Paul’s New Covenant Reading of Deuteronomy 30.12-14 in Romans 10.6-9, and the Meaning of ‘All Israel will be saved’ in Romans 11.26
How does Paul come by his Christological interpretation of Deuteronomy 30.12-14 in Romans 10? He says,
Rom.
10:6 But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart,[1]
‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) 7 “or ‘Who will
descend into the abyss[2]?’”
(that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say? “The word
is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that
we proclaim); 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and
believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
At first glance, such a
reading seems strained, since it is a conclusion to the renewal of the Mosaic
covenant at the end of Moses’ life, as Israel is preparing to enter the
land of promise. Paul, of course, would
have known this just as we do. So, how
is it that he interprets the passage with reference to the New Covenant, which
all Christians understood to be established by Jesus through His death on the
cross? Various scholars rightly point
out that Paul is finding the Gospel—incarnation, death, and resurrection[3]—in
this passage, but it is particularly a New Covenant reading of the passage that
makes Paul’s reading understandable.
Douglas Moo rejects this reading,[4]
whereas Frank Thielman, for example, argued for it in his Duke University
dissertation.[5] A New Covenant understanding is key to the
following interpretation as well, and, it will be argued, Paul finds a New Covenant
reading essential to understanding Deuteronomy 30—it is far from a fanciful
reading. The unique argument presented
here is that Paul’s reading of Deuteronomy 30 is not only suggested by
Deuteronomy’s own theology but also is a reading that he comes to through
Isaiah 59.[6] The argument offered here is that Isaiah
59.20-21 explains Paul’s reading of Deuteronomy 30.12-14 in Romans 10.6-9. In the process of making this argument,
Paul’s meaning of ‘all Israel will be saved’ in Romans 11.26 is also clarified.
Paul’s Two Quotations
from Isaiah 59 in Romans
In Romans, Paul twice
quotes from Isaiah 59 to explain parts of his theological argument. Paul’s first theological argument is
presented in Romans 1.18-3.20. In it,
Paul argues that both categories of humanity, Gentiles and Jews, are under
sin. In his conclusion to this first
argument, he quotes Isaiah 59.7-8 (Romans 3.15-17). This conclusion comes in the form of a chain
of Old Testament quotations to establish that all, both Jews and Gentiles, are
under sin (vv. 9-18, 23). Then, at the
end of Paul’s theological exposition in Romans, he turns to a discussion of the
mercy of God for both Jews and Gentiles (Romans 9-11). His final sub-topic in this argument has to
do with God’s plan for His covenant people, who are ‘cut off from Christ’ (the
language is from Romans 9.3, at the beginning of this larger section). Paul’s final words on the question of the
Jews in God’s plan come in Romans 11.25-32, quoted in the box, below.
Several interpretations
have been offered as to what Paul’ means by ‘all Israel will be saved,’
including the idea that ‘Israel’ is used of the Church and not the Jews as
God’s covenant people (e.g., John Calvin).
What Paul means by this statement, though, can be seen through the Old
Testament quotations that follow. Romans
11.26-27 are a composite quotation from two Old Testament texts. They are linked in subject matter and by the
word ‘Jacob’. One of the Jewish rules
for interpretation, Gezera Shewa, stated that texts could be linked in
interpretation if they shared a word in common.
Thus, Paul brings together Isaiah 59.20-21a and Isaiah 27.9, which are
noted in bold in the following quotes.
However, more than the quoted material is presented here. This is so that the reader can see that Paul
has in view more than the keyword link and more than the words from each
passage that he quotes.
|
Romans
11.25-27 |
Isaiah
27.6-13 |
Isaiah
59.20-60.21 |
|
Rom.
11:25 Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want
you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial
hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come
in. 26 And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, “The
Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”; 27
“and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins.” |
Is.
27.6 In days to come Jacob shall take root, Israel shall blossom and put
forth shoots and fill the whole world with fruit. 7 Has he struck them as he
struck those who struck them?... Is. 27:9 Therefore by this the guilt of
Jacob will be atoned for, and this will be the full fruit of the
removal of his sin:… 11 When its boughs are dry, they are broken…. 12 In
that day from the river Euphrates to the Brook of Egypt the
LORD will thresh out the grain, and you will be gleaned one by one, O people
of Israel. 13 And in that day a great trumpet will be blown, and those who
were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were driven out to the land of
Egypt will come and worship the LORD on the holy mountain at Jerusalem. |
Is.
59:20 “And a Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from
transgression,” declares the LORD. 21 “And as for me, this is my
covenant with them,” says the LORD: “My Spirit that is upon you, and my
words that I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or
out of the mouth of your offspring, or out of the mouth of your children’s
offspring,” says the LORD, “from this time forth and forevermore.” 60.1
Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen
upon you…. 3 And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the
brightness of your rising…. 11 Your gates shall be open continually; day and
night they shall not be shut, that people may bring to you the wealth of the
nations, with
their kings led in procession…. 21 Your people shall all be righteous; they
shall possess the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my
hands, that I might be glorified. |
That Paul’s quotation in
Romans 11.26-27 come from Isaiah 27.9 and 59.20-21 is well recognized. By providing some of the verses around what
Paul quotes, however, I hope to show that there is more to the link than just
what Paul quotes. Several theological
points overlap in the passages:
- Both passages have
in view Jacob’s (Israel’s) sin
- Both passages have
the exile in view: for their sin, the Jews are taken into captivity
- Both passages have
in view a need for atonement/a Redeemer from Zion
- Both passages have
in view God’s intervention and restoration of Israel from captivity
- Both passages depict
Israel’s situation through a metaphor of branches that are dry and broken
off or that bloom again
The depiction of Israel’s
being cut off and possibly later grafted back into the olive tree of God’s
people, as well as the Gentiles’ being grafted in, are described at some length
in Romans 11.16b-24. Paul’s metaphor of
the branches derives from both of the Isaianic passages. Also, in Isaiah 59-60, the return from exile
includes not only Israel’s redemption but also the inclusion of the
Gentiles. Finally, Isaiah 59.20-21
describes the return from exile as the New Covenant. As in Ezekiel 36.27, God will put His Spirit
in them (Isaiah 59.21). Isaiah calls
this God’s ‘covenant’. God says that He
will put His words in their mouths.
This language of God’s
words in the people’s mouths is language derived from Deuteronomy 30.14. That is, there is a link in Isaiah between
the renewal ceremony of Moses at the end of Deuteronomy to the New
Covenant. It turns out to be the same
covenant, except that the New Covenant is God’s making the obedience
possible. References to the New
Covenant have to do with an internal change that will make the sinful
Israelites righteous. Jeremiah speaks of
this as a changing of heart (Jeremiah 31.31-34). Ezekiel 36.24-27 speaks of a giving of the
Spirit of God, as does Isaiah 59.21. The
third image for internal change is God’s words being put into the mouths of the
covenant people.
Paul, then, offers a
theological interpretation of Deuteronomy 30.12-14 that is consistent with the
New Covenant theology of the prophets and that uses language from Deuteronomy
30 that Isaiah picked up in describing the New Covenant. Paul knows from Deuteronomy 30 that Israel
would not obey God’s covenant and that they would go into exile. Earlier in this chapter, we read:
Deut.
30:1 “And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse,
which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations
where the LORD your God has driven you, 2 and return to the LORD your God, you
and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all
your heart and with all your soul, 3 then the LORD your God will restore your
fortunes and have mercy on you, and he will gather you again from all the
peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you.
Thus, for God’s
commandments to be easy to obey, God will need to ‘circumcise’ their hearts
(Deuteronomy 30.6). He will first take
them into exile for their sins, but He will restore them. Deuteronomy 30.12-14, then, needs to be read
in terms of the New Covenant promise, as Paul indeed does in Romans 10. This reading is further supported by Paul’s
focus in Romans, as we have seen, on Isaiah 59.20-21. Israel’s sin (e.g., Isaiah 59.7-8), will be
answered by the righteousness of God (Isaiah 59.16-17). For Jacob, cut off for his transgressions in
exile, this will mean that God will send His Redeemer from Zion (Isaiah 59.20),
or, as Isaiah 27.9 says, to provide an atonement for sin.
The restoration from
exile in sin that both Isaiah 27 and Isaiah 59-60 have in view, then, is the
basis for Paul’s hope that ‘all Israel will be saved’ (Romans 11.26). Paul bases his hope for the covenant people
to be restored on the prophetic hope of a return from exile. Whether or not Israel actually returned from
exile (and most did not), the theological exile in sin was still the case. Thus, a fulfillment of Old Testament promises
of a return from exile for Israel is still held out as a promise yet to
come. Paul avoids predicting this; his
comments are interpretive of the two Isaianic texts. Paul does not, as some people have oddly
suggested, imagine that Israel can come to God in their own way and not through
the Redeemer, Jesus Christ.[7] His hope is that the God of mercy has not
rejected His people but will some day restore them from their sins, including
their being ‘cut off from Christ’, which is their true exile. The God who has consigned all to disobedience
that He might have mercy on them all (Romans 11.32) is the God who can yet
restore the children of the covenant from exile in their sins and rejection of
the Redeemer who redeems Jacob from all his transgressions, bringing them into
the New Covenant established through Jesus Christ. This has nothing to do with national Israel,
with a country, with a geographical region, with reestablishing Temple worship
in Jerusalem, and so forth. Paul’s
points are theological and have to do with the people. ‘Exile’ is understood not geographically but
theologically.
The ‘partial hardening’
of Israel (Romans 11.25) is a mystery in God’s plan. The language of ‘mystery’ relates to the deep
working of God through time to accomplish His purposes. God’s calling, as Paul showed in chapter 9,
serves His plan for salvation. As
Pharaoh’s hardening against Israel served God’s plan to save Israel (Romans
9.17-18), so also Israel’s hardening serves to bring the Gentiles into God’s
plan (Romans 11.25). While Paul does not
explain these things, it is possible to understand this. Had Pharaoh’s heart not been hardened, Israel’s
departure from Egypt would not have been a show of God’s power and mercy. Had Israel not gone into exile for her sins,
her deliverance would not have been a show of God’s power and mercy when He
redeemed them from exile. Had Israel’s
heart not been hardened to the righteousness from God in Jesus Christ, their
religion would have remained an ethnic religion—as it is today—and not been
opened up to the Gentiles. Prophetic
passages, particularly in Isaiah, offered the view that the Gentiles would be
included in God’s plan when Israel would be restored from captivity. Paul explains further how the Gentile
inclusion occurs while Israel is still in theological exile from God by
rejecting His righteousness in Christ Jesus.
Their full number will then mean the return from the ‘exile’ from faith
in Jesus.
Thus, Paul’s understanding
of who God is—the God of all mercy—is the basis for his hope that ‘all Israel’
will be saved. This is not some trite
statement that some Jews through history turn to Christ Jesus. (That was the case in Paul’s own day—in his
own life—and yet this was not the answer Paul was looking for in Romans
9-11.) It is not a statement that the
Church has replaced Israel, or that Gentiles have replaced the Jews. It is not a notion that there might be a
different path of salvation apart from Christ—the Jews’ rejection of Christ in
Paul’s day was precisely the problem Paul is addressing to a church in Rome
that had both Jews and Gentiles in it.
Paul’s theological conviction of God’s mercy leads him to say that God
is not yet finished with his plan of salvation.
One day, there will be a massive return of Israel from captivity in
their sins, when they are no longer in exile from Christ.[8] This will signal the coming of the day of
resurrection:
Rom.
11:15 For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will
their acceptance mean but life from the dead?
Paul’s version of the
prayer, ‘Maranatha,’ ‘Come, Lord Jesus,’ was to pray for God’s covenant people
with tears to accept Jesus Christ, God’s atonement for sin, His Redeemer from
Zion who takes away the transgressions of Jacob. He says,
Rom.
9.2-3 I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish
that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my
brothers,1 my kinsmen according to the flesh.
and
Rom.
10.1 Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be
saved.
The hope that
Paul has that his prayer will be answered is first in the character of God. God is merciful. This is the heart of the Gospel. Second, his hope rests in his understanding of prophecy about
the New Covenant, which allows him to read Deuteronomy 30.12-14 in light of
Isaiah 59.20-21 and in regard to Christ Jesus, who established the New Covenant
through His blood shed for us on the cross.
[1] Paul’s introduction, ‘Do not say
in your heart,’ comes from Deuteronomy 9.4.
By drawing the reader’s attention to Deuteronomy 9 before interpreting
Deuteronomy 30.12-14, Paul manages to provide a lens for his interpretation of
the latter passage. Deuteronomy 9
repeatedly emphasizes that Israel will not enter the land of promise because of
their own righteousness. Obedience to
the Law is not the basis of God’s blessing.
[2] Paul combines
wording from Psalm 107.26 (ET) here to change Deuteronomy 30.13’s ‘,’ to ‘down
to the abyss’: ‘they mounted up to heaven; they went down
to the depths’ (ESV). Ps. 107 speaks of
those who were fools in their sinful ways (v. 17) who then cried to the LORD
(v. 19). The LORD then ‘sent out his
word and healed them’ (v. 20). As with
Isaiah 27 and 59, the help for sinners comes from God (as opposed to greater
effort to obey the Law). Paul’s
interpretation combining such texts is in keeping with the theological point of
each text.
[3] This is the emphasis, e.g., in
Frank Thielman, Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand
Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2018), pp. 491-493. Similarly in Jewett and Seifrid (see
footnote 4).
[4] Douglas J. Moo, The Epistle to
the Romans, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand
Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2996), p. 652.
[5] Frank Thielman, From Plight to
Solution: A Jewish Framework for Understanding Paul’s View of the Law in
Galatians and Romans (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1989), pp. 113-114.
[6]
[7] E.g., Krister Stendahl says that
Romans 9-11 is the climax of Romans and that it is about ‘the relation of the
two communities [church and synagogue or Jewish people] and their coexistence
in the mysterious plan of God..’ Stendahl
emphasizes that the Jews’ salvation is not about accepting Jesus as the
Messiah. See Paul Among Jews and
Gentiles, and Other Essays (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1976),
p. 4. In response, one might note that
Paul does not believe that the Jews are being saved at the present time (Rom.
10.1) and that they have zeal for God but no knowledge of the righteousness of
God (Rom. 10.2-3). This righteousness of
God, Paul earlier laid out clearly, is ‘through faith in Jesus Christ for all
who believe’ (Rom. 3.22).
[8] The position on this issue that is
offered here is well represented in scholarship. James D. G. Dunn, for example, argues a
related view that the ‘mystery’ of ‘all Israel’ coming to salvation involves
the hardening of literal Israel, the entrance of the full number of the
Gentiles, and then mercy shown to literal Israel again (Rom. 11.31). Dunn then notes that this view is consistent
with the point of a number of Old Testament texts: Ps. 22.27-31; 86.9; Is.
2.2-3; 25.6-8; 56.3-8; 66.18-23; Mic. 4.1-2; Zeph. 3.8-11; Zech. 2.10-12;
14.16-17. He also notes some apocryphal
texts, but we might add that there are a number of other passages that might be
listed—not least the passage noted in this article of Isaiah 59.20-60.22. See Dunn, The Theology of Paul the Apostle (Grand
Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2006), p. 535, n. 10.
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