Election of the Lesser Son: Paul’s Lament-Midrash in Romans 9

Election of the Lesser Son: Paul’s Lament-Midrash in Romans 9–11 is unavailable, but you can change that!

God chooses Israel (salvation “first to the Jew and then the gentile”), but without showing favoritism? Paul genuinely grieves for Israel as one speaking “in” Christ, yet prays to be cursed, cut off from Christ? Romans 9–11 remains one of the most difficult and contested biblical texts in scholarship today. Theological discussions often limit the focus of this passage to God’s sovereignty,...

in writing his letter as well as contributing to a better understanding of the letter as a whole. To be more specific, when Paul opens the body of the Letter to the Romans, he confidently expresses that his “gospel is the power of God unto salvation to all who believe” and qualifies this statement with the phrase “first to the Jew and then the gentile” (1:16). It seems that here Paul emphasizes God’s priority in choosing Israel. Yet in the following passage, Paul restates this priority—“first

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