{13} For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your {b} own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be {c} come in.

(13) The blindness of the Jews is neither so universal that the Lord has no elect in that nation, neither will it be continual: for there will be a time in which they also (as the prophets have foretold) will effectually embrace that which they now so stubbornly for the most part reject and refuse.

(b) That you are not proud within yourselves.

(c) Into the Church.

People's New Testament

11:25 I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery. Any secret thing, known to but a few, is called a mystery. The mystery that Paul is about to unfold is concerning the conversion of Israel. He unfolds it lest the Gentile Christians

should be wise in your own conceits, or may have incorrect views. The first thing noted in explaining this mystery, is that

blindness in part hath happened to Israel. This blindness, or hardening, had been due to Israel's sins, especially to unbelief. The second fact is that it would continue

until the fulness of the Gentiles shall be come in, or the greater part of the Gentile world been converted.

Wesley's Notes

11:25 St. Paul calls any truth known but to a few, a mystery. Such had been the calling of the gentiles: such was now the conversion of the Jews. Lest ye should be wise in your own conceits - Puffed up with your present advantages; dreaming that ye are the only church; or that the church of Rome cannot fail. Hardness in part is happened to Israel, till - Israel therefore is neither totally nor finally rejected. The fullness of the gentiles be come in - Till there be a vast harvest amongst the heathens.

King James Translators' Notes

blindness: or, hardness

Scofield Reference Notes

[2] fullness

The "fullness of the Gentiles" is the completion of the purpose of God in this age, viz. the outcalling from among the Gentiles of a people for Christ's name, "the church which is His body" Eph 1:22,23 Cf Acts 15:14 Eph 4:11-13 1Cor 12:12,13. It must be distinguished from "the times of the Gentiles" Lk 21:24.

Margin mystery

See note, See Scofield Note: "Mt 13:11".

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

25. For I would not . that ye should be ignorant of this mystery-The word "mystery," so often used by our apostle, does not mean (as with us) something incomprehensible, but "something before kept secret, either wholly or for the most part, and now only fully disclosed" (compare Ro 16:25; 1Co 2:7-10; Eph 1:9, 10; 3:3-6, 9, 10).

lest ye should be wise in your own conceits-as if ye alone were in all time coming to be the family of God.

that blindness-"hardness"

in part is happened to-"hath come upon"

Israel-that is, hath come partially, or upon a portion of Israel.

until the fulness of the Gentiles be-"have"

come in-that is, not the general conversion of the world to Christ, as many take it; for this would seem to contradict the latter part of this chapter, and throw the national recovery of Israel too far into the future: besides, in Ro 11:15, the apostle seems to speak of the receiving of Israel, not as following, but as contributing largely to bring about the general conversion of the world-but, "until the Gentiles have had their full time of the visible Church all to themselves while the Jews are out, which the Jews had till the Gentiles were brought in." (See Lu 21:24).

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

11:22-32 Of all judgments, spiritual judgments are the sorest; of these the apostle is here speaking. The restoration of the Jews is, in the course of things, far less improbable than the call of the Gentiles to be the children of Abraham; and though others now possess these privileges, it will not hinder their being admitted again. By rejecting the gospel, and by their indignation at its being preached to the Gentiles, the Jews were become enemies to God; yet they are still to be favoured for the sake of their pious fathers. Though at present they are enemies to the gospel, for their hatred to the Gentiles; yet, when God's time is come, that will no longer exist, and God's love to their fathers will be remembered. True grace seeks not to confine God's favour. Those who find mercy themselves, should endeavour that through their mercy others also may obtain mercy. Not that the Jews will be restored to have their priesthood, and temple, and ceremonies again; an end is put to all these; but they are to be brought to believe in Christ, the true become one sheep-fold with the Gentiles, under Christ the Great Shepherd. The captivities of Israel, their dispersion, and their being shut out from the church, are emblems of the believer's corrections for doing wrong; and the continued care of the Lord towards that people, and the final mercy and blessed restoration intended for them, show the patience and love of God.