If the first part of the dough is holy, so is the whole batch; if the root is holy, so are the branches.
Parallel translations
- WEB If the first fruit is holy, so is the lump. If the root is holy, so are the branches.
- KJV For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.
- NKJV For if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root is holy, so are the branches.
- NASB If the first piece of dough is holy, the lump is also; and if the root is holy, the branches are as well.
- NLT And since Abraham and the other patriarchs were holy, their descendants will also be holy—just as the entire batch of dough is holy because the portion given as an offering is holy. For if the roots of the tree are holy, the branches will be, too.
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
If the firstfruit and the root are holy, the whole lump and the branches are holy too.
Overview
Using two images, dough and tree, Paul argues that the patriarchs ('firstfruit'/'root') consecrate the people who descend from them, marking Israel as set apart for God's covenant purposes. The root imagery prepares for the olive tree allegory that follows. It affirms that God's covenant with the fathers still shapes his dealings with their offspring.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Prov 3:9Honor the LORD with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your harvest;
- Ezek 44:30The best of all the firstfruits and of every contribution from all your offerings will belong to the priests. You are to give your first batch of dough to the priest, so that a blessing may rest upon your homes.
- Jas 1:18He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we would be a kind of firstfruits of His creation.
- Num 15:17–21Then the LORD said to Moses,
- Lev 23:10“Speak to the Israelites and say, ‘When you enter the land that I am giving you and you reap its harvest, you are to bring to the priest a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest.
- Jer 2:21I had planted you like a choice vine from the very best seed. How could you turn yourself before Me into a rotten, wild vine?
- Rom 11:17Now if some branches have been broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others to share in the nourishment of the olive root,
- Gen 17:7I will establish My covenant as an everlasting covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.
- Deut 18:4You are to give them the firstfruits of your grain, new wine, and oil, and the first wool sheared from your flock.
- Deut 26:10And now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land that You, O LORD, have given me.” Then you are to place the basket before the LORD your God and bow down before Him.
- Exod 23:16You are also to keep the Feast of Harvest with the firstfruits of the produce from what you sow in the field. And keep the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather your produce from the field.
- Rev 14:4These are the ones who have not been defiled with women, for they are virgins. They follow the Lamb wherever He goes. They have been redeemed from among men as firstfruits to God and to the Lamb.
- 1 Cor 7:14For the unbelieving husband is sanctified through his believing wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy.
- Exod 23:19Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God. You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.
- Exod 22:29You must not hold back offerings from your granaries or vats. You are to give Me the firstborn of your sons.
- Neh 10:35–37We will also bring the firstfruits of our land and of every fruit tree to the house of the LORD year by year.
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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 11:16 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.