# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_November 1859_S323
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Whether Rom. 11:25, 26, 27 [teaches] a solemn [conversion of the Jews] still to be expected, etc. 323

II. A second reason why the interpretation of our passage that has now become almost universal is without doubt contrary to the true sense of the Holy Spirit lies in the little word "so" [also], in Greek: οὕτω. Those who wish to derive from our text a solemn conversion of the Jews still to be expected translate the particle οὕτω, namely, ordinarily as a temporal particle, and must do so in order to find in it the sense they desire.

Even the otherwise so excellent expositor of Scripture Friedrich Balduin translates it: "tum demum" (only then); among the more recent exegetes, in his commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, Krehl: "thereupon, or after that." Others, indeed, do not venture, in defiance of the Greek language, to translate the particle outright as "thereafter," but for the sake of their preconceived opinion they likewise bring the notion of a temporal determination — namely, of a temporal following-upon — into their translation. Rückert translates: "And after the fulfillment of this condition," or: "when this shall have come to pass;" Olshausen: "After the occurrence of these circumstances." Philippi: "So, that is (?), when this has come to pass, namely when the fullness of the Gentiles shall have come in, cf. 5:12; Acts 7:8, 20:11; 1 Cor. 11:28, 14:25; 1 Thess. 4:17; Heb. 6:15." Philippi adds: "It is therefore not necessary to explain it in this way, namely that Israel's partial hardening has continued until the entrance of the fullness of the Gentiles." — But who gives these exegetes the right to take οὕτω in a different sense than Greek usage — just as German usage in the particle "so" and "also" — allows? It is quite true that the particle οὕτω introduces clauses that admit the notion of a temporal sequence, but that by no means proves that the particle itself indicates temporal sequence within the sentence. Wherever our particle occurs, it always carries the meaning: in this manner, in such a way. If the translator can, in many passages, still take along with it the notion of "thereupon," "thereafter," he cannot derive the right to do so from the meaning of the particle itself, but must establish it from elsewhere. And with that it becomes clear: when the expositors suppose that the apostle means to say that once the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, a great conversion of the Jews will then yet follow, they must establish this opinion from other passages — in our passage we read nothing of it. As for the meaning of our particle, the accurate Bengel had already noted that translating it with "then" is untenable. He writes: "Non dicit: et tunc; sed majore vi: et sic" (Paul does not say: and then; but with greater emphasis: and so). He does go on to say: "quo ipso τὸ tunc includitur" (in which the "then" is itself already included); yet, however true it is, as said, that the notion of "then" can be included in, or rather thought along with, the notion of "so," it is equally true and certain at the same time that this notion's being included in, or thought along with, the other does not have its ground in the meaning of the little word "so,"