I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: Who are Israelites; to whom pertains the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen. (Romans 9:1-5)¹

As was pointed out in Part 1, it’s not open to debate to whom the Apostle Paul wrote this. It couldn’t be any clearer that Paul wrote those five verses to his “kinsmen according to the flesh who are Israelites.”

Paul’s physical Israelite kinsmen are those to whom belongs 1) the adoption, 2) the glory, 3) the covenants, 4) the giving of the law, 5) the service, 6) the promises, 7) the fathers, and 8) to whom Christ came. In other words, among other things, those eight particulars are exclusive to Israelites.

Let’s take a closer look at each of these.

Adoption

The adoption of sons and/or children is also referred to in the following three passages:

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father…. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. (Romans 8:14-15, 23)

But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. (Galatians 4:4-5)

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,² who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestined us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, (Ephesians 1:3-5)

All three of these epistles were written to Israelites as demonstrated from within the epistles themselves,³ providing corroborating evidence to Paul’s claim that the adoption belongs to Israelites.

Additionally, Galatia and Ephesus are located above the Euphrates River where the ten-tribed house of Israel was relocated after being taken captive by the Assyrians, as prophesied by Ahijah:

For Yahweh⁴ shall smite Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water, and he shall root up Israel out of this good land, which he gave to their fathers, and shall scatter them beyond the [NASB, Euphrates] river (1 Kings 14:15)

The first-century Judahite historian Flavius Josephus, a contemporary of the Apostle Paul, attested to the fulfillment of this prophecy:

[T]here are but two tribes [of Israel from the house of Judah] in Asia and Europe subject to the Romans, while the ten tribes [from the house of Israel] are beyond the Euphrates till now, and are an immense multitude, and not to be estimated by numbers.⁵

The Bible says nothing about non-Israelite adoption. Rather, God redeemed and thereby adopted a remnant of physical Israelites as His sons and daughters under the New Covenant.

The Glory

Because Paul did not elaborate as to what the glory is that pertains to Israel, we have to look elsewhere to find the answer.

In the Old Testament, Yahweh is depicted as Israel’s glory, and the Israelites are depicted as God’s glory.

In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God. Trust in him at all times; ye [Israelite] people [contemporary with King David], pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. (Psalm 62:7-8)

This Psalm was intended as a song for Israel to sing to Yahweh, the glory of Israelites. And as God is Israel’s glory, Israel is God’s glory:

I [Yahweh] bring near my righteousness; it shall not be far off, and my salvation shall not tarry: and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel my glory. (Isaiah 46:13)

For as the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah, saith Yahweh; that they might be unto me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory…. (Jeremiah 13:11)

To cleave is a matrimonial term. As husband and wife, they both cleaved and gloried in each other—Yahweh in Israel and Israel in Yahweh—at least as long as Israel, His wife, remained faithful to her husband.

For thy Maker is thine husband; Yahweh of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel…. (Isaiah 54:5)

The covenants also belong exclusively to Israel:

And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, Yahweh appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect. And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly…. And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. (Genesis 17:1-2. 7)

In this instance, Abram’s seed refers to his Israelite descendants by way of his grandson Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel.

These are the words of the covenant, which Yahweh commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, beside the covenant which he made with them in Horeb. (Deuteronomy 29:1)

“These are the words of the covenant” referring to the blessings and curses cited in the previous chapter, contingent upon the Israelites’ obedience or disobedience to the Mosaic Covenant made with them at Mt. Sinai (aka Mt. Horeb). Very few, if any, will argue that the Abrahamic and Mosaic Covenants were exclusive to the Israelites. That’s not the case when it comes to the New Covenant, despite such explicit passages as Jeremiah 31:31-32 and Hebrews 8:8-9. Romans 9:3-4 declares the covenants belong to Israel with no exception clause for the New Covenant. Paul wouldn’t have dared to include such an exception knowing what’s found in Jeremiah 31, which the author of Hebrews (possibly Paul himself) quoted in Hebrews 8.

[I]n the latter days [of the Mosaic Covenant] ye shall consider it. At the same time, saith Yahweh, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people … saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel…. (Jeremiah 31:1-4)

This is referring to a New Covenant restoration from among “all the families of Israel”—that is, from both the two-tribed house of Judah and the ten-tribed house of Israel.

For there shall be a day, that the watchmen upon the mount Ephraim [principal tribe of the house of Israel] shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion [aka Jerusalem, capitol of the house of Judah] unto Yahweh our God. For thus saith Yahweh; Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations: publish ye, praise ye, and say, O Yahweh, save thy people, the remnant of Israel. (Jeremiah 31:6-7)

A redeemed remnant (Romans 9:26 & 11:5) from all Israel, from both the house or Judah and the house of Israel (Romans 11:26).

Behold, the days come, saith Yahweh, that I will make a new covenant with [a remnant from] the house of Israel, and with [a remnant from] the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith Yahweh. (Jeremiah 31:31-32)

Just as Paul declared in Romans 9:3-4, the covenants belong to Israel—all three covenants, the Abrahamic, Mosaic, and the New Covenant, all made exclusively with Israelites.

In the Mosaic Covenant Yahweh married national Israel; in the New Covenant Yahweh remarries a redeemed remnant of national Israel, as prophesied in Hosea 1 & 2, etc.—beginning with 3,000 Judahite Israelites in Acts 2. Old Covenant national Israel adulterated herself with other gods and had been, consequently, divorced by God, per Jeremiah 3:1-11, etc.

In turn, Yahweh wasn’t about to remarry a defiled woman, nor does His law in Deuteronomy 24:1-4 allow Him to do so. Thus, in fulfillment of Jeremiah 31:4, He transformed those He would remarry into virgins again, by means of Christ’s death burial, and resurrection from His grave:

I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. (2 Corinthians 11:2)

The Corinthians to whom the Paul wrote his epistles were Israelites⁶:

Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye [the Corinthian Christians] should be ignorant, how that all our [Israelite] fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all immersed unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. (1 Corinthians 10:1-2)

God never promised to marry non-Israelites. He did, however, promise to remarry a remnant of national Israel under the New Covenant. In turn, the New Covenant (a marriage covenant between Yahweh and His Israel bride) is as exclusive to Israelites as was the Old Covenant.

The inevitable question for many will be: “Does this exclude non-Israelites from any relationship whatsoever with their God and Creator?” No, it does not. Lord willing, a more exhaustive explanation will be provided, beginning in Part 3.

The Law

In addition to Romans 9:3-4, the following passages could not be any more definitive—the giving of the law is also exclusive to Israelites:

And this is the blessing, wherewith Moses the man of God blessed the children of Israel before his death. And he said, Yahweh came from Sinai … from his right hand went a fiery law for them. Yea, he loved the people; all his saints are in thy hand: and they sat down at thy feet; every one shall receive of thy words. Moses commanded us a law, even the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob. (Deuteronomy 33:1-4)

For he [Yahweh] established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children: That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children: That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments. (Psalm 78:5-7)

He [Yahweh] sheweth his word unto Jacob, his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any [other] nation: and as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye Yah. (Psalm 147:19-20)

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah…. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people. (Hebrews 8:8-10)

The law was given to Israel and no one else. They were, and are, its exclusive custodians in all three Covenants.⁷ This, however, does not eliminate non-Israelite nations from being judged by the same law. See, for example, Jeremiah Chapters 46-50.

The Service

Under the Mosaic Covenant, national Israel, as Yahweh’s wife and therefore His Queen, was chosen to serve at Yahweh’s “side” over His Old Covenant Kingdom.

In like manner, redeemed Israel, as Yahweh’s wife and therefore His Queen, was chosen to serve at Yahweh’s “side” over His New Covenant Kingdom:

I beseech you therefore [Roman Christians], brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. (Roman 12:1)⁸

Not only is Israel chosen to serve her Husband, she’s also been called to advance her King’s Kingdom here “on earth as it is in heaven,” per Matthew 6:10 & 33. There’s nowhere in heaven where Yahweh is not Sovereign and nowhere in heaven where His morality (as codified and reflected in His Ten Commandments and their respective statutes and civil judgments here on earth⁹) isn’t supreme.

This calling to dominion is the special commission of the King’s wife. Other nations can benefit from the wife’s service to her King (see Genesis 22:18, Galatians 3:8, etc.), but it remains the special commission of the King’s redeemed Queen (who happens to also be one and the same as the King’s redeemed subjects and ambassadors) to assist in expanding her husband’s Kingdom here on earth.

The Promises

Next, Paul declares that the promises belong exclusively to Israel—that is, to the faithful under all three Covenants, all of which were exclusive to Israelites.

Paul confirms this regarding the New Covenant in his epistle to the Galatians. In addition to Galatia being one of the locations north of the Euphrates River to which the Old Covenant Israelites were dispersed, there is also contextual evidence proving this epistle was written to Israelites residing in Galatia.¹⁰

For example, Paul identifies both himself and the Galatian Christians to whom he wrote this epistle as having been under the law, whom he also identified as having been adopted by God, both of which only apply to Israelites:

But before faith came [under the New Covenant], we [the Apostle Paul and the Galatian Christians’ Israelite forefathers] were kept under the [Old Covenant] law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. (Galatians 3:23)

To redeem them [Old Covenant Israelites] that were under the law, that we [redeemed Israelites living in Galatia] might receive the adoption of sons. (Galatians 4:5)¹⁰

With this Israelite evidence in mind, now consider Paul’s following statement regarding the promises:

For ye [redeemed Israelites living in Galatia] are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been immersed into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Judahite nor Greek [Hellen], there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. (Galatians 3:26-29)

Hellen, translated “Greek,” and ethne, meaning nations,¹¹ are used interchangeably in the New Testament.

Although some New Testament passages use the term “Greek,” translated from Hellen, in a more explicit sense, most biblical authorities recognize that the term “Greek” is often employed to simply represent gentiles (better rendered “nations”) in general:

“Greek” means either a native of Greece or else a Gentile in general (Romans 10:12, 2:9-10, margin).¹²

The term Hellenes [the Greek word translated “Greeks”] refers to the inhabitants of Greece … but it is also used as a virtual equivalent of “Gentile,” to describe those who are not of Jewish [Judahite] origin [that is, descendants of the two-tribed house of Judah]….¹³

Ethnos (meaning nation) and ethne (meaning nations) cannot be used for individuals. Thus, in place of ethnos or ethne, helen is used when referring to individual Israelites.

This interchangeable use of the words “Greek” and “Gentile” is, for example, confirmed in the Greek text of Romans 2, as accurately rendered in the New American Standard Bible:

There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew [Judahite, correctly rendered] first and also of the Greek [Hellenos], but glory and honor and peace to every man who does good, to the Judahite first and also to the Greek [Helleni] …. for not the hearers of the Law are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified. For when Gentiles [ethne/nations] who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves. (Romans 2:9-14, NASB)

Additionally, the Pharisees and chief priests confirmed that Israelites from the ten-tribed house of Israel in dispersion were also known as Greeks:

The Jews [officers sent by the Judahite Pharisees and chief priests, Verse 32] then said to one another, “Where does this Man intend to go that we will not find Him? He does not intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks [hellen], and teach the Greeks [hellen], does He? (John 7:35, NASB)

Consequently, the Hellen/Greeks in Galatians 3:28 are from the ethne/nations, identified by Paul as Israelites earlier in Galatians 3 and 4.

Consequently, when correctly interpreted, Galatians 3:26-29 is understood to mean that only those Israelites in Christ (the redeemed-Israel remnant from both the house of Judah and the house of Israel) are reckoned as Abraham’s true New Covenant seed and thus heirs of the promises.

Thus, the promises are exclusive to Israel in all three covenants, including the New Covenant.

The Fathers

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to correctly ascertain that the fathers (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) pertain to the Israelites from whom they were and are descended, as found today in the Anglo-Saxon, Germanic, Celtic, Scandinavian, and kindred people.¹⁴

This term, “the fathers,” is also important in correctly identifying to whom some of the New Testament epistles were written:

What then shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, has found? (Romans 4:1)

The word “our” in this verse refers to both Paul and the Roman Christians to whom he wrote this epistle, whom he identifies as being physical descendants of Abraham.

“Pertaining to the flesh” is translated from the same two Greek words (kata sarx) translated “according to the flesh” in Romans 9:

For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: Who are Israelites; to whom pertains the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; Whose are the fathers…. (Romans 9:1-5)

Thus, like the Galatians and the Ephesians, the Romans to whom Paul wrote his epistle were likewise Israelites,¹⁵ descendants of the fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The same is true of the Corinthians:

Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our [Israelite] fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; And were all immersed unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. (1 Corinthians 10:1-2)¹⁶

The same is true as it concerns the recipients of the New Covenant, as prophesied by Jeremiah in Jeremiah 31, quoted in the epistle to the Hebrew Israelites:

For finding fault with them [the Old Covenant Israelites], he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their [Israelite] fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. (Hebrews 8:8-9)

Once again, this demonstrates that not only do “the fathers” pertain to the Israelites, but so does the New Covenant, just like Paul declared in Romans 9:3-4.

To Whom Christ Came

That’s right—Christ came only to the Israelites:

But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. (Matthew 15:24)

This was true because one of the principal reasons for Christ’s incarnation was to make possible Hosea’s prophecy regarding Yahweh’s New Covenant remarriage to a redeemed remnant of national Israel whom He had divorced under the Old Covenant.¹⁷

The burning question for many will be: “Does this exclude non-Israelites from any relationship whatsoever with their God and Creator?” No, it does not. Whereas Christ was sent only to Israel, this does not eliminate non-Israelites from coming to Him as proselytes. Lord willing, a more exhaustive explanation will be provided, beginning in Part 3.

Conclusion

All eight—adoption, the glory, the Covenants, the giving of the law, the service, the promises, the fathers, and to whom Christ came—are all exclusive to Isael.

Also exclusive to Israelites are the terms “sheep,” “redemption,” and “the body of Christ.” As with olive trees and branches, any time a people are associated with the terms “sheep” and “redemption” (in all of its forms), it’s always Israel who is cited.

As for the body of Christ, aka the bride of Christ: when a husband and wife become one, they become one flesh with each other. James Strong’s Hebrew Lexicon defines the Hebrew word translated “flesh” in the phrase “one flesh” in Genesis 2:24 as also “body,” that is, one body.¹⁸ It’s, once again, a marital term and is, thus, only applicable to Yahweh’s wife under the New Covenant—that is, His redeemed Israel remnant from both the house of Judah and the house of Israel.

Does the Bible teach an Israelite exclusivity? Absolutely! But although it may at first appear to dictate otherwise, that exclusivity (now scripturally proven) does not demand that non-Israelites are eliminated from salvation and eternity, as will also, Lord willing, be scripturally proven, beginning in Part 3.

Thus, to reject either the exclusivity of Israel or to deny salvation to non-Israelites, is to pit scripture against scripture rather than harmonizing the sum of God’s Word on this issue.

Stay tuned for Part 3.

1. All scripture is quoted from the King James Version unless otherwise noted.

2. Yeshua is the English transliteration of our Savior’s given Hebrew name, with which He introduced Himself to the Apostle Paul in Acts 26:14-15. (Jesus is a twice-removed transliteration: the English transliteration of the Greek Iesous, which is the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew Yeshua.) Because many people are unfamiliar or uncomfortable with Yeshua, I have chosen to use the more familiar name Jesus in this article in order to remove what might otherwise be a stumbling block.

3. For the contextual evidence that Paul’s epistle to the Romans was written to redeemed Israelites, listen to Part 2 of the expository series on Romans at https://missiontoisrael.org/tapelist.php#T909

For the contextual evidence that Paul’s epistle to the Galatians was written to redeemed Israelites, listen to Part 2 of the expository series on Galatians at https://missiontoisrael.org/tapelist.php#T1228

For the contextual evidence that Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians was written to redeemed Israelites, listen to Part 1 of the expository series on Ephesians at https://missiontoisrael.org/tapelist.php#T1253

4. YHWH, the English transliteration of the Tetragrammaton, is most often pronounced Yahweh. It is the principal Hebrew name of the God of the Bible and was inspired to appear nearly 7,000 times in the Old Testament. It was unlawfully deleted by the English translators. In obedience to the Third Commandment and scriptures that charge us to proclaim, swear by, praise, extol, call upon, bless, glorify, and hold fast to His name, I have chosen to memorialize His name, per Exodus 3:15, in this article.

For a more thorough explanation concerning important reasons for using the sacred name of God, see Thou shalt not take the name of YHWH thy God in vain, the third in a series of ten free online books on each of the Ten Commandments and their respective statutes and civil judgments.

5. Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1960) book 11, chapter 5, verse 2, p. 234

6. For the contextual evidence that Paul’s epistles to the Corinthians were written to redeemed Israelites, listen to Part 1 of the expository series on 1 Corinthians, at https://missiontoisrael.org/tapelist.php#T1253

7. For more on how the Bible’s triune and integral moral law (the Ten Commandments and their respective statutes and civil judgments) apply and should be implemented as the law of the land, see free online book Law & Kingdom: Their Relevance Under the New Covenant.

8. For additional contextual evidence that Paul’s epistle to the Romans was written to redeemed Israelites, listen to Part 2 of the expository series on Romans at https://missiontoisrael.org/tapelist.php#T909

9. For more on how the Bible’s triune and integral moral law (the Ten Commandments and their respective statutes and civil judgments) apply and should be implemented as the law of the land, see free online book Law & Kingdom: Their Relevance Under the New Covenant.

10. For additional contextual evidence that Paul’s epistle to the Galatians was written to redeemed Israelites, listen to Part 2 of the expository series on Galatians, at https://missiontoisrael.org/tapelist.php#T1228

11. For a more exhaustive treatise regarding the alleged “Gentiles,” see free online book The Mystery of the Gentiles: Who Are They and Where Are They Now?

12. “Greece,” Fausset’s Bible Dictionary, Electronic Database Copyright (c)1998 by Biblesoft

13. “Greeks,” The New Bible Dictionary (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1978) p. 494

14. For biblical, archeological, and historical evidence that the Anglo-Saxon, Germanic, Celtic, Scandinavian, and kindred people are Israelites, see free online books God’s Covenant People: Yesterday, Today and Forever, The Mystery of Gentiles: Who Are They and Where Are They Now?, and Israel’s Identity: It Matters!

15. For additional contextual evidence that Paul’s epistle to the Romans was written to redeemed Israelites, listen to Part 2 of the expository series on Romans at https://missiontoisrael.org/tapelist.php#T909

16. For additional contextual evidence that Paul’s epistles to the Corinthians were written to redeemed Israelites, listen to Part 1 of the expository series on 1 Corinthians, at https://missiontoisrael.org/tapelist.php#T1253

17. For more regarding how Christ made it possible for Yahweh to marry a remnant of national Israel whom He had divorced under the Old Covenant, listen to the audio message “Yahweh’s Marriage, Divorce, and Remarriage of Israel” at https://missiontoisrael.org/tapelist.html#T1413

18. James Strong, basar, “Dictionary of the Hebrew Bible,” The New Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1990) p. 24