Romans 11:1 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

ROMANS CHAPTER 11 Romans 11:1-6 God hath not so far cast off all Israel, but that a remnant is saved by grace, not by works. Romans 11:7-10 The judicial blindness of the rest is prophesied of in Scripture. Romans 11:11-16 The consequence both of their fall and conversion with regard to the Gentile world. Romans 11:17-22 The Gentiles are cautioned not to insult the Jews, but to make a proper use of the example both of God's goodness and severity. Romans 11:23-32 The Jews may, and shall in time, believe and be saved. Romans 11:33-36 God's judgments and ways are unsearchable. The apostle having shown, in the end of the foregoing chapter, that the Jews were for their obstinacy rejected, and the Gentiles called, he here prevents or answers an objection. Some might be ready to say: If this be so, then God hath cast away his covenant people, which he hath promised not to do; see Psalms 94:14. To this he answers, first, by his accustomed form of denial: God forbid; and then he proceeds to show, that the rejection of the Jews was neither total nor final. That it was not total, he proves, first, by a particular instance in the following words. I also am an Israelite; i.e. I am a Jew by descent, of the seed of Abraham according to the flesh, and yet am not cast off by God. Of the tribe of Benjamin: some think this is added to intimate, that he was born of an honourable tribe, out of which king Saul sprang, 1 Samuel 9:1, and Esther the queen, Esther 2:5. Others think this is added for a contrary reason; lest his calling should be ascribed to the dignity of his tribe, he says, he was of Benjamin, the last and least of all the tribes. And others rather think, that this particular recital of his genealogy is only to show, that he was a Jew by nature and nation, and not a proselyte converted to the faith: see Philippians 3:5.