Transcript
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER 1: Let me welcome you and say good morning on behalf of the seminary community. I trust that those of you were here last night had nice conversations with people, and a welcome to the members who have joined the group since then. It's my task to introduce to you Professor Otfried Hofius who is a professor of the New Testament at Tubingen University who for a number of years was a pastor, and was called there in the last few years.
He's recently published a series of essays, "Paulusstudien" which should be coming out in the next minute or hour, somewhere in there. His paper this morning is an exegetical study of Romans 9:11 entitled, "All Israel Will Be Saved." I don't envy him his job. I envied him his job very little before
last night; I envy his job even less now. One feels trepidation with Romans, one feels more with Paul and Van Buren. Fortunately, I'm tone deaf so I don't have to listen to Christopher Morris's key of exegesis but there will be plenty here for exegetes in which to muddle about. I trust that you will allow us that luxury at least for about 50 minutes.
The procedure is that Professor Hofius will deliver his paper, take about 50 minutes, we'll have a break of 10 to 15 minutes for some refreshments, and then my colleague James Charlesworth who is a George L. Collord Professor of New Testament Language and Literature here at the seminary will deliver some responding remarks which will serve as an impetus for our own discussion. Once more, welcome and good morning Professor Hofius.
HOFIUS: It is a great honor and a great pleasure for me to give this lecture today. Since I have not been in the States before, and since it is my first lecture in English I must apologize for the mistakes I'll make especially in pronunciation, and later for my problems in understanding. To say it frankly, I am afraid
my Coptic is better than my English. At the center of Pauline theology and proclamation is the doctrine of the justification of the ungodly through the saving work of God in Jesus Christ. The apostles' Christology and soteriology necessarily led him to develop this doctrine.
It is theologically consistent our cross of his Christology and soteriology. It is articulated as such most possibly in Galatians and Romans in particular. Paul borrows the terminology characteristic of his doctrine of justification from the Old Testament. The
word dikaiosune is used as a soteriological term [in utero and trito isia?], as well as the Psalms where it designates the salvation which God grants to the unsaved by initiating new life and fellowship with God as a result of His redemptive intervention. In the light of this effect that God
is the one who accomplishes and gives salvation, the texts speak of the dikaiosune of God. Further, in the light of its effect that humans receive this salvation, which is fundamentally determinative for their being, the texts speak of [serdikaiosune?] of servants who have experienced God's saving
help. Paul makes use of precisely this soteriological language. For him, also, dikaiosune is an expression for the salvation that God both makes possible and grants, and that characterizes the very being of the person who receives salvation as God's gift of redemption. In correspondence
to the substantive, the word [dikaiune?] means in the active, grant salvation if salvation, and in the passive, receive salvation gain salvation. Lastly, the adjective [dikaios?] characterizes the human being as the beneficiary of salvation.
When the dikaiosune of God comes up at the center of Paul's theology and proclamation, as Romans shows, it must emphatically placed in the framework of the eschatological judgment in which divine wrath will be revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. In the first main section of the
epistle, Paul states unmistakably that all humanity will be subject to this judgment and that none will be found innocent in it. Since Adam, and thanks to Adam, all people without exception whether Jews or Gentiles are inescapably fallen in sin.
They are fallen not only in their evil deeds, but in their entirety, in their very being which is estranged from God and opposed to God. They are as a base the ungodly who face the accusation of God Himself in the words of Scripture, "There is none righteous, not even one.
There is none who understands. There is none who seeks forgot. All have turned aside. Together they have become useless. There is none who does good. There is not even one." With these words Scripture inexorably discloses that before God's judge everyone,
Jew or Gentile, is ungodly, totally without salvation and thus from the human perspective lost beyond hope in the future judgment. God came to the aid of this human being lost in sin by intervening redemptively in Jesus Christ, and so proved himself to be
the One who gives salvation to the ungodly. That is the principle claim of the second main section of Romans which claim is developed further and in greater detail in the third main section. Referring to God's accomplishment and appropriation of salvation for the ungodly
out of pure grace, Paul speaks about the dikaiosune (Greek). He differentiates between the demonstration of dikaiosune and its revelation. The demonstration of dikaiosune occurs in the death of Jesus Christ on the cross and His resurrection. In this event of sanctifying atonement
God reconciled sinners to Himself, and in this way delivered them from sin and judgment. The revelation of the dikaiosune of God occurs in the Gospel of Jesus Christ through which God Himself makes known and appropriates to human beings the salvation accomplished in Christ.
The proclaimed gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes as Paul formulates in Romans 1:16. That is God's own Word, as such, which has power to effect what it intends, creates the faith which takes hold of salvation. Faith in
Jesus Christ is the divinely intended mote of reception of and participation in salvation. And for that reason, Paul also calls the dikaiosune (Greek) the [dikaiosune pisto os?] or the [ec pisto os dikaiosune?]. The believer who owes his or her new being to
God alone is dekaios or a beneficiary of salvation in faith. And this gift of dikaiosune firmly guarantees the believer acquittal unto salvation in the last judgment and participation in eternal life. The three fundamental assertions of Paul
that divine salvation in Jesus Christ that is through His death and resurrection has become a reality, that this salvation is announced and disclosed in the preached gospel of Jesus Christ, and that human beings receive salvation in faith in Jesus Christ which is affected by the Gospel. These three fundamental assertions are true
in a strictly exclusive sense. The apostle is therefore speaking [exegetically?] when he explains in Galatians and no less clearly in Romans that no one attains salvation through the Torah [and nomu?] or on the basis of observance of the Torah, [ex aragon nomu?]. By denying
the Torah from Sinai any soteriological relevance in this way Paul does not at all disparage the law of God. On the contrary, the reason for this negation is the utter seriousness with which he takes the holiness of the Torah and thus also its demands. The Torah from
Sinai testifies [solitatively?] as God's holy Word to the judicial will of God, and as Paul greatly stresses, appealing to Leviticus 18:5 and Deuteronomy 27:26 is emphatically and exclusively interested in the deeds of men and women.
The underlying principle of the Torah is that the doers of the law will attain salvation, Romans 2:13. For Moses writes concerning the salvation sought on the basis of the Torah only the one who does them, the regulations and statutes of the Torah, shall live
through them, that is by having followed them, but who is a [poitase nomu?], a doer of the law? Paul would answer together with the Targum of Isaiah that a doer of the law is a righteous one who has not sinned, and has kept the Torah perfectly from the heart,
one who is seen to be holy in the light of the Torah, and who therefore is written down with God for eternal life. As Paul sees it, however, by no means is there such a person who is righteous and holy, and thus a doer of the law. Indeed, even in principle there cannot be such
a person, for every human being comes from Adam and always has, and no one can begin before Adam. The Torah has universally to do with the ungodly, the human being who is completely fallen under sin, and incapable of obeying, who is fundamentally unable to satisfy the demands of the holy law of God
. The light of the holy and spiritual Torah thus makes manifest the utterly unholy and fleshly being of humankind of each human being. This human being who fails to render the total obedience demanded by God can only be accused and put under the divine sentence of condemnation by the Torah.
It is the Torah itself which pronounces the fatal curse on the ungodly and lawbreakers in Deuteronomy 27, "Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all commands written in the book of the law by doing them." Since the Torah, precisely according
to its selfness, cannot grant salvation to the ungodly nor give life to the sinner. It is fundamentally impossible according to Paul for anyone to gain salvation by observance of the Torah. The Pauline Doctrine of justification whose central claims and most important implications
we were able only to sketch in brief from the background against which the exposition of Romans 9:11 is to be viewed and understood. These three chapters form the fourth main section of Romans and being integrally connected to what was that in Romans 1:8, also revolve around the theme of dikaiosune (Greek). The occasion for the statements made in these chapters is the fact that the vast majority of Israel has resisted the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and thereby also the dikaiosune (Greek), and instead pursues salvation where it is not to be found according to Paul
in [Sonomas?] the Torah from Sinai. The apostle speaks directly to this matter in 9:34 and following where he juxtaposes Israel and the Gentiles who have come to faith in Jesus Christ through the preaching of the Gospel. The two sides of the comparison are structured entirely parallel fashion.
Paul begins each with a statement about the pursuit of salvation, then makes an observation on the attainment of salvation, and finally gives a ground for this observation. (Greek)
First, Paul asserts in Verse 30 that Gentiles who did not pursue salvation attained salvation.
The reason for the attainment is given in the words dikaiosune (Greek). They attained salvation in the only way it can be won, by faith, that is as a free gift of God's grace granted unconditionally to the ungodly, completely apart from their desserts. The grammatical construction
applied in the statement about Israel which forms the antithesis to Verse 30 makes it especially stand out. In Verse 31, Paul does not say Israel (Greek) dikaiosune (Greek) dikaiosune (Greek) though this is exactly what he means.
He fully intentionally formulates in such a way that the term designating the problem of Israel appears twice, the term nomos. Paul uses the rhetorical device of (Greek) in the expression (Greek) dikaiosune as already John Calvin observed correctly. In actuality,
we have here two points compressed together and expressed as a single statement: A, Israel in contrast to the Gentiles pursues salvation (Greek)dikaiosune; and, B, Israel tries to attain salvation by earnestly attempting to follow the Torah (Greek).
Thus, (Greek) is correct when he paraphrases the (Greek) dikaiosune with the words (Greek) dikaiosune (Greek). In order to understand the next statement (Greek) in the right way, it is important to note that in Paul
(Greek) is synonymous with (Greek) and said (Greek) here is metonymical for that which is sought from the law. That is, (Greek) stands for dikaiosune. Verse 31b therefore asserts that Israel did not attain what it sought from the Torah, or in other words, what it tried
to gain from the Torah by attempting to observe the Torah. The reason why Israel did not attain the desired dikaiosune by trying to keep the Torah is stated in the extremely terse [articles?] at Verse 32a, "Because it sought to attain dikaiosune not by faith but proceeding
from a mistaken assumption as if it could be attained by observance of the Torah." These words imply that Israel missed the nature and function of the Torah in that Israel took it as a way of salvation and thought it could gain salvation from the Torah. For Paul, this fundamental misunderstanding of the Torah is the
crucial problem of Israel. The exposition of Romans 10 will confirm that the above interpretation of Romans 9:31 and following is correct. The Jews who are faithful to the Torah have a zeal for a God but not in accordance with knowledge, we are told. They do not recognize the dikaiosune to
(Greek) which means that they do not see that divine salvation has been accomplished in Christ's death and resurrection, that salvation comes to human beings in the Word which is near, the Word of the Gospel, and that salvation is received only in saving faith which confesses Jesus as the [curios?]. In other words, the Jews do not recognize that
the dikaiosune (Greek) is exclusively (Greek) dikaiosune and as such cannot be earned but only received as an undeserved gift of God, but because they do not recognize all of this, they seek salvation in the Torah as (Greek) dikaiosune and thus as (Greek) dikaiosune. By (Greek) dikaiosune
Paul means the dikaiosune which is earned (German).
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER 2: (inaudible)
(German) That's incorrect. Which is one -- which is --
UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER 3: Attained.
HOFIUS: Attained, thank you very much, which is attained by perfect obedience to the Torah. The dikaiosune which is thus rightfully you, the doer of the law on the basis of his or her obedient deeds. Striving for (Greek) dikaiosune is thus, according to Paul, striving for the absolutely impossible and unattainable. Israel by seeking salvation
from the law, seeks that which the law was never ever able to impart to human beings living in Adam's shadow, that is to sinners and the ungodly. Israel's failure to recognize this dilemma becomes (German) for Paul in Israel's no to the Gospel and the Christ present in the Gospel. With its no, Israel
refuses, as the apostle explains in 10:3 to recognize obediently the salvation of God. That means further that Israel which does not believe in Christ is, according to Paul, excluded from Soteria for participation in salvation is tied to faith in Jesus Christ and confession of Him as the curios. Now, we must ask
the question does Paul speak of all these things in an accusatory tone? There is in Romans 9:11, does he want to point out Israel's [girt?] as consisting in its defiant and stubborn rejection of the Gospel, and so also its willful refusal of faith so Israel could believe? It is well known that the
material in Romans 9:11 has widely been interpreted in this way, and still is by exegetes today. Nevertheless, we must reject this interpretation most decisively as completely false. Of course, in Romans 9:11 Paul can speak of Israel's guilt and disobedience. Indeed, of its ungodliness,
but in his mind these are not equivalent to Israel's no to the Gospel. Rather, they bespeak a lostness which is also the lot of the Gentiles, and with which Romans 1:18 to 3:20 deals. Liberation from this lostness is the work of the Gospel through which God Himself effects both the knowledge of the dikaiosune
(Greek) accomplished in Christ, and faith in Jesus Christ. If, therefore, the vast majority of Israel fails to acknowledge the salvation of God and thus does not believe in Christ, the reason can only lie in the fact that God has not let the Gospel become the saving and faithful (Greek) for
that majority. Paul says exactly that in Romans 9:24 and following, and 11:5 and following. God Himself has hardened Israel with the result that it cannot accept salvation now realized in Christ. In this regard Paul quotes a scripture, "God gave them a spirit of stupor,
eyes to see not, and ears to hear not down to this very day." This divinely ordained hardening is by no means God's response to the unbelief of Israel. On the contrary, Israel's unbelief is the result of this very hardening. Paul thus traces the no with which the majority of Israel resists
the Gospel to God's determination. Here it becomes obvious that just as faith is the mote of participation and salvation, so also unbelief is the mote and form of exclusion from salvation. An exclusion from salvation which God Himself brings about by leaving human beings in their lost state
which characterizes all of human kind since Adam, yes, even as they are confronted with the Gospel. That is what Paul says in Romans 9:11 concerning Israel, and he says it not in an accusatory tone but with steep anguish. The reason for the apostle's anguish lies not only and not even
primarily in his feelings of sympathy for his Jewish pressman and kin's people. The reason is to be found at a much deeper level, in a theological problem, with which Paul faced with the faith of the Gentiles and the unbelief of the Jews is confronted by no less than the holy Scripture of Israel which Paul takes to be the valid and binding record of God's
words and deeds. If, as it is the case by God's will the Gospel does not prove for the majority of Israel to be the (Greek) which effects faith, then the problem present itself for Paul, what does this state of affairs mean in the light of its effect according to the scriptural testimony, God's saving work in Jesus Christ
is first for the Jews. The Jews have unique advantage over the Gentiles. The Gospel was promised beforehand to them in the Scripture which it follows already announced the promise of (Greek) dikaiosune which was made manifest in Jesus Christ. Paul has in mind here the promise to Abraham from Genesis 12.
The particularly important aspect of the promise for Paul is the announcement of the divine blessing. He interprets this blessing to be the dikaiosune accomplished in Christ, that is the (Latin). With the words of the [sepuachant?] Paul attributes to the promise blessing of following form, "I will
bless you, and you will be blessed. I will bless your physical offspring, and all the nations will be blessed with you." The recipients of the blessing named in the promise are first Abraham himself, then the physical descendants of Abraham, and finally the Gentiles. The announcement of the blessing is therefore
a message of universal bless. It encompasses the Jews and Gentiles who are both to be united with Abraham, the father of all, as blessed. Nevertheless, the universality of the promise by no means nullifies the proton which is true of the Jews for as sure as the
promised blessing will come upon the Gentiles too, to the same degree it is certain that in the Scripture the blessing is announced only to Israel, and thus promised and meant first for the physical descendants of Abraham. Now, since the overwhelming majority of Israel, however, has proven to be closed to the Gospel, and so
also to the salvation of God which was promised to Israel and has presently become a reality in Christ, now two questions inevitably. These are the questions which Paul explicitly addresses in Romans 9:11, has God's Words the promise made to Abraham and along with him to the (Greek) failed, and has God rejected his people
the people he chose to be his possession when he elected Abraham? Paul begins by treating these two questions in an extensive first part of his argument which encompasses all the material from Romans 9:6 to 11:10. The thesis of this part of the argument can be stated as follows: The rejection of the Gospel
by the majority of Israel by no means implies that God has nullified the promise made to Abraham and his descendants, and has cast off his elect people, Israel. Instead, the proof that God continues faithfully to stand by his promise as well as his election is found in the existence of the Jewish Christians; won by the Gospel
who have received the promised blessing, the dikaiosune, in faith in Jesus Christ. The thought expressed in Romans 9:6b-7a is fundamental to this thesis. Not all who by descent are of Israel are Israel, neither are all automatically children of Abraham because they are Abraham's descendants.
These statements convey that membership in the people of Israel which received God's promise does not eo ipso imply membership in Israel's community of salvation which receives the fulfillment of the promise. Membership in Israel's community of salvation is solely by the call of the God who made the promise and whose call
goes forth again and again. This call is rooted in nothing other than the (Greek) that is the sovereign divine decree which operates according to election. Paul shows what this means when he appeals to the scriptural testimony regarding Isaac and Ishmael on the one hand, and Jacob and [Azor?] on the other.
Isaac and Jacob represent the Israelites whom God has elected and called, whereas, Ishmael and Azor represent the Israelites whom God has, for now, passed over and rejected. As even the very first descendants of Abraham illustrate in the course of history God has always fulfilled the promise made to Abraham and his offspring in such
a way as to elect one and reject the other according to his sovereign elective decree. He had mercy on one but hardened the other. In this very way the God of Israel is shown to be the one who grants salvation to the ungodly apart from works and out of free grace. That in turn means that from the very beginning Israel
is the community of salvation, is the community of those who have received the promised blessing in faith while they were ungodly like Abraham himself, Romans 4. God acts in the same way in the present, Paul explains in 9:24 and following and 11:5 and following, in the same way as God acted in the history of His people, namely
as the One who sovereignty elects and rejects. God does so now in that He calls only a remnant within Israel to faith through the preached Gospel, and lets the others stumble over the Christ preached in the Gospel, and He also continues to act as the sovereignty electing and rejecting God by bringing to faith through the preaching of the Gospel Gentiles who are outside Israel
and did not inquire after Him, and thereby integrating them into the community of salvation. Paul calls the Jewish Christians one through the Gospel (Greek) the remnant according to God's gracious choice. They are the elect in contrast to the rest who are hardened by God. They have not attained their present
stance in salvation through observance of the Torah but have received salvation as a gift exclusively through the undeserved mercy of God. The remnant to whom indeed the apostle himself belongs offers tangible proof of Paul that God stands by His promise and election with unswerving faithfulness. The notion present
in Romans 9:6 to 11:10 that God's faithfulness to His promise and election is demonstrated by His preservation and salvation of a remnant within Israel has clear parallels in ancient Jewish literature. For example, some Qumran texts speak of a split in Israel on the basis of the exposition of the Torah by the teacher of righteousness. Israel
is divided into the righteous and ungodly, into the holy community and the congregation of the ungodly. There is, thus, within the people of Israel the Israel which is the community of salvation whose as the promises, the eschatological community of the remnant, the community of the elect of God. This very community of the remnant
is according to itself perception the sign and proof of the faithfulness of God to His election, and to the promise made to Abraham and his offspring. As the community of God it is the true Israel to which the salvation promised to the father counts and which in contrast to the Israelites who are rejected and do not belong to the remnant of the elect is on the way to eschatological deliverance.
The notion of remnant preserved by God was already present in the holy Scripture, and this scriptural proof enables Paul to understand why God presently calls only few Israelites to faith in Jesus Christ through the Gospel. The extraordinary thing about Paul's exposition in Romans 9:11,
however, is that the apostle does not close with this point as Qumran does, does not close with this point and end the discussion at Romans 11:10. Instead, he opens a new window on the subject by throwing out the question, what about the rest whom God has hardened (Greek) have they stumbled so that they might fall
and perish. Here Paul poses the question whether Israel can be definitively separated into those whom God elects and brings to saving faith in Jesus Christ, and those whom God hardens and let's continue in the resistance to the salvation accomplished in Jesus Christ. Scripture caused Paul to raise and enunciate this question too.
Both in the course of history, as well as the present, God's activity of electing and rejecting, showing mercy and hardening affects the people who as a whole according to the Scripture receive the promises and election, the primary constitutive factor of its existence. The promise made to Abraham
does not speak merely of a remnant but much more comprehensively of the (Greek) Abraham. In Romans 9:4, Paul has designated the Jews who do not believe in Christ specifically as Israelites, and emphasized that theirs is the (Greek) election to be sons of God, and theirs are the covenant promises and the promises of
salvation irrevocably given by God. Paul must affirm this truth, however, without neglecting the other scriptural truths that the electing God keeps and fulfills His promises of salvation according to His sovereign elective claims. The claim of Romans 9:6 and following still stands. Membership in the people of Israel does not eo
ipso mean membership in Israel, the community of salvation, and the physical descendants of Abraham are not as such also children of Abraham in the spiritual sense, and therefore children of God and heirs of the promise. Nevertheless, Paul fully acknowledged that God's election and rejection within Israel is set in the broader framework of God's election of all Israel,
and therefore that the physical descendants of Abraham are first with respect to the divine promise that its recipients will be children of God and heirs of the promise. The question of [Theassus?] raised in Verse 11a is discussed in 11:11-2:32 which makes up the second part of the argument in Romans 9:11.
The main emphasis falls on these verses. In three steps Paul discloses that the salvation of a mere remnant of Israel and the hardening of the overwhelming majority of Israel is by no means God's last Word on Israel. Paul integrates in his argument that each of its three stages, two basic perspectives on the problem.
For one, the matter of the divine intention behind the hardening of the majority of Israel, and for another and more significantly, the certainty that this hardening is temporary and will come to an end. The Gospel is to be preached first to the Gentiles, and thus to Soteria (Greek) and thus the Soteria and (Greek) brought about in Christ's
death and resurrection is to be appropriated first to them. Therein consists the divine intention which God has linked to the hardening of Israel as Paul sees it. He articulates this idea metaphorically in 11:16 and following using the figure of speech of the olive tree and the branches. The cultivated olive tree is Israel's community of salvation,
and its root, Abraham, as bearer of the promise of salvation for faith in Christ. Finally, the branches stand for the members of the community of salvation who are united with the blessed Abraham as participants in salvation. As Paul explains in the metaphor, God cut off from the cultivated olive tree some branches as unbelieving in
order that Gentiles who by nature are [wildlings?] might be engrafted in the olive tree as believing. The hardening of the majority of Israel thus means salvation for the Gentile nations. Israel's hardening, though not the ground of the Gentiles' reception of salvation is it ground lays exclusively in the death and resurrection of Christ, nevertheless serves to let
the Gospel which announces and appropriates salvation be preached among the Gentiles and thus reach them with its saving power. The hardening of the majority of Israel is only preliminary and thus temporarily limited as Paul indicates with diverse expressions from Romans 11:12 on. Though the number of the Jews who have become participants in salvation at the present
is reduced to a remnant, God will fill up this remnant to its full number. The (inaudible) the divine rejection which no holds sway will be certainly be followed by the [proslimpsis?] by the divine acceptance. While God cuts the branches of the cultivated olive tree, He will nevertheless undoubtedly graft them
in again. These assertions come to a climax in 11:25 and following for here Paul gives the crucial reason for his conviction that the hardening of the majority of Israel is rooted in God's plan to save the Gentiles, and that the presently hardened Jews will also be saved. In the course of his argument Paul
puts forth not only the fact that they will yet be saved, but he also indicates when and in what way now hardened Jews will be saved. The section 11:25 and following carries significant weight in the argument by virtue of the effect that the apostle here discloses a [mysterion?] an eschatological secret, the knowledge and
comprehension of which he owes to a revelation which he received from God Himself. This mystery comprises Verses 25b-27 that is includes all those scriptural quotation in Verses 26b-27. It has two members both formally in structure and materially in its content. It (inaudible) thus,
God has put a partial hardening over Israel until the time is reached when the fullness of the Gentiles will have gone in, and when this will have happened then all Israel will be saved. As it is written, the deliverer will come from Zion. He will remove ungodliness from Jacob, and this will be for them the fulfillment of the covenant promise I made then I will have taken away their sins.
The first member of the mystery comprises the two lines of Verse 25b (Greek). The first line mentions a partial hardening that is the hardening limited to a certain part of Israel, in other words, the hardening which God caused to fall upon all Israelites
that do not belong to the elect remnant of 11:5. The second line stresses that this partial hardening of Israel is temporarily limited, and that it serves the divinely intended purpose. It is limited by the point in time at which the (Greek) will have come in, and it serves the purpose of the coming in of said (Greek). The phrase
(Greek) here means the complete number of Gentiles determined by God who are to attain salvation. It is not to be taken numerically in the sense of all Gentiles whatsoever, but as many as are appointed to eternal life in the words of Acts 13. (Greek) which denotes the action of this complete number apparently refers to their
entrance into Israel which is the end time community of salvation. It is the equivalent of the metaphorical notion of being engrafted in the cultivated olive tree. The statement that the complete number of the Gentiles will come into Israel's community of salvation is to be seen against the background of the Old Testament expectation of the eschatological pilgrimage to
Zion by the Gentile nations. According to this expectation the redemption of Israel at the end time will result in the flocking of the Gentile nations to the people whom God has delivered, the recognition and worship of the God of Israel and thus their sharing in the salvation of Israel. Paul departs from this expectation insofar as he has the Gentiles
attain salvation not through the salvation but the hardening of Israel. Nevertheless, Paul retains in total the idea that God's action taught and with Israel serves to win the Gentiles. The second member of the mystery consists in the clause (Greek) and in the subsequent scriptural quotation.
The interpretation of the two words [ky hutos?] is crucial for a correct understanding of Verse 26a as well as the whole context, but the interpretation is highly debated. In my opinion, ky hutos here refers to the presiding and is inferential, (German) we say in German. Verse 26a thus states that
not until the complete coming in of the Gentiles into Israel as a community of salvation can the salvation of all Israel take place, but then it certainly will take place. The expression pass Israel, a rendering of the Hebrew called Israel in the Old Testament is a collective designation for the people of Israel in its entirety without, however, the connotation of
numerical completeness, the sum of all individual Israelites. Further, there is no doubt that pass Israel at Romans 11:26a refers only to Jews, only to Jews. The clause pass Israel (Greek) which foretells a future event is clearly antithetical to the statement in Verse 25b that God caused
a partial hardening to fall upon Israel at present so that now only a few receive Soteria, namely the elect remnant of 11:5. All Israel thus means all Israel which at the present time does not yet believe in Christ, and does not yet participate in salvation. The question arises, however, whether Paul intends the expression "all Israel" to be taken
synchronically or diachronically. Does he have in mind only the Jews alive at the end time, synchronic, or is he thinking of the Israel of all times, diachronic. A conclusive answer cannot be found but in favor of the diachronic sense an extremely close parallel can be established between the statement "all Israel will be saved," and the well-known
affirmation in (German) "all Israel will have a share in the world to come." This comment refers to the time after the resurrection from the dead, and is thus speaking of the Israel in a diachronic sense. If we take pass Israel at Romans 11:26 likewise in a diachronic sense, the salvation of all Israel presupposes the general resurrection
not the least significant factor supporting this view of Verse 26a is a statement in 11:15 which links the acceptance of Israel which will put an end to their abandonment to unbelief with the (Greek), for it can be convincingly argued that (Greek) here denotes the general resurrection. Verse 26a voices
with perfect clarity the certainty that all Israel will yet be saved since the Scripture, which Paul quotes, provides information on the manner and precise time of Israel's salvation. The mixed quotation has by no means merely a supportive function but is in intended primarily to indicate the manner of the salvation of Israel at the end time. The deliverer
who is coming, it foretells, is Christ, the [curios?], at His return at the last day. It follows that the salvation of all Israel will take place at the return of Christ and through Christ Himself. He will remove ungodliness from Jacob so that through him God will take away the sins of Israel therein consists the redemptive activity of Christ at the last day as the word of the prophet indicates.
That is at His return Christ removes the hardening of Israel by putting an end to the state of lostness which Paul characterized in Romans 1:18-3:20 as (Greek) and as (Greek). Further, in that Israel is saved through liberation from its ungodliness and forgiveness of its sins, Israel
now experiences the (Greek) which was foretold in the promise of blessing of Genesis 12. That state of affairs will constitute the fulfillment of God's covenant promise to all Israel the final and full realization of the promise of salvation made to Abraham and his physical descendants, then will it be shown to be true that the gracious
gifts and elective calling of God are irrevocable, as Paul says in Roman 11:29, and because that is true, Israel remains irrevocably enclosed in the life of God even in its no to the Gospel. One particular aspect of Paul's affirmation of the future salvation of all Israel in Romans 11:25 and following must
be examined more closely. The apostle certainly does not have in mind a further end time evangelistic proclamation of the Gospel to Israel by the church followed by Israel's believing in the Gospel which it has heard preached. All Israel is not saved by the preaching of the Gospel. By no means, however, does that imply a (inaudible),
a way of salvation which bypasses the Gospel and faith in Christ. Rather, Israel will hear the Gospel from the mouth of Christ Himself at His return. The saving Word of His self-revelation which effects the faith that takes hold of divine salvation. When all Israel encounters the curios at the [parocia?] it encounters the Gospel. In this light it
becomes clear that the salvation foretold in 11:26a is the same as the salvation of which Paul speaks in Romans 10, namely the salvation experienced by the one who confesses Jesus as Lord and in faith calls upon the name of the Lord. The Israel which will meet Christ at His return will thus believe in Him, and will call upon His name confessing Him
as curio Jesus and thereby take hold of Soteria. Then, the affirmation of Romans 1:16 will hold true for all Israel, the Gospel (Greek). All Israel is thus saved in a different way than the Gentile Christians and the remnant which already believes in Christ, namely not through the evangelistic
preaching of the church. Instead, all Israel is saved directly by the curios Himself, but that means that it is not saved without Christ, not without the Gospel, and not without faith in Christ. If therefore Israel receives the Gospel through a direct encounter with Christ Himself, confesses Christ as the curios and comes to faith in Him unto salvation, then Israel
comes to faith in the same way as Paul himself. For Paul was seeking the dikaiosune [eknomue?] through strict observance of the Torah, and for that reason had responded with the vehement no to the Gospel. When he met the resurrected and exalted curios and was overcome by him. So it will be according to Paul with Israel too. Thus, Romans 11:1
throws new light on the subject of Israel's salvation above and beyond that provided by the notion of the remnant in this verse, has God rejected his people? By no means, for I too am an Israelite, a descendent of Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin. Paul recognizes and understands himself to be a prototype of the Israel which is closed
to the Gospel and not abandoned by the electing God. Finally, let us consider whether we can detect any indications of the way the apostle arrive at the insight disclosed in the mystery of which he informs us in Romans 11. We do, in fact, have such indications, it seems to me, and they are found in the numerous scriptural quotations
in Romans 9:11. In ancient Judaism not only such insights as are based on the (Greek) or on prophetic inspiration could be described as mysteries. Even something which God Himself discloses to a human being from the holy Scripture can constitute a secret. The commentary on (inaudible) for example, says of
the teacher of righteousness, "God made known to him all the secrets of the Words of His servants the prophets." The secret, therefore, is hidden in the prophetic word of the Scripture. It is revealed from the Scripture to the one who searches the Scripture under divine illumination. The scriptural quotations in Romans 9:11 show clearly enough that Paul sought and found
in the Scripture the answer to the question exercising him that of Israel's unbelief. The Scripture informed him that the keeping of God's promise to Abraham during the course of Israel's history includes God's sovereign and gracious election and His rejection, His calling and his hardening. Further, he found in the Scripture
the belief in the preached gospel and salvation of only a remnant from Israel at present. The divine hardening of the majority of Israel presently and their stumbling over Christ in unbelief according to God's will. The Gentiles' reception of salvation, though they did not seek it, and the failure of Israel to find salvation, though it did pursue it, and the fact that God has nevertheless
not rejected His people and that all Israel will be saved from its sin and ungodliness by the coming deliverer. After Paul's persuasion that all Israel will finally participate in salvation it could be that he also assertions of Scripture in mind which he fails to cite expressly. Lamentations, say, could have
provided him with the affirmation that God's rejection is always temporarily limited and that God's freely granted mercy will in the end win over rejection. The Lord will not reject His people forever, for though He abases it, He will have compassion again according to His abundant loving kindness. Of particular importance in this regard, however, is the message
of (Greek) to which Paul's theology and proclamation is many foldly indebted. There he could find a perfectly clear expression of the promise of the final salvation of all Israel, all the offspring of the children of Israel will be saved by the Lord and will be glorified by God. Further, Israel will be saved by the Lord with an everlasting
salvation. They will not perish or be put to shame to all eternity. These examples will suffice. They should demonstrate adequately enough that key assertions of the mystery in Romans 11, as well as the whole of Romans 9:11 are based on the holy Scripture of the apostle. Thank you very much for your great patience.