Testimonia — Early Christian Bible Commentary

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Romans 11

1I ask then, did God reject his people? May it never be! For I also am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.

2God didn’t reject his people, whom he foreknew. Or don’t you know what the Scripture says about Elijah? How he pleads with God against Israel:

3“Lord, they have killed your prophets. They have broken down your altars. I am left alone, and they seek my life.”

4But how does God answer him? “I have reserved for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”

5Even so too at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.

6And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.

7What then? That which Israel seeks for, that he didn’t obtain, but the chosen ones obtained it, and the rest were hardened.

8According as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, to this very day.”

9David says, “Let their table be made a snare, a trap, a stumbling block, and a retribution to them.

10Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see. Always keep their backs bent.”

11I ask then, did they stumble that they might fall? May it never be! But by their fall salvation has come to the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy.

12Now if their fall is the riches of the world, and their loss the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fullness!

13For I speak to you who are Gentiles. Since then as I am an apostle to Gentiles, I glorify my ministry,

14if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh, and may save some of them.

15For if the rejection of them is the reconciling of the world, what would their acceptance be, but life from the dead?

16If the first fruit is holy, so is the lump. If the root is holy, so are the branches.

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 root and of the richness of the olive tree,

18don’t boast over the branches. But if you boast, remember that it is not you who support the root, but the root supports you.

19You will say then, “Branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in.”

20True; by their unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by your faith. Don’t be conceited, but fear;

21for if God didn’t spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you.

22See then the goodness and severity of God. Toward those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in his goodness; otherwise you also will be cut off.

23They also, if they don’t continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.

24For if you were cut out of that which is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree, how much more will these, which are the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?

25For I don’t desire you to be ignorant, brothers, of this mystery, so that you won’t be wise in your own conceits, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in,

26and so all Israel will be saved. Even as it is written, “There will come out of Zion the Deliverer, and he will turn away ungodliness from Jacob.

27This is my covenant with them, when I will take away their sins.”

28Concerning the Good News, they are enemies for your sake. But concerning the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sake.

29For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

30For as you in time past were disobedient to God, but now have obtained mercy by their disobedience,

31even so these also have now been disobedient, that by the mercy shown to you they may also obtain mercy.

32For God has bound all to disobedience, that he might have mercy on all.

33Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out!

34“For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?”

35“Or who has first given to him, and it will be repaid to him again?”

36For of him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory for ever! Amen.

Early Christian commentary

c. 182–188 AD (historical editorial dating) | Irenaeus of Lyons

1. This truth, therefore, [he declares], in order that we may not reject the engrafting of the Spirit while pampering the flesh. "But thou, being a wild olive-tree," he says, "hast been grafted into the good olive-tree, and been made a partaker of the fatness of the olive-tree." As, therefore, when the wild olive has been engrafted, if it remain in its former condition, viz. a wild olive, it is "cut off, and cast into the fire;" but if it takes kindly to the graft, and is changed into the good olive-tree, it becomes a fruit-bearing olive, planted, as it were, in a king's park (paradiso): so likewise men, if they do truly progress by faith towards better things, and receive the Spirit of God, and bring forth the fruit thereof, shall be spiritual, as being planted in the paradise of God. But if they cast out the Spirit, and remain in their former condition, desirous of being of the flesh rather than of the Spirit, then it is very justly said with regard to men of this stamp, "That flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God;" just as if any one were to say that the wild olive is not received into the paradise of God. Admirably therefore does the apostle exhibit our nature, and God's universal appointment, in his discourse about flesh and blood and the wild olive. For as the good olive, if neglected for a certain time, if left to grow wild and to run to wood, does itself become a wild olive; or again, if the wild olive be carefully tended and grafted, it naturally reverts to its former fruit-bearing condition: so men also, when they become careless, and bring forth for fruit the lusts of the flesh like woody produce, are rendered, by their own fault, unfruitful in righteousness. For when men sleep, the enemy sows the material of tares; and for this cause did the Lord command His disciples to be on the watch. And again, those persons who are not bringing forth the fruits of righteousness, and are, as it were, covered over and lost among brambles, if they use diligence, and receive the word of God as a graft, arrive at the pristine nature of man—that which was created after the image and likeness of God.

Commentary · Against Heresies, Book V, Chapter 10, section 1 · Original source · Irenaeus of Lyons; The Writings of Irenaeus, Volume II, Ante-Nicene Christian Library IX; translated by Alexander Roberts and W. H. Rambaut; T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1869. Existing transcription supplied by Wikisource contributors. · Licence · Source revision · Whitespace normalized; source pagination and footnote reference markers removed. English wording unchanged.

c. 182–188 AD (historical editorial dating) | Irenaeus of Lyons

2. But as the engrafted wild olive does not certainly lose the substance of its wood, but changes the quality of its fruit, and receives another name, being now not a wild olive, but a fruit-bearing olive, and is called so; so also, when man is grafted in by faith and receives the Spirit of God, he certainly does not lose the substance of flesh, but changes the quality of the fruit [brought forth, i.e.] of his works, and receives another name, showing that he has become changed for the better, being now not [mere] flesh and blood, but a spiritual man, and is called such. Then, again, as the wild olive, if it be not grafted in, remains useless to its lord because of its woody quality, and is cut down as a tree bearing no fruit, and cast into the fire; so also man, if he does not receive through faith the engrafting of the Spirit, remains in his old condition, and being [mere] flesh and blood, he cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Rightly therefore does the apostle declare, "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God;" and, "Those who are in the flesh cannot please God:" not repudiating [by these words] the substance of flesh, but showing that into it the Spirit must be infused. And for this reason he says, "This mortal must put on immortality, and this corruptible must put on incorruption." And again he declares, "But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you." He sets this forth still more plainly, where he says, "The body indeed is dead, because of sin; but the Spirit is life, because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you. He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies, because of His Spirit dwelling in you." And again he says, in the Epistle to the Romans, "For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die." [Now by these words] he does not prohibit them from living their lives in the flesh, for he was himself in the flesh when he wrote to them; but he cuts away the lusts of the flesh, those which bring death upon a man. And for this reason he says in continuation, "But if ye through the Spirit do mortify the works of the flesh, ye shall live. For whosoever are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God."

Commentary · Against Heresies, Book V, Chapter 10, section 2 · Original source · Irenaeus of Lyons; The Writings of Irenaeus, Volume II, Ante-Nicene Christian Library IX; translated by Alexander Roberts and W. H. Rambaut; T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1869. Existing transcription supplied by Wikisource contributors. · Licence · Source revision · Whitespace normalized; source pagination and footnote reference markers removed. English wording unchanged.