Romanschapter 11
36 verses · BSBRomans book hub →
Speaks with:Romans 11×10Romans 9×4Romans 3×31 Kings 19×2Ephesians 1×2Galatians 2×2
Summary
Chapter summary
Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. Paul himself is an Israelite. A remnant according to the election of grace is preserved. The olive tree's natural branches have been broken off for unbelief; Gentile branches have been grafted in by faith. Israel's hardening is in part, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved. Henry marks the doxology: O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. Unsearchable his judgments, past finding out his ways.
Context
Epistle · Paul — Romans overview
- A. 1–10 God Has Not Cast Off His People: A Remnant Remains
- B. 11–24 Wild Olive Branches Grafted In
- C. 25–32 The Mystery: So All Israel Shall Be Saved
- D. 33–36 O the Depth of the Riches: To Him Be the Glory
The outline
A.God Has Not Cast Off His People: A Remnant Remainsvv. 1 to 10
Read vv. 1 to 10 →B.Wild Olive Branches Grafted Invv. 11 to 24
Read vv. 11 to 24 →C.The Mystery: So All Israel Shall Be Savedvv. 25 to 32
Read vv. 25 to 32 →D.O the Depth of the Riches: To Him Be the Gloryvv. 33 to 36
Read vv. 33 to 36 →
The world behind this chapter
Romans 11The history
The situation behind this chapter is a piece of Roman history. Around AD 49 the emperor Claudius expelled Jews from the city; the churches would have lost their Jewish members overnight and carried on for several years as Gentile congregations. After Claudius died in AD 54 the exiles began returning to find churches that had learned to run without them.
That is the social nerve Paul is touching when he tells the branches not to boast over the branches that were broken off. It was not a theoretical temptation.
The olive tree image is agriculturally odd on purpose. Growers normally graft a cultivated shoot onto hardy wild rootstock, not the other way round, and Paul says outright that this grafting is contrary to nature. The Gentile branch has no grounds for feeling superior — it is the improbable one, supported by a root it did not grow.
Olive trees also lived for centuries and were the backbone of Mediterranean farming. Everyone knew you did not tear one up because a season went badly.
What it meant to them
To Gentile believers this was a warning against arrogance: you do not support the root, the root supports you. Standing was by faith, and could be lost the same way the broken branches lost theirs.
To Jewish believers it was a promise. Their people's stumbling was neither total — Paul himself was proof of a remnant — nor final. God's gifts and calling are irrevocable, and the chapter ends not in argument but in worship at the depth of God's wisdom.
Sources cited
- F. F. Bruce, Paul: Apostle of the Heart Set Free
- Suetonius, The Lives of the Twelve Caesars
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Romans 11. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Connections from this chapter
v. 9 · Quoted here
'Let their table be made a snare': Paul ('David saith').
Psalms 69:22→May their table become a snare; may it be a retribution and a trap.
public-domain commentaries in agreement
v. 17 · A stop on this thread
SECOND STRAND. From vine to OLIVE - Gentile 'wild olive' (G65) branches grafted 'contrary to nature' (11:24) into Israel's cultivated olive tree, as pure grace; OT root Jer 11:16 'a green olive tree'.
John 15:1→“I am the true vine, and My Father is the keeper of the vineyard.
public-domain quotation; G1636 elaia; Esler 2003, Baxter-Ziesler 1985
v. 17 · A stop on this thread
SECOND STRAND (judgment coda). The vine of the earth harvested into 'the great winepress of the wrath of God' - the vine tradition's eschatological judgment pole, balancing John 15's life pole.
Revelation 14:18→Still another angel, with authority over the fire, came from the altar and called out in a loud voice to the angel with the sharp sickle, “Swing your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of grapes from the vine of…
Read the whole verse
Still another angel, with authority over the fire, came from the altar and called out in a loud voice to the angel with the sharp sickle, “Swing your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of grapes from the vine of the earth, because its grapes are ripe.”
public-domain quotation; G288
v. 26 · Quoted here
'There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer': climax of Isaiah 59 (the arm of the LORD brings salvation, vv16-17 = the armor); confirms Paul had the chapter live.
Isaiah 59:20→“The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,” declares the LORD.
public-domain commentaries in agreement; cross-checked against the UBS apparatus
v. 27 · Quoted here
FLASHPOINT: 'This is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins' (Rom 11:26-27 citing Isa 59:20-21 / 27:9) - dispensational (future national Israel) vs covenantal (elect remnant). strongest case both.
Isaiah 59:21→“As for Me, this is My covenant with them,” says the LORD. “My Spirit will not depart from you, and My words that I…
Read the whole verse
“As for Me, this is My covenant with them,” says the LORD. “My Spirit will not depart from you, and My words that I have put in your mouth will not depart from your mouth or from the mouths of your children and grandchildren, from now on and forevermore,” says the LORD.
Vlach08; Wellum22. framework: contested
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.