Sunday 4 October27th Sunday in Ordinary TimeLiturgical colour: green

Bible / Romans

Romans 11

Douay-Rheims Bible, Challoner revision (1749–1752), the traditional Catholic English Bible, translated from the Latin Vulgate. If you read a modern Bible, this is the same Scripture in older English; some names are spelled differently (Cesarea for Caesarea, Apocalypse for Revelation). About this translation

1 I say then: Hath God cast away his people? God forbid! For I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.

2 God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Know you not what the scripture saith of Elias, how he calleth on God against Israel?

3 Lord, they have slain thy prophets, they have dug down thy altars. And I am left alone: and they seek my life.

4 But what saith the divine answer to him? I have left me seven thousand men that have not bowed their knees to Baal.

5 Even so then, at this present time also, there is a remnant saved according to the election of grace.

6 And if by grace, it is not now by works: otherwise grace is no more grace.

7 What then? That which Israel sought, he hath not obtained: but the election hath obtained it. And the rest have been blinded.

8 As it is written: God hath given them the spirit of insensibility; eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear, until this present day.

9 And David saith: Let their table be made a snare and a trap and a stumbling block and a recompense unto them.

10 Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see: and bow down their back always.

11 I say then: Have they so stumbled, that they should fall? God forbid! But by their offence salvation is come to the Gentiles, that they may be emulous of them.

12 Now if the offence of them be the riches of the world and the diminution of them the riches of the Gentiles: how much more the fulness of them? CCC

13 For I say to you, Gentiles: As long indeed as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I will honour my ministry, CCC

14 If, by any means, I may provoke to emulation them who are my flesh and may save some of them.

15 For if the loss of them be the reconciliation of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? CCC

16 For if the firstfruit be holy, so is the lump also: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.

17 And if some of the branches be broken and thou, being a wild olive, art ingrafted in them and art made partaker of the root and of the fatness of the olive tree: CCC · Fathers

18 Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root: but the root thee. CCC

19 Thou wilt say then: The branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.

20 Well: because of unbelief they were broken off. But thou standest by faith. Be not highminded, but fear. CCC

21 For if God hath not spared the natural branches, fear lest perhaps also he spare not thee. Fathers

22 See then the goodness and the severity of God: towards them indeed that are fallen, the severity; but towards thee, the goodness of God, if thou abide in goodness. Otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.

23 And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again.

24 For if thou wert cut out of the wild olive tree, which is natural to thee; and, contrary to nature, wert grafted into the good olive tree: how much more shall they that are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree? CCC

25 For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, of this mystery (lest you should be wise in your own conceits) that blindness in part has happened in Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles should come in. CCC

26 And so all Israel should be saved, as it is written: There shall come out of Sion, he that shall deliver and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. Fathers

27 And this is to them my covenant: when I shall take away their sins.

28 As concerning the gospel, indeed, they are enemies for your sake: but as touching the election, they are most dear for the sake of the fathers. CCC

29 For the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance. CCC

30 For as you also in times past did not believe God, but now have obtained mercy, through their unbelief:

31 So these also now have not believed, for your mercy, that they also may obtain mercy.

32 For God hath concluded all in unbelief, that he may have mercy on all. Fathers

33 O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are his judgments, and how unsearchable his ways!

34 For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been his counsellor? Fathers

35 Or who hath first given to him, and recompense shall be made him?

36 For of him, and by him, and in him, are all things: to him be glory for ever. Amen.

This chapter in the Catechism and the early Church

Where the Catechism of the Catholic Church cites these verses (from its footnotes on vatican.va), and where the earliest Church Fathers quote them (Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1, public domain). Short quotes only; follow the links for the full text.

  1. Read the Catechism
    • CCC 674 “The glorious Messiah's coming is suspended at every moment of history until his recognition by "all Israel", for "a hardening has come…”
  2. Read the Catechism
    • CCC 755 “The Church is a cultivated field, the tillage of God. On that land the ancient olive tree grows whose holy roots were…”
  3. Read the Catechism
    • CCC 674 “The glorious Messiah's coming is suspended at every moment of history until his recognition by "all Israel", for "a hardening has come…”
  4. Read the Catechism and Fathers
    • CCC 60 “The people descended from Abraham would be the trustee of the promise made to the patriarchs, the chosen people, called to prepare…”
    • “… was that Paul said, "For if [God] spared not the natural branches, [take heed] lest He also spare not thee, who, when thou wert a wild olive tree, wert grafted into the fatness of the olive tree, and wert made a partaker of its fatness.”

      Quoted in Against Heresies, Book IV, St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. AD 180), Chapter XXVII. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1

    • “But thou, being a wild olive-tree," he says, "hast been grafted into the good olive-tree, and been made a partaker of the fatness of the olive-tree.”

      Quoted in Against Heresies, Book V, St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. AD 180), Chapter X. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1

  5. Read the Catechism
    • CCC 60 “The people descended from Abraham would be the trustee of the promise made to the patriarchs, the chosen people, called to prepare…”
  6. Read the Catechism
    • CCC 591 “Jesus asked the religious authorities of Jerusalem to believe in him because of the Father's works which he accomplished. But such an…”
  7. Read the Fathers
    • “… was that Paul said, "For if [God] spared not the natural branches, [take heed] lest He also spare not thee, who, when thou wert a wild olive tree, wert grafted into the fatness of the olive tree, and wert made a partaker of its fatness.”

      Quoted in Against Heresies, Book IV, St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. AD 180), Chapter XXVII. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1

  8. Read the Catechism
    • CCC 60 “The people descended from Abraham would be the trustee of the promise made to the patriarchs, the chosen people, called to prepare…”
  9. Read the Catechism
    • CCC 591 “Jesus asked the religious authorities of Jerusalem to believe in him because of the Father's works which he accomplished. But such an…”
    • CCC 674 “The glorious Messiah's coming is suspended at every moment of history until his recognition by "all Israel", for "a hardening has come…”
  10. Read the Fathers
    • “… of His words, and said to the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying, for we ourselves have heard [Him], and know that this man is truly the Saviour of the world." And Paul likewise declares, "And so all Israel shall be saved;”

      Quoted in Against Heresies, Book IV, St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. AD 180), Chapter II. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1

  11. Read the Catechism
    • CCC 60 “The people descended from Abraham would be the trustee of the promise made to the patriarchs, the chosen people, called to prepare…”
  12. Read the Catechism
    • CCC 839 “Those who have not yet received the Gospel are related to the People of God in various ways." The relationship of the…”
  13. Read the Fathers
    • “And therefore Paul declares, "For God hath concluded all in unbelief, that He may have mercy upon all;”

      Quoted in Against Heresies, Book III, St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. AD 180), Chapter XX. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1

  14. Read the Fathers
    • “For what other person "knew the mind of the Lord," or who else "has become His counsellor?”

      Quoted in Against Heresies, Book V, St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. AD 180), Chapter I. Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1

A modern English Catholic translation will be added once its publisher grants permission.