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Text -- Romans 11:3 (NET)

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Context
11:3 “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars; I alone am left and they are seeking my life!”
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Dictionary Themes and Topics: Salvation | Rome | ROMANS, EPISTLE TO THE | Quotations and Allusions | Martyrdom | Israel | GRAFT | ESCHATOLOGY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, I-V | ELIJAH | more
Table of Contents

Word/Phrase Notes
Robertson , Vincent , Wesley , JFB , Clarke , TSK

Word/Phrase Notes
Barnes , Poole , Gill

Verse Notes / Footnotes
NET Notes

Verse Range Notes
TSK Synopsis , MHCC , Matthew Henry , Barclay , Constable , College , McGarvey

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Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per phrase)

Robertson: Rom 11:3 - -- They have digged down ( kateskapsan ). First aorist active indicative of kataskaptō , to dig under or down. Old verb, here only in N.T. (critical t...

They have digged down ( kateskapsan ).

First aorist active indicative of kataskaptō , to dig under or down. Old verb, here only in N.T. (critical text). lxx has katheilan "pulled down."Paul has reversed the order of the lxx of 1 Kings 19:10, 14, 18.

Robertson: Rom 11:3 - -- Altars ( thusiastēria ). Late word (lxx, Philo, Josephus, N.T. eccl. writers) from thusiazō , to sacrifice. See note on Act 17:23.

Altars ( thusiastēria ).

Late word (lxx, Philo, Josephus, N.T. eccl. writers) from thusiazō , to sacrifice. See note on Act 17:23.

Robertson: Rom 11:3 - -- And I am left alone ( kagō hupeleiphthēn monos ). First aorist passive indicative of hupoleipō , old word, to leave under or behind, here only ...

And I am left alone ( kagō hupeleiphthēn monos ).

First aorist passive indicative of hupoleipō , old word, to leave under or behind, here only in N.T. Elijah’ s mood was that of utter dejection in his flight from Jezebel.

Robertson: Rom 11:3 - -- Life ( psuchēn ). It is not possible to draw a clear distinction between psuchē (soul) and pneuma (spirit). Psuchē is from psuchō , to ...

Life ( psuchēn ).

It is not possible to draw a clear distinction between psuchē (soul) and pneuma (spirit). Psuchē is from psuchō , to breathe or blow, pneuma from pneō , to blow. Both are used for the personality and for the immortal part of man. Paul is usually dichotomous in his language, but sometimes trichotomous in a popular sense. We cannot hold Paul’ s terms to our modern psychological distinctions.

Vincent: Rom 11:3 - -- They have killed thy prophets - and digged, etc. Paul gives the first two clauses in reverse order from both Septuagint and Hebrew.

They have killed thy prophets - and digged, etc.

Paul gives the first two clauses in reverse order from both Septuagint and Hebrew.

Vincent: Rom 11:3 - -- Digged down ( κατέσκαψαν ) Sept., καθεῖλαν pulled down . The verb occurs only here and Act 15:16. Compare on Mat 6:19.

Digged down ( κατέσκαψαν )

Sept., καθεῖλαν pulled down . The verb occurs only here and Act 15:16. Compare on Mat 6:19.

Vincent: Rom 11:3 - -- Altars ( θυσιαστήρια ) See on Act 17:23.

Altars ( θυσιαστήρια )

See on Act 17:23.

Vincent: Rom 11:3 - -- Alone ( μόνος ) Sept. has the superlative μονώτατος utterly alone .

Alone ( μόνος )

Sept. has the superlative μονώτατος utterly alone .

Vincent: Rom 11:3 - -- Life ( ψυχήν ) From ψύχω to breathe or blow . In classical usage it signifies life in the distinctness of individual existence,...

Life ( ψυχήν )

From ψύχω to breathe or blow . In classical usage it signifies life in the distinctness of individual existence, especially of man, occasionally of brutes. Hence, generally, the life of the individual . In the further development of the idea it becomes, instead of the body, the seat of the will, dispositions, desires, passions; and, combined with the σῶμα body , denotes the constituent parts of humanity. Hence the morally endowed individuality of man which continues after death .

Scripture. In the Old Testament, answering to nephesh , primarily life , breath ; therefore life in its distinct individuality ; life as such , distinguished from other men and from inanimate nature. Not the principle of life, but that which bears in itself and manifests the life-principle. Hence spirit ( ruach , πνεῦμα ) in the Old Testament never signifies the individual . Soul (ψυχή ), of itself, does not constitute personality, but only when it is the soul of a human being. Human personality is derived from spirit (πνεῦμα ), and finds expression in soul or life (ψυχή ).

The New-Testament usage follows the Old, in denoting all individuals from the point of view of individual life . Thus the phrase πᾶσα ψυχή every soul , i.e., every person (Rom 2:9; Rom 13:1), marking them off from inanimate nature. So Rom 11:3; Rom 16:4; 2Co 1:23; 2Co 12:15; Phi 2:30; 1Th 2:8, illustrate an Old-Testament usage whereby the soul is the seat of personality, and is employed instead of the personal pronoun, with a collateral notion of value as individual personality.

These and other passages are opposed to the view which limits the term to a mere animal life-principle. See Eph 6:6; Col 3:23; the compounds σύμψυχοι with one soul ; ἰσοψύχον like-minded (Phi 1:27; Phi 2:20), where personal interest and accord of feeling are indicated, and not lower elements of personality. See, especially 1Th 5:23.

As to the distinction between ψυχή soul and πνεῦμα spirit , it is to be said:

1. That there are cases where the meanings approach very closely, if they are not practically synonymous; especially where the individual life is referred to. See Luk 1:47; Joh 11:33, and Joh 12:27; Mat 11:29, and 1Co 16:18.

2. That the distinction is to be rejected which rests on the restriction of ψυχή to the principle of animal life. This cannot be maintained in the face of 1Co 15:45; 1Co 2:14, in which latter the kindred adjective ψυχικός natural has reference to the faculty of discerning spiritual truth. In both cases the antithesis is πνεῦμα spirit in the ethical sense, requiring an enlargement of the conception of ψυχικός natural beyond that of σαρκικός fleshly .

3. That ψυχή soul must not be distinguished from πνεῦμα ; spirit as being alone subject to the dominion of sin, since the πνεῦμα is described as being subject to such dominion. See 2Co 7:1. So 1Th 5:23; 1Co 7:34, imply that the spirit needs sanctification. Compare Eph 4:23.

4. Ψυχή soul is never used of God like πνεῦμα spirit . It is used of Christ, but always with reference to His humanity.

Whatever distinction there is, therefore, is not between a higher and a lower element in man. It is rather between two sides of the one immaterial nature which stands in contrast with the body. Spirit expresses the conception of that nature more generally, being used both of the earthly and of the non-earthly spirit, while soul designates it on the side of the creature. In this view ψυχή soul is akin to σάρξ , flesh , " not as respects the notion conveyed by them, but as respects their value as they both stand at the same stage of creatureliness in contradistinction to God." Hence the distinction follows that of the Old Testament between soul and spirit as viewed from two different points: the soul regarded as an individual possession, distinguishing the holder from other men and from inanimate nature; the spirit regarded as coming directly from God and returning to Him. " The former indicates the life-principle simply as subsistent , the latter marks its relation to God." Spirit and not soul is the point of contact with the regenerating forces of the Holy Spirit; the point from which the whole personality is moved round so as to face God.

Ψυχή soul is thus:

1. The individual life, the seat of the personality.

2. The subject of the life, the person in which it dwells.

3. The mind as the sentient principle, the seat of sensation and desire.

Wesley: Rom 11:3 - -- 1Ki 19:10.

JFB: Rom 11:2-4 - -- "did"

"did"

JFB: Rom 11:2-4 - -- That is, wholly

That is, wholly

JFB: Rom 11:2-4 - -- On the word "foreknew," see on Rom 8:29.

On the word "foreknew," see on Rom 8:29.

JFB: Rom 11:2-4 - -- That is, "Know"

That is, "Know"

JFB: Rom 11:2-4 - -- Literally, "in," that is, in the section which relates to

Literally, "in," that is, in the section which relates to

JFB: Rom 11:2-4 - -- "pleadeth"

"pleadeth"

JFB: Rom 11:2-4 - -- (The word "saying," which follows, as also the particle "and" before "digged down," should be omitted, as without manuscript authority).

(The word "saying," which follows, as also the particle "and" before "digged down," should be omitted, as without manuscript authority).

JFB: Rom 11:3 - -- "I only am left."

"I only am left."

Clarke: Rom 11:3 - -- Lord, they have killed thy prophets - They will not permit any person to speak unto them in thy name; and they murder those who are faithful to the ...

Lord, they have killed thy prophets - They will not permit any person to speak unto them in thy name; and they murder those who are faithful to the commission which they have received from thee

Clarke: Rom 11:3 - -- Digged down thine altars - They are profligate and profane beyond example, and retain not the slightest form of religion

Digged down thine altars - They are profligate and profane beyond example, and retain not the slightest form of religion

Clarke: Rom 11:3 - -- I am left alone - There is no prophet besides myself left, and they seek to destroy me.

I am left alone - There is no prophet besides myself left, and they seek to destroy me.

TSK: Rom 11:3 - -- Lord : 1Ki 18:4, 1Ki 18:13, 1Ki 19:10-18; Neh 9:26; Jer 2:30 digged : 1Ki 18:30,1Ki 18:31

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Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per Verse)

Barnes: Rom 11:3 - -- Lord, they have killed ... - This is taken from 1Ki 19:10. The quotation is not literally made, but the sense is preserved. This was a charge w...

Lord, they have killed ... - This is taken from 1Ki 19:10. The quotation is not literally made, but the sense is preserved. This was a charge which Elijah brought against the whole nation; and the act of killing the prophets he regarded as expressive of the character of the people, or that they were universally given to wickedness. The fact was true that they had killed the prophets, etc.; 1Ki 18:4, 1Ki 18:13; but the inference which Elijah seems to have drawn from it, that there were no pious people in the nation, was not well founded.

And digged down - Altars, by the Law of Moses, were required to be made of earth or unhewn stones; Exo 20:24-25. Hence, the expression to dig them down means completely to demolish or destroy them.

Thine altars - There was one great altar in the front of the tabernacle and the temple, on which the daily sacrifices of the Jews were to be made. But they were not forbidden to make altars also elsewhere; Exo 20:25. And hence they are mentioned as existing in other places; 1Sa 7:17; 1Sa 16:2-3; 1Ki 18:30, 1Ki 18:32. These were the altars of which Elijah complained as having been thrown down by the Jews; an act which was regarded as expressive of signal impiety.

I am left alone - I am the only prophet which is left alive. We are told that when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord, Obadiah took a hundred of them and hid them in a cave; 1Ki 18:4. But it is not improbable that they had been discovered and put to death by Ahab. The account which Obadiah gave Elijah when he met him 1Ki 18:13 seems to favor such a supposition.

Seek my life - That is, Ahab and Jezebel seek to kill me. This they did because he had overcome and slain the prophets of Baal; 1Ki 19:1-2. There could scarcely be conceived a time of greater distress and declension in religion than this. It has not often happened that so many things that were disheartening have occurred to the church at the same period of time. The prophets of God were slain; but one lonely man appeared to have zeal for true religion; the nation was running to idolatry; the civil rulers were criminally wicked, and were the leaders in the universal apostasy; and all the influences of wealth and power were setting in against the true religion to destroy it. It was natural that the solitary man of God should feel disheartened and lonely in this universal guilt; and should realize that he had no power to resist this tide of crime and calamities.

Poole: Rom 11:3 - -- See 1Ki 19:10,14 . Digged down thine altars: these were not the altars of the high places, for they are commended that cast them down; nor the alt...

See 1Ki 19:10,14 .

Digged down thine altars: these were not the altars of the high places, for they are commended that cast them down; nor the altars in the temple at Jerusalem, for they were out of the reach of the ten tribes, against whom Elias complains: but such altars (say some) as the godly of the ten tribes did build to serve God with, when they were not permitted to go up to Jerusalem; in which case the building of private altars (as some learned Jews have affirmed) was allowed. Or else by

altars you may understand such altars as Elias himself, by the special commandment of God, had erected. Others, by digging down God’ s altars, do understand their corrupting and destroying the true worship of God; and the words are to be taken synecdochically, or metonomically, the sign being put for the thing signified.

I am left alone so it was, for aught he knew; for few, if any, did publicly own the true worship of God: so general was the defection of the ten tribes in those days.

Gill: Rom 11:3 - -- Lord, they have killed thy prophets,.... By the order of Jezebel, wife of Ahab king of Israel, 1Ki 18:4. This sin of slaying the prophets of the Lord ...

Lord, they have killed thy prophets,.... By the order of Jezebel, wife of Ahab king of Israel, 1Ki 18:4. This sin of slaying the prophets of the Lord is charged upon the Jews by Christ, Mat 23:31, and by the apostle, 1Th 2:15. In the text in 1Ki 19:14, it is added, "with the sword": which expresses the manner of death they were put to; and this clause is there put after the following, according to a rule of transposition among the Jews; See Gill on Mat 27:10.

And digged down thine altars; either the altars which the patriarchs had formerly built, and were still in being; and though not used, yet were kept and had in great veneration; wherefore the pulling of them down was done in contempt of them, and of the worship of God, which had been formerly performed there; or else such altars, which the religious among the ten tribes built, since the times of Jeroboam, who forbad them to go up to Jerusalem, but ordered them to go to Dan or Bethel; which they not choosing to do erected altars in different places for divine service, and which the Jews r say were allowed; for from that time, the prohibition of altars at other places than at Jerusalem ceased:

and I am left alone: meaning either as a prophet, not knowing that Obadiah had hid an hundred prophets by fifty in a cave, 1Ki 18:4; or else as a worshipper of the true God, imagining that he was the only person in Israel, that had a true zeal for the Lord of hosts:

and they seek my life; lay in wait for it, Jezebel by her emissaries being in quest of him; it is added in 1Ki 19:14, "to take it away"; for she had swore by her gods, that by the morrow about that time, his life should be as the life of one of the prophets of Baal he had slain; and in one copy it is added here.

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Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Rom 11:3 A quotation from 1 Kgs 19:10, 14.

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Commentary -- Verse Range Notes

TSK Synopsis: Rom 11:1-36 - --1 God has not cast off all Israel.7 Some were elected, though the rest were hardened.16 There is hope of their conversion.18 The Gentiles may not exul...

MHCC: Rom 11:1-10 - --There was a chosen remnant of believing Jews, who had righteousness and life by faith in Jesus Christ. These were kept according to the election of gr...

Matthew Henry: Rom 11:1-32 - -- The apostle proposes here a plausible objection, which might be urged against the divine conduct in casting off the Jewish nation (Rom 11:1): " Hath...

Barclay: Rom 11:1-12 - --There was a question now to be asked which any Jew was bound to ask. Does all this mean that God has repudiated his people? That is a question that ...

Constable: Rom 9:1--11:36 - --V. THE VINDICATION OF GOD'S RIGHTEOUSNESS chs. 9--11 A major problem concerning God's righteousness arises out o...

Constable: Rom 11:1-36 - --C. Israel's future salvation ch. 11 In chapter 9 Paul glorified God's past grace in sovereignly electing...

Constable: Rom 11:1-10 - --1. Israel's rejection not total 11:1-10 The first pericope gives hope for the future by showing that even now some Jews believe. 11:1 The opening ques...

College: Rom 11:1-36 - --IV. THE SALVATION OF GOD'S TRUE ISRAEL (11:1-32) Thus far in chs. 9-10 Paul has painted a very dark picture of Israel. He has implied that they are ...

McGarvey: Rom 11:3 - --Lord, they have killed thy prophets, they have digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life . [Against these two proofs adduce...

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Introduction / Outline

Robertson: Romans (Book Introduction) The Epistle to the Romans Spring of a.d. 57 By Way of Introduction Integrity of the Epistle The genuineness of the Epistle is so generally adm...

JFB: Romans (Book Introduction) THE GENUINENESS of the Epistle to the Romans has never been questioned. It has the unbroken testimony of all antiquity, up to CLEMENT OF ROME, the apo...

JFB: Romans (Outline) INTRODUCTION. (Rom. 1:1-17) THE JEW UNDER LIKE CONDEMNATION WITH THE GENTILE. (Rom. 2:1-29) JEWISH OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. (Rom 3:1-8) THAT THE JEW IS S...

TSK: Romans (Book Introduction) The Epistle to the Romans is " a writing," says Dr. Macknight, " which, for sublimity and truth of sentiment, for brevity and strength of expression,...

TSK: Romans 11 (Chapter Introduction) Overview Rom 11:1, God has not cast off all Israel; Rom 11:7, Some were elected, though the rest were hardened; Rom 11:16, There is hope of their ...

Poole: Romans 11 (Chapter Introduction) CHAPTER 11

MHCC: Romans (Book Introduction) The scope or design of the apostle in writing to the Romans appears to have been, to answer the unbelieving, and to teach the believing Jew; to confir...

MHCC: Romans 11 (Chapter Introduction) (Rom 11:1-10) The rejection of the Jews is not universal. (Rom 11:11-21) God overruled their unbelief for making the Gentiles partakers of gospel pri...

Matthew Henry: Romans (Book Introduction) An Exposition, with Practical Observations, of The Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans If we may compare scripture with scripture, and take the opinion ...

Matthew Henry: Romans 11 (Chapter Introduction) The apostle, having reconciled that great truth of the rejection of the Jews with the promise made unto the fathers, is, in this chapter, further l...

Barclay: Romans (Book Introduction) A GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE LETTERS OF PAUL The Letters Of Paul There is no more interesting body of documents in the New Testament than the letter...

Barclay: Romans 11 (Chapter Introduction) The Callus On The Heart (Rom_11:1-12) The Wild Olive--Privilege And Warning (Rom_11:13-24) That All May Be Of Mercy (Rom_11:25-32) The Cry Of The ...

Constable: Romans (Book Introduction) Introduction Historical Background Throughout the history of the church, from postapos...

Constable: Romans (Outline) Outline I. Introduction 1:1-17 A. Salutation 1:1-7 1. The writer 1:1 ...

Constable: Romans Romans Bibliography Alford, Henry. The Greek Testament. 4 vols. New ed. Cambridge: Rivingtons, 1881. ...

Haydock: Romans (Book Introduction) THE EPISTLE OF ST. PAUL, THE APOSTLE, TO THE ROMANS. INTRODUCTION. After the Gospels, which contain the history of Christ, and the Acts of...

Gill: Romans (Book Introduction) INTRODUCTION TO ROMANS Though this epistle is in order placed the first of the epistles, yet it was not first written: there were several epistles ...

Gill: Romans 11 (Chapter Introduction) INTRODUCTION TO ROMANS 11 The apostle having spoken of the calling of the Gentiles, and given a hint of the perverseness of the Jews in slighting t...

College: Romans (Book Introduction) INTRODUCTION I. ROMANS: ITS INFLUENCE AND IMPORTANCE God's Word is a lamp to our feet and a light for our path (Ps 119:105), and no part of it shine...

College: Romans (Outline) VIII. OUTLINE PROLOGUE - 1:1-17 I. EPISTOLARY GREETING - 1:1-7 A. The Author Introduces Himself - 1:1 1. A Slave of Christ Jesus 2. Call...

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