From Land to Lands, from Eden to the Renewed Earth by Munther Isaac

Author:Munther Isaac [Issac, Munther]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781783680931
Publisher: Langham Creative Projects
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Second, we must not undermine the change in the quotation made by Paul. The original verse in Isaiah says: “and a Redeemer will come to Zion” – not “from Zion,” as Paul has it. In saying “from,” Paul intentionally changes the Hebrew text and its Greek paraphrase, thereby removing any implication that Jerusalem will play a future role in God’s salvation history.[92]

Third, the hope for the Jewish people throughout Romans 9–11 is their “salvation” – defined as faith in Christ. Their restoration (regardless whether it is a future or present phenomenon) means their re-grafting in the olive tree – the same one in which the new branches, the Gentiles, have been grafted. The restoration is not, therefore, about a distinct plan, or a distinct branch in the tree. As such, Jews and Gentiles in the olive tree “share in the nourishing root of the olive tree” (11:17). If the Jews inherit a land, then so will the Gentiles, and vice versa. And as we have seen, the land that both Jews and Gentiles inherit in Christ is the whole earth. There is thus no place in Paul’s theology for a particular distinct inheritance reserved for those of just one ethnicity.

In short, it seems that any attempt to load Romans 11:26 with nationalistic implications for ethnic Israel must include a form of eisegesis that imports foreign preconceptions to the text and that ignores the overall ecclesiology of Paul, which was shaped by the Jesus-event. The crux of Paul’s theology in Romans 9–11, and indeed in the entire letter, is that Jews and Gentiles are branches in the same tree, and not that they are distinct in their membership.

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