from the nations is … necessary for the election of Israel; it is among the constituent or integral parts of the existence of the Jewish people as God’s chosen.”15 According to Marshall, Israel’s election “would be void if the biological descendants of Abraham indeed received God’s promised blessing, but had ceased to be identifiable as Abraham’s descendants, that is, as Jews. The permanence of Israel’s election thus entails the permanence of the distinction between Jew and Gentile.”16 Marshall contends