If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.
Romans 11:16
I asked, “Who is the root?”
Some say the root Paul’s talking about in Romans 11:16 is Yeshua Messiah, but is that interpretation accurate? Let’s take a look at the context of Romans 11:16 and see.
In Romans 11, Paul continues his discourse on the Israelites and their salvation that he started in Romans 9 and continued through Romans 10. Romans 11 opens with this question.
I ask then: Did Elohim reject his people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin.
Romans 11:1
Paul spends the following 9 verses explaining how Elohim hasn’t rejected the Israelites but has set them apart (a remnant). Then, in verse 11, Paul repeats his question.
Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious.
Romans 11:11
In Romans 11:11, Paul explains how the Israelite’s rejection of Messiah as the Messiah means salvation for everyone else (Gentiles).
But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their full inclusion bring!
I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I take pride in my ministry in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. For if their rejection brought reconciliation to the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?
Romans 11:12-15
Now, having examined the context before Romans 11:16, let’s examine Romans 11:16 again.
16 If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches. 17 If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, 18 do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you(emphasis added).
Romans 11:17-18
In verse 18, Paul says something curious: “You do not support the root, but the root supports you.” If Yeshua Messiah was the root, does it make sense to say that the Gentiles thought that Yeshua relied on them? Paul’s argument in Romans 11:11-24 is that believing Gentiles are not better than unbelieving Jews, as revealed in verse 19.
You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.”
Romans 11:19
Who are the branches? That should be obvious now. There are two types of branches. The native branches represent the Jewish people, and the grafted branches represent Gentile believers.
Therefore, in verse 16, when Paul said, “If the root is holy, so are the branches,” we know within the context that he’s talking about the Jewish people as the branches: Some of whom were “broken off,” as we see in verse 17.
Thus, we can see that Yeshua cannot be the root Paul’s talking about in Romans 11:16. Who or what is the root then?
Consider a tree and its branches. First, there is a seed, and from the seed, roots grow. Eventually, the tree grows branches. In Paul’s metaphor, the natural branches are the Jewish people. Where did the Jewish people come from? The Jewish people came from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Therefore, the “root” in Romans 11:16 is Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Does this conclusion “fit” within Romans 11:18, where Paul said, “You do not support the root, but the root supports you”?
Yes, it does because Gentile believers are saved through faith in Yeshua Messiah and Abraham, as we know, is what? He’s the father, or root, of faith.
So also Abraham “believed Elohim, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
Galatians 3:6
Christians believe they are saved because they have faith that Yeshua is the Messiah and that he died for all our sins. Abraham believed Elohim when he promised Abraham that he would be the father of many nations through a son who had not yet been born when Abraham was very old and his wife, Sarai, beyond childbearing age. Indeed, it’s our belief that we have inherited the promises of Elohim to the Israelites through faith in Messiah.
Thus, the root (Abraham and the patriarchs) “supports” the concept of righteousness through faith.
Some might be confused by Paul’s statement in Romans 11:16 that the “root is holy,” but “holy” here means “set apart.”
If Yeshua were the root in Romans 11:16, then Paul’s entire argument about the Jews rejecting Yeshua as the Messiah and yet still, “all of Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:26 NIV) doesn’t make sense.