The New Testament / Translated From the Original Greek, With Chronological Arrangement of the Sacred Books, and Improved Divisions of Chapters and Verses.

by Unknown

CHAPTER VIII.

THE SALVATION OF BELIEVING JEWS AND THE CALLING OF THE GENTILES.

1 ^11:1I SAY then, has God cast away his people? By no means; for I also am an Israelite, of the race of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. ^11:2God has not cast away his people whom he foreknew. Know you not what the Scripture says in Elijah, how he intercedes with God against Israel? ^11:3Lord, they have killed thy prophets, they have dug down thy altars, and I am left alone, and they seek my life. ^11:4But what says the response to him? I have reserved for myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to Baal. ^11:5So then also at the present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace; ^11:6but if by grace, no longer by works; for otherwise grace is no longer grace; but if by works, it is no longer grace; for otherwise a work is no longer a work. ^11:7What then? What Israel seeks, this it did not obtain, but the election obtained; and the rest were hardened,— ^11:8as it is written, God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear—to this day. ^11:9And David says, Let their table become a trap and a snare and an offense and a stumbling block to them; ^11:10let their eyes be darkened that they may not see, and bow down their back always.

2 ^11:11I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? By no means; but by their fall the nations have salvation to excite them to emulation. ^11:12But if their fall is the riches of the world, and their diminution the riches of nations, how much more will their fullness be. ^11:13For I speak to you, gentiles. Inasmuch as I am an apostle of the gentiles, I glorify my ministry, ^11:14if perhaps I may excite my flesh [race] to emulation and save some of them. ^11:15For if their falling away is the reconciling of the world, what will their recovery be but life from the dead? ^11:16And if the first fruit is holy, the mass is also; and if the root is holy, the branches also are.

3 ^11:17But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became a partaker of the root and excellence of the olive, ^11:18boast not against the branches; but if you boast, you bear not the root, but the root you. ^11:19You will say then, The branches were broken off that I might be grafted in. ^11:20Well; they were broken off by unbelief, and you stand by faith. Be not high-minded, but fear; ^11:21for if God spared not the natural branches, perhaps he will not spare you. ^11:22See then the goodness and severity of God; towards those that fell, severity, but towards you, the goodness of God, if you continue in goodness, for otherwise you also will be cut off. ^11:23And they, if they continue not in unbelief, will be grafted in; for God is able to graft them in again. ^11:24For if you have been cut from an olive wild by nature, and grafted contrary to nature into a good olive, how much more shall they according to nature be grafted into their own olive.

4 ^11:25For I wish you not to be ignorant, brothers, of this mystery; that you may not be wise in your own conceit. For hardness in part has come upon Israel, till the fullness of the gentiles shall come in, ^11:26and so all Israel shall be saved; as it is written, A deliverer shall come from Zion, he shall turn away impiety from Jacob. ^11:27And this is the promise to them from me, when I take away their sins. ^11:28As to the gospel, they are enemies on your account, but as to the election, they are beloved on account of the fathers; ^11:29for the gifts and calling of God are without a change of mind. ^11:30For as you once disobeyed God, but now have obtained mercy by their disobedience, ^11:31so also they now have disobeyed that they may obtain mercy by your mercy. ^11:32For God has concluded all in disobedience that he may have mercy on all. ^11:33O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how inscrutable are his judgments, and his ways can not be explored! ^11:34For who knew the mind of the Lord? or who was his counsellor? ^11:35or who first gave to him, and it shall be repaid him? ^11:36For of him and through him, and in him are all things; to him be glory forever; amen.