faith

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Romans 9: Two VERY different takes!

An advert for some Bible app popped up on my feed today in which they argued that Romans 9 was the hardest chapter to understand in the whole of the New Testament.

As I had never thought it challenging, I asked Google’s Gemini if this were actually true; if some Christians thought it was a challenging chapter.

The chapter challenges traditional assumptions about fairness, salvation, and God’s covenant promises to Israel. Here are the primary reasons theologians, pastors, and believers find it so difficult:

Here’s its response:

“Christians often call Romans 9 one of the hardest chapters in the New Testament because it dives headfirst into the deeply complex intersection of divine sovereignty (God’s absolute control and freedom) and human free will/responsibility.

1. The Shocking Language of Election and Predestination

In verses 11–13, the Apostle Paul uses the example of Jacob and Esau before they were even born—and before they had done anything good or bad—to state:

“Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

  • The Challenge: This passage is frequently cited in the fierce debate between Calvinism (Reformed theology) and Arminianism. Calvinists see it as a clear-cut defense of unconditional election and predestination, while Arminians argue Paul is talking about corporate service or historical roles rather than individual eternal salvation.

2. The Apparent Threat to God’s Justice

Paul anticipates the reader’s instinctive objection in verse 14: “What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part?” His blunt response—“By no means!”—is followed by quoting God’s words to Moses: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion” (v. 15).

  • The Challenge: To human logic, choosing some people for mercy while passing over others feels inherently “unfair.” It forces readers to grapple with a view of God that transcends human standards of egalitarian justice.

3. The Problem of Pharaoh and Human Responsibility

To illustrate his point further, Paul brings up Pharaoh, stating that God raised him up specifically to show His power and hardened whomever He wanted to harden (verses 17–18). This immediately prompts another objection in verse 19: “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?”

  • The Challenge: If God hardens a person’s heart and then holds them accountable for being hardened, how can humans truly be held morally responsible for their choices? Paul doesn’t offer a neat philosophical reconciliation; instead, he rebukes the questioner: “Who are you, O man, to answer back to God?” (v. 20).

4. The Metaphor of the Potter and the Clay

Paul uses the vivid imagery of a potter shaping lumps of clay out of the same batch—making some vessels for honorable use and some for dishonorable use (verses 20–23).

  • The Challenge: This metaphor pushes readers to confront the absolute asymmetry of the Creator-creature relationship. It challenges the modern, highly individualistic worldview that places human autonomy at the center of existence.

5. The Heartbreak Over Israel’s Rejection

The immediate pastoral context of Romans 9 isn’t just an abstract theological debate; it’s a deep emotional crisis. Paul is heartbroken that the majority of his fellow Jewish people have rejected Jesus as the Messiah.

  • The Challenge: Paul has to explain how God’s promises to ethnic Israel could seemingly fail if the Jewish nation as a whole missed out on salvation. His answer—that “not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel” (v. 6)—redefines covenant identity in a way that shocked first-century Jewish listeners and continues to spark debate about supersessionism, replacement theology, and the future of ethnic Israel today.

Ultimately, Romans 9 is considered so difficult because it forces readers to the absolute edge of human comprehension, demanding that they reconcile God’s supreme authority with human accountability—two concepts that the human mind naturally struggles to hold in total balance.”

While this response explained this perspective, in approaching the whole NT through a full Hebraic lens I had never seen these challenges in such a light.

My dear departed (Aug 2023) friend Uriel shared my perspective so I asked Gemini about his translation of this chapter. I was most impressed by it’s response as it summarised the Hebraic perspective and Uriel’s translation very well:

“In his translation and commentary Kosher Paul, Uriel Ben Mordechai approaches the letter to the Romans through the lens of First-Century Second Temple Jewish thought and Hebraic idioms, rather than through centuries of Western, Augustinian, and Reformation theology.

When readers encounter “contradictions” or heavy paradoxes in Romans 9—such as absolute predestination versus human responsibility, or God loving one brother and hating another before birth—those hurdles largely stem through traditional Western lenses (like Calvinism vs. Arminianism).

By shifting the linguistic and cultural framework, Kosher Paul reduces these apparent contradictions for several key reasons:

1. Removal of Hellenistic and Augustinian Frameworks

Traditional translations and interpretations have heavily relied on a theological framework shaped by Augustine, Aquinas, and later Reformation thinkers who read Paul as a proto-systematic theologian addressing abstract, metaphysical questions about individual eternal salvation, an inherited “sin nature”, and airtight legalistic categories.

  • Ben Mordechai treats Paul (Rav Sha’ul) as a Pharisaic Jewish rabbi discussing communal covenant roles, historical callings, and behavioral choices (yetzer hara and yetzer hatov).
  • Stripping away centuries of Latin and Greek philosophical baggage dissolves the rigid “fatalism vs. free will” dichotomy that Western readers project onto Romans 9.

2. Contextualizing “Election” as Corporate and Historical Rather Than Individual and Eternal

In standard Western readings, Romans 9:11–13 (“Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated”) is read as God arbitrarily choosing certain individuals for heaven and others for hell before they are born.

  • In a Hebraic context, such language frequently refers to corporate roles in redemptive history rather than eternal destinations. God chose the lineage of Jacob (Israel) to carry His covenants, oracles, and the lineage of the Messiah, while Esau (Edom) was designated for a different national and historical path.
  • By restoring this corporate, covenantal perspective, the chapter shifts from a harsh puzzle about divine favoritism regarding salvation to a pastoral explanation of how God manages His historical promises to nations and peoples.

3. Viewing “Hardening” through a Biblical-Covenantal Lens

When Paul discusses God hardening Pharaoh’s heart in Romans 9:17–18, Western systems often interpret this as God overriding human agency to forcefully damn an individual.

  • Within a Hebraic and Tanakh (Old Testament) framework, hardening a heart is often the consequence of a progressive trajectory of choices. God utilizes a leader’s existing posture and stubbornness to accomplish His larger historical deliverance (such as freeing Israel from Egypt).
  • The text ceases to be a philosophical trap regarding human freedom and instead aligns with the Hebrew Bible’s view of sovereign orchestration operating alongside human accountability.

4. Emphasizing Choice and Covenant Over “Fatalism”

Throughout Kosher Paul, concepts like sin and obedience are translated to emphasize human agency, moral responsibility, and the ongoing struggle between human inclinations (yetzer) rather than an inescapable ontological curse or a static “sin nature”. Because the Hebrew mindset inherently prioritizes action, consequence, and covenantal loyalty (shema and halakha) over abstract decrees of eternal fate, passages that sound deterministic in English translations take on a much more practical, pastoral tone.

By realigning the vocabulary with its original Jewish matrix, Kosher Paul reframes Romans 9 not as an abstract courtroom trial over who God has arbitrarily predestined for heaven or hell, but as a passionate Jewish letter addressing the historic faithfulness of God to Israel.”

Footnotes:
Uriel passed away very suddenly when he was only in his mid-60’s. I wrote an eulogy about him at the time:

“Today (9th August 2023) on the Mount of Olives with a view of the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock in the background, Uriel ben Mordechai (Uri Marcus) was laid to rest.

This was a total devastating shock. He was, in my eyes, still a young man (around my age). He seemed so strong and full of vigour though I know caring for his wife Adi who has not been well for a number of years was time consuming and clearly stressful as were the many lawsuits he was involved in or supporting. Uriel was a zealous and faithful man of God who was a seeker after justice, not just for himself but for all the downtrodden.

I have been privileged to know Uriel for many years and have worked with him on a number of his translations especially Galatians as well as providing the Foreword and some parts of the Introduction to his translation of the Gospel of John (a translation that he finished but which he had not quite readied for publication).

Having spoken and communicated with Uriel many times over the years and also attending his weekly classes for a while, I gained a great deal of insight into this amazing man whose passion for HaShem and Torah was so strong that it was almost tangible. Part of this passion was to re-translate from the earliest extant Greek manuscripts the New Testament (which he knew was a Jewish text), employing a Jewish/Hebraic pre-suppositional position. This Torah-centric approach, while not unique (see the work of the late Prof. David Flusser and his students at the Jerusalem School of Synoptic Research), was certainly extremely rare. But it proved to be incredibly enlightening. While very few to date may have read his translations of Galatians, Romans, Hebrews and the Gospel of John, I am convinced that the Day will arrive when they will be held in the highest of esteem by the great multitude and the Jewish People will recognize Uriel as one of their cherished and very valued sons.

Sadly, many Christians in particular, and it seems with agendas to protect, have sought to question his skill and even his integrity. But having conversed with him in depth and breadth over much time I am convinced in my heart that his simple, unpretentious but sincere, honest and zealous efforts at translating the words of the Jewish authors of the New Testament resulted in revelatory Truth.

His translations really are the best and most consistently aligned with their foundational text of the Hebrew Bible.

Uriel still had so much to offer this world from his tireless support of his wife to his passion for seeking justice for all, to his incredible work of translating and teaching the New Testament.

I learned so much from Uriel. His insights on many subtle and/or challenging portions of the New Testament were invaluable and often opened new vistas of understanding.

He is very sadly missed! To all who knew Uriel and mourn his passing: ‘May God console you among the other mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.”

Footnote 2: The response from Gemini regarding Uriel’s translation mentions the inclinations (yetzer). Here’s my article explaining this very Hebraic concept in a little depth:
https://globaltruthinternational.com/2017/06/10/the-yetzer-hara-and-yetzer-hatov/

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Do Not Despair – Waiting On The Lord

“After two whole years, Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing by the Nile, …” Gen 41:1

Genesis 40:9-23:
“9 So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph and said to him, “In my dream there was a vine before me, 
10 and on the vine there were three branches. As soon as it budded, its blossoms shot forth, and the clusters ripened into grapes. 
11 Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup and placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand.” 
12 Then Joseph said to him, “This is its interpretation: the three branches are three days. 
13 In three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office, and you shall place Pharaoh’s cup in his hand as formerly, when you were his cupbearer. 
14 Only remember me, when it is well with you, and please do me the kindness to mention me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this house. 15 For I was indeed stolen out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also I have done nothing that they should put me into the pit.”…
20 On the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, he made a feast for all his servants and lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants. 
21 He restored the chief cupbearer to his position, and he placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand. 
22 But he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted to them. 
23 Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.
Gen 41:1 “After two whole years, Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing by the Nile, …”

Last week’s Torah Portion is in my opinion one of the most significant as it carries so many foundation messages of hope, especially in terms of the coming of Messiah and the redemption of humanity and restoration of the world. I touched on it here: https://globaltruthinternational.com/2012/12/06/from-joseph-through-judah-foretelling-messiah/

And this week’s Torah Portion, Mikeitz (Genesis 41:1-44:17) brings that hope to fruition while carrying a subtle, but very powerful message, bringing comfort in a time of potential despair.

It starts with the phrase ‘After (or at the end of) two whole years, …’.

Yosef/Joseph, is one of the best examples of a ‘type of Messiah’, that is a person whose life and example bears great similarity to the picture that the Bible paints of the eschatological Messiah or Messiahs (Messiah ben Yosef and Messiah ben David).

In these few words we see great import. Yosef had unjustly suffered and was ‘stuck’ in jail praying and hoping for release. His interpretations of the dreams of the chief baker and chief cup bearer had offered a way out – “Only remember me, when it is well with you, and please do me the kindness to mention me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this house.”

Yet we see here that he had to wait two whole years!

Two whole years in jail, two years of possible despair, of wondering if Yehovah had heard his prayers and when He might answer them. Two whole years in jail, in suffering – plenty long enough to have given up, to despair of ever finding justice and being shown mercy.

Think of you own life – when have you had to wait for something you thought you needed NOW, some prayer that the Almighty would surely answer swiftly and bless you with His response. Yet you were left waiting, and perhaps are even still waiting and perhaps despairing as the pain or suffering is relentless and often seems overbearing and way beyond what you can possibly cope with?

Yosef, our great Messianic figure waited two whole years. Two whole years for one man may equate to two thousand years for all men.

As a primary school child I lived in the days before television. We went to the movie theatre in town most Saturday afternoons for the 2 pm movie. Before the main movie we would watch the next episode in some series. I most remember the Flash Gordon series (this was in the mid 60’s). The episode would almost always end with some high drama and seemingly impossible predicament for Flash Gordon, or the helpless victim that he was trying to save. With great anticipation we would wait all week to see how he would extricate himself or save the poor innocent victim. Though we had no reason to despair, we were at least learning of the need for patience and trust that it would all work out ok in the end.

Similarly, in the days before books and the printed Bible were common-place, the Jewish people would go to the synagogue or Temple every Shabbat and hear the reading of the Torah Portion (this practice dates back to before the time of Yeshua, so it is over 2,000 years old). Imagine some person or child hearing the Torah Portion for the first time. They heard how Yosef had interpreted the dreams and asked to be remembered to the Pharaoh so he might get out of the hell-hole that was jail. But the reading of the Torah Portion ended before they heard the end of the story and if indeed he was saved from jail, shown justice and mercy, and restored to his rightful place.

So this person or child now waits a whole week to hear the great news of Yosef’s ‘escape’ from jail and restoration. And when their week of wondering and excited anticipation is over, they like my childhood movie experience, learn of how Yosef is finally blessed by Yehovah and restored with great honour. But they may also hear the full import and meaning of ‘after two whole years’ – that is, that patience and trust is needed.

It is not in our time, but in God’s time. We need to do our part, but then when circumstances don’t seem to be working out how we think they should, we need to have faith in HaShem, we need to trust that He will act in His time and with His power to make right the wrongs; to ease the pain; to dispense justice and bring restoration and redemption.

Right now, you may feel you are in this place – somewhere in your ‘two whole years’ of waiting and possibly even despairing. This may be at a personal level, or a community or national level. You may see no way forward at this time.

Or it may be that you are looking at the world-wide or universal level in looking for the Great Day of the Coming of Messiah.

Either way, don’t lose hope, take solace from this biblical narrative of Yosef as you seek to see freedom from pain, or you seek justice or even more, to see Messiah ben Yosef. Look up, for your redemption draws near!  

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Hopes and Fears

This weeks Torah portion ‘Chayei Sarah’ describes two events in the life of Abraham, which may not appear that significant, but which actually carry an incredible depth of meaning and insight.

Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks writes a great article on this Parshah which brings out the amazing lesson and conclusion, that God’s great promises to Abraham do not mean that Abraham can sit back and have it all come to him without his total involvement. As Sacks’ states: “Faith does not mean passivity.”

The Hebrew language and the Hebrew mindset is all about action; about movement, energy, courage, passion, will, drive, and of course, trust (faithfulness).

Trust that God is involved; that He will support our righteous actions and even guide them through his teaching (His Torah) and His covenants, but that ultimately, we must act, we must step out with faith and courage and create the future that God has promised us. The Almighty wants to work with us, to work alongside us, to build our future together, to repair the world together (Tikkun HaOlam), and ultimately reward us with Eternity!

This was true in Abraham’s day and it is true today. It was true for the first Hebrew, the first man who ‘crossed over’, Abraham, the father of Israel and it is true for all Israel today, but it is also true for all the peoples of the many nations who call Abraham their father and the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob their One True God and Saviour.

I strongly recommend reading Rabbi Sacks short article on the Aish.com site – see ‘Hopes and Fears’ at http://www.aish.com/tp/i/sacks/177159951.html