Romans 11.14-Through His Ministry To The Gentiles, Paul Hoped To Provoke His Fellow Jews To Jealousy So As To Save Some Of Them
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday July 9, 2009
Romans: Romans 11:14-Through His Ministry To The Gentiles, Paul Hoped To Provoke His Fellow Jews To Jealousy So As To Save Some Of Them
Lesson # 365
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 11:11.
Last evening we noted Romans 11:13 in which Paul addresses specifically his Gentile Christian readers in Rome and expresses the fact that he takes great pride in his ministry as an apostle to the Gentiles.
This evening we will study Romans 11:14 and in this passage Paul expresses why he takes great pride in this ministry on behalf of the Gentiles, namely, he hopes that his ministry to the Gentiles might provoke his fellow Jews to jealousy so as to save some of them.
Now, let’s pick it up with the beginning of the third paragraph, which begins in verse 11.
Romans 11:11, “I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous.”
Romans 11:12, “Now if their transgression is riches for the world and their failure is riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be!”
Romans 11:13, “But I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I magnify my ministry.”
Romans 11:14, “If somehow I might move to jealousy my fellow countrymen and save some of them.”
“If somehow” is composed of the conditional particle ei (ei)) (i), “if” and the enclitic particle of indefinite manner pos (pw$), “somehow.”
“If” is the conditional particle ei (ei)) (i), which introduces a protasis of a first class condition that indicates the assumption of truth for the sake of argument.
The protasis is omitted by Paul but is implied and supplied from his statement “I magnify my ministry” that appears at the end of Romans 11:13.
As we noted many times in our study of the book of Romans, the idea behind the first class condition is not “since” but rather, “if-and let us assume that it is true for the sake of argument that, then...”
This would encourage Paul’s audience to respond and come to the conclusion of the apodosis since they already agreed with him on the protasis.
Therefore, Paul is employing the first class condition as a tool of persuasion with his audience.
Here the protasis is “if and let assume that it is true for the sake argument I take pride in my ministry to the Gentiles.”
The responsive condition would say: “Of course I do because I just told you that in the previous sentence.”
The apodasis is “then perhaps (by honoring my ministry to the Gentiles) I might provoke my fellow Jews to jealousy so as to save some of them.”
Paul is not attempting to prove that his protasis is true rather he is saying with the first class condition that this is a fact already established from the previous statement in Romans 11:13 that I take pride in my ministry to the Gentiles.
His work with the Gentiles was well-known and so of course they would agree with Paul’s protasis.
The first class condition would then persuade them to respond to the conclusion that perhaps by his ministry to the Gentiles he hopes to provoke his fellow Jewish countrymen to jealousy so as to save some of them.
Therefore, Paul’s audience would have to come to his conclusion if they submit to this line of argumentation.
He wants them to come to his line of argumentation because he does not want them to be prejudiced against the Jews because of their rejection of Christ.
He wants them to follow his example of proclaiming the gospel to the Gentiles so as to provoke the Jews to jealousy so as to save some of them.
The basic relation that the protasis has to the apodasis is “evidence-inference.”
The “evidence” is that Paul takes great pride in his ministry to the Gentiles.
The “inference” is that he honors his ministry to the Gentiles so that perhaps it would provoke his fellow Jews to jealousy so as to save some of them.
Here in Romans 11:14, the enclitic (no accent of its own and is thus pronounced as part of the word preceding it) particle pos should be translated “perhaps” rather than “by any means” or “somehow.”
This is indicated in that the means by which Paul hopes to provoke his Jewish countrymen so as to save of them is already implied in the protasis, which is omitted but supplied from Romans 11:13 with the statement “I take pride in my ministry.”
Therefore, the word does not refer to an unspecified means of provoking the Jews to jealousy so as to save some of them but rather it is expressing an expectation or possibility.
So Paul is saying with pos the following: “If and let us assume that it is true of the sake of argument that I take pride in my ministry and of course I do because I already told you that-then “perhaps” (by honoring my ministry to the Gentiles) I might provoke my fellow Jews to jealousy so as to save some of them.
Romans 11:14, “If somehow I might move to jealousy my fellow countrymen and save some of them.”
“I might move to jealousy” is the first person singular future active indicative form of the verb parazeloo (parazhlovw) (par-ad-zay-lo-o).
The verb parazeloo appeared in Romans 10:19 and 11:11 with God as the subject.
Romans 10:19, “But on the contrary, I ask, has Israel never understood? They have understood! First of all, Moses says, ‘I myself will provoke each and every one of you to jealousy by a non-nation. By a nation without insight, I will provoke each and every one of you to anger.’”
Romans 11:11, “Therefore, I ask, did they stumble so as to fall down in complete in ruin? Absolutely not! On the contrary because of their transgression salvation is experienced by the Gentiles in order to provoke them to jealousy.”
Now in Romans 11:14, the verb means “to provoke to jealousy” and is not used with God as the subject but rather the apostle Paul indicating that he possessed the same attitude as God did with regards to the Jews.
Therefore, parazeloo refers to the apostle Paul imitating God the Father and carrying out His purpose to provoke Israel to jealousy by offering salvation to the Gentiles.
“My fellow countrymen” is used here of course of Paul’s “race, ethnic group, nation,” the Jews.
Romans 11:14, “If somehow I might move to jealousy my fellow countrymen and save some of them.”
“Save some of the them” is composed of the first person singular future active indicative form of the verb sozo (swv|zw) (sode-zo), “save” and the accusative masculine plural form of the indefinite pronoun tis (ti$) (tis), “some” and the preposition ek (e)k), “from” and the genitive masculine third person plural form of the autos (au)tov$) (ow-tos), “them.”
The verb sozo refers to being delivered by God from eternal condemnation as well as the sin nature, personal sins, Satan and his cosmic system since Paul is speaking with reference to unsaved Israel in our present context.
The indefinite pronoun tis (ti$) (tis) refers to unregenerate Jews or in other words, those individuals who are biological descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and thus members of the nation of Israel who are unsaved.
The preposition ek denotes separation and autos functions as a “genitive of separation” indicating that Paul desires to deliver some of his fellow Jews from eternal condemnation, sin and Satan “out from” those who are unsaved in Israel.
Now as we noted in Romans 11:13, Paul addresses specifically his Gentile Christian readers in Rome and expresses the fact that he takes great pride in his ministry as an apostle to the Gentiles.
Romans 11:13, “Now, I am at this particular time speaking to and for the benefit of all of you Gentiles. Contrary to what you might be inclined to conclude, to the very extent that I myself am sent to the Gentiles, I take pride in my ministry.”
In Romans 11:14, Paul completes the thought that he began in Romans 11:13 by relating to his Gentile Christian readers in Rome that he takes great pride in this ministry to the Gentiles because he hopes that perhaps it would provoke his fellow Jews to jealousy so as to save some of them.
Romans 11:14, “If, and let us assume that it is true for the sake of argument that I take pride in my ministry and course I do because I already told you that, then perhaps (by this ministry) I will provoke to jealousy my nation and thus deliver some from among them.”