A remnant of the Jews will be saved 1 I SAY then: Has God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not cast away his people, which he foreknew. Know you not what the scripture says of Elijah; how he calls on God against Israel? 3 Lord, they have slain your prophets, they have dug down your altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life. (1 Kgs 19:10,14) 4 But what says the divine answer to him? I have left me seven thousand men, that have not bowed their knees to Baal. (1 Kgs 19:18) 5 Even so then at this present time also, there is a remnant saved according to the election of grace. 6 And if by grace, it is not now by works: otherwise grace is no more grace.
Witness of the Scriptures 7 What then? That which Israel sought, he has not obtained: but the election has obtained it; and the rest have been blinded. 8 As it is written: God has given them the spirit of insensibility; eyes that they should not see; and ears that they should not hear, until this present day. (Dt 29:4; Is 29:10) 9 And David says: Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompense unto them. 10 Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see: and bow down their back always. (Ps 69:22-23)
Israel's fall was the Gentile's salvation 11 I say then, have they so stumbled, that they should fall? God forbid. But by their offence, salvation is come to the Gentiles, that they may be jealous of them. 12 Now if the offence of them be the riches of the world, and the diminution of them, the riches of the Gentiles; how much more the fullness of them?
The Gentiles must be humble 13 For I say to you, Gentiles: as long indeed as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I will honour my ministry, 14 If, by any means, I may provoke to emulation them who are my flesh, and may save some of them. 15 For if the loss of them be the reconciliation of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? 16 For if the firstfruit be holy, so is the lump also: and if the root be holy, so are the branches. 17 And if some of the branches be broken, and you, being a wild olive, are ingrafted in them, and are made partaker of the root, and of the fatness of the olive tree, 18 Boast not against the branches. But if you boast, you bear not the root, but the root you. 19 You will say then: The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in. 20 Well: because of unbelief they were broken off. But you stand by faith: be not highminded, but fear. 21 For if God has not spared the natural branches, fear lest perhaps he also spare not you. 22 See then the goodness and the severity of God: towards them indeed that are fallen, the severity; but towards you, the goodness of God, if you abide in goodness, otherwise you also shall be cut off.
Israel can yet be saved 23 And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again. 24 For if you were cut out of the wild olive tree, which is natural to you; and, contrary to nature, were grafted into the good olive tree; how much more shall they that are the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?
Israel's final conversion 25 For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, of this mystery, (lest you should be wise in your own conceits), that blindness in part has happened in Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles should come in. 26 And so all Israel should be saved, as it is written: There shall come out of Sion, he that shall deliver, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. 27 And this is to them my covenant: when I shall take away their sins. (Is 59:20-21) 28 As concerning the gospel, indeed, they are enemies for your sake: but as touching the election, they are most dear for the sake of the fathers. 29 For the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance.
Ultimate triumph of God's mercy 30 For as you also in times past did not believe God, but now have obtained mercy, through their unbelief; 31 So these also now have not believed, for your mercy, that they also may obtain mercy. 32 For God has concluded all in unbelief, that he may have mercy on all.
God's ways unsearchable 33 O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are his judgments, and how unsearchable his ways! 34 For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counsellor? (Is 40:13) 35 Or who has first given to him, and recompense shall be made him? (Job 41:11) 36 For of him, and by him, and in him, are all things: to him be glory for ever. Amen.
Commentary on Romans 11
11:1-2 But God would not, if on the point of casting the Jews off, have chosen from them Paul to whom He entrusted all the preaching, and the affairs of the world, and all mysteries, and the whole economy. This then is one proof, but the next, after it, is his saying, that people whom God foreknew, that is, who He knew clearly were suited to it, and would receive the faith. See Acts 2:41; 4:4; 21:20 For three, five, even ten thousand were believers from among them. (St. John Chrysostom)
11:3-4 Basically Paul is saying that if so many men were hidden from the prophet Elijah, how much more are Paul's hearers unaware of how many Jews have been saved and are to be saved! (Pelagius)
10:5 election of grace: For by saying election, he showed the approval of them, but by saying grace, he showed the gift of God. (St. John Chrysostom)
11:6 not now by works: this means the way of life according to the Law did not justify them. (Theodoret of Cyrus) If salvation were to come by works, done by nature, without faith and grace, salvation would not be a grace or favour, but a debt; but such dead works are indeed of no value in the sight of God towards salvation. It is not the same with regard to works done with, and by, God's grace; for to such works as these, he has promised eternal salvation. (Bishop Richard Challoner)
11:7 that which Israel sought: However, the Jews still preferred their old works to good works; they refused to go the way by which alone their persons, thoughts, words, actions, services could be made acceptable to God; they would not exercise that loving faith which alone could gain for them the gift of the Spirit, and was fruitful in true righteousness; they refused to be justified in God's way, and determined to use the Law of Moses for a purpose for which it was never given, for their justification in His sight, and for attaining eternal life. (Cardinal John Henry Newman Sermon 11.4)
11:8 God has given them this spirit of insensibility: that is, envy, not by instilling malice but by withdrawing grace. (St. Thomas Aquinas)
11:9 That is, let their comforts and all their good things change and perish, and let them be open to attack from any one. And to show that this is in punishment for sins that they suffer this, he adds, and a recompense unto them. (St. John Chrysostom)
11:11 salvation is come to the Gentiles: And throughout it is clear that the natural course of things was this, that the Jews should be the first to come in, and then those of the Gentiles; but since the Jews disbelieved, the order was reversed; and their unbelief and fall caused these to be brought in first... Jesus came to the Jews; they did not receive Him, though He did countless miracles, but they crucified Him. Hence He drew the Gentiles to Him, that the honor the Jews had, by cutting them to the heart for their insensibility might at least out of a moroseness against others persuade them to come over. (St. John Chrysostom) jealous of them: The Jews are jealous of the Gentiles, that is, are disturbed out of envy towards them when they see their glory passing over to them. (St. Thomas Aquinas)
11:12 fullness of them: when a great number of them will be converted at the end of the world. (Interlinear Gloss)
11:13-14 By exercising vigilant care and continuous solicitude about teaching the Gentiles, and by showing forth the Gentile’s upright manner of life, the Apostle provoked the Israelites who saw this, to emulate those who were progressing. And this was a great glorification of his ministry, to arouse one person to progress by the progress of another. (William of St. Thierry)
11:15 At the end of the world, will come the general acceptance of the Jews, when in all the faithful will take place that celebrated resurrection by which mortality shall put on immortality and corruption shall put on incorruption. (William of St. Thierry)
11:16 the root: that is, the patriarchs from whom they derive the disposition of holy faith. the branches: those who grew out of the race that was founded in them. (Glossa Ordinaria) The Apostle is not speaking here of actual holiness, for he does not mean to say that unbelieving Jews are holy; but of potential holiness. For if their ancestors and descendants are holy, nothing prevents them from being called back to holiness themselves. Or one might answer that those who imitate the |
patriarchs are a special type of branch, as it says in Jn (8:39): "If you were Abraham's children, you would do what Abraham did." (St. Thomas Aquinas)
11:17 broken: cut off from the promise. ingrafted: conjoined by an another’s action. the olive tree: of the fruit-bearing Jewish people before the advent of Christ. (Interlinear Gloss)
11:22 Otherwise you also shall be cut off: The Gentiles are here admonished not to be proud, nor to glory against the Jews: but to take occasion rather from their fall to fear and to be humble, lest they be cast off. Not that the whole Church of Christ can ever fall from him; having been secured by so many divine promises in holy writ; but that each one in particular may fall; and therefore all in general are to be admonished to beware of that, which may happen to any one in particular. (Bishop Richard Challoner)
11:23 But the Jews also, should they not persevere in unbelief, shall again be ingrafted on the olive of the Church; for, God is not only able, but also desirous to do so. The resistance of their stubborn will is an obstacle to his so doing at present. (Bishop John McEvilly)
11:24 which is natural to you: In other words, the Gentiles had not the Law to raise them, nor the inspired authors to irrigate and prune them and give them due attention. (Theodoret of Cyrus)
11:25-26 fullness of the Gentiles: that is, all the Gentiles that are to be converted, shall enter the fold of the Church. all Israel should be saved: Not the remnant as now, but the great bulk of the nation. Some commentators understand it to refer to spiritual Israel, consisting of the converted Jews and Gentiles. But the interpretation which understands the words as the carnal Israel, or the Jewish people, is far more probable from the entire context of this chapter, in which it is implied throughout, that the great mass of the Jews would be converted. This will be a great moral mass of them, for, no doubt some will continue in their incredulity. (Bishop John McEvilly)
11:27 This will be at the end of the world when the Jews shall all be converted by the preaching of Elijah and Enoch. Thus Malachi says, “I will send you Elijah the Tishbite, who shall turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers. Mal 4:5-6; Lk 1:17. (Glossa Ordinaria) The covenant will always be there, however long it takes for the Jews to believe. (Ambroisaster)
11:29 without repentance: If they believe, their sins will not be able to be counted against them, because God does not repent that he made a promise with Abraham's descendants. Or: If they believe, they will be saved without the anguish of penance. (Pelagius)
11:32 He has not imprisoned them by force, but with cause has confined those whom he found in unbelief: that is, all Jews and Gentiles. He confined the Jews because previously they were only sinners, not also faithless. But since they have not believed Christ, they are equal to the Gentiles, and all receive mercy in the same way. (Pelagius) Therefore, not by his causing, but by the abuse of their own free will; so that their calling and election is purely owing to his mercy. (Bishop Richard Challoner)
11:33 Paul praises the wisdom of God, who according to his foreknowledge waited until all were in need of mercy, so as to take from everyone the glory that derives from unfounded boasting in works. How incomprehensible are his judgements. 'The judgements' of God 'are a great deep' Ps. 35:7: for they cannot be clearly grasped. And how unsearchable his ways. That is, the knowledge of his plans. (Pelagius)
11:36 This passage contradicts the Arians, when it is said that it is one and the same God from whom and through whom all things are revealed to have been made, since the evangelist indicated that in the beginning everything that was made was through the Word John 1:1-3, and the apostle here teaches that what the evangelist testifies concerning the Son should be understood and believed of the Father through the mystery of the unity. (Pelagius)
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Catechism Cross-references
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