For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery. The word "mystery," so often used by our apostle, does not mean, as with us, something incomprehensible, but 'something before kept secret, either wholly, or for the most part, and now only fully disclosed,' (cf. Romans 16:25; 1 Corinthians 2:7-10; Ephesians 1:9-10; Ephesians 3:3-6; Ephesians 3:9-10, etc.)
Lest ye should be wise in your own conceits - as if ye alone were now and in all time coming to be the family of God.
That blindness ('hardness') in part, х apo (G575) merous (G3313) = kata (G2596) merous (G3313)] is happened to ('hath come upon') Israel - i:e., hath come partially, or upon a portion of Israel (so Beza, Grotius, Fritzsche, etc.); not 'to some extent' (as Calvin, etc.), for the blindness or hardness was total on those on whom it fell at all; but (says the apostle) if fell only on a part of the chosen race.
Until the fullness of the Gentiles be ('have') come in - i:e., not the general conversion of the world to Christ, as many take it; for this would seem to contradict the latter part of this chapter, and throw the national recovery of Israel too far into the future; besides, in Romans 11:15 the apostle seems to speak of the receiving of Israel, not as following, but as contributing largely to bring about the general conversion of the world: clearly it means, 'until the Gentiles have had their full time of the visible Church all to themselves, while the Jews are out, which the Jews had until the Gentiles were brought in.' See the note at Luke 21:24 (in Commentary on Mark 13:20, p. 193).