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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJohn Calvin Complete Commentary - Romans 11:8 - 11:8
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
8.Given them has God, etc. There is no doubt, I think, but that the passage quoted here from Isaiah is that which Luke refers to in Act_28:26, as quoted from him, only the words are somewhat altered. Nor does he record here what we find in the Prophet, but only collects from him this sentiment, — that they were imbued from above with the spirit of maliciousness, so that they continued dull in seeing and hearing. The Prophet was indeed bidden to harden the heart of the people: but Paul penetrates to the very fountain, — that brutal stupor seizes on all the senses of men, after they are given up to this madness, so that they excite themselves by virulent stimulants against the truth. For he does not call it the spirit of giddiness, but of compunction, when the bitterness of gall shows itself; yea, when there is also a fury in rejecting the truth. And he declares, that by the secret judgment of God the reprobate are so demented, that being stupified, they are incapable of forming a judgment; for when it is said, that by seeing they see nothing, the dullness of their senses is thereby intimated. (347)
Then Paul himself adds, to this very day, lest any one should object and say, that this prophecy had been formerly fulfilled, and that it was therefore absurd to apply it to the time of the gospel: this objection he anticipates, by subjoining, that it was not only a blindness of one day, which is described, but that it had continued, together with the unhealable obstinacy of the people, to the coming of Christ. (348)
(347) The quotation in this verse is taken from two passages: the first clause is from Isa_29:10, and the rest from Isa_6:9, or Deu_29:4. The first clause is not exactly according to the Hebrew or the Septuagint; instead of “ gave them,” etc., it is in the Septuagint, “ Lord hath made you drink,” etc., and in Hebrew, “ has poured upon you,” etc. It is the “ of slumber” in both, or rather, “ deep sleep” — תרדמה, a dead or an overwhelming sleep; and κατανύξις though not as to its primary sense the same, is yet used according to this meaning. The verb means to puncture, to prick, either with grief or remorse, and also to affect with stupor. The latter idea the noun must have in this place, for the Hebrew does not admit of the other. The latter part is found in substance, though not in the same form of words in the two places referred to. — Ed.
(348) Some consider this passage as taken from Deu_29:4, and regard the last words as part of the quotation. — Ed.