Texts in Conversation
Romans 11 and 4 Ezra share a Jewish tradition that the future messianic age follows a set timeline shaped by God. This includes a place for Gentiles in that plan and explains how God guides history toward a promised future for all people.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Romans 11:25
New Testament
24 For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree? 25 For I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: A partial hardening has happened to Israel until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion; he will remove ungodliness from Jacob. 27 And this is my covenant with them, when I take away their sins.” 28 In regard to the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but in regard to election they are dearly loved for the sake of the fathers. 29 For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.
Date: 55–58 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
4 Ezra 4:35
2 Esdras
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
34 He answered me, and said, “Don’t hurry faster than the Most High; for your haste is for your own self, but he who is above hurries on behalf of many. 35 Didn’t the souls of the righteous ask about these things in their chambers, saying, ‘How long will we be here? When does the fruit of the threshing floor come?’ 36 To them, Jeremiel the archangel answered, ‘When the number is fulfilled of those who are like you. For he has weighed the world in the balance. 37 By measure, he has measured the times. By number, he has counted the seasons. He won’t move or stir them until that measure is fulfilled.’” 38 Then I answered, “O sovereign Lord, all of us are full of ungodliness. 39 Perhaps it is for our sakes that the threshing time of the righteous is kept back—because of the sins of those who dwell on the earth.”
Date: 70–132 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Donaldson notes two Pauline assumptions underlying the temporal view: (1) Paul 'believes that the parousia will bring to an end the opportunity of salvation for the Gentiles.' This may be suggested in Paul's talk of 'the fullness of the Gentiles' (Rom 11:25); it is seen more clearly in I Cor 15:23; 2 Cor 6:2; I Thess 4:13-17; and 2 Thess 5:2-10. (2) Paul 'believes that the reversal of Israel's present situation of stumbling/defeat/rejection, will precipitate the eschatological age itself.' These two convictions of Paul have Jewish parallels. Donaldson finds parallels to the first conviction in exclusivist streams of Second Temple Judaism, which were (perhaps reluctantly) open to proselytes in the present (2 Apoc. Bar. 41:1-6; 1QS 6:13-15; CD 14:4-5) but saw no possibility of conversion or even the presence of Gentiles in the future age (4 Ezra 8:56-58; CD 4:7-12; t. Sanh. 13.2; b. Abod. Zar. 3b; Pesiqta Rabbati 161a). He concludes, 'There is every reason, then, to suppose that for one strand of Judaism, at least, the Gentiles' hope of salvation in the Age to Come depended on their becoming proselytes in the present' (Apocalypse of Abraham 23:5; 4 Ezra 4:35-43; b. Sanhedrin 97b-98a; b. Shabbat 118b; Sifre Deuteronomy 41) ..."
Murray Baker, “Paul and the Salvation of Israel: Paul's Ministry, the Motif of Jealousy, and Israel's Yes,” CBQ (2005): 469–484.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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