contrast to the ‘Israel after the flesh’ (1 Cor. 10:18); comp. Rom. 9:6 οὐ γὰρ πάντες οἱ ἐξ Ἰσραὴλ οὗτοι Ἰσραήλ, Gal. 3:29, Phil. 3:3. It stands here not for the faithful converts from the circumcision alone, but for the spiritual Israel generally, the whole body of believers whether Jew or Gentile; and thus καὶ is epexegetic, i.e. it introduces the same thing under a new aspect, as in Heb. 11:17, etc.; see Winer § 53. p. 545 sq. 17. St Paul closes the epistle, as he had begun it, with