Romans 15.12-Paul Cites Isaiah 11.10 To Support His Conviction That The Father's Redemptive Purpose Through His Son Includes Jews And Gentiles
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday May 25, 2010
Romans: Romans 15:12-Paul Cites Isaiah 11:10 To Support His Conviction That The Father’s Redemptive Purpose Through His Son Includes The Jews And The Gentiles
Lesson # 508
Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 15:7.
This evening we will note Romans 15:12 and in this passage Paul cites Isaiah 11:10 to support his affirmation in Romans 15:8-9a that God’s redemptive purpose through His Son not only includes the Jews but also the Gentiles.
Romans 15:7, “Therefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God.”
Romans 15:8, “For I say that Christ has become a servant to the circumcision on behalf of the truth of God to confirm the promises given to the fathers.”
Romans 15:9, “And for the Gentiles to glorify God for His mercy; as it is written, ‘Therefore I will give praise to You among the Gentiles, and I will sing to Your name.’”
Romans 15:10, “Again he says, ‘Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people.’”
Romans 15:11, “And again, ‘Praise the Lord all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples praise Him.’”
Romans 15:12, “Again Isaiah says, ‘There shall come the root of Jesse, and He who arises to rule over the Gentiles, in Him shall the Gentiles hope.’”
Paul is quoting from the Septuagint translation of Isaiah 11:10.
Isaiah 11:10, “In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.” (ESV)
The Septuagint (LXX) speaks of the root of Jesse “arising to rule over the nations who place their confidence upon Him” whereas the Hebrew text speaks of the root of Jesse, i.e. the Messiah “standing as a signal flag to the nations” and of Him the nations “will seek after.”
So the statement that the root of Jesse will arise to rule is a paraphrase of the Hebrew statement that the root of Jesse will stand as a signal flag to the nations.
Paul chooses the LXX translation rather than the Hebrew since it suits his purposes better than the Hebrew but nevertheless, the basic meaning of both texts is the same since the LXX is an acceptable paraphrase of the Hebrew (Dunn, page 850; Sanday-Headlam, page 399).
Both would allow him to support his argument in Romans 15:8-9a.
“There shall come” is the third person singular future middle indicative form of the verb eimi (εἰμί) (ee-mee), which means, “to live” and refers to the resurrection of Jesus Christ since the expression “the root of Jesse” emphasizes that in His human nature, Christ was a descendant of King David.
The future tense is a “predictive” future tense predicting that the Messiah “will as a certainty” cause Himself to live by rising from the dead.
The middle voice is a causative middle indicating that the Messiah will thus cause Himself to live and is the ultimate source behind the action.
“The root of Jesse” means that Jesus Christ is the promised descendant of King David whose father was Jesse indicating that He fulfills God’s promise to David that a descendant of his will sit on his throne forever.
This usage of the word rhiza in Romans 15:12 also appears in Revelation 5:5 and 22:16.
Revelation 5:5, “Then one of the elders said to me, ‘Stop weeping! Look, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered; thus he can open the scroll and its seven seals.” (NET Bible)
Revelation 22:16, “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star!” (NET Bible)
The “Davidic” covenant deals with the dynasty that will rule the nation of Israel as indicated in 2 Samuel 7:16 where God promised David that a descendant of his would sit on his throne forever.
2 Samuel 7:16, “Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.”
Romans 15:12, “Again Isaiah says, ‘There shall come the root of Jesse, and He who arises to rule over the Gentiles, in Him shall the Gentiles hope.’”
“He who arises” is the articular nominative masculine singular present middle participle form of the verb anistemi (ἀνίστημι) (ah-nee-sta-mee), which means “to cause oneself live again after having once died.”
The middle voice of the verb anistemi is also a causative middle indicating that the Messiah will thus cause Himself to rise again from the dead and is the ultimate source behind this action.
The futuristic present tense of the verb anistemi is used to describe the resurrection of Christ from the perspective of when Isaiah lived when he wrote this prophecy emphasizing the certainty of it taking place.
“To rule” is the present active infinitive form of the verb archo (ἄρχω) (ahr-koe), which means “to rule or govern, with the implication of preeminent position and status” (Louw and Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament based on Semantic Domains, 37.54).
Therefore, the word speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ “ruling over” the Gentiles.
The infinitive form of this verb is an infinitive of purpose indicating the goal or the purpose of the action of the controlling verb, which is anistemi indicating that Christ rose again from the dead “in order that” He would rule over the Gentiles.
The futuristic present tense of the verb is used to describe Christ ruling over the Gentiles from the perspective of when Isaiah lived when he wrote this prophecy emphasizing the certainty of it taking place.
“Over the nations” is the genitive neuter plural form of the noun ethnos (ἒθνος) (eff-noce), which means “Gentiles” and is used in contrast to the Jews referring to all those individuals who are “not” of Jewish racial descent.
“In Him” marks the Lord Jesus Christ as the object in which the Gentiles’ faith or absolute confidence would rest for eternal salvation.
“Shall hope” is the third person plural future active indicative form of the verb elpizo (ἐλπίζω) (el-pee-zoe), which means “to place one’s confidence” upon somebody indicating that the Gentiles will place their confidence upon the Lord Jesus Christ for eternal salvation.
The future tense is a “predictive” future tense predicting that the Gentiles “will as a certainty” place their confidence upon the Lord Jesus Christ for eternal salvation.
So in Romans 15:12, the apostle Paul cites the Septuagint translation of Isaiah 11:10 to support his affirmation in Romans 15:8-9a that God’s redemptive purpose through His Son not only includes the Jews but also the Gentiles.
This citation from Isaiah 11:10 is a prophecy of Israel’s Messiah, which predicts that He will cause Himself to live again, specifically, He will cause Himself to rise again from the dead in order to rule over the Gentiles.
Isaiah predicts that upon Him, the Gentiles will place their confidence for eternal salvation and of course, this prediction was fulfilled and is being fulfilled today and Paul’s readers who were Gentile are living proof and so are all of you!