The Grafted Olive
THE GRAFTED OLIVE
ROMANS 11:17-21
How are Gentiles to respond to being included?
The fact that grafting was believed to rejuvenate a dying olive tree explains the much misunderstood figure which Paul uses here. He speaks of Israel as a dying tree, and of the global church as a graft on it. When an olive tree produced badly, a slip of wild olive was grafted, and this was supposed to give new vigor to the tree. Dead branches were lopped off and the ancient stock, it was thought, would find expression and new life from and through the engrafted branch, and resume its fruitfulness. So, rightly interpreted, Paul’s figure becomes a striking picture of Israel and the church, the succession of the covenants and the role of Judaism.
This is the best explanation of Paul’s figure, even though it may be true that the practice is not followed today. Columella, the old soldier of Nero’s day, who wrote books on agriculture in Nero’s time, is authority for the practice. It fits the scene exactly.
Paul has not lost sight of his warning to the Gentiles against a presumptuous attitude towards those they superseded. The Gentiles are supposed to respond to the imagery of 11:16 with the thought that, far from setting themselves against the root which nourished them, they should think rather of the dead branches stripped by the cultivator to give them room and space to grow (11:18f.). “Fine,” says Paul ironically (“That is true,” 11:20, misses the irony). The words of 11:19 are not disputed, but may it be remembered that the arguments and reproaches leveled with some vigor against the Jews in earlier pages of the letter can be simply reversed. The standing of the Gentiles, as of the Jews, depended on faith, and it is part of a religion which is based on faith in unmerited grace that it excludes all boasting (3:27). The Jews were native branches proper to the tree, but were lopped off. Shall not the Gentile graftings at least be as readily pruned?
Thought Where boasting ends, dignity can begin.