if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them.
Parallel translations
- WEB if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh, and may save some of them.
- KJV If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them.
- BSB in the hope that I may provoke my own people to jealousy and save some of them.
- NASB if somehow I may move my own people to jealousy and save some of them.
- NLT for I want somehow to make the people of Israel jealous of what you Gentiles have, so I might save some of them.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Paul hopes that his Gentile ministry will make his fellow Jews jealous and lead some of them to be saved.
Overview
Paul's labor among Gentiles has an eye toward his own people ('my flesh'), longing that seeing Gentile blessing in Christ would draw Jews to faith. His modest aim, to 'save some,' reflects realism and genuine evangelistic love rather than presumption. It shows the apostle's heart aligned with God's purpose to show mercy to Israel.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- 1 Cor 7:16For how do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife?
- 1 Tim 4:16Pay attention to yourself, and to your teaching. Continue in these things, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.
- Rom 9:3For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brothers’ sake, my relatives according to the flesh,
- Titus 3:5not by works of righteousness which we did ourselves, but according to his mercy, he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,
- Rom 11:11I ask then, did they stumble that they might fall? May it never be! But by their fall salvation has come to the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy.
- 1 Cor 9:20–22To the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain those who are under the law;
- 1 Cor 1:21For seeing that in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom didn’t know God, it was God’s good pleasure through the foolishness of the preaching to save those who believe.
- 2 Tim 2:10Therefore I endure all things for the chosen ones’ sake, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
- 1 Tim 2:4who desires all people to be saved and come to full knowledge of the truth.
- Phlm 1:12I am sending him back. Therefore receive him, that is, my own heart,
- Jas 5:20let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Paul unfolds the gospel in full: Christ our righteousness received by faith, the second Adam in whom many are made righteous, in whose death and resurrection we are buried and raised.
How Romans 11:14 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.