A remnant of Israel has been saved
1 ① And so I ask: Has God rejected his people? Of course not. I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. 2No, God has not rejected the people he knew beforehand. Don’t you know what the Scripture says of Elijah when he was accusing Israel before God? 3He said: “Lord, they have killed your prophets, destroyed your altars, and I alone remain; and now they want to kill me.” 4What was God’s answer?“I kept for myself seven thousand who did not worship Baal.” 5In the same way now there is a remnant in Israel, those who were chosen by grace. 6It is said: by grace, not because of what they did. Otherwise grace would not be grace.
7What then? What Israel was looking for, it did not find, but those whom God elected found it. The others hardened their hearts, 8as Scripture says: God made them dull of heart and mind; to this day their eyes cannot see nor their ears hear. 9David says: May they be caught and trapped at their banquets; may they fall, may they be punished. 10May their eyes be closed so that they cannot see and their backs be bent forever.
Do not despise those who stumbled
11Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall? Of course not. Their stumbling allowed salvation to come to the pagan nations and this, in turn, will stir up the jealousy of Israel. 12If Israel’s short coming made the world rich, if the pagan nations grew rich with what they lost, what will happen when Israel is restored?
13Listen to me, you who are not Jews: I am spending myself as an apostle to the pagan nations, 14but I hope my ministry will be successful enough to awaken the jealousy of those of my race, and finally to save some of them. 15If the world made peace with God when they remained apart, what will it be when they are welcomed? Nothing less than a passing from death to life.
16When the first fruits are consecrated to God, the whole is consecrated. If the roots are holy, so will be the branches. 17Some branches have been cut from the olive tree, while you, as a wild olive tree, have been grafted in their stead, and you are benefiting from their roots and sap. 18Now therefore, do not be proud and despise the branches, because you do not support the roots, the roots support you. 19You may say, “They cut off the branches to graft me.” 20Well and good. But they were cut off because they did not believe, while you stand by faith. Then do not pride yourself on this too much, rather beware: 21if God did not spare the natural branches, even less will he spare you.
22Admire at the same time both the goodness and severity of God: he was severe with the fallen and he is generous with you, as long as you remain faithful. Otherwise you will be cut off. 23If they do not keep on rejecting the faith they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them back again. 24If you were taken from the wild olive tree to which you belonged and, in spite of being a different species, you were grafted into the good olive tree, it will be much easier and natural for them to be grafted into their own tree.
Israel will be saved
25I want you to understand the mysterious decree of God, lest you be too confident: a part of Israel will remain hardened until the majority of pagans have entered. 26Then the whole of Israel will be saved, as Scripture says:From Zion will come the Liberator who will purify the descendants of Jacob from all sin. 27And this is the covenant I will make with them: I will take away from them their sins.
28Regarding the Gospel, the Jews are opponents, but it is for your benefit. Regarding election, they are beloved because of their ancestors; 29because the call of God and his gifts cannot be nullified.
30Through the disobedience of the Jews the mercy of God came to you who did not obey God. 31They in turn will receive mercy in due time after this disobedience that brought God’s mercy to you. 32So God has submitted all to disobedience, in order to show his mercy to all.
33How deep are the riches, the wisdom and knowledge of God! His decisions can not be explained, nor his ways understood! 34Who has ever known God’s thoughts? Who has ever been his adviser? 35Who has given him something first, so that God had to repay him? 36For everything comes from him, has been made by him and has to return to him. To him be the glory for ever! Amen.
- Rom 11,1 THE DESTINY OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE The two paragraphs 11-24 and 25-32 speak of the destiny of the Jewish people. As Jesus had announced, the Jews were dispersed throughout the world, becoming a nation without territory, united only through its Law, its traditions and the certitude of it being God's chosen people. In times which still ignored the respect of those of other religions, a great number of Jews formed minority groups in Christian countries. It is a fact that people convinced of being the faithful of the one and only God quite naturally become insupportable to others (Esther 9). The Jews then have suffered from Christian fanaticism equal to their own. Christians did not see that their faith condemned religious fanaticism. They thought Israel was being punished for the crime of its ancestors in condemning Jesus: they saw in the tragedy of Israel, as in the survival, a sign from God. In the course of this century Christians have become conscious of the non-violent character of the Gospel and that their vocation is to be a minority in the world: this has been a big step forward. It is time then to re-evaluate the role of the Jewish people, another minority given a place in history by God. They have not ceased being active in the world, often in saying what we ourselves should have said and did not and do not say. It seems that God willed this emulation between Jews and Christians as Paul understands it. He clearly affirms that at the end of the world Israel would be reconciled with Christ and that Jews and Christians would recognize that their separate histories are one.
