World English Bible · Under Rome
Romans 9
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I tell the truth in Christ. I am not lying, my testifying with me in that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in . For I could wish that I myself were from Christ for my brothers' sake, my relatives according to who are ; whose is the adoption, the , the , the giving of , the , and the promises; of whom are the fathers, and from whom is Christ as concerning , who is over all, , . . But it is not as though the word of has come to nothing. For they are not all Israel that are of Israel. Neither, because they are , are they all children. But, " will be accounted as from ." That is, it is not the children of who are children of , but the children of the promise are counted as . For this is a word of promise: "At the I will come, and will have a son." Not only so, but also conceived by one, by . For being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of according to election might stand, not of works, but of him who calls, it was said to her, "The elder will the younger." Even as , " I loved, but I hated." What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with ? May it never be! For he said to , "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have on whom I have ." So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of who has mercy. For the says to , "For this very purpose I caused you to be up, that I might show in you my , and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth." So then, he has mercy on whom he , and he hardens whom he . You will say then to me, "Why does he still find fault? For who withstands his will?" But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against ? Will the thing formed ask him who formed it, "Why did you make me like this?" Or hasn't the a right over the , from the same lump to make one part a for , and another for dishonor? What if , willing to show his and to make his known, with much vessels of prepared for , and that he might make known the riches of his on vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for — us, whom he also called, not from the only, but also from the ? As he says also in , "I will call them 'my people,' which were not my people; and her 'beloved,' who was not beloved." "It will be that in the place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' there they will be called 'children of the living .'" cries concerning Israel, "If the number of the are as the sand of the sea, it is who will be ; for he will finish the work and cut it short in , because will make a short work upon the earth." As has said before, "Unless of Armies had left us a , we would have become like , and would have been made like ." What shall we say then? That the , who didn't follow after , attained to , even the which is of ; but Israel, following after a law of , didn't arrive at of . Why? Because they didn't seek it by , but as it were by . They stumbled over the stumbling stone, even as , "Behold, I lay in a stumbling stone and a of offense; and no one who believes in him will be disappointed."
A public domain modern English translation, free to read and share. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
Christians read this chapter differently
- Does God choose us, or do we choose God? · Romans 9
Every view at its strongest, with who holds it and what it has to answer for.
The world at this moment · Under Rome, 63 BC to AD 100 ›
Judea as a client kingdom and then a province. Roads, garrisons, taxes, crucifixion, and a common Greek language that let a message travel the empire faster than any before it.
- Rome
- The republic tears itself apart in civil war and comes out as an empire under Augustus. What follows is two centuries of relative peace across the whole Mediterranean, enforced by legions and paid for by taxes, with safe roads and safe sea lanes. Every one of Paul's journeys depends on that.
- Judea
- Governed first through Herod the Great, a client king of enormous ability and enormous brutality who rebuilds the temple into one of the wonders of the ancient world, then directly by Roman prefects. Crucifixion is the standard penalty for sedition and is used often and publicly.
- The wider world
- Greek is spoken from Spain to Syria, which means a letter written in Corinth can be read in Rome without translation. Jewish communities already exist in most major cities, which is where the first Christian preaching lands. Mystery religions, imperial cult, and philosophy all compete in the same marketplace.
- Further afield
- The Han dynasty rules China and trades silk westward along routes that touch the Roman world at second hand. In Britain the Roman conquest begins within a decade of the crucifixion.