Rom 11:1, 2Cor 11:22, Phili 3:5 | JFB | STEP | 1. I say then, Hath —"Did" God cast away his people? God forbid —Our Lord did indeed announce that "the kingdom of God should be taken from Israel" ( ); and when asked by the Eleven, after His resurrection, if He would at that time " restore the kingdom to Israel," His reply is a virtual admission that Israel was in some sense already out of covenant ( ). Yet here the apostle teaches that, in two respects, Israel was not "cast away"; First, Not totally; Second, Not finally. FIRST , Israel is not wholly cast away. for I also am an Israelite —See , and so a living witness to the contrary. of the seed of Abraham —of pure descent from the father of the faithful. of the tribe of Benjamin — ( ), that tribe which, on the revolt of the ten tribes, constituted, with Judah, the one faithful kingdom of God ( ), and after the captivity was, along with Judah, the kernel of the Jewish nation ( ).

Romans 11:1

1. I say then, Hath—"Did"

God cast away his people? God forbid—Our Lord did indeed announce that "the kingdom of God should be taken from Israel" (Mt 21:41); and when asked by the Eleven, after His resurrection, if He would at that time "restore the kingdom to Israel," His reply is a virtual admission that Israel was in some sense already out of covenant (Ac 1:9). Yet here the apostle teaches that, in two respects, Israel was not "cast away"; First, Not totally; Second, Not finally. FIRST, Israel is not wholly cast away.

for I also am an Israelite—See Php 3:5, and so a living witness to the contrary.

of the seed of Abraham—of pure descent from the father of the faithful.

of the tribe of Benjamin— (Php 3:5), that tribe which, on the revolt of the ten tribes, constituted, with Judah, the one faithful kingdom of God (1Ki 12:21), and after the captivity was, along with Judah, the kernel of the Jewish nation (Ezr 4:1; 10:9).

2 Corinthians 11:22

22. Hebrews . . . Israelites . . . the seed of Abraham—A climax. "Hebrews," referring to the language and nationality; "Israelites," to the theocracy and descent from Israel, the "prince who prevailed with God" (Ro 9:4); "the seed of Abraham," to the claim to a share in the Messiah (Ro 11:1; 9:7). Compare Php 3:5, "An Hebrew of the Hebrews," not an Hellenist or Greek-speaking Jew, but a Hebrew in tongue, and sprung from Hebrews.

Philippians 3:5

5. In three particulars he shows how he "might have confidence in the flesh" (Php 3:4): (1) His pure Jewish blood. (2) His legal preciseness and high status as such. (3) His zeal for the law. The Greek is literally, "Being in circumcision an eighth day person," that is, not one circumcised in later life as a proselyte, but on the eighth day after birth, as the law directed in the case of Jew-born infants.

of the tribe of Benjamin—son of Rachel, not of the maid-servant [BENGEL].

Hebrew of the Hebrews—neither one or other parent being Gentile. The "Hebrew," wherever he dwelt, retained the language of his fathers. Thus Paul, though settled in Tarsus, a Greek city, calls himself a Hebrew. A "Grecian" or Hellenist, on the other hand, in the New Testament, is the term used for a "Greek-speaking" Jew [TRENCH].

touching the law—that is, as to legal status and strictness.

a Pharisee—"of the straitest sect" (Ac 26:5).