Romans 8:13

8:13 (for if you live according to the flesh, you will die), but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live.

Romans 11:15-16

11:15 For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? 11:16 If the first portion of the dough offered is holy, then the whole batch is holy, and if the root is holy, so too are the branches.


tn Grk “are about to, are certainly going to.”

sn This remark is parenthetical to Paul’s argument.

tn Grk “firstfruits,” a term for the first part of something that has been set aside and offered to God before the remainder can be used.

sn Most interpreters see Paul as making use of a long-standing metaphor of the olive tree (the root…the branches) as a symbol for Israel. See, in this regard, Jer 11:16, 19. A. T. Hanson, Studies in Paul’s Technique and Theology, 121-24, cites rabbinic use of the figure of the olive tree, and goes so far as to argue that Rom 11:17-24 is a midrash on Jer 11:16-19.