with our passage.

It has been objected to the figure used here by the apostle, that a gardener never engrafts a wild branch on a stem already brought under cultivation; but, on the contrary, a stem is taken which still possesses all the vigor of the wild state to insert in it the graft of the cultivated tree. There are two ways of answering this objection. It may be said that, according to the reports of some travellers, the course taken in the East is sometimes that supposed by the figure of the apostle. A wild young branch is engrafted in an old exhausted olive, and serves to revive it. But there is another more natural answer, viz. that the apostle uses the figure freely and without concern, to modify it in view of the application. What proves this, is the fact that in Rom 11:23 he represents the branches broken off as requiring to be engrafted anew. Now this is an impracticable process, taken in the strict sense.

Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)

But if some of the branches were broken off, and thou [O Gentile believer], being a wild olive, wast grafted in among them, and didst become partaker with them of the root of the fatness of the olive tree [Some commentators, recognizing that Christianity is a distinct thing from Judaism, have been unduly frightened at the manner in which the apostle here blends them as one tree. This has led them to forsake the obvious meaning of the apostle’s words, in an endeavor to contort them so as to keep distinct the Christian and Jewish bodies. Some of these, therefore, regard Christ as the tree, and others regard it as representing the Christian church. But such exegesis violates the text, for the Jewish unbelievers are pictured as branches “broken off.” Now, they could neither be broken off from Christ nor the church, for they were never joined to either. The tree is the Theocracy (Jer 11:16; Hos 14:6; Eze 17:3; Zec 11:2). In a sense it is one continuous tree, for it bears to God the continuous relation of being his peculiar people, but in another sense it is, as the apostle here presents it, an entirely different tree, for all the branches which were formerly accepted on the basis of natural Abrahamic descent were broken off, and all the branches, whether Jew or Gentile, which had the new requirement of faith in Christ, were grafted in. Surely, then, the tree is distinct enough as presented in its two conditions. Yet is it the same Theocracy, with the same patriarchal root and developed from the same basic covenants and promises (Heb 11:39-40; Eph 2:11-22). Christianity is not Judaism, and no pen ever taught this truth more clearly than Paul’s. Yet Christianity is a development of the old Theocracy, and is still a Theocracy, a kingdom of God, and this is plainly taught; for the Christian, be he Jew or Gentile, is still a spiritual son of Abraham (Rom 4:16; Gal 3:7; Gal 3:29; Gal 4:28), a member of the true Israel; the true Jew. Now, the Christian Jew, having already an organic connection with the Theocracy, is viewed by Paul as simply remaining in it. And here is the point where the confusion arises. If he became regenerate (Joh 3:1-6), and, dropping the carnal tie of the old, received the spiritual tie of the new (Joh 8:37-44), he indeed remained in the theocratic tree, but in it as transport at Pentecost. If the Jew did not undergo this chance, he was broken off and cast aside (Mat 8:11-12). Thus the apostle makes it clear that the Jew, as a Jew, and without spiritual change through faith in Christ, did not remain in any divinely accepted Theocracy. But as God originally contemplated the tree, every Jew was to develop into a Christian, in which case the tree would have been indeed continuous. Jewish unbelief frustrated the divine harmony and made it necessary for the apostle himself to here and elsewhere emphasize the difference between the old and new Theocracies. “The Gentiles are called a wild olive because God had not cultivated them as he did the Jews, who, on that account, are called (Rom 11:24) the good or garden olives. . . . The juice of the olive is called ‘fatness,’ because from its fruit, which is formed by that juice, oil is expressed” (Macknight). “The oleaster, or wild olive,” says Parens, “has the same form as the olive, but lacks its generous sap and fruits.”];

Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)

GODS CHURCH IDENTICAL UNDER ALL DISPENSATIONS

17-24. Here we have revealed the indisputable fact that Christianity is not a de novo institution, as some erroneously claim, but simply another dispensation of Gods church founded in Eden when Jehovah preached the first gospel sermon to the fallen twain, serving as the herald of his own redemptive scheme, perpetuated under the Antediluvian, Patriarchal, Mosaic and Christian dispensations down to the present day. This, you see, clearly and unequivocally confirmed the statement, The Gentiles are cut out of the wild olive tree, i. e., Satans kingdom, and grafted into the good olive tree, i. e., the kingdom of God. So when the Jews are converted to God they are grafted into their own olive tree, i. e., just get back into the true church of God whence they were ejected when they rejected Christ. We see mans failure in all of these dispensations He failed in Eden, winding up in the fall. He failed in the Antediluvian ages, winding up with the flood. He failed in the Patriarchal, winding up in Egyptian slavery. He failed in Judaism, winding up with the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. He failed in our Saviors ministry, rejecting it and crucifying Him. We are now in the Gentile dispensation, and there are a thousand reasons to believe that we are rapidly approaching the end. What will it be?

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

Verse 17

And thou; referring, obviously to the Gentile convert.–Graffed; grafted.–The root and fatness; the strength and sustenance derived from the root.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

11:17 {10} And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in {q} among them, and with them {r} partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;

(10) There is no reason why the Gentiles who have obtained mercy, should triumph over the Jews who condemn the grace of God, seeing they are grafted in place of the Jews. But let them rather take heed, that also in them is not found that which is worthily condemned in the Jews. And from this also the general doctrine may be gathered and taken, that we ought to be zealous for God’s glory, even in regards to our neighbours: and we should be very far from bragging and glorying because we are preferred before others by a singular grace.

(q) In place of those branches which are broken off.

(r) It is against the common manner of farming, that the barren juice of the young shoot is changed with the juice of the good tree.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

The cultivated olive tree was a symbol of the nation of Israel in the Old Testament (Jer 11:16-17; Hos 14:4-6). The wild olive tree represents the Gentile world. [Note: Bruce, p. 204.] The rich root of the cultivated tree, Israel, probably corresponds to the Abrahamic Covenant from which all God’s blessings and the very life of the nation sprang. We might add to the illustration by saying that the roots derive their nourishment from God Himself.

Paul said that God grafted Gentiles in among the Jews. They became partakers with the Jews of the blessings that come through the roots. Paul did not say that the Gentiles became part of Israel, only that they partake with Israel of the blessings of the root. This is a very important point. The olive tree is not the church, the "new Israel," in which God has united Jewish and Gentile believers in one body (Eph 3:6). The wild olive branches retain their own identity as wild branches (Gentiles) even though they benefit from blessings that come through Israel (e.g., the Messiah, the Scriptures, etc.).

A common misunderstanding of this figure is that the olive tree is a symbol of all believers throughout history, all the people of God. The natural branches, in this view, represent Israel, and the grafted in branches represent the church. The Old Testament use of the olive tree as a symbol of the nation of Israel argues against this view. Furthermore this verse says some of the natural olive branches (Israelites, according to this view) were broken off the tree. If the tree represents all believers, this must mean that some believing Israelites have ceased to be part of the people of God.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)