What Does Romans 11:31 Mean?
Even so these also now did not hear and respond, by your faithful love, so that they also may be shown faithful love.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.THE KEY
Mercy crosses the divide: the mercy that reaches you becomes the channel through which it reaches another.
THE MEANING
The verse presents the mercy reaching you as a passage through which another person can receive mercy. Even a present refusal to trust does not have to be the last word; mercy can still reach the one who resists.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that another person’s present resistance means mercy has reached its limit.
THE ROOT
ἔλεος
eleos
GROWS FROM
ἐλε-
Mercy or compassionate regard; the Greek word family includes both mercy as a noun and showing mercy as an action.
“faithful love” in this verse is eleos. The Greek pairs the noun for “your mercy” with a verb from the same family for “may obtain mercy.” Mercy moves from what reaches you to the action by which it reaches them.
ALSO GROWS
eleos: mercy, compassion
ἔλεος
This noun appears in “through your mercy,” naming the mercy that serves as the passage.
eleeō: to show mercy
ἐλεέω
This verb underlies “may obtain mercy”; here it describes mercy reaching the other group.
ἠπείθησαν
ēpeithēsan
GROWS FROM
πειθ-
Persuade, win over, or bring to reliance.
“did not hear and respond” in this verse is ēpeithēsan. The Greek verb can mean refusing to be persuaded, and so carries a shade of resistance or disobedience beyond an inward opinion. The verse places that resistance beside mercy that remains able to reach the resistant person.
ALSO GROWS
peithō: to persuade, convince, or win over
πείθω
The root beneath “not believed” points to resistance to being persuaded.
pepoithēsis: confidence, reliance
πεποίθησις
This related word shows the trust and reliance that stand on the other side of resistance.
THE PATTERN
Mercy begins as God’s character, passes from the received to another, and outlasts judgment.
And the LORD passed by before his face, and called out, The LORD, The LORD God, compassionate and full of favor, slow to flare, abounding in faithful love and truth,Should you not also have shown compassion to your fellow servant, as I also showed compassion to you?For judgment will be without faithful love for the one who did not show such love, and faithful love boasts over judgment.THE THREAD
For just as you once did not yield to God, now you have been shown faithful love through their not yielding.The Greek uses the same mercy verb family in both verses: here you receive mercy through their unbelief; in verse 31, they may receive mercy through yours. Mercy moves between them in both directions.
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