Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Romans 11:25-36, The full number of the nations
Paul reveals a mystery: a partial hardening has come on Israel until the full number of the Gentiles comes in, and so all Israel will be saved. He ends in praise of God's wisdom.
Romans 11:25-36, in every translation this tool compares.
Paul tells Gentile believers a mystery so they will not think too highly of themselves: Israel's hardening is partial and lasts until the full number of Gentiles comes in, and so Israel as a whole will be rescued, though who that Israel is remains disputed. For now Israel opposes the gospel, yet God still loves them for the patriarchs' sake and never takes back his gifts. Paul ends in a hymn of praise to God's wisdom, which no one can trace.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/babel-and-the-nations\/","n":"Babel and the seventy nations","s":"Genesis 10 lists the nations of the world, seventy in the Hebrew text and seventy-two in the Greek. Jewish tradition counted the nations that way, and Deuteronomy 32 tells how God divided them and kept Israel as his own. Luke's list of nations at Pentecost recalls them.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/present-age-and-age-to-come\/","n":"This age and the age to come","s":"Jews divided history into the present age, under the rule of evil nations, and the age to come, when God would rule unchallenged. The sufferings expected before the change were called birth pangs.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/children-of-abraham\/","n":"Children of Abraham","s":"Jews called Abraham our father, and many believed that being his descendants all but guaranteed a place among God's saved people. The Gospels and Paul argue over who his true children are.","r":""}
Many Jews expected Israel's repentance to bring the end, and Keener and his notes read Paul to say that God had delayed it to make room for the promised witness to the Gentiles. It was common for Jewish teachers to promise salvation to every Israelite and then name the exceptions; the Mishnah (Sanhedrin 10:1) leaves out only notorious sinners, so the phrase meant Israel as a whole (Keener and his notes). Heiser reads the full number of the Gentiles as the reversal of Babel, where the nations were disinherited (Deuteronomy 32:8-9). Who all Israel is remains disputed. Keener says ethnic Israel as a whole will return in the end time, and rejects both the view that Israel and the church are wholly separate and the view that the church replaces Israel; the ESV and CSB Study Bibles also take Israel here as the Jewish people; Heiser reads Gentiles from the disinherited nations as brought into Israel, God's family. Stoics thought all things would be resolved back into God, but Paul's closing words mean, as Jews meant them, that God directs history (Keener).
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Romans 11:25 and 11:26
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Romans 11:25, 11:26-27, 11:28-29 and 11:33-36
- ESV Study Bible, study note on Romans 11:26
- CSB Study Bible, note on Romans 11:25-27
- Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm, ch. 34, Infiltration
