God’s blessing, despised by them, might come to the Gentiles, in order that they might at length
be also stirred up to seek the Lord, from whom they had fallen away.
But there is no reason for readers to weary themselves much as to the application of this
testimony: for Paul does not dwell on the strict meaning of the word, but alludes only to a common
and well-known practice. For as emulation stimulates a wife, who for her fault has been rejected
by her husband, so that she strives to be reconciled again; so it may be now, he says, that the Jews,
seeing the Gentiles introduced into their place, will be touched with grief for their divorce, and
seek reconciliation.
12.And if their fall, etc. As he had taught us that after the Jews were repudiated, the Gentiles
were introduced in their place, that he might not make the salvation of the Jews to be disliked by
the Gentiles, as though their salvation depended on the ruin of the Jews, he anticipates this false
notion, and lays down a sentiment of an opposite kind, that nothing would conduce more to advance
the salvation of the Gentiles, than that the grace of God should flourish and abound among the
Jews. To prove this, he derives an argument from the less, — “If their fall had raised the Gentiles,
and their diminution had enriched them, how much more their fullness?” for the first was done
contrary to nature, and the last will be done according to a natural order of things. And it is no
objection to this reasoning, that the word of God had flowed to the Gentiles, after the Jews had
rejected, and, as it were, cast it from them; for if they had received it, their faith would have brought
forth much more fruit than their unbelief had occasioned; for the truth of God would have been
thereby confirmed by being accomplished in them, and they also themselves would have led many
by their teaching, whom they, on the contrary, by their perverseness, had turned aside.
Now he would have spoken more strictly correct, if, to the fall, he had opposed rising:^351 of
this I remind you, that no one may expect here an adorned language, and may not be offended with
this simple mode of speaking; for these things were written to mold the heart and not the tongue.
13.For to you Gentiles I speak, etc. He confirms by a strong reason, that nothing shall be lost
by the Gentiles, were the Jews to return again to favor with God; for he shows, that the salvation
of both is so connected, that it can by the same means be promoted. For he thus addresses the
Gentiles, — “Though I am peculiarly destined to be your Apostle, and ought therefore with special
care to seek your salvation, with which I am charged, and to omit as it were all other things, and
to labor for that only, I shall yet be faithfully discharging my office, by gaining to Christ any of
my own nation; and this will be for the glory of my ministry, and so for your good.”^352 For whatever
(^351) This is not quite correct: the first part is a mere announcement of a fact — the fall of the Jews; and then in what follows,
according to the usual style of Scripture, the same thing is stated in other words, and a corresponding clause is added; and the
antithesis is found to be suitable — the diminution and the completion. The reason for the restatement of the first clause seems
to be this, — that the fall might not be deemed as total, but in part; it was μ , a less part, a diminution, a lessening of their
number in God’s kingdom. A contrast to this is the μ , the full or complete portion, that is, their complete restoration, as it is
said in Romans 11:26. To preserve the antithesis, the first word must have its literal meaning, a diminution or lessening, that is,
as to the number saved. Hammond renders the phrase, “their paucity.” — Ed.
(^352) The meaning attached here to the words μ , is somewhat different from what is commonly understood. Its
classical sense, “highly to estimate,” is what is generally given here to the verb: but Calvin takes it in a sense in which it is mostly
taken in Scripture, as meaning, “to render illustrious,” or eminent, “to render glorious.” The construction of the two Romans
11:13 and 14, is somewhat difficult, and the meaning is not very clear. To include the words, “as I am indeed the Apostle of the
Gentiles,” in a parenthesis, as it is done by some, would render the sense more evident, and to add “this” after “say,” and “that”
before “I render.” The version then would be as follows, —
- For I say this to you Gentiles (as I am indeed the Apostle of the Gentiles,) that I render my ministry glorious,
- If I shall by any means excite to emulation my own flesh and save some of them.