Seraphim Hamilton (Kabane)

Seraphim Hamilton's exegesis of Romans 9 is an excellent, Orthodox Christian and Pauline response to the misguided claims of John Calvin and the many under his spell. Some of his eschatological statements in this presentation regarding the ongoing reality of Judaism and Jewish people, however, are seriously problematic, especially with regard to the Apostle Paul's statement in Romans 11:26: "And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: 'The Deliverer will come from Zion; He will remove godlessness from Jacob.'" Seraphim only addresses this statement cursorily in his presentation, denying that it has any import for the collective of people who identify as non-Christian Jews and live under the umbrella of non-Christian Judaism. One of the problems with Seraphim's statement is that it ignores the immediate context of Romans 11:26, the wider context of the Holy Scriptures, and certain patristic statements regarding this issue--all of which stand in opposition to Seraphim's interpretation of this verse. Another problem is the inherent antisemitic nature of such statements, which do not simply attack Judaism as an ideological phenomenon, but also try to disinherit the Jewish people from their Jewish identity, apparently judging such identity as illegitimate and, therefore, a fantasy. Unfortunately, such a response has much in common with Nazism which sought to turn the whole race of the Jews into a non-entity. If we learned anything from World War II and the events leading up to it, we ought to have learned that certain forms of wicked or simply misguided rhetoric are but a few steps away from diabolic, genocidal acts. Lord, have mercy.

Let us then look at the immediate context of Romans 11:26 and see the error of Seraphim’s interpretation in this regard.

ROMANS 11
***“2God did not reject His people, whom He foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says about Elijah, how he appealed to God against Israel:”***

Here the Apostle Paul draws a distinction between God's "people, whom He foreknew" and "Israel." “Israel” refers here, not to the spiritual “Israel of God,” (i.e., the Church referred to by the Apostle Paul under this title in Galatians 6:16), but to the natural nation of Israel, the descendants of the Patriarchs according to the flesh. Of course, within this natural nation of Israel are also Gentiles who have been joined to Israel by turning from paganism and being accepted into the nation through immersion in a ritual bath, called a mikveh, and circumcision (if they are male), though circumcision precedes the mikveh. (So any argument that modern Jews are "not really Jews" because they are converts to Judaism from Gentile nations will never hold water because natural Israel has always included converts to Judaism from Gentile nations.) The Apostle Paul is acknowledging here the legitimate existence of the natural nation of Israel. He is using the term "Israel" in this passage to refer to the unbelieving Jews who are not part of the holy remnant chosen by Grace, which remnant serves as the foundation of the Church. The natural nation of Israel is not a political entity, such as Judea under the Great Sanhedrin and the Romans or the modern nation-state of Israel, but the house of Israel both in Judea and in the far-flung, Jewish diaspora which rejects Jesus as Christ. The Apostle continues,

***“3‘Lord, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars. I am the only one left, and they are seeking my life as well’? 4And what was the divine reply to him? ‘I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.’ 5In the same way, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. 6And if it is by grace, then it is no longer by works. Otherwise, grace would no longer be grace.”***

The Apostle quotes Elijah’s prayer in which the prophet is saying that the natural nation of Israel has killed the Lord’s prophets and torn down the altars of the Lord. Certainly, the Apostle Paul, in the years he was known as “Saul of Tarsus,” persecuted the Church and tore down the Church’s altars wherever he found them. He did this in ignorance, thinking he was serving God, but, in actuality, he was serving the devil in persecuting Christ and His Body, the Church. At that time Saul of Tarsus was not part of the holy, Jewish remnant. He was not numbered among the Jewish believers in Christ, the faithful Jews who had chosen to find salvation, not through their works of Torah observance, but by means of the Grace operative in those who believe and are baptized into Christ. Nevertheless, Saul of Tarsus, one of the Jews who stumble at the stumbling stone and reject, in unbelief, the LORD's Messiah, was arrested by Grace on the road to Damascus. Through the ministry of the disciple Ananias, Saul was baptized into the holy, Jewish remnant, becoming a member of the Church, which, at that time, was composed only of Jewish believers. The Apostle Paul continues,

***“7What then? What Israel was seeking, it failed to obtain, but the elect did. The others were hardened, as it is written: ‘God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that could not see, and ears that could not hear, to this very day.’ 9And David says: ‘May their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution to them. 10May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent throughout.’”***

Here the Apostle continues to talk about the natural (as opposed to the spiritual) nation of Israel. In Romans 10:1-3, he speaks of the futility of his fellow Jews (of natural Israel) trying to go about establishing their own righteousness through old Torah observances rather than submitting to the new righteousness of God’s Grace in Christ. Paul says here that some of the Jews, the believing remnant, were elected to salvation according to Grace, while the rest of the natural nation of Israel, which rejected Christ, became calloused, stupefied, blinded, and deafened, and that this condition of insensibility to the revelation of Messiah Yeshua (Jesus) continues “to this very day.” The Apostle then employs the words of the Psalmist David as a curse placed upon unbelieving Israel, which is pictured as still having a communal table, the table of Judaism, though this table is said to become “a stumbling block and a retribution to them.” Notice that the nation of natural Israel (composed of those born Jews and Gentiles who have come under the yoke of the Torah as proselytized Jews) still exists for the Apostle, although the members of this natural Israel are blinded and having stumbled. The Apostle continues,

***“11I ask then, did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Certainly not! However, because of their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel jealous. 12But if their trespass means riches for the world, and their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring! 13I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry 14in the hope that I may provoke my own people to jealousy and save some of them. 15For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?”***

The Apostle Paul is still talking about those who belong to the natural nation of Israel, which, in his view, still exists. The Apostle further indicates that God is not finished with the natural nation of Israel, the Jewish people. The natural nation of the Jews has not fallen beyond recovery. Through their rejection of Christ, something good came: the Church of the saved--both the believing, Jewish remnant and the Gentiles joined to them. The Church came into being and now exists in order to incite jealousy in natural Israel. The Apostle is still talking about natural Israel, which every Jew of that time saw as including not simply Judeans, but the whole Jewish people spread throughout the world. Paul is not simply taking about Judeans. He is talking about the unbelieving house of Israel, known as the Jews, to whom belong “the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the Torah, the Temple worship, the promises, and the patriarchs.” They are the ones from whom, with regard to His fleshly descent, Christ came (Romans 9:1-5), and it is they for whom Paul wishes himself accursed that they might be saved because they are not believers. Paul says that riches came from the trespass and failure of the Jewish people when they, as a nation of religion, rejected Christ, but he alludes to something quite opposite to their trespass and failure—something he calls “their fullness.” The Apostle expresses no hope of himself saving all of the Jews, but only “some of them.” He hopes to save some of them because he has a greater hope in mind—the resurrection of the dead—because the Apostle believes that if Israel’s rejection of Christ resulted in the reconciliation of the nations with God, Israel’s full acceptance of Christ will result in the Blessed Hope of the Church—the Second Coming of our Great God and Savior Jesus Christ and the Resurrection of the Dead! Again, Paul is talking, not about individual Jews accepting Christ—which has already happened and continues to happen, but rather about his hope of the full, entire Jewish nation’s eventual acceptance of Christ. Leaving this more eschatological theme aside momentarily, the Apostle focuses his attention on the relation between three different groups of people--1) the faithful Jewish remnant, 2) unbelieving Israel, and 3) Gentile believers:

***“16If the first part of the dough is holy, so is the whole batch; if the root is holy, so are the branches. 17Now if some branches have been broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others to share in the nourishment of the olive root, 18do not boast over those branches. If you do, remember this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. 19You will say then, ‘Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.’ 20That is correct: They were broken off because of unbelief, but you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. 21For if God did not spare the natural branches, He will certainly not spare you either. 22Take notice, therefore, of the kindness and severity of God: severity to those who fell, but kindness to you, if you continue in His kindness. Otherwise you also will be cut off.”***

Here the Apostle Paul refers to Israel’s foundation, the Patriarchs and the believing remnant of Israel, as its holy, starter-dough or its holy root. He says that if the foundation of the Patriarchs and the remnant is holy, then all of Israel—the Israel of God—is holy. But then the Apostle says something quite shocking: he says that some of Israel’s natural branches have been broken off from the holy root through unbelief so that unnatural, Gentile branches could be grafted into the holy root by faith and so become part of the believing Israel of God, the Church. Here is a big difference between natural Israel and the Church: when pagan Gentiles are joined to the Church, they do not become Jews, whereas when Gentiles are joined with natural Israel, they become Jews. He warns Gentile believers not to boast over the displacement of unbelieving Israel, but rather to be afraid lest they, too, end up broken off through their own arrogant unfaithfulness and unbelief. Note also that those of unbelieving Israel are still called “the natural branches,” while the believing Gentile person, though faithful, is still called “a wild shoot,” and by implication “unnatural” in his engraftment on the holy stock of believing Israel. Having put the Gentile in his place within the household of faith, the Apostle now turns his attention to possibilities regarding the unbelieving house of Israel:

***“23And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. 24For if you were cut from a wild olive tree, and were grafted, against nature, into one that is cultivated, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!”***

The Apostle Paul still holds forth hope regarding those of the unbelieving house of Israel. He has already said that God is using the Church of Gentiles to provoke the unbelieving Jews to jealousy so as to stir them to draw near to God and to the holy root which naturally belongs to them. As the Apostle has already said, “the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the Torah, the Temple worship, the promises, and the patriarchs” naturally belong, not to Gentiles, even though they be believers, but to the Jews, even though they be in unbelief. Yes, they have been cut off from their natural inheritance through unbelief, but God is able to graft the natural branches back into their natural stock through faith in Christ! The Apostle Paul now turns to something eschatological which he calls a “mystery:”

***“25I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you will not be conceited: A hardening in part has come to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.”***

The Apostle Paul reveals to Christians the following mystery in order to humble them: while an elect remnant of Israel has been sensitive to God and has believed, the rest of the Jewish people are subject to a spiritual callousness for a designated time of unknown duration “until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.” Paul speaks of “the fullness of the Gentiles” as something future, something yet to happen. Just as Paul speaks here of some future “fullness of the Gentiles” which will end the time of Israel’s callousness, he already spoke of “their fullness” (vs. 12), that is “the fullness of the Jews”, as bringing “greater riches,” as bringing the very Resurrection of the Dead at the end of the age (vss. 12-15). What is this “fullness” of the Gentiles (vs. 25) and the “fullness” of the Jews (vs. 12)? Is it the same thing as mentioned by the Lord in his prophetic discourse when he said regarding the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in A.D. 70, “They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive into all the nations. And Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled” (Luke 21:24)? Is the book of the Revelation also alluding to this time when it says, “But exclude the outer court; do not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles. They will trample on the holy city for 42 months” (Revelation 11:2)? We can only speculate. Looking, however, at how the Apostle Paul continues in Romans 11, may gives us more insight:

***“26And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: ‘The Deliverer will come from Zion; He will remove godlessness from Jacob. 27And this is My covenant with them when I take away their sins.’”***

Some will argue that Paul suddenly switches the “Israel” he has been talking about from being natural, unbelieving Israel to the believing “Israel of God,” the Church, but such a switch interrupts the flow of his thought. In the previous verse, verse 25, Paul is talking about an end to Israel’s callousness, the callousness which resulted in their rejection of Christ, and he is stating that this callousness will end at a future time when “the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.” The implication is that the nation of Israel’s general rejection of Christ will cease when the callousness is removed. This acceptance of Christ by the larger sector of the Jewish people (not just the remnant, which, of course, already accepts Christ, but the whole of Israel) is also called “their fullness.” The term “fullness” seems to relate to the phrase “all Israel” in verse 26. Paul is not calling the Church “Israel” here. He is talking about unbelieving Jews, en masse, turning to Christ and being cleansed from sin and godlessness by the Deliverer from “Zion,” a mystical name for the Church. Just as Christ came from Israel to deliver the fullness of the Gentiles from sin, Christ will come from the Church to deliver the fullness of the Jews from sin. Saint John of Damascus writes of such a future, eschatological moment when the hearts of the fathers, the Jews, will be turned toward their children, the Christians, and the hearts of the children, the Christians, will be turned toward their fathers, the Jews. Other saints have likewise written of such a coming day. The Apostle Paul continues his treatise in the following words:

***“28Regarding the Gospel, they are enemies on your account; but regarding election, they are loved on account of the patriarchs. 29For God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable. 30Just as you who formerly disobeyed God have now received mercy through their disobedience, 31so they too have now disobeyed, in order that they too may now receive mercy through the mercy shown to you. 32For God has consigned everyone to disobedience so that He may have mercy on everyone."***

Verse 28 clarifies that when Paul refers to “all Israel” in verse 26, he is still talking about the currently unbelieving nation of Israel that is distinct from the remnant according to the election of Grace. He is talking about unbelieving Jews as enemies of the Gospel of Grace while, at the same time, they, as the natural heirs of the promises, are beloved on account of the holy Patriarchs, their forefathers according to the flesh. Their belovedness as the “natural branches,” as the natural heirs to the commonwealth of Israel, is a gift and invitation of God that is irrevocable, despite their current rejection of the invitational call of God through their rejection of God's Anointed One. The invitation, which began with Abraham and continues even today, remains open and always will. God’s hope is to have mercy on everyone, both Jew and Gentile. Just as disobedient Gentiles have, through the general disobedience of the Jewish nation, found a place to be grafted into the holy remnant, constituting the Church, even so disobedient Jews may be re-grafted into the holy root through the mercy shown to them by Gentiles have received God's mercy in the Church. Elsewhere, the Apostle Paul speaks of a great apostasy in the last times, a great falling away of people from the Church. Will it be that a great many unnatural branches (of Gentile extraction) will be broken off through unbelief so that the unbelieving house of Israel, the Jewish people, may be grafted in by faith, en masse, into Christ toward the end of days leading up to the final resurrection of the just and the unjust? Again, we can only conjecture, but for several holy fathers, the answer seems to be "yes."

Nevertheless, despite any doubts we might entertain in that regard, the Scripture is clear: God is not finished calling the natural nation of unbelieving Jews, which still exists, despite the insinuations of Seraphim Hamilton and other misguided wild olive sprouts, who are strangers, by nature, to the commonwealth of Israel though they do stand grafted into the holy stock of Israel's believing remnant by faith. So let us, the faithful of Gentile extraction, be humble, recognizing our alien origins, and hold in esteem the natural branches, the Jews, still beloved, despite their unbelief, because of their relation to the Patriarchs, and let us pray for their re-engraftment into the holy root composed of the Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, the Most Holy Theotokos, and Her Jewish Son, Jesus Christ, the King of Israel.… (mer)

The word "expiation" seems an impoverished rendition of the Greek term 'ιλασμός (ee-lahs-MOHCE), often translated "atonement" in other traditions. Ιλασμός is the Greek rendering of the Hebrew כפר (kah-FAR), whose verbal form is first used in Scripture in God's command to Noah to כפר the Ark with tree pitch. Covering the ark with pitch is not an act of expiation, unless we are to imagine that the Ark had committed some transgression. But it most certainly had not! Rather, the pitch covered the Ark, making it ready to endure the waters of the flood and preserve the lives of its passengers. So כפר seems to have more to do with "covering" than with "expiating" or "making amends for guilt."

Perhaps, it is no coincidence that the Hebrew word כפר, "KAPHAR," sounds similar to the English word "COVER." In the case of Noah's Ark, what is being covered is not sin, but rather the wood of the Ark for its preservation and the salvation of its passengers. Further strengthening this connection with COVERING, we note that the Hebrew word כפר serves as the root of the noun כפרת (kah-poh-RET), which is often erroneously translated as "mercy seat." The Hebrew word כפרת describes the COVERING placed on the Ark of the Covenant. This COVERING of the Ark is translated as ἱλαστήριον (ee-lah-STEE-ree-ohn) in Greek, the first four letters of the word revealing its association with 'ιλασμός. The כפרת or COVERING and the two cherubim it featured were made entirely of one piece of solid gold. Now gold is a Biblical symbol of Divinity and Cherubim are a rank of the Bodiless Powers who exhibit the Divine Energies. Thus, the כפרת, or ἱλαστήριον, in itself, represents, not so much the reparative suffering of a victim for sin, but rather the COVERING of Deifying Grace by which we participate in the Eternal Life of God. Further bolstering these associations is the fact that the Divine Glory--the SHEKINAH--was manifested between the Cherubim above the כפרת. Like the Holy Spirit, the Power of the Most High overshadowing the Holy Theotokos at the Divine Conception of the Logos (Luke 1:35), the Cherubim of Glory are said to overshadow the ἱλαστήριον (Hebrews 9:5). So the כפרת with its related words כפר, 'ιλασμός, and ἱλαστήριον, ought to be primarily identified as a COVERING of glory rather than an "expiation" or "making amends" for transgressions. It is rather symbolic of DEIFICATION, the Garment of the Spirit, which describes a union--an at-one-ment--with Divine Grace. As in the case of Noah's Ark, it is a covering which makes someone or something compatible to fulfill its purpose or intended role.

That being said, we must not wholly separate the idea of "expiation" from this theme as can be seen from the following. In the Old Testament the Altar is also said to be "covered" (כפר), thus making it fit to serve as the place of holy sacrifice. On יום כיפור, the Day of Atonement, the high priest would sprinkle blood upon the כפרת in order to make 'ιλασμός for the people. Blood is the means of access to God's Glory manifest at the ἱλαστήριον. (See Hebrews 10:19.) So, in understanding how sin is addressed through a sacrificial victim in relation to the words כפרת, כפר, 'ιλασμός, and ἱλαστήριον, we must not lose sight of the purpose of such sacrifice. It is not simply expiation, but access. It is intended, not simply to cover sins, but to COVER the sacrificial offerer with a Garment of Glory through an act of Divine Mercy.

So how ought such words to be translated into English? Perhaps the best English words to be used are the words "conciliate" and "covering." "Conciliate" carries not only the connotation of gaining favor or grace, but also of making things compatible. Thus both the Ark and the Altar are made compatible with their intended function--one by Tree Pitch and the other by Blood. Furthermore, the mortal flesh is made compatible to Eternal Life by being clothed upon by Deifying Grace. (Compare 2 Corinthians 5:1-5.). Thus, rather than expiate, perhaps it would be better to render it "conciliate" or "make conciliation," instead of "expiation," "conciliation," instead of "mercy seat," "conciliatory covering," because it is the Blood of Christ's Cross coupled with the Garment of the Holy Spirit which conciliates or renders one compatible with the Life of God.

Finally, we ought to note a curious feature of the Hebrew alphabet which may well speak to the things spoken of here. Jewish Kabbalists have long noted in the ancient Hebraic tradition that there are seven letters in the Hebrew alphabet which are called "double letters." These letters were called "double" letters because in Biblical Hebrew they could be pronounced two different ways. When these letters are placed next to one another in the order they appear in the Hebrew alphabet and according to the manner of writing Hebrew from right to left, they appear as follows:

נגדכפרת

BGDKPRT

Those who know Hebrew will readily see the following theologically-significant Hebrew phrase here:

נגד כפרת

BGD KPRT

Vowel markings did not appear in ancient, Biblical Hebrew, but if we add in the appropriate vowels to assist pronunciation, we obtain

BEGED KAPPORET

(bay-GHED kah-poh-RET), meaning, "Garment of Conciliatory Covering." Indeed the COVERING of the Ark of the Covenant, the KAPPORET, is symbolic of that Garment that conciliates us with God and with Eternal Life. We are speaking of the Garment of Divine Glory with which we may be clothed--the Promise of the Father, the Holy Spirit, received by grace through faithful and loving obedience to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Who is our Conciliation (1 John 2:3). Amen.… (mer)