Χριστῷ, οὐ " ψεύδοµαι, συμμαρτυρούσης
Πνεύματι “Ayiw, 2. ὅτι λύπη pou ἐστὶ
the fathers will be fulfilled, and all Israel saved. Gentile Christianity will provoke the unbelieving Jews to jealousy, and they too will enter the Messianic Kingdom. In the very events which seem to throw the pious Jewish mind out ofitsreckoning, there is a gracious providence, a depth of riches and wisdom and knowledge which no wordscan express. The present situation, which at the first glance is heart-breaking (ix. 2), is only one incident in the working out of a purpose which when completed reveals the whole glory of God’s mercy, and evokes the loftiest and most heartfelt praise. ‘‘ He shut up all unto disobedience that He might have mercy on all. . . . Of Him and through Him and to Him are all things. Unto Him be glory for ever.’” Since Baur’s time several scholars have held that the mass of the Roman Church was Jewish- Christian, and that these three chapters, with their apologetic aim, are specially addressed to that community, as one which naturally felt the pressure of the difficulty with which they deal. But the Roman Church, as these very chapters show (cf. ix. 3, my kinsmen, not our; xi. 13, ὑμῖν λέγω τοῖς ἔθνεσιν), was certainly Gentile, whatever influence Jewish modes of thought and practice may have had in it; and it was quite natural for the Apostle, in writing what he evidently meant from the first should be both a systematic and a circular letter, to include in it a statement of his thoughts on one of the most difficult and importunate questions of the time. The extraordinary daring of chap. xi. ad fin. is not unrelated to the extraordinary passion of chap. ix. ad init, The whole discussion is a magnificent illustration of the aphorism, that great thoughts come from the heart.
CHAPTER IX.—Vv. 1-5. The intense pain with which Paul contemplates the unbelief of his countrymen.
Ver. 1. ἀλήθειαν λέγω ἐν Χριστῷ, ov ψεύδοµαι. The solemn asseveration is meant to clear him of the suspicion that in preaching to the Gentiles he is ani- mated by hostility or even indifference to the Jews. Yet cf. 2 Cor. xi. 31, Gal. i. 20. ἐν Χριστῷ means that he speaks in fellowship with Christ, so that false- hood is impossible. For συµµαρτ. c/. ii. 15, viii. 16. The pou is governed by συν: conscience attests what he says, and that ἐν mvevpart ayl@—the spirit of