Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Romans 11:30
For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
30. For as ye, &c.] A new short paragraph. See on Rom 11:28. The main purpose of this paragraph is to shew, in a new respect, the Divine “reason why” of the rejection of the Jews; viz., that the salvation of both Jews and Gentiles might be conspicuously put on the footing of mere mercy. The Gentile believers had once rejected God (see Rom 1:19, &c.), and mere mercy called them to grace. The Jews were now rejecting God, and mere mercy would again act in calling them back to grace.
have not believed ] Better, did not obey. For the best commentary, see Rom 1:18-32.
have now obtained mercy ] Better, did obtain mercy. Lit. were compassionated.
through their unbelief ] Which was, in a certain sense, the instrument, “through,” or by, which the covenant was thrown open to the world. Jewish unbelief (1) slew “the Lord of Glory,” the Propitiation; and (2) was the occasion for the mission of the Apostles “far unto the Gentiles.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For as ye – You who were Gentiles.
In times past – Before the gospel was preached. This refers to the former idolatrous and sinful state of the pagan world; compare Eph 2:2; Act 14:16.
Have not believed God – Or have not obeyed God. This was the character of all the pagan nations.
Yet have now obtained mercy – Have been pardoned and admitted to the favor of God.
Through their unbelief – By means of the unbelief and rejection of the Jews; see the note at Rom 11:11.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Rom 11:30-32
For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy.
The memory of the past should
1. Promote humility.
2. Awaken gratitude.
3. Soften our censures.
4. Strengthen our hopes of others. (T. Robinson, D.D.)
Mercy for the Jew
I. We have received mercy–
1. Unmerited.
2. Free.
3. Through the unbelief of Israel.
II. We must show mercy–
1. As an expression of gratitude.
2. A debt of justice.
3. A Christian duty. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
The gospel given to us as a deposit for the Jews
Observe–
I. The mysterious way is which God has dispensed His blessings to mankind–first the Jew, then the Gentile; all Israel, then the fulness of the Gentiles. The mysteriousness of this plan–delay, partial bestowment, transfer, final restoration.
II. The design of it.
1. To provoke the Jews to jealousy.
2. To provoke the Christian world to love. (J. Lyth, D. D.)
The last argument to prove the conversion and general calling of the Jews
The argument is taken from the like dealing of God with the Gentiles. The impiety of the Gentiles was no impediment to their mercy, neither shall the infidelity of the Jews to theirs.
I. The Gentiles were Infidels (Eph 2:12), but by the unbelief of the Jews they are received to mercy.
1. Forget not what thou wert, for we have all fun the race of the prodigal son. It is Gods grace if it be otherwise with thee now. Be thankful. How if God had taken thee away in thy sins? Let this bind thee to thy good behaviour for ever (1Ti 1:15; cf. Tit 3:8).
2. Faith is a sweet mercy, so is the Word of God, the means of that faith. Alas for them which, having the means of faith, yet contemn the same!
3. Sin breeds sorrow, and many times sorrow kills the sin which bred it, as a worm breeding in timber consumes it. So the sin of the Jews works to the good of the Gentiles by the goodness of God. Gregory the Great calls the sin of Adam happy, because it was the occasion of salvation; so in some sort may we say of the unbelief of the Jews.
4. God forbid that we should lightly esteem the grace God offers us, it coming unto us at so dear a rate as is the casting off of His people.
5. When we were infidels, God showed us mercy; much more will He be merciful to us now we believe.
II. The Jews are now in an estate of unbelief, but they shall be received to mercy (Isa 46:4; Jer 24:6-7).
1. There is yet mercy for the Jews, by the example of the like mercy to the Gentiles. But it is now sixteen hundred years ago since they were cast off; is it likely that after so long time they should be called? Yes; for the Gentiles lay longer under their infidelities, yet at last received grace.
2. Faith is not in the power of man, nor can any means effect it without Gods blessing. One would think that this long affliction of the Jews might make them cry peccavi, beside other means God hath afforded them. In trouble, then, pray it may be sanctified to thy profit. Pray also for a blessing on the Word, else it will be unprofitable, though the preacher were a son of thunder.
3. Carry thyself meekly toward a Jew, and toward unbelievers among ourselves, considering thyself, who wert in the same condemnation. Judge not thy neighbour for damned; He that converted thee can in His good time convert him also. Play the physician to thy neighbours soul; show him of the mercy thou hast received, that he also may be stirred up to seek to Him who is merciful. God gave Paul consolation in distress, that he might comfort others; so if He give thee knowledge, faith, etc., use them in like manner.
4. Who, then, is the better for thy gifts? The Jew compasseth sea and land to make a proselyte. The Jesuits wind themselves like serpents into every place to make a papist. Drunkards and other ungodly persons seek to draw others to their practices.
5. Let the Jew follow the faith of the Gentile, so do thou the example of good Christians among whom thou livest. It is a great furtherance to godliness to have an example to the rule. It is a help to the scholar to have a copy to write by, but a greater furtherance to his profiting to see his master make the letters. (Elnathan Parr, B.D.)
For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that He might have mercy upon all.—
All are shut up in unbelief
I. How?
1. By nature.
2. By providence–first the Gentile, then the Jew.
3. By the appointment of eternal justice.
II. Why?
1. That Gods mercy.
2. To all.
3. Might be more gloriously manifested.
III. In what way this Divine arrangement contributes to such a result.
1. By convincing man of his sinfulness and utter helplessness.
2. By preparing him for the reception of mercy. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
Why God locked up (so to speak) Gentiles and Jews in the prison of unbelief
1. That their salvation might be manifestly seen to be by grace.
2. That self-righteous boasting might be excluded.
3. That men might duly appreciate the blessings of His redemptive love.
4. That scope might be afforded for the full display of His mercy. (C. Neil, M.A.)
Mans unbelief and Gods mercy
Here is an elegant similitude. Men unconverted are prisoners–God the Judge, unbelief the prison, the devil the gaoler, the law the sergeant, and natural corruption the fetters.
I. God hath shut up all in unbelief. This is the common condition of all men (Rom 3:9; Rom 3:19; Rom 3:23; Gal 3:22).
1. Paul hath in the passage of this business ten times told us of our miserable condition by nature. Here we are poor sinners; it is our part to take knowledge of our corrupt nature.
2. Great is the misery that accompanies imprisonment, restraint of liberty, hunger, cold, shame, chains, but no dungeon more loathsome than an unbelieving heart. Oh that we could be sensible of it, that we might sigh to God for deliverance, as did the Israelites in Egypt. When a man is arrested, what lamenting among his friends: but our very souls are imprisoned in the worst of prisons, under the worst of gaolers, and yet we are merry, as though it were but a trifle.
3. We may know whether we be yet in this prison by two things.
(1) By faith in God. Hast thou this? If not, there needs no jury to find thee guilty: thou art in the very bottom of the dungeon. But thou sayest there is a God. Thy life condemns thee, for thou actest as if there were no God.
(2) By faith in His Word. The Scripture threatens ungodly men with the plagues of God, and promiseth eternal life to the godly. Did men believe this, durst they run on in all profaneness?
II. That He might have mercy on all (Gal 3:22).
1. Our salvation is of mere mercy, but it is a hard thing to be brought to acknowledge it. The Gentiles were 2,000 years before they could learn this lesson, and the Jews have been 1,600 about it, and yet have not learned it; yea, there are many amongst us that cannot say this lesson right. Most men hope to be saved by their prayers and good serving God; we are loth to lose the commendation of our own goodness.
2. Jews and Gentiles should live together, seeing they are both in one prison for one end, and set free by one and the same mercy.
3. If any be set free, it is by the mercy of God, who hath the key of our unbelieving hearts, doth open and shut them at His pleasure. As a man committed by the king can be set free by none but the king, so God committed us, and none can set us free but Himself. Cry, therefore, to the Lord for mercy.
4. There are two notes whereby we may discern whether we be released out of the prison or no.
(1) Our joy. A liberated prisoner leaps and dances, so as no ground will hold him; so birds and beasts escaping from their restraint scud about, as sensible of the sweetness of liberty.
(2) Our carefulness not to commit anything that may bring us into such bondage. So he that believeth the pardon of sin will for ever hate sin. For the most part, prisoners are of wicked behaviour; so if thy conversation be lewd, it is a manifest sign thou art not yet delivered. (Elnathan Parr, B.D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 30. For as ye in times past] The apostle pursues his argument in favour of the restoration of the Jews. As ye, Gentiles, in times past-for many ages back.
Have not believed] Were in a state of alienation from God, yet not so as to be totally and for ever excluded,
Have now obtained mercy] For ye are now taken into the kingdom of the Messiah; through their unbelief-by that method which, in destroying the Jewish peculiarity, and fulfilling the Abrahamic covenant, has occasioned the unbelief and obstinate opposition of the Jews.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
This is the last argument, to prove the conversion and calling of the Jews, which is further confirmed, Rom 11:32. The argument is taken from the like dealing of God with the Gentiles; after a long time of infidelity, he received them to mercy; therefore he will also at last receive the Jews. He argues from the less to the greater; If the infidelity of the Jews was the occasion of mercy to the Gentiles, much more shall the mercy showed to the Gentiles be an occasion of showing mercy to the Jews: q.d. There is more force in that which is good, to produce a good effect, than in that which is evil, to have a good event: therefore, if the unbelief of the Jews had so good an event, as to occasion the conversion of the Gentiles, why may we not think, that the calling of the Gentiles will contribute to the conversion of the Jews? See Rom 11:11,14. When the Jews shall see the Gentiles mercy, i.e. Gods mercy to them; how the whole world flourisheth under the profession of Christianity; how the Messias is in vain expected by them; how their nation is dispersed, &c.; then they shall at last come in and cleave to Christ, and be mercifully received by him.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
30, 31. For as ye in times past havenot believedor, “obeyed”
Godthat is, yieldednot to God “the obedience of faith,” while strangers toChrist.
yet now have obtained mercythroughby occasion of
their unbelief(See onRo 11:11; Ro11:15; Ro 11:28).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For as ye in times past have not believed God,…. The times referred to, are the times of ignorance, idolatry, and superstition; when God suffered the Gentiles, for many hundreds of years, to walk in their own ways; while the Jews were his favourite people, were chosen by him above all people, separated from them, and distinguished by his goodness; had his word and oracles, his judgments and his statutes to direct them, and many other valuable blessings: the times before the coming of the Messiah are here meant, when these people sat in darkness, and in the region of the shadow of death; till Christ, who came to lighten the Gentiles, sent his Gospel among them, and which has been attended with great success; in these times they were in a state of incredulity: they either, as some of them, did not believe there was a God, or that there was but one God, at least but very few believed it; and these did not know who he was; nor did they glorify him as God, or perform any true spiritual worship to him: the far greater part believed there were more gods, and did service to them which by nature were no gods, and fell down to idols of gold, and silver, and wood, and stone:
and yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief; that is, they were regenerated, effectually called and converted, through the rich and abundant mercy of God; repentance unto life was granted to them; and faith in our Lord Jesus, as a free grace gift, was bestowed upon them; and they had an application of pardoning grace and mercy, through the blood of Christ, made unto them; and all this through the unbelief of the Jews: not that their unbelief could be the cause of their obtaining mercy; but the Jews not believing in the Messiah, but rejecting him, and contradicting and blaspheming his Gospel, it was taken away from them, and carried to the Gentiles; which was the means of their believing in Christ, and obtaining mercy; so that the unbelief of the Jews was the occasion and means, in Providence, of bringing the Gospel to the Gentiles, whereby faith came; see Ro 11:11. This mercy they are said to enjoy “now”; for the present time of the Gospel is the dispensation of mercy to the Gentiles.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Ye in time past ( ). Ye Gentiles (1:18-32).
Were disobedient (). First aorist active indicative of , to disbelieve and then to disobey. “Ye once upon a time disobeyed God.”
By their disobedience ( ). Instrumental case, “by the disobedience of these” (Jews). Note “now” () three times in this sentence.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “For ye in times past have not believed God,” (gar humeis pote epeithesate to theo) “For as you all then disobeyed God,” in former times, times past, you all were disobedient toward God, as all unbelievers are. They live in a responsible state of daily disobedience, rebellion, and moral enmity and anarchy against God, Isa 55:8-9; Isa 59:2; Rom 8:7; at enmity with God, practical atheists, Eph 2:12.
2) “Yet have now obtained mercy,” (nun de eleethete) “Yet now and for a continuing hereafter ye have obtained mercy,” the mercy sacrifice they had obtained by repentance and faith, just as the publican who sought and found it through praying, “God be merciful to me a sinner,” Luk 18:13-14. This mercy was not only in redemption but also in granting them service and stewardship honors and rewards in witnessing of Jesus Christ, thru the church, Act 1:8; Mat 5:15-16; Joh 20:21; Eph 3:21.
3) “Through their unbelief,” (te touton apeitheia) “By or through their disobedience or unbelief or unpersuasion,” which caused them to be cut off, as a nation from any national custody or trusteeship of God’s worship and service, which they once administered before all nations, Mat 23:37-39.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(30, 31) Have not believed . . . unbelief . . . not believed . . .Rather, disobeyed . . . disobedience . . . disobeyed.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
‘For as you in time past were disobedient to God, but now have obtained mercy by their disobedience, even so have these also now been disobedient, that by the mercy shown to you they also may now obtain mercy.’
Paul now explains the situation to the Roman Gentile Christians. He points out that they too had once been disobedient to God. But now, as a result of the disobedience of unbelieving Jews, the message of the Messiah has reached the Gentiles so that they have obtained mercy. As a consequence they are to recognise that the unbelieving Jews are now in a state of disobedience, and that because of the mercy that they themselves have received, they must take the offer of God’s mercy to unbelieving Israel, so that they too might obtain mercy. So the secondary, though important, theme of the necessity of seeing the Jews as beloved by God and having potential for salvation, continues to be emphasised.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Rom 11:30-31. For as ye in times past, &c. When the promise was made to Abraham, the calling of the Gentiles was not a secondary design,to take effect in case the Jew rejected the Gospel, but an absolute purpose, to be accomplished whether the Jews complied or refused. The refusal of the Jew was no way necessary to the calling of the Gentile; nor did the Apostles preach to the Gentiles only because the Jews had refused to accept the Gospel. Had the Jews embraced the faith of Christ, the Apostles would still have preached to the Gentiles. Their unbelief is evidently to be understood, as their fall, and the casting them off, Rom 11:11-12 not simply and absolutely, but considered under its proper circumstances, or in its cause; namely, that extensive grace, which threw down their peculiarity, in order to make room for the Gentiles, and so occasioned their unbelief. These verses may be paraphrased thus: “For as you Gentiles, for many ages past, were in a state of alienation from God, yet not so as to be totally and for ever excluded,for you are now taken into his peculiar kingdom by that method which has occasioned the unbelief of the Jews;so in like manner (Rom 11:11.) the Jews, in their turn, are through infidelity shut out of the present peculiar kingdom of God; not to their utter exclusion, but to open a new scene, when, through the farther displays of God’s mercy to you, they shall be taken into his kingdom again.” See Locke, and on Rom 11:11.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Rom 11:30-31 . ] not referable to Rom 11:28 (Hofmann), introduces that, which, according to the economy of salvation under the divine mercy, will emerge as actual proof of the truth of Rom 11:29 .
] have refused obedience , which came to pass through unbelief . For the elucidation of this, see Rom 1:18 ff.
] contrast to the time before they become Christian ( ), Eph 2:8 .
] For the reception into Christianity with its blessings is, as generally, so in particular over-against the preceding , on God’s part solely the work of mercy .
.] through the disobedience of these; for they are , Rom 11:28 . Comp., besides, Rom 11:11 f., Rom 11:15 , Rom 11:19 f. The noncompliance of the Jews with the requirement of faith in the gospel brought about the reception of the Gentiles. The latter, the converted Gentiles, are individualized by the address to the Gentile-Christian community of the readers ( ).
] namely, through rejection of the gospel.
] is, on account of the parallelism, to be joined to the following ( . . .), and the dative to be taken in the sense of mediate agency, like . .: in order that through the mercy that befell you (which may excite them to emulation of your faith, Rom 11:11 ), mercy should also accrue to them. The position of . . . before the introductory conjunction is for the sake of emphasis; comp. 2Co 12:7 ; Gal 4:10 , et al.; Winer, p. 522 [E. T. 688]. Hence the parallelism is not to be sacrificed by placing a comma after . Nevertheless such is the course followed and with very different views of the dative, arbitrarily departing from the datival notion in . by the Vulgate (“in vestram misericordiam”), Peschito, Erasmus, Luther, Calvin, Estius, Wolf, Morus, Lachmann, Glckler, Maier, Ewald (“so these also became now disobedient alongside of [ bei ] your mercy”), Buttmann in the Stud. u. Krit . 1860, p. 367 (“ in favour of your mercy, that you might find mercy”), and others.
] the divinely ordained aim of the . On the emphatic in the objective sense, see Winer, p. 145 [E. T. 191]; Khner, II. 1, p. 486.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
DISCOURSE: 1901
THE GOSPEL GIVEN TO US AS A DEPOSIT FOR THE JEWS
Rom 11:30-31. As ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
ONE can scarcely conceive how such a chapter as that before us should be in the hands of Christians, and be read by them from time to time, and yet the great subject of the restoration of the Jews, and of their union with the Christian Church, be as little known as if no information whatever had been given respecting it in the Bible. Till of late, it should seem as if there had been as thick a veil upon the hearts of Christians, in relation to it, as there has been upon the hearts of the Jewish people in relation to Christianity itself. Methinks the words which I have just read to you, if there had been no other, were sufficient to unfold to us the whole plan of Divine Providence in relation to this matter. For in them we see,
I.
The mysterious way in which God has dispensed his blessings to mankind
Mark the plan, as it is here developed
[The whole world having departed from God, they were, with the exception of one family, overwhelmed by an universal deluge. The surviving family soon followed the footsteps of their ancestors; and the whole world, in the space of less than five hundred years, was again involved in darkness and idolatry. It pleased God then to give a new revelation of himself to one single individual, and to confine the knowledge of himself, not to his descendants generally, but to his descendants in the line of one particular son. But that revelation being merely oral, it was preserved only by tradition. Then, after about four hundred and thirty years more, God, for the first time, vouchsafed to man a written revelation. Yet was this written word confined to that single people. The rest of the world, for the space of four thousand years, were left without any written instruction from on high, and were given up to the delusions of their own hearts. Our Lord himself said he was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel; and he forbad his Disciples to enter into any city of the Samaritans, to instruct them. But at last, when this nation had so abused the light afforded them, as to reject and crucify their Messiah, God took it away from them, and imparted it to the Gentile world, who hitherto had lain in darkness and the shadow of death. Yet, alas! it is to but a small part of the Gentile world that this light is come, notwithstanding it has shined these eighteen hundred years. But it is Gods purpose that, in due season, it shall spread over the face of the whole globe; and that they, to whom the knowledge of his will has been now committed, shall be his instruments for communicating it to all the rest of mankind, both Jews and Gentiles.]
Now I call the whole of this mysterious
[St. Paul calls it so, in the chapter before us [Note: ver. 25.]: and so great a mystery did he consider it, that, in the contemplation of it, he exclaimed, O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out [Note: ver. 33.]!
But consider these four things: the long delay; the partial bestowment; the subsequent transfer; the final restoration: and every part of it will appear an inscrutable mystery.
That God should leave the world in ignorance for two thousand yearsthat he should then make himself known to one man only, and confine the knowledge of himself for two thousand more years in one particular branch of that mans familythat then he should cause the candlestick to be removed from that people; and be set up amongst the idolatrous Gentiles, who had been left to themselves for four thousand yearsthat eighteen hundred years more should elapse, and the light be not yet spread amongst the Gentiles generally, or restored to the Jewswho does not see, in this whole dispensation, the sovereignty, the uncontrollable sovereignty, of the Most High, who imparts to every one so much only as he himself sees fit, and that too in the time and manner which seems best to his unerring wisdom? The Apostle illustrates this by an olive-tree, the branches of which were broken off, that others might be engrafted on it, and that, at a future period, they might be engrafted again on their own olive-tree [Note: ver. 1724.]. And, truly, in the whole of this mysterious appointment we must acquiesce, saying, Even so, Father; for so it hath seemed good in thy sight [Note: Mat 11:26.].]
But, though we cannot comprehend this mystery, we know, for certain,
II.
The design of God in it
This is two-fold;
1.
To provoke the Jews to jealousy
[Moses himself, who gave to the Jews Gods written word, told them, that they would, by their obstinate unbelief, provoke God to withdraw his mercy from them, and to transfer it to the Gentile world: They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God: they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation [Note: Deu 32:21.]. This passage St. Paul expressly cites in the preceding context [Note: Rom 10:19.]; and informs the Jews, that God, having in vain dealt with them in the way of mercy and of judgment, was now anxious to try another way, and to influence them through the operation of another principle, the principle of envy; if by any means he might prevail upon them to turn unto him. And, doubtless, this was well calculated to impress their minds with penitential sorrow for their past sins, and with an ardent desire to be restored to his favour. They saw all that their most favoured saints had ever enjoyed now transferred to the Gentile world, whom they had been accustomed to despise as dogs; and pardon, and peace, and holiness, and glory, now imparted to a people whom they had deemed incapable of such blessings; whilst they themselves were given up to judicial blindness and obduracy. True, indeed, this operated rather to increase their anger, than to produce humility: but Gods end was mercy; though they, through their incorrigible perverseness, made it only an occasion of bringing down upon themselves yet heavier judgments. This is a point which we are too apt to overlook. God never intended finally to cast them off, but only to reject them for a season; until, by beholding his mercy vouchsafed to the idolatrous Gentiles, they shall be prevailed upon to humble themselves before him, and to implore a restoration of their forfeited inheritance:I say, then, have they stumbled, that they should fall (for ever)? God forbid: but rather, through their fall, salvation is come unto the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy [Note: ver. 11.].]
2.
To provoke the Christian world to love
[Mark with care the expression in my text: They, the Jews, have now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy [Note: Some, on account of the construction of the Greek, and the position of the word , have translated the passage differently. But that position of the word is common in St. Pauls writings (see 1Co 9:15. 2Co 2:4. Gal 2:10. Eph 3:17.): and, beyond a doubt, our translators have given the true import of the passage. The other translation would destroy the parallelism altogether, and, in fact, the sense also.]. God might, if he had seen fit, have admitted the Gentiles to a participation of his blessings in conjunction with the Jews. But this was not the plan which he, in his unerring wisdom, had ordained. He determined to manifest his displeasure towards the Jews, on account of their rejection of the Messiah; but at the same time to shew mercy to them through the instrumentality of the despised Gentiles. To the Gentiles he gave a yet clearer and fuller revelation than that which he had given to the Jews: and he gave it, not for their benefit only, but as a sacred deposit for the Jews, and as a talent to be improved for their especial use. In bestowing the Gospel on the Gentiles, he said, in fact, Here is salvation for you: but, remember, you must not confine it to yourselves. You must make use of it for the instruction and salvation of the Jews. From you I withheld the light which I bestowed on the Jews: but I do not intend that the light which I am now bestowing upon you should be withheld from them: on the contrary, I purpose that it shall be imparted to them: and I intend to make you my channel of communication to them. See to it, therefore, that you improve this mercy aright, and that you labour incessantly for their good; for I grant this mercy to you, not for your own benefit only, (though, doubtless, it is for yourselves in the first instance,) but for them also, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
Thus, in the whole of this dispensation, God has acted in a sovereign way, yet also in a way of mercy;of mercy to the Jews, whom he would provoke to jealousy; and of mercy to the Gentiles, whom he would provoke to love.]
Permit me now to ASK,
1.
What use have you made of this Gospel for yourselves?
[Have you believed it? Have you, by faith in it, been brought to God? Have you been led to admire and adore the goodness of God, in that, when he withheld his blessings from his own highly-favoured and peculiar people, he conferred them upon you, who were alike unworthy of them, and might well have been left to perish, on account of your abuse of the light with which he had favoured you, and which, small as it was, was sufficient to acquit or to condemn you, according as you conducted yourselves in reference to it? In a word, have you seen the mercy of God, as revealed in the Gospel? and are you transported with it, as offering mercy to your souls? Does that mercy, as bought for you by the precious blood of Christ, form the one ground of all your hopes, and the one spring of all your joys? Remember, if the feebler light vouchsafed to Abraham, and Moses, and David, wrought so powerfully on them, as to guide their feet into the paths they trod, much more should your superior light elevate your souls, and transform you into the very image of your God ]
2.
What use have you made of the Gospel for your Jewish brethren?
[Alas! how little have any of us answered the end for which the Gospel has been committed to us, or ever considered the design of God in bestowing it upon us! It is perfectly surprising, that for so many centuries we should have altogether overlooked our Jewish brethren: as if God himself had never given us any charge respecting them; or rather, as if his charge had been, Into any city of the Jews enter ye NOT: when, in fact, the command has never been repealed, Preach my Gospel, to the Jews first, and also to the Gentiles. Indeed, my brethren, great guilt attaches to us on this account. What would you yourselves say to your steward, if, when you had committed to him a sum of money for the relief of your distressed neighbours, he had withheld from them your bounty, and had expended it altogether on himself? Yet that were no crime, in comparison of that of which you have been guilty; because the loss occasioned by his dishonesty could, at the worst, only issue in the temporal death of those whom he defrauded; whereas the negligence of the Christian world has issued in the death of mens souls, yea, of millions of immortal souls, who, if the means which God has put into our hands for their good had been duly improved, might have been saved with an everlasting salvation. Let there be an end of this neglect, my beloved brethren; and now begin, with all assiduity and diligence, to redeem the time that you have lost. Truly, you owe much to your Jewish brethren: and I call upon you to pay your arrears; (for their debtors ye are to a vast amount [Note: Rom 15:27.];) and now, by your personal efforts, or through the instrumentality of others, impart to them the mercy which you yourselves have received. Nor do I suggest this as a matter of advice merely, but as an absolute command from God himself. It is not a thing left to your option. You have a trust; and you must discharge it. I call upon you, then, if you have any sense of the mercy vouchsafed to your own souls, to act as faithful stewards to your God, in dispensing mercy to his beloved, though suffering and out-cast people.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
30 For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
Ver. 30. Through their ] By occasion of their unbelief. Pungit Iudaeos et humiliat Gentes, saith one.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
30 .] For (illustration of the above position) as ye (manuscript evidence is too decided against the to allow of its being retained: but we may suspect that it has been struck out as superfluous, in ignorance (Thoh) of the Greek usage which often doubles in two parallel clauses) in times past were disobedient to God (nationally as Gentiles, before the Gospel) but now have (lit. ‘were compassionated,’ historical) received mercy (scil. by admission into the church of God) through (as the occasion; the breaking off of the natural branches giving opportunity for the grafting in of you) the disobedience of these (i.e. unbelief, considered as an act of resistance to the divine will: see 1Jn 3:23 ), so these also have now (under the Gospel) disobeyed (are now in a state of unbelieving disobedience), in order that through the mercy shewed to you (viz. on occasion of the fulness of the Gentiles coming in) they also may have mercy shewn them (‘the objective view corresponding to the subjective , Rom 11:11 .’ De W.).
Some place the comma after instead of , and construe, either, as Erasm., Calv., al., ‘ they have disobeyed through (upon occasion of) the mercy shewn to you ,’ or as Vulg., Luth., Estius, al., ‘ they have become disobedient to the mercy shewn to you .’ But thus the parallelism is weakened, and the of Rom 11:25 lost sight of. Examples of the emphatic word being placed before are found in reff.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Rom 11:30-32 . There is the less need, too, that they should be withdrawn, because God makes the very misuse of them contribute to the working out of His universal purpose of redemption. The past unbelief of the Gentiles and the mercy they presently enjoy, the present unbelief of the Jews and the mercy they are destined to enjoy in the future these things not only correspond to each other, but they are interwoven with each other; they are parts of a system which God controls, and in which every element conditions and is conditioned by all the rest: there is a Divine necessity pervading and controlling all the freedom of men a Divine purpose mastering all the random activity of human wills; a purpose which is read out by the Apostle in Rom 11:32 : God shut them all up into disobedience that He might have mercy upon them all. Rom 11:30 . : once, in the past, chap. Rom 1:18-32 . = owing to their disobedience. Cf. Rom 11:11 ; Rom 11:15 .Rom 11:31 . is to be construed with . For the order cf. Gal 2:10 , 2Co 12:7 . It seems pedantic to make the construction strictly parallel to , and to translate: “that owing to the mercy shown to you i.e. , owing to the jealousy to which the Jews would be stirred at seeing the Gentiles the objects of Divine mercy they also may obtain mercy”; the simpler construction is to take the dative as explanatory of the verb, and to translate: “that they may be made the objects of the very same mercy which has been shown to you”. This is really the point which the Apostle wishes to be at; though the idea brought out in the former rendering is essential in the passage, it is not essential, nor obvious, in these particular words. The second (wanting in [17] [18] [19] [20] ) is probably genuine ( [21] [22] ), but cannot be forced to mean more than “now in their turn”. The imminence of the result is not in view. Rom 11:32 . : this is the nearest approach made in the N.T. to putting the sin of man into a direct and positive relation to the act and purpose of God. But it would be a mistake to draw inferences from the concrete historical problem before the Apostle viz. , God’s dealings with Jew and Gentile, and the mutual relations and influence of Jew and Gentile in the evolution of God’s purpose and to apply them to the general abstract question of the relation of the human will to the Divine. Paul is not thinking of this question at all, and his authority could not be claimed for such inferences. Salvation, he sees, as he looks at the world before him, is to come to Jew and Gentile alike by the way of free grace; and it answers to this, that in the providence of God, Jew and Gentile alike have been made to feel the need of grace by being shut up under disobedience. It is within Paul’s thought to say that the sin of Jews and Gentiles, to whom he preached the Gospel, did not lie outside the control, or outside the redeeming purpose, of God; but it does not seem to me to be within his thought to say that God ordains sin in general for the sake of, or with a view to, redemption. This is a fancy question which an apostle would hardly discuss. God subordinates sin to His purpose, but it is not a subordinate element in His purpose. The same order of considerations ought to guide us in the interpretation of . “Them all” certainly refers in the first instance to Jews and Gentiles. It is not the same as , “both parties”; but it differs from it in its present connection only by giving emphasis to the fact that both parties consist of numbers, to all of whom the truth here stated applies. To find here a doctrine of universal salvation a dogmatic assertion that every man will at last receive mercy is simply to desert the ground on which the Apostle is standing. It is to leave off thinking about the concrete problem before his mind, and to start thinking about something quite different. It is gratuitous to contrast, as, e.g. , is done by Lipsius, this passage with others in which Paul speaks of as well as , and to say that they represent irreconcilable view-points the Apostle speaking in the present instance from the standpoint of Divine teleology; in the other, from that of actual experience. The truth is, as Weiss puts it, there is not a word here to show how far, when the history of man has reached its term, Paul conceived God’s saving purpose to be realised. answering to is frequent in LXX: the does not refer to the fact that Jews and Gentiles are shut up together , but indicates that those who are shut up are shut up on all sides, so that they cannot escape: cf. con-cludo and examples in Gal 3:22 , Psa 30:9 LXX, : “to have mercy upon” means “to make partakers of that ‘ common salvation ’ (Jud 1:3 ) which is emphatically a dispensation of mercy” (Gifford).
[17] Codex Alexandrinus (sc. v.), at the British Museum, published in photographic facsimile by Sir E. M. Thompson (1879).
[18] Codex Augiensis (sc. ix.), a Grco-Latin MS., at Trinity College, Cambridge, edited by Scrivener in 1859. Its Greek text is almost identical with that of , and it is therefore not cited save where it differs from that MS. Its Latin version, f, presents the Vulgate text with some modifications.
[19] Codex Boernerianus (sc. ix.), a Grco-Latin MS., at Dresden, edited by Matthi in 1791. Written by an Irish scribe, it once formed part of the same volume as Codex Sangallensis ( ) of the Gospels. The Latin text, g, is based on the O.L. translation.
[20] Codex Angelicus (sc. ix.), at Rome, collated by Tischendorf and others.
[21] Codex Sinaiticus (sc. iv.), now at St. Petersburg, published in facsimile type by its discoverer, Tischendorf, in 1862.
[22] Codex Vaticanus (sc. iv.), published in photographic facsimile in 1889 under the care of the Abbate Cozza-Luzi.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
in times past = at one time (pote).
have not believed = disobeyed. See Rom 2:8.
obtained mercy. Literally were pitied.
through. No preposition.
unbelief = disobedience. Greek. apeitheia, Also Rom 11:32. Eph 2:2; Eph 5:6. Col 3:6. Heb 4:6, Heb 4:11.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
30.] For (illustration of the above position) as ye (manuscript evidence is too decided against the to allow of its being retained: but we may suspect that it has been struck out as superfluous, in ignorance (Thoh) of the Greek usage which often doubles in two parallel clauses) in times past were disobedient to God (nationally-as Gentiles, before the Gospel) but now have (lit. were compassionated, historical) received mercy (scil. by admission into the church of God) through (as the occasion; the breaking off of the natural branches giving opportunity for the grafting in of you) the disobedience of these (i.e. unbelief, considered as an act of resistance to the divine will: see 1Jn 3:23), so these also have now (under the Gospel) disobeyed (are now in a state of unbelieving disobedience), in order that through the mercy shewed to you (viz. on occasion of the fulness of the Gentiles coming in) they also may have mercy shewn them (the objective view corresponding to the subjective , Rom 11:11. De W.).
Some place the comma after instead of , and construe, either, as Erasm., Calv., al., they have disobeyed through (upon occasion of) the mercy shewn to you, or as Vulg., Luth., Estius, al., they have become disobedient to the mercy shewn to you. But thus the parallelism is weakened, and the of Rom 11:25 lost sight of. Examples of the emphatic word being placed before are found in reff.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Rom 11:30. ) [125] I formerly admitted this particle marked with an obelus, thus , and am now glad that Baumgarten agrees with me.-, ye have not believed) unbelief falls upon [applies to] even those, who themselves have not heard the word of God, because they had however received it primitively in the persons of the patriarchs Adam and Noah. [The Gentiles are accountable for not having retained the revelation received from Adam, Noah, etc.]
[125] The German version agrees in this.-E. B.
ABCD (later correction), Gfg, omit , before . But Vulg. and Rec. Text. have it.-ED.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Rom 11:30
Rom 11:30
For as ye in time past were disobedient to God,-This refers to the former idolatrous and unbelieving state of the Gentiles, and that the gospel was preached to them, and that they became obedient to it.
but now have obtained mercy by their disobedience,-Their reception of the gospel, and thus obtaining mercy, was in consequence of the Jews having rejected it.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
as ye: 1Co 6:9-11, Eph 2:1, Eph 2:2, Eph 2:12, Eph 2:13, Eph 2:19-21, Col 3:7, Tit 3:3-7
believed: or, obeyed
obtained: Rom 11:31, 1Co 7:25, 2Co 4:1, 1Ti 1:18, 1Pe 2:10
through: Rom 11:11-19
Reciprocal: Hos 2:1 – Ruhamah Hos 2:23 – and I will have Mat 5:7 – for Rom 11:24 – General Rom 11:28 – are enemies Rom 12:1 – by the Rom 15:8 – truth Eph 2:3 – in times 1Th 5:9 – obtain 1Ti 1:13 – but Heb 4:11 – unbelief Jam 1:17 – good
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
-31
Rom 11:30-31. This is virtually the same as verses 11, 12. Not believed that. Note especially the comments on “stumbled that” in the verses cited.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Rom 11:30. For introduces statements (Rom 11:30-32) showing how the course of Gods dealings as a whole, to Gentiles and Jews, will establish the principle there announced.
Ye, Gentiles, were once disobedient to God. That this disobedience was the result of unbelief has been clearly established by the Apostle (chap. Rom 1:18, etc.), but have not believed is not the sense of the original. Once points, as usual, to the time before conversion.
Now, since they became Christians; comp. Eph 2:8.
Obtained mercy; all their blessings as Christians are summed up as the result of the mercy of Him to whom they had been disobedient.
By the disobedience of these, i.e., the unbelieving Jews. Their unbelief is however characterized here as disobedience. How their disobedience became the occasion of the Gentiles obtaining mercy has already been shown.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Here we have the conclusion of the apostle’s argument to prove the conversion and calling of the Jews towards the end of the world. The argument is drawn from a comparison of equals: “If God, after a long time of disobedience, receive the Gentiles to mercy, he will also, after a long time of infidelity, receive the Jews to mercy. If God hath called the Gentles to his grace after long idolatry, though God never promised to be their God, how much more will he recall his covenant-people from their infidelity in his own appointed time?”
So that the argument is from the less to the greater: If the infidelity of the Jews was an occasion of mercy to the Gentiles, much more shall the mercy showed to the Gentiles be an occasion of mercy to the Jews; and consequently their present infidelity shall be no obstacle to their conversion afterward.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Rom 11:30-32. For as ye Believing Gentiles; in times past Before Christ was preached to you; have not believed God Did not believe in the living and true God: or rather, as the words signify, were once disobedient to God, and were buried in ignorance and superstition; but now have obtained mercy Namely, to be converted and pardoned; through their unbelief , through, or on occasion of, their disobedience. The apostle does not mean that the Gentiles would not have been admitted into the covenant and church of God, by having the gospel preached to them, if the whole Jewish nation had embraced the gospel, the title of the Gentiles to all the blessings of the covenant with Abraham being established by the covenant itself. But his meaning is, as is explained in the note on Rom 11:11. Even so have these
As if he had said, As you obtained mercy after a long time of disobedience, so shall the Jews, who now, since the preaching of the gospel, have not believed, , have disobeyed; that through your mercy The mercy shown to you in the conversion of so many of you, being provoked to emulation, Rom 11:11; they also may obtain mercy May be brought to believe in Christ, and so partake of mercy. The disobedience of the Jews consisted in their rejecting the gospel, notwithstanding it was preached to them, as the fulfilment of the prophecies contained in their own sacred records. And by obtaining mercy, is meant the being admitted into the covenant and church of God, which is called mercy, because it proceeded entirely from the mercy of God, Rom 9:15. For God hath concluded them all in unbelief Suffered the main body both of the Jews and Gentiles, successively, for some time, to continue under the power of their unbelief, or disobedience rather, that, in his own time, he might fulfil the great counsel of his goodness, in showing undeserved mercy both to Jews and Gentiles. See Joh 12:32. First, God suffered the Gentiles, in the early ages of the world, to revolt from him, and took the family of Abraham, as a peculiar seed, to himself: afterward he permitted them to fall through unbelief, disobedience, idolatry, and, at last, the rejection of their own Messiah, and took the believing Gentiles for his people. And he did even this to provoke the Jews to emulation, and so bring them also, in the end, to faith in, and obedience to, the gospel. This was truly a mystery in the divine conduct, which the apostle adores with such holy astonishment.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Vv. 30, 31. For as ye also in time past disobeyed God, but have now obtained mercy by their disobedience; even so have these also now been disobedient, that by the mercy shown to you they also may obtain mercy.
The entire course of the religious history of the world is determined by the antagonism created among mankind by the calling of Abraham, between a people specially destined by God to receive His revelations, and the other nations given over to themselves. From that moment (Genesis 12) there begin to be described those two immense curves which traverse the ages of antiquity in opposite directions, and which, crossing one another at the advent of Christianity, are prolonged from that period in inverse directions, and shall terminate by uniting and losing themselves in one another at the goal of history.
Ver. 30 describes the rebellion of the Gentiles, then their salvation determined by the rebellion of the Jews; and Rom 11:31, the rebellion of the Jews, then their salvation arising from the salvation of the Gentiles.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
For as ye [Gentiles] in time past were disobedient to God [Rom 1:16-32; Act 17:30], but now have obtained mercy by their [the Jews’] disobedience [Rom 11:15],
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
30-36. In this beautiful elaboration Paul recognizes the Jews with their double election, i. e., that of the Messianic progenitorship and also the election of grace, blindly forfeiting all and plunging into sin, and the Gentiles, though reprobated from the progenitor ship, felicitous participants of the election of grace, also sunk deep in low debauchery, gross sensuality and idolatry, the obliquity and rebellion of both Jew and Gentile only preparing them alike to become the recipients of Gods wonderful and unfathomable commiseration and redeeming mercy. Hence the apostle exultantly breaks out in joyous exclamations while he contemplates the bright side in case of both Jews and Gentiles all alike caught in Satans lasso of unbelief, but gloriously redeemed by the sovereign mercy of the Father and the dying love of the Son.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
11:30 {16} For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
(16) Another reason: because even though they who are hardened are worthily punished, yet this stubbornness of the Jews has not so that there would be a hatred of that nation, but so that an entry might be as it were opened to bring in the Gentiles, and afterward the Jews being inflamed with jealousy of that mercy which is shown to the Gentiles might themselves also be partakers of the same benefit, and so it might appear that both Jews and Gentiles are saved only by the free mercy and grace of God, which could not have been so manifest if at the beginning God had brought all together into the Church, or if he had saved the nation of the Jews without this interruption.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
These verses are a warning to Gentile believers. Gentiles should beware of becoming critical of God for planning to bless the Jews in the future. We should also beware of becoming proud because we are presently the special objects of God’s favor. We need to remember that God chose Israel so we Gentiles could enjoy salvation (Gen 12:1-3).