he could not be reconciled. That is what Paul concedes in the first sentence of v. 20—or, rather, that is the bold assertion that he, who is himself an Israelite, makes against the way in which his own people have misunderstood their election and calling, and against the antisemitic error which was not unknown even in his day. It was inevitable that God’s chosen people, to whom He gave the Law, should achieve nothing but the final and absolute pleonazein (abounding) of the sinfulness of man. That