How did magnifying his ministry make Paul’s fellow Jews jealous?

In the preceding section Paul twice articulated his great love and effort for his own people (Romans 9:1–5, Romans 10:1). Now he does so for a third time. This time, however, he connects his personal engagement with Israel to his personal work for his readers. Paul is not an apostle to the Gentiles who still silently nourishes grief about his people that have been left behind. On the contrary, he mobilizes his work as apostle to the Gentiles in his prayer for his kinsmen. He has not left Israel behind but actually prioritize her over himself in his prayer and his labours: Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus to save some of them (Romans 11:13–14).

When Paul wrote this letter, he did not know that many centuries would still to follow, but he did know that the Lord is near and he has not delayed: let everything that comes to pass therefore serve to bring as the members of this people to Jesus. According to the British Pauline scholar Richard Bell,¹ the apostle expected his labours to finally culminate in Spain. As we read this passage today long after Paul’s work as apostle has been completed, however, we know the extent to which God has made or not made this ideal a reality. After so many centuries, Paul’s plan to make his fellow Jews envious through his work among the Gentiles seems somewhat naïve. However, we must remember that Paul led the Gentiles back to the obedience of faith in the one God of heaven and earth, thereby bringing them back into Abraham’s tent. Moreover, Paul had not yet encountered that very strong demarcation of Jewish people over against all Gentiles (goyim), which only really began to take shape later on. The acceptance of Godfearing, uncircumcised Gentiles in the synagogues in Paul’s days alone shows that the attitude of the Jews at the time differed from those of later periods. In his own context therefore, Paul’s ideal may have been bold and spirited, yet it was not absurd. Moreover, Paul could take courage from his own life experience. Through Jesus’ intervention, he was radically changed. The apostle therefore aims at something similar for his people. This much is apparent from the book of Acts, which describes his sermons in Jerusalem and Caesarea, as well as his contact with Jewish leaders in Rome. Time and again he attempts to transform the gains of Christ among all nations into gains among his own kinsmen (Acts 22:21, Acts 24:17–18, Acts 26:17–19, Acts 26:23, Acts 28:25–28).

Through all of this the apostle remains modest, however. He sincerely longs for the salvation of the entire nation (Romans 9:3), yet he knows that God saves people through faith individually. As such he hopes for the salvation of some of them. This is something God granted him time and again, including in Rome. When he finally arrived there, years after writing this letter, and immediately contacts the Jewish leaders, we read that some were convinced by what he said, but others disbelieved (Acts 28:24).²