King James Version · Under Rome
Romans 9
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I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my also bearing me in the Ghost, That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in . For I could wish that myself were from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to : Who are ; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the , and the , and the giving of , and the of , and the promises; Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning Christ came, who is over all, for ever. . Not as though the word of hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel: Neither, because they are the of , are they all children: but, In shall thy be called. That is, They which are the children of , these are not the children of : but the children of the promise are counted for the . For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and shall have a son. And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by ; (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) It was said unto her, The elder shall the younger. As , have I loved, but have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with ? forbid. For he saith to , I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have on whom I will have . So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of that sheweth mercy. For the saith unto , Even for this same purpose have I thee up, that I might shew my in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against ? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the over the , of the same lump to make one unto , and another unto dishonour? What if , willing to shew his , and to make his known, with much the vessels of fitted to : And that he might make known the riches of his on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto , Even us, whom he hath called, not of the only, but also of the ? As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved. And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living . also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the be as the sand of the sea, a shall be : For he will finish the work, and cut it short in : because a short work will make upon the earth. And as said before, Except of Sabaoth had left us a , we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha. What shall we say then? That the , which followed not after , have attained to , even the which is of . But Israel, which followed after of , hath not attained to of . Wherefore? Because they sought it not by , but as it were by the . For they stumbled at that stumblingstone; As , Behold, I lay in a stumblingstone and of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be .
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. 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.