served to render Paul’s ministry illustrious, was advantageous to the Gentiles, whose salvation was
its object.
And here also he uses the verb παραζηλῶσαι, to provoke to emulation, and for this purpose,
that the Gentiles might seek the accomplishment of Moses’ prophecy, such as he describes, when
they understood that it would be for their benefit.
14.And save, etc. Observe here that the minister of the word is said in some way to save those
whom he leads to the obedience of faith. So conducted indeed ought to be the ministry of our
salvation, as that we may feel that the whole power and efficacy of it depends on God, and that we
may give him his due praise: we ought at the same time to understand that preaching is an instrument
for effecting the salvation of the faithful, and though it can do nothing without the Spirit of God,
yet through his inward operation it produces the most powerful effects.
15.For if their rejections, etc. This passage, which many deem obscure, and some awfully
pervert, ought, in my view, to be understood as another argument, derived from a comparison of
the less with the greater, according to this import, “Since the rejection of the Jews has availed so
much as to occasion the reconciling of the Gentiles, how much more effectual will be their
resumption? Will it not be to raise them even from the dead?” For Paul ever insists on this, that the
Gentiles have no cause for envy, as though the restoration of the Jews to favor were to render their
condition worse. Since then God has wonderfully drawn forth life from death and light from
darkness, how much more ought we to hope, he reasons, that the resurrection of a people, as it
were, wholly dead, will bring life to the Gentiles.^353 It is no objection what some allege, that
reconciliation differs not from resurrection, as we do indeed understand resurrection in the present
instance, that is, to be that by which we are translated from the kingdom of death to the kingdom
of life, for though the thing is the same, yet there is more force in the expression, and this a sufficient
answer.
Romans 11:16-21
The sentiment in the last clause is the same as that at the end of Romans 11:11. The Vulgate, and some of the Latin Fathers,
and also Luther, read in the future tense; which would make the passage read better, — “that I shall render,” etc. These two
verses are not necessarily connected with the Apostle’s argument; for in the following verse he resumes the subject of Romans
11:12, or rather, as his usual manner is, he states the same thing in other words and in more explicit and stronger terms. So that
the in the next verse may very properly be rendered “yea,” or as an illative, “then.” — Ed.(^353) Some view the last words, “life from the dead,” as understood of the Jews and not of the Gentiles. But the antithesis seems
to require the latter meaning. The rejection or casting away, of the Jews was the occasion of reconciliation to the world,
that is, the Gentiles; then the reception, , of the Jews will be “life from the dead” to the Gentiles or to the world. He expresses
by stronger terms the sentiment in Romans 11:12, “the riches of the world,” only intimating, as it appears, the decayed state of
religion among the Gentiles; for to be dead sometimes means a religious declension, Revelation 3:1,2; or a state of oppression
and wretchedness, as the case was with the Israelites when in captivity, Ezekiel 37:1-14; Isaiah 26:19. The phrase is evidently
figurative, and signifies a wonderful revival, such as the coming to life of those in a condition resembling that of death. The
restoration of the Jews unto God’s favor will occasion the revival and spread of true religion through the whole Gentile world.
This is clearly the meaning.
Some of the fathers, such as Chrysostom and Theodoret, regarded the words as referring to the last resurrection: but this is
wholly at variance with the context. — Ed.