Romans 9-11 definitely stands as a section within the whole book but is not simply unrelated to the remainder of the book. The latter chapters address the inter-relationship of the people from the former covenant who have responded to Jesus as Messiah and those from the Graeco-Roman world who have acknowledged the God of Israel and the work of the cross (deeply practical – a people who are Torah obedient and a people of faith to whom the Torah was not given). And the earlier part of the book has all people have fallen short of the glory of God (of course we read this individualistically but Paul is writing it collectively), with the fullness of salvation available for all. Then these middle chapters are in answer to the faithfulness of God with Paul insisting that ‘It is not as though the word of God has failed’ (Rom. 9:6).
Never one that is easy to follow, but Paul having laid out his case concludes with ‘In this way all Israel will be saved‘. The chapters are dense and that sentence is somewhat dense too!
- He is not predicting some future turning of all Jews to Jesus as Messiah. His language is ‘in this way’ not ‘and then…’ He is not seeking to give a timeline. His slow to build (though dense) argument is to present an ongoing process of a faithful God.
- He is not saying ‘all Jews’ but ‘all Israel’. That is a vital part to note. The term ‘Jew’ and ‘Israel’ are not synonymous. Outside of these chapters in the Pauline corpus his usual language is ‘Jew’; inside these chapters his language is ‘Israel’.
- This distinction of ‘Jew’ and ‘Israel’ is consistent with other authors such as Josephus or Philo. (Josephus (37-100AD), for example, wrote the Jewish Antiquites (a history of Israel) and refers to Israel/Israelites 188 times in the first 11 volumes but does not use those words outside of those 11 volumes; and conversely he uses the term ‘Jew’ only 26 times in the first 10 volumes, but in the remaining 9 volumes he only refers to the term ‘Jew’ (1162 times)).
- ‘Jew’ refers to those who returned from the exile in Babylon, consisting of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin; ‘Israel’ is a larger term relating to the whole 12 tribes, who did not return to the land but were scattered among the nations. Paul expresses the hope of the 12 tribes when he stands before Agrippa – the hope of Israel, and if that hope is to be fulfilled then God has to be faithful. If he has abandoned his people then he will prove to be unfaithful.
- Thus Paul is writing of an ongoing process through which all Israel will be saved, not some ‘end-time’ event.
- Further he has argued (as Scripture does consistently) that Israel is a faith term more than an ethnic term. Those who are not ‘of Abraham’ can become descendants of Abraham, while ‘not all (ethnically) descendants of Abraham’ are of Israel. ‘Israel’ is a term larger than ethnic Israel and at the same time smaller than ethnic Israel!
- The global mission is the means by which all Israel will be saved. All Israel, not simply those living in the land of Israel (those whose designated term was ‘Jews’), but those from among the nations whose ethnicity is rooted in Abraham (those from the tribes who never returned); all Israel in that those who have no ethnic roots in Abraham but are adopted from among the gentiles (ta ethne – gentiles of nations as it was a term used to describe those who are not ethnically descended from Abraham).
The above is a summary of part of my reading of this ‘all Israel’ use in the context of Romans 9-11 and the fuller text is here.
In seeking to narrow down as to what Paul is arguing and thereby exclude certain other meanings I plan to jump to some perspectives on the situation in Palestine / Israel.
