The Pulpit Commentary — Romans — Section 324

i~ thP ~nme w0rd Rs in ver. 11) my :lleah (i.e. "• . , to n1n.rry ml/ kindred). and may aave some of them. A gentle scion to the wildest st.ook, To the Gentiles, whom he now directly And make conceive a bark of bBBer kind eddrPl!l!l'S. he thus intimates that, though By bud of nobler re.oe." ' he is espe'Cially their apostle, yet beyond tbPm he has his own ClOuntrvmen still in In the illustration before us a scion of new, whC\sc oonvemon. through theirs, he wildest st.ook is supposed to be made to hRS ever dose to his he&rt. I glon:fy conoeive through the stock of nobler rl\Oe (~o~~·,.,) my n1illistry--i.e. my apostleship to which it is united. The selecting tho to the C'nmt.iles-may mean that I ndd ~Jory olive tree for illustration is happy, inas- to it, if I may, through it, attain tbe.t further much as it WllB not only a che.re.oteristio purpcE0. produce of Palestine, but also rege.rded as Yer. 15.-l'or ifthecastingawayofthem symbolioa.l of a plant of grace; of, Pa. lii. be the reoollailing of the world, what sha.ll 8, "I e.m a green olive tree in the house of the reoei.ving of them he, but life from the God;" also Jer. xi. 16; Hos, xiv. 6. See dead t The vivid foroo of this concluding also the pe.ra.ble of Jotham (Judg. ix. 8, 9), expression is weakened by attempts to where the trees apply first to the olive tree define whe.t is exaotly meant by it; e.s, for to be their king ; and observe also there instance (as some interpret), that the general the word "fe.tness," used here e.lso by St. resurrection 'Will oome when the fulness Paul: M¾, ir.wol\.el,j,e&<Te& T¾/11 w10T7jT1& p.ou b p of the Jews es well as the Gentile.a has 3o{cl<Tolf<T& Tl)II 0eb11 lb8pes wop•V<Top.e&1 1<tv<•<T• come in. It is best to leave the grandeur 6111 hl .,.;;,., (671.a,v; (LXX. ). The "bre.nches •• of the conception tD be felt rather than against which the ingrafted scion is we.mad explained. not to boast are not exclusively either the Ver. 16.-.6.lld if the fi.rstfrllit be holy, BO broken-off or the remaining ones, but, as also is the lnmp ; and if the root be hilly, so the sequel shows, the natural branches of also are the branohea. By the fin,t,Jn,,it and the tree generally. The Gentile Christian the root is si,,,"lli.fied the original s1;ook ef is not to contemn the re.ce of Israel because Israel the patriarchs ; by the lump and the so le.rge a portion of it is at present ape.rt braradi.es, the subsequent nation through all from the Church and under judgment; for time. The word mrapxfi, being here con- it is, after all, from the stock of Israel, into nected with 1/nipaµa., may be understood as which he he.s been engre.fted, that he derives referring to Numb. xv. 19-22. The people all his own fertility. As to the Christian are there enjoined tD take of the first dough Church being ever regarded as derived from (4>ripa.µ.,,) kne:eded after harvest a cake for that of Israel, the folfilment and ontcome a heave offering, ae.lled &rapxfi 4>vp&µt,Tos of the ancient covene.nt, see note on eh. i. (LXX.). This con¥CtBted lnupxfi senotified 2; and cf. John iv. 22, "For salvation is of the whole 1/>,:,Ptul.4. the Jews." Ven. 17, 18.-But if some of the lmmchea Ver. 19.-Thou wilt aay then, The branohes were broken off, and thou, being a wild oliw were broken off, that I might be graffed in. tree (u. of the stock of a wild olive tree; Though I might not boe.st against the cf. eh. v. 34) wast graffed fin among them, original branches that remain, and among an.Ii. wast made partaker with them of the whom I he.ve been graffed, yet I m11,y against root and the fatness of the olive tree, boast those which, for their unworthiness, have not agaillBt the branches. But if thou been broken off to make room for me : bout.est, thou bearest not the root, but the though not boasting against the fe.ithful root thee. In thru addressing the Gentile Jews, I surely may against the unfaithful in the second person singule.r, the apostle and rejected ones. brings his warning home to any individual Vers, 20, 21.-Well-the fa.et of the case Gentile Christian who might be inclined to is as yon sa.y; but w~ ?-beoause of unbelief boast; though regarding him still BB repre- they were broken olf, and thou standest by senting Gentile believers geJLerally. They faith. Be not high-minded, but fee.r : for are compared to slips of the wild olive tree if God spared not the utural branohes, U1 6.-yp.iNuos, o1£a,ater), which was nnpro- neither will he spa.re thee. (So, rather than es dnctive (cf. '' Infelix Bllpemi foliis olea.ster in the Authorized Version, e.ccording to tne amaris "), acquiring richness and fertility beet-supported readings.) Thou art on thy by being graffed into the cnlti yated tree trial, aa they were, and alike liable to be (f, 1CaJ.A,b..a.u,s, olea). Whether or not BUCh broken oft' for the like cause; their present e. reversal of the UB11al system of grafting rejection should insI'.ire in thee, not boe.st- would have the imagined effect doe, not fulness, but fee.r, The 9.uestion has been matter, as long 8B the illustration se"es raillCd whether St. Paul (using, e.s he does, bl Paul's purpose well, e.nd helps l1B to the terms <Tb e.nd .,.11,u .,,;., 1tl\.d.lta,11) has now J:,'1'"-"P his cor,ception. The common pro- the election and final selvatlon of indi- <.:!:.o& 1' viduals in vlew, or 11till onl7 tlw calling &o ctr, xr. 1-86.] THE EPISTLE OF PAUL TO THE ROMANS.