Rom 11:17, 24 | Clarke | e4.org | Verse 17. And if some of the branches , &c.] If the present nation of the Jews, because of their unbelief, are cut off from the blessings of the Church of God, and the high honour and dignity of being his peculiar people; and thou, being a wild olive -ye Gentiles , being without the knowledge of the true God, and consequently bringing forth no fruits of righteousness, wert grafted in among them -are now inserted in the original stock, having been made partakers of the faith of Abraham, and consequently of his blessings; and enjoy, as the people did who sprang from him, the fatness of the olive tree -the promises made to the patriarchs, and the spiritual privileges of the Jewish Church:-

‏ Romans 11:17

Verse 17. And if some of the branches, &c.] If the present nation of the Jews, because of their unbelief, are cut off from the blessings of the Church of God, and the high honour and dignity of being his peculiar people; and thou, being a wild olive-ye Gentiles, being without the knowledge of the true God, and consequently bringing forth no fruits of righteousness, wert grafted in among them-are now inserted in the original stock, having been made partakers of the faith of Abraham, and consequently of his blessings; and enjoy, as the people did who sprang from him, the fatness of the olive tree-the promises made to the patriarchs, and the spiritual privileges of the Jewish Church:-

‏ Romans 11:24

Verse 24. The olive tree, which is wild by nature] Which is καταφυσιν, naturally, wild and barren; for that the wild olive bore no fruit is sufficiently evident from the testimony of the authors who have written on the subject; hence the proverb, ακαρποτεροςαγριππου. more unfruitful than the wild olive. λακωνεςγαραγριανελαιαναγιππονκαλουσι. for the Lacedemonians term the wild olive αγριππον. See SUIDAS. And hence HESYCHIUS interprets αγριελαιος, the wild olive, (the word used here by St. Paul,) by ακαρπος, unfruitful: and the reason given in DIOGEN. Proverb. Cent. ii. n. 63, is φυτονγαρεστινοαγριπποςακαρπον. for the wild olive is an unfruitful tree. On this account the apostle very properly says: Thou wert cut, εκτηςκαταφυσιν αγριελαιου, out of that olive which is uncultivated, because it is barren: the καταφυσιν does not refer here to its being naturally barren; but to its being commonly or customarily permitted to remain so. And that this is the import of the phrase here is evident from the next clause of the verse.

And wert grafted contrary to nature] παραφυσιν, contrary to all custom; for a scion taken from a barren or useless tree is scarcely ever known to be grafted into a good stock; but here the Gentiles, a fruitless and sinful race, are grafted on the ancient patriarchal stock. Now, if it was possible to effect such a change in the state and disposition of the Gentiles, who were αθεοιεντωκοσμω, Eph 2:12, without God, ATHEISTS, in the world; how much more possible is it, speaking after the manner of men, to bring about a similar change in the Jews, who acknowledge the one, only, and true God, and receive the law and the prophets as a revelation from him. This seems to be the drift of the apostle's argument.