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Tzedakah Moment Romans 9:1-5 Part Eight
Tzedakah Moment Romans 9:1-5 Part Eight
| Romans 9 Part Eight |
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The People for Whom Paul was Willing to be Accursed for was the Jewish Peoplewho are Israelites, to whom (belongs) the adoption and the glory and the covenants and the law and the worship and the promises, 5who (are) the forefathers and from whom (is) Christ according to the flesh, who (is) over all God blessed for eternity, amen.The first three verses of this passage describe the pain of Paul’s heart and to the extent he is willing to go for the salvation of the Jewish people. Verse four details both who are the Jewish people and the blessings that have been accounted to them by God as His Chosen People. The fifth verse concludes the passage by reminding the readers of just why the relationship of Jesus to the Jewish people is so important and finally what is the relationship of Christ to God. Paul’s Statement Regarding the Inalienable Rights of the Israelites The issue of whether the “who are Israelites” in this passage are the ethnic people group known as Jews or “the church” who has replaced the Jewish people as God’s Chosen People1 has been discussed previously in this series. However, this is the section in which the answer must be formalized because this is the verse in which the rights and obligations are listed for the “Israelites.”2 Calvin emphasized the importance of developing a fully formed answer to this question because of the emphasis Paul used in designating them as Israelites.3 Therefore, this is not a time for trying to find an explanation in which both the nation of Israel and Christians could find a place in this verse4 and so this section will categorically define and explain why verses four and five should be seen as referring to the ethnic nation of Israel. J. C. Beker concurs with Calvin, at least in one area, on the idea that Paul is purposely clarifying and defining to whom he is referring. Beker notes that Paul returns to the ancient term for the nation of Israel,5 “a sacred term denoting the chosen community of God.”6 Andrew Das furthers this thought by pointing out that it would be contradictory for Paul to lament the separated condition from God of Israel, if this Israel were the church or perhaps a subgroup of the nation of Israel. Das believes that a reader must look at the entire nation of ethnic Israel to understand to whom Paul is referring to Romans 9:1-5, esp. 4-5.7 1Munck, 30. Munck considered these gifts towards Israel as a reminder of a glorious past and not something which could be claimed or assumed today. 2Thomas Schreiner, Paul: Apostle of God’s Glory in Christ (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2001), 475, 483. Schreiner views the church as the true Israel but does not believe that all the rights for the ethnic Israel have been lost, for God must keep his promises. 3Calvin, 538. Calvin finds the emphatic quality in Paul’s choice of using a relative pronoun as opposed to a causative adverb to begin the verse. 4Sanday, 229; and Aageson, 54-55 5Beker, 49. 6D. W. B. Robinson, “The Salvation of Israel in Romans 9-11,” The Reformed Theological Review vol. 26, no. 3 (September/December 1967): 83; Bruce W. Longenecker, “Different Answers to Different Issues: Israel, the Gentiles and Salvation History in Romans 9-11,” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 36 (June 1989): 97; W. S. Campbell, “Israel,” in Dictionary of Paul and His Letters, eds. Gerald F. Hawthorne et al. (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1993), 441; Gerhard Kittel, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, vol. 3, trans. and ed. Geoffrey W. Bromiley (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1965), 356. Bell, 173; Cranfield, 460; Cranford, 31; Fitzmyer, 545; and Gaebelein, 102. 7Das, 89. |
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