Attributed commentary excerpt
John Gill's Exposition on Romans 9:4
A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.
Exposition of the Old and New Testament
John Gill (1697–1771) · 18th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
Who are Israelites, etc..] Which were their national name, as descended from Jacob, whose name was Israel; and it was accounted a very honourable one; (see <500305>Philippians 3:5 <471122>2 Corinthians 11:22); and the very name they bore gave the apostle some concern that they should be cut off; and then he proceeds to enumerate the several distinguishing favours and privileges they had been partakers of: to whom pertaineth the adoption; not that special adoption, which springs from eternal predestination, is a blessing of the covenant of grace, comes through the redemption of Christ, and is received and enjoyed only by believers in him; for all that were Israelites, were not in this sense the children of God; but national adoption is here meant, by which the whole body of the people, as nation, were the sons of God, his firstborn: and the glory; either the ark of the covenant, which is so called in (<196302>Psalm 63:2), according to Kimchi; or the clouds in the tabernacle and temple, which were called the glory of the Lord, and were symbols of his presence, the same with the Shekinah; and so Aben Ezra interprets power, the ark, and glory, the Shekinah, (<196302>Psalm 63:2), and the covenants; not the two Testaments, Old and New, but the covenant of circumcision, made with Abraham their father, and the covenant at Sinai they entered into with the Lord; some copies, and the Vulgate Latin and Ethiopic versions, read, “the covenant”: and the giving, of the law: hrwt ˆtm, a way of speaking the f166 Jews make use of when they take notice of this privilege; for it was peculiarly given to them with great solemnity by God himself, through the disposition of angels into the hands of Moses the mediator, and by him to them; and on account of this, they reckoned themselves more beloved of God than the rest of mankind f167 and the service of God; or “the service”, as in the Greek text. So the Jews f168 are used to call it hdwb[, “the service”; and false worship is called by them hrz hdwb[, “strange service”, which is the title of one of their Misnic tracts; and here it signifies the whole worship of God, in the whole compass of it, sacrifices, prayer, praise, etc.. daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly: and the promises; both temporal and spiritual, especially such as related to the Messiah, and which now had their accomplishment.
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