CHAPTER 11
Romans 11:1-6
- Dico igitur, Num abjecit Deus populum
suum? absit: etenim ego Israelita sum, ex genere
Abrahae, tribu Benjamin. - I say then, Hath God cast away his people?
God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed
of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. - Non abjecit Deus populum suum quem
praecognovit. An nescitis in Elia quid scriptura - God hath not cast away his people which
he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith
dicat? quomodo appellet Deum adversus Israel,
dicens,
of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God
against Israel, saying,- Domine, Prophetas tuas occiderunt, et
altaria tua diruerunt, et ego relictus sum solus, et
quaerunt animam meam. - Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and
digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and
they seek my life. - Sed quid dicit ei oraculum?^338 Reservavi
mihi ipsi septem millia virorum, qui non flexerunt
genu imagini Baal. - But what saith the answer of God unto
him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand
men, who have not bowed the knee to the image
of Baal. - Sic ergo et hoc tempore, reliquiae
secundum electionem gratiae supersunt: - Even so then at this present time also there
is a remnant according to the election of grace. - Quod si per gratiam, jam non ex operibus;
alioqui gratia, jam non est gratia: si vero ex - And if by grace, then is it no more of
works; otherwise grace is no more grace. But if
operibus, jam non est gratia; alioqui opus, jam
non est opus.
it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise
work is no more work.- I say then, etc. What he has hitherto said of the blindness and obstinacy of the Jews, might
seem to import that Christ at his coming had transferred elsewhere the promises of God, and deprived
the Jews of every hope of salvation. This objection is what he anticipates in this passage, and he
so modifies what he had previously said respecting the repudiation of the Jews, that no one might
think that the covenant formerly made with Abraham is now abrogated, or that God had so forgotten
it that the Jews were now so entirely alienated from his kingdom, as the Gentiles were before the
coming of Christ. All this he denies, and he will presently show that it is altogether false. But the
question is not whether God had justly or unjustly rejected the people; for it was proved in the last
chapter that when the people, through false zeal, had rejected the righteousness of God, they suffered
a just punishment for their presumption, were deservedly blinded, and were at last cut off from the
covenant.
The reason then for their rejection is not now under consideration; but the dispute is concerning
another thing, which is this, That though they deserved such a punishment from God, whether yet
the covenant which God made formerly with the fathers was abolished. That it should fail through
(^338) “Oraculum,” μ μ , the oracle, the divine response. The answer is put for him who gave the answer, for it is “Jehovah”
in the passage that is quoted; as “Scripture” in Romans 11:2, and in other places, means him who speaks in the Scriptures. —
Ed.