Romans 11:17

Branches (kladwn). From klaw, to break. Were broken off (exeklasqhsan). First aorist passive indicative of ekklaw. Play on the word klado (branch) and ekklaw, to break off. Condition of first class, assumed as true. Some of the individual Jews (natural Israel) were broken off the stock of the tree (spiritual Israel). And thou (kai su). An individual Gentile. Being a wild olive (agrielaio wn). This word, used by Aristotle, occurs in an inscription. Ramsay (Pauline Studies, pp. 219ff.) shows that the ancients used the wild-olive graft upon an old olive tree to reinvigorate the tree precisely as Paul uses the figure here and that both the olive tree and the graft were influenced by each other, though the wild olive graft did not produce as good olives as the original stock. But it should be noted that in verse Numbers 24 Paul expressly states that the grafting of Gentiles on to the stock of the spiritual Israel was "contrary to nature" (para pusin). Wast grafted in (enekentrisqh). First aorist passive indicative of enkentrizw, to cut in, to graft, used by Aristotle. Belongs "to the higher Koin" (literary Koin) according to Milligan. Partaker (sunkoinwno). Co-partner. Fatness (piothto). Old word from piwn (fat), only here in N.T. Note three genitives here "of the root of the fatness of the olive."