THE EPISTLE OF PAUL TO THOSE OF ISRAEL RACE IN ROME – (1)
PREFACE
THE notes in these pages, being notes, are intended solely for use directly with the Bible text of Paul’s Epistle to the Romans.
Their purpose is to show – in that most misread and dimly comprehended part of the Word – that Paul’s contribution to it was in complete and faithful continuity to the political core of all scripture: the Israel race and nation, the Covenants of Israel and the Promises to the fathers of Israel.
If that were not so, if Paul had bestowed upon aliens, anything given and covenanted by the Lord, the Most High, to Israel, he would have been an unfaithful servant. To do so would have been outside his powers and mission. That he was the completely faithful servant of his Master cannot be taken for granted in these days, when the theological overlay obliterates the simple truth of the Word. Indeed, it must not be taken for granted by the real seeker after simple truth, for the rewards for pursuing the subject are too great.
The notes are in two sections. The Outline gives the broad picture: the Notes themselves deal, verse by verse, with the details. They are so pointed in the types used as to be self indexed, so that the subject matter is easily followed backwards or forwards in the text simply by glancing over the pages.
BACKGROUND TO ‘ROMANS SIXTEEN’
That Paul did not write an epistle to the Romans is evident enough. If he had done so, it would have included everybody Roman from the Emperor to the donkey boy. He did nothing so vague and purposeless. He did the perfectly normal thing, he wrote a pretty lengthy letter to personal friends of his in Rome.
In order to understand his letter, it is necessary to realise that; and it is just as necessary to know who those friends were. Their identity very naturally had much to do with the nature of the letter he wrote.
As this information is placed at the end of his letter, the last chapter should be read first. Knowledge of the people to whom it was addressed is vitally necessary to clarify his meanings.
These friends of his were domiciled in Rome. It may be very little publicised, but it is a fact of history that Rome had been conquered some four centuries earlier by a splendid army of Britons and Gauls led by Belinus and Brennus, two sons of the British king Molmutius. Adding lustre to an illustrious father, they and their following became the leaders of the ruling aristocracy of Rome.
These British of the Trojan-Judah line, an army of three hundred thousand men, later with their wives and families, formed a strong, indeed, a very strong, migratory tide of Israel moving in the direction opposite to the westering stream of Palestinian Israel then moving towards the Isles of the West. Altogether too little cognisance is taken of this counter migration.
In the four intervening centuries, these settlers of Zarah-Israel had gradually moved along the Mediterranean littoral into Galatia, and as far to the east as Tarsus, Paul’s birthplace. They were there to receive Paul when he arrived. Somewhere behind these proud Judahites was a druidic background. That background was a receptive one for the message Paul had to give. But the ties of friendship and kinship were often far closer than that.
Research by Mr. Edwin Wilmhurst of Chichester reveals information as to Paul’s family that is well supported by the known facts of history. To summarise his findings:
Paul’s grandfather was a wealthy Benjaminite of Tarsus, who, with a great sum of money, purchased Roman citizenship for himself and his family. His son, Davidus, father of Paul, assumed the Roman name, Appius Tillius. He took service with the Roman army and rose to the rank of centurian – probably the centurian of Matthew 8:5. Davidus married a lady named Praxedes or Prassedes, Paul’s mother. Davidus died leaving her a rich widow in Tarsus. She subsequently married Pudentius, a Roman senator, who took her to Rome. The offspring of this marriage was Rufus Pudens, who later was quartered at Regnum (Chichester) where his name is to to be found on the Pudens Stone.
Romans 16:13: “Salute Rufus, chosen of the Lord, and his mother and mine.”
In this verse, Paul not only saluted his own half brother, but the patrician lady, his mother and mother of Rufus.
Acts 2: Day of Pentecost, 33 A.D. It is erroneously thought that the devout men gathered at Jerusalem were from many different races. Peter contradicts this. He addressed them as “Ye men of Israel.”
In the last sentence of Acts 2:10 there occurs a peculiar wording, ” … and the strangers of Rome. Jews and proselytes.” The peculiarity is that in this single instance the word for strangers is epidemeo, literally in-people, or, as Y.A.C. has it, “to be among the people.” Known history shows Israelites in Rome for centuries before this date, as outlined earlier. These so-called strangers were Roman Israelites, some of Jewish faith. others pagan converts.
It is thought that Christianity reached Rome about 37 A.D. carried there by these so-called strangers.
About this same date, Joseph of Arimathea is recorded as having arrived in Glastonbury with the full story of the risen Christ, a story at once accepted by the Druids and the British Royal family. This is not remarkable. The coming of a Messiah was implicit in virtually all faiths at that time. The point is that the Messiah born at Bethlehem did not fit the detail and circumstance of pagan beliefs; but He did fit the detail and circumstance of patriarchal, Mosaic and concurrent Druidic teaching.
In 37 A.D., Guiderius was king of Britain. Arviragus, the king’s younger brother, was the Royal Duke of Cornwall who welcomed Joseph. Caradoc, his cousin, was King of Siluria or Wales, the stronghold of the Druids. Queen of Brigantes of Yorkshire was of another branch of the family. It was therefore not long before the royal family in Britain had all learned the truth from Joseph of Arimathea.
The Roman invasion under Julius Caesar had been repulsed, and ninety seven years elapsed before the second invasion under Emperor Claudius in 42 A.D. In 43 A.D. a powerful army under Aulus Plautius landed in Kent, and Caradoc, or Caractacus, was elected commander-in-chief of the British forces. In 52 A.D., he suffered a reverse, and was carried captive to Rome with his daughter, his two sons and his father, Bran, as hostages.
The British royal family played a leading part in the spread of the faith in the Messiah of Bethlehem, for when Caractacus and his family reached Rome they had already accepted the gospel story that was then in Rome.
So lively was this that in Romans 1:8, Paul records that such was the faith in Rome that it was spoken of throughout the whole district, or known world. In Romans 16:7, the Apostle salutes kinsmen – again his own family – Andronicus and Junia, “who were in Christ before me.” This confirms that the gospel story was accepted and established in Rome before Paul was struck down on the road to Damascus. These kinsmen were in all probability of Puden’s family.
The traditional fallacy that the congregation (“church”) in Rome was of aliens – gentiles – arises from ignorance of the racial origins of the peoples then inhabiting Rome and the neighbourhood.
Caswallon, Pendragon of Britain a century before, wrote to Julius Caesar:
“The Britons and Romans derive their descent from the same Trojan origin. Such consanguinity should be the firmest guarantee of peace and equality between them.”
The Claudian Treaty left the Romans in control of only a part of the south coast of Britain. They began to realise the greatness of the task of subduing the whole country. Other means were found. Friendly approaches, and marriages between the British royal family and Imperial Rome, eventuated.
Aulus Plautius, the Roman commander in Britain, married a sister of Caratacus named Gladys, who was afterwards the famous Pomponia Graecina, the leader of society in Rome, and a Christian.
Arviragus, the British king. was betrothed to the Emperor’s daughter, Venus Julia, the Venissa of the Welsh records, whom he subsequently married. Arviragus and his fallen brother, Guiderius, had both been brought up in Rome.
Rufus Pudens, Paul’s half brother, when stationed in Regnum (Chichester) met Claudia, the daughter of Caratacus. On the death of his father Pudens returned to Rome, circa 47 A.D., and succeeded to his father’s estate. He was thus a wealthy man. In 52 A.D., Claudia arrived in Rome as hostage with her father, and they resided in the famous Palatium Britannicum. Claudia married Rufus in Rome in 53 A.D., Rufus having accepted the faith.
Reviewing the situation at the time of Paul’s Epistle, we find a Christian community in Rome composed largely of British descent of the Zarah line of the sceptred tribe of Judah. By misadventure, we find the British royal family resident in Rome. We find Paul’s half brother married to the daughter of Caratacus of the royal house of Britain. We find Paul addressing by name no less than twenty six of his kinsmen of Israel-Roman stock. Some of them were, in simple fact, connected with Caesar’s household (Philippians 4:22).
We find Linus, the son of Caracatus, as the first Bishop of Rome (2 Timothy 4:21). We find Paul referring to Eubulus (Aristobulus) whom historians show to have been the first Bishop of Britain (2 Timothy 4:21).
The simple and powerful history of the matter is that Paul was the Apostle to the components (ethnos) of Israel, who were domiciled in Rome, and of status and education to require a full and adequate statement from him. He addressed Israel, Roman Israel, a branch of Israel that was exactly what the Lord, the Most High said it would be – for even in Rome, it was the head and not the tail (Deuteronomy 28:13).
DEFINITIONS
Jew: One who followed the religion of Judaism, who acknowledged the authority of the Sanhedrin and its Law of the Talmud. They were referred to by Paul as the Circumcision.
Greek: Greece was an older Israel colony than Palestine. It was occupied by Judahites and Danites before the Exodus of Israel from Egypt. Israelites flowed back into it after the conquest of Rome roughly four centuries earlier by the Israel army from Britain led by the sons of Molmutius. A further influx took place after the dispersion of Israel from Assyria and Babylon. These Israelites were largely uncircumcised and pagan. They were not aliens. They were the Uncircumcision. Cognisance of their existence and identity was common knowledge in Judea (see 1 Macabees 12:21. John 7:35 reading Hellens (Greeks) for erroneous gentiles. James 1:1, Peter 1:1), and the terms the Greeks and the Uncircumcision were synonymous.
THE LAW: The Law of the Lord is the Law given to Moses on Mount Sinai and recorded in Exodus. Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. It is in two sections.
THE LAW: This is the Commandments, Statutes, Laws and Judgments of the Lord. They cover the civil, military, economic, financial and social government of the people. (Shown in capitals in the text).
The Ordinances: These are the rules and regulations of the rites of worship in the Tabernacle and the Temple. These were the Ordinances of the Aaronic Order, and they were not in the original Law. They had to be added in order that the Aaronic Order might function (see Galatians 3:19). As these Ordinances were the basis of Judaism. Paul was deeply concerned with them.
Sacrifices: These were broadly of two kinds. Those demanded by THE LAW were largely simple fines and penalties for breaches of the Law.
Those in the Ordinances were ceremonial sacrifices of religious significance. They supplied the blood element in the rites and worship of the Tabernacle and the Temple.
Both were required by the Lord Himself, and both were declared by Him to be effective propitiation. As positively as they were declared effective, it was later just as positively declared by the Most High that the blood of bulls and goats was no longer acceptable as propitiation. The point is important.
Traditions of the Elders:
Law of the Talmud: After the passing of the prophets, the interpretation of THE LAW fell into the hands of the Sanhedrin, the high council of authority on Judaism. These men so interpreted the Law of the Lord as given to Moses as to submerge it in interpretations and traditions of their own. They falsified the original Law. There evolved the Traditions of the Elders or the Law of the Talmud. Then and now, this Jewish law is false law. The Saviour denounced it: Paul attacked it vigorously.
The Law of Sin and Death: Physical death due to Adam’s fall or age-old sin.
The Law of Faith: The Law that is without the propitiation of animal sacrifices, in which the propitiation is through faith or belief in the Supreme Sacrifice made by the Son. This is the most complete revolution in the history of all religious thinking. Up to Paul’s day, every religion including that of Old Testament Israel and all the paganisms of the world, had price-demanding deities propitiated by sacrifices. To-day, the state throughout the world is very little different: the exceptions are the Protestants of north-west Europe, North America, and the Celto-Saxon Protestants of the British Empire. That is a small minority of the world’s population. Even in these Protestants, the idea is not yet properly assimilated.
Old Testament Cover: Sin, the breaking of the Law, was covered by “deeds of the Law” or the payment by sacrifice of the price the Law demanded. Being covered by these means, the particular sin was free of further judgment and penalty.
Sin: Sin is transgression of – disobedience to – THE LAW OF THE LORD. It needs to be realised sharply that follies, indiscretions and misdemeanours which do not break the letter or spirit of THE LAW may be incredibly foolish or socially or personally reprehensible, but they are not sin. The right to declare as sin that which the Lord did not so define has never been given to man. It is presumption.
New Testament Atonement by His Sacrifice: Justified freely by the grace of the Father, by faith in the gift of the Son, by the righteousness – or right dealing and mercy – of the Lord. Justification by faith or belief (as was imputed to Abraham).
Saints: The word saint means simply one who is set apart. It has nothing to do with sanctimony. The only people the Lord ever set apart were His Israel race. They were His Saints (Psalm 89:5-7, Psalm 148:14, Daniel 7:18-27, Acts 9:13 & 32, 1 Corinthians 1:2, Ephesians 1 :1, Jude 3, Revelation 13:7).
There are no other saints.
ROMANS:
PAUL’S PURPORT IN OUTLINE
Chapter 1: The Jew and also the Greek.
Paul preached the Gospel of the Kingdom to those of Israel race in Rome.
Chapter 2: Contention between the two sections of Israel.
The existence of contention is shown between Israelites of the Jewish faith and Israelites who were pagans.
Chapter 3: Paul’s definitions.
He explains that the Law of Faith, ie, belief in the Atoning Sacrifice, supersedes the Law of Ordinances, Old Testament cover (atonement) by animal sacrifices: etc: that, since the Supreme Sacrifice confirmed or “established” the Old Testament law, that law is superseded or “dead”- -cf Romans 6:14.
Chapter 4: The promise to all the seed of Israel.
At some length, Paul shows that Israelites of both sections, whether Jews or Greeks, called here the Circumcision and the Uncircumcision, come under the promise to all the Israel seed. Abraham is cited as one who had not been under the Law of Ordinances but had been made to understand that he had atonement through faith, ie, belief in Our Lord’s sacrifice (John 8:56). Thus “for us also,” that is all Israelites who believe as Abraham did, we have propitiation by His sacrifice.
Chapter 5: Atonement by Belief.
Paul shows that Israel, by Belief in The Sacrifice, has “now received atonement” (v.11): that on account of Adam’s sin, physical death still reigns (v.21), but eventually, through the gift – “grace” – of His Son’s eternal life will be available through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Chapter 6: The Law of Sin.
The Apostle here enlarges on his statement in the last verse, (v.21) of the previous chapter, and shows that physical death, due to Adam’s downfall will eventually be overcome, not by the Law of Ordinances, but by God’s gift of His Son (v.14). The last verse of the chapter sums up the matter, and explains that the cause of death is sin (v.23). In I Corinthians 15:20-26, Paul shows that physical death is the last enemy to be overcome by the risen Christ.
Chapter 7: The Law of Sin Defined. (Vs.5, 23 and 25).
The symbolism of Israel’s marriage law, that binds together husband and wife, illustrates that this law is rescinded when one or other of them dies. In like manner, the Law of Sin is rescinded when physical death is overcome and the future condition of eternal life begins. This theme is concluded in the next chapter, Romans 8:1-4, where it is recorded that “the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” makes believing Israelites free from the Law of Sin and Death.
Chapter 8: (I) Death Due to Physical Causes Continues (v.10).
(II) The Called Nation predestined to conform to His atoning power (Vs.28-30).
(I) This chapter continues the foregoing theme, and shows that “even if Christ be in you,” your physical body must die because of age-old sin, but that eternal life is attainable in the ages to come through Jesus, in like manner as He was raised from the dead.
(II) Paul now returns to the national theme, and shows Israel, “called according to His (national) purpose” (v.28) as the embryo Sons of God (Galatians 4).
Chapter 9: The national theme and the selection of the racial line through Jacob, with the Esau line discarded.
Paul lists the peculiar attributes possessed by Israel alone, and by no other nation, namely, adoption, glory, the Covenants, the Law, the service of God, the promises. He shows the called nation as containing both Jews and the ethnos of Israel, v.24.
In verses 24-33 he contrasts Israel, ie, those of Jewish faith with Gentiles, ie. other Israelites, who, through faith in the Atonement have propitiation, whilst the Jews, who still adhere to the Law of Ordinances, which were then passing into disuse, had not attained to righteousness, by belief in the Supreme Sacrifice.
Chapter 10: The same controversy, the Jews trying to establish their own cover by the Law of Ordinances after Christ’s Sacrifice superceded that Law.
Paul explains that atonement is now by belief in The Sacrifice, and not by righteousness which is of the Law, but by righteousness which is of faith. To his converts of Israel race he shows that there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek – thus between the circumcision and the uncircumcision – when both believe in the Saviour they become one body (cf Ephesians 2:11-17).
Paul then continues in the national theme.
Chapter 11: Paul, the Apostle to the nations of Israel (v.13).
Paul, an Israelite of the tribe of Benjamin, tells his brothers of Israel race that God does not cast away His ancient people (v.2). He shows that the good olive tree, as symbolic of the nation of which those in Rome and Asia Minor are depicted as a wild offshoot of the same root stock.
The Apostle never loses sight of God’s purpose in the Israel race. He shows that dispersed Israel is blind to her destiny until such times as her fulness or completion (v.25) is reached. Paul’s constant theme is the Israel ethnos (nation) to whom he speaks, and not to aliens – gentiles – (Romans 11:13). He shows that Israel will be perfected, and that the nation will be saved nationally – a national concept which he confirms by quoting Isaiah 59:18-21, where it is predetermined that The Redeemer will come to Jacob, His Covenant People. To them He will send His Holy Spirit, the Comforter, as promised (Acts 2:38-39) so that the Word of God will remain in them (Israel) for ever (Isaiah 59:19-21 F.F.).
The Covenant referred to in Romans 11:27, and which delivers Israel from lawlessness (sin) is the New Covenant (Hebrews 8:8-10).
To follow the Apostle’s theme in the final passage of this chapter, it is essential to know Israel’s history in her dispersed component parts. Scattered abroad, in idolatry and pagan disbelief, they were ignorant of, and hostile to, the good news of the Kingdom Gospel now accepted by Paul’s Israel converts in Rome. But for all that, dispersed Israel, undergoing her national re-building in The Isles (Jeremiah 18, Isaiah 41:1, 42:4), were and ever are God’s elect Race. Paul’s converts had received the mercy of enlightenment, while the Dispersion remained in darkness. It was the task of the few to pass on the same mercy.
Chapter 12: The importance of picking up the threads of Paul’s discourse in previous chapters cannot be over estimated, otherwise continuity is lost. In Chapter 12 the Apostle continues in the theme of Romans 10:12, in which he states that there is now no difference between his Jew and Greek converts both being of Israel race. In Romans 12:5 Paul affirms:
“So we (Israel) being many are one body in Christ”
The Apostle pursues this important theme in his later Epistles, cf. I Corinthians 10:17, 12:12-23, Ephesians 2: 11-18, 3:6, 4:4 and 5:23, Colossians 1:18 and 24, 2:14-19, 3:11-15.
Chapter 13: Paul refers to THE LAW as in Leviticus 19:13,18, which is not a new law (2 John 5:6. 1 John 2:7).
Chapter 14: Concerns doubtful disputations, and Jewish fables (Talmud) with which Paul had to contend.
Chapter 15: Paul continues in the theme of the Covenant and the promises made to the fathers of Israel.
v.9: In Psalm 18:49, David does not praise the Lord among the heathen, but within His own nation.
v.10: Deuteronomy 32:43: the word with is not in the Hebrew. That alters the sense most materially. It is the nations of Israel who are to rejoice.
Chapter 16: History confirms that Israelites were in Rome before Paul arrived in that city (see earlier section). The Apostle records (Romans 1:8) that The Faith had reached Rome, and that his kinsmen there “were in Christ before me” (Romans 16:7).
The traditional fallacy that the congregation or “church” in Rome was composed of aliens stems from ignorance of history. When the racial origins of the saints in Rome (Romans 1:7) is realised, there can be no doubt as to the race to which this Epistle was addressed.
This last chapter is of such historical importance that it should be the first to be grasped in all its racial detail. There would then be no shadow of doubt that Paul was the Apostle to the ethnos (nations) of Israel.
Part 2 (two) will be in the next edition
