Charles Ellicott Commentary Romans 11

I say then.—Are we to infer from the language of Isaiah just quoted that God has cast away his people? God forbid. The Apostle is himself too closely identified with his countrymen to look upon it with anything but horror.

I also.—This appeal to his own descent from Abraham seems to be called forth by the Apostle’s patriotic sympathy with his people, and not merely by the thought that he would be included in their rejection. This last explanation, which is that usually given, is less consistent with the generous chivalry of his nature, and does not agree so well with Romans 9:3.

Of the tribe of Benjamin.—And therefore of the purest blood, because the tribes of Judah and Benjamin alone kept up the theocratic continuity of the race after the Exile. (Compare to Philippians 3:5.)

Which he foreknew.—This must not be pressed too far, as implying an absolute indefectibility of the divine favor. God, having in His eternal counsels set His choice upon Israel as His peculiar people, will not readily disown them. Nor is their case really so bad as it may seem. Now, as in the days of Elijah, there are a select few who have not shared in the general depravity.

Of Elias.—Literally, in Elias—that is, in the section which contains the history of Elias. So in Mark 12:26 and Luke 20:37, in the bush and at the bush mean, in the paragraph relating to the bush.

I am left alone—i.e., of the prophets.

To the image of Baal.—The name “Baal” is here, as frequently in the LXX., in the feminine gender, and it is to account for this that our translators have inserted the word “image.” How the feminine really came to be used is uncertain. Some have thought that the deity was androgynous, others have conjectured that the feminine is used contemptuously. Baal was originally the sun-god. The sun, it may be remembered, is feminine in German and some other languages.

Just as there was a remnant then, so also is there a remnant now. The existence of such a remnant is due not to any human merit on the part of those exempted from the fate of their nation, but to the spontaneous act of divine grace selecting them from the rest. These two things, grace and works, really exclude each other.

The Apostle reverts somewhat parenthetically, and because his mind is full of the thought, to his idea of Romans 9:11-16. We also have a break in the train of argument here. After establishing the fact that there is this remnant, the Apostle inquires how it came to be. This was because the mass of the people trusted in their own works instead of relying on grace; therefore, grace deserted them, and they were left to a judicial blindness.