"...the Jews also shall return from their defection to the obedience of faith; and thus shall be completed the salvation of the whole Israel of God, which must be gathered from both; and yet in such a way that the Jews shall obtain the first place, being as it were the first born in God's family."
Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. 19, Epistle to the Romans, Baker Book, 1981, p. 434-440
"The second great event, which, according to the common faith or the Church, is to precede the second advent of Christ, is the national conversion of the Jews .... that there is to be such a national conversion may be argued ... from the original call and destination of that people....A presumptive argument is drawn from the strange preservation of the Jews through so many centuries as a distinct people.
As the rejection of the Jews was not total, so neither is it final. First, God did not design to cast away his people entirely, but by their rejection, in the first place, to facilitate the progress of the gospel among the Gentiles. and ultimately to make the conversion of the Gentiles the means of converting the Jews ... Because if the rejection of the Jews has been a source of blessing, much more will their restoration be the means of good ... The restoration of the Jews to the privileges of God's people is included in the ancient predictions and promises made respecting them...
The future restoration of the Jews is, in itself, a more probable event than the introduction of the Gentiles into the church of God."
(Systematic Theology, vol. 3, James Clark & Co. 1960, p. 805. and A Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, Presb. Board of Pub., 1836, pp. 270-285 passim. Now Published by Banner of Truth Trust)
"Beloved" thus means that God has not suspended or rescinded his relation to Israel as his chosen people In terms of the covenants made with their fathers.
Unfaithful as Israel have been and broken off for that reason, yet God still sustains his peculiar relation of love to them, a relation that will be demonstrated and vindicated in the restoration."
(The Epistle to the Romans, John Murray, Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub Co., 1984, Vol. 1, p. 28 and Vol. 11 pp. xiv-xv and 76-101. passim 1)
"Israel in its racial capacity will again in the future be visited by the saving grace of God [Rom. 11.2, 12, 25]....
Nevertheless such (Jewish) conversions remain for the present but sporadic examples, though at bottom expressive of a divine principle intended to work itself out on the largest of scales at the predetermined point in the future..."
To the events preceding the parousia belongs according to the uniform teaching of Jesus, Peter, and Paul, the conversion of Israel (Matt. 23:39; Luke 13:35; Acts 1:6,7; 3:19, 21; where the arrival of "seasons of refreshing" and "times of restoration of all things" is made dependent on the [eschatological] sending of the Christ to Israel), and this again is said to depend upon the repentance and conversion and die blotting out of the sins of Israel; Romans 11, where the problem (it unbelief of Israel is solved by the twofold proposition that there is even now among Israel an election according to grace; (2) that in the future there will be a comprehensive conversion of Israel (vss. 5, 25-32)."
(Biblical Theology. Old and New Testaments, (c) 1948 Eerdmans Pub. Co., Tenth Printing, p. 79, The Pauline Eschatology (c) 1979 Baker Book House, p. 88. and Redemptive History and Biblical Interpretation. The Shorter Writings of Geerhardus Vos. 11 35, edited by Richard B. Gaffin, Jr., (c) 1980, Presbyterian and Reformed Pub. Co.)
"Jewish infidelity shall be overthrown ... the Jews in all their dispersions shall cast away their old infidelity, and shall have their hearts wonderfully changed, and abhor themselves for their past unbelief and obstinacy. They shall flow together to the blessed Jesus, penitently, humbly and joyfully owning him as their glorious King and only Savior, and shall with all their hearts, as one heart and voice, declare his praises unto other nations ... Nothing is more certainly foretold than this national conversion of the Jews in Rom. xi."
(The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Volume 1, Banner of Truth Trust, 1976. page 607.)
"Another thing that qualifies this doctrine of the Jews' rejection is that, though for the present they are cast off, yet the rejection is not final; but, when the fullness of time is come, they will be taken in again."
(Matthew Henry's Commentary, vol. 6, MacDonald Publishing Company, pp. 448-453.)
Quotes from Chaim, Box 133
Glenside, PA 19038