Dr. Couch, what does it mean when the Bible says Gentiles are to provoke the Jews to jealousy?
The Greek word zaloo carries the idea of “jealousy” in the sense
of being envious over someone’s possessions. “I envy him for having a
new car.” Or, it can often be translated as “anger.” “What you did to me
made me ‘jealous’ and ‘angry.’”
But the expression “being provoked to jealousy,” as in provoking the
Jews to jealousy, is a related Greek word but not the same one. It is a
compound from parazeeloo. Para=alongside; zaloo=envy, anger. This word is used in only four places in the NT: (Rom. 10:19; 11:11, 14; 1 Cor. 10:22)
In 1 Corinthians 10:22 it is used of the fact that some in the
Corinthian church were abusing the Lord’s Table and making God the
Father angry. “Or do we provoke the Lord to anger? We are not stronger
than He, are we?” That is, “the Lord is furious and we are not going to
escape a judgment from Him over this issue!”
In Romans 10:19 the apostle Paul quotes Deuteronomy 32:21 where the Lord says, “I will make you jealous (angry, parazeeloo) by that which is not a nation (the Gentiles), by a nation without understanding will I anger (parorgio) you
(Israel).” Two different words are used here in a parallelism but both
mean virtually the same—to make angry in order to move the Jews off dead
center, spiritually speaking!
The apostle uses parazeeloo again in Romans 11:11, 14. In the
grammar in 11:11 he uses the word as an Aorist Infinitive. “To make them
angry.” In 11:14 he uses the word as a Future, or as an Aorist tense.
“I will in the future move my fellow countrymen to anger and save
some of them.” Thayer believes the word should be translated this way:
“To provoke to rivalry, to anger.” The word is used in a similar way in
Classical Greek: “To fret, be vexed.” Balz and Schneider add: “To rouse
up, provoke.”
Paul’s point seems to be that when the gospel is proclaimed about
salvation found only in Israel’s Messiah, that this moves the Jews to
have a flash of anger. They resent that message. They were not jealous
in an envious way, but they were furious! However this anger would cause
them to begin to think, probe, and seek out the truth. In time, they
would accept Christ as their own, as their Savior and King!
Ellicott concurs and writes: “The reason why salvation had been
extended to the Gentiles was to stir up the Jews to emulation. Their
privileged position had made them negligent and apathetic. The sight of
others stepping into those privileges was to rouse them from their
apathy.” (p. 248)
The idea of anger seems to make the use of the word more clear. The
Jews at first became incensed with the salvation proclamation being made
by the Gentiles. After all, the gospel was about this Jew, the Lord
Jesus Christ, who claimed to be the promised Jewish Messiah! With a
tinge of anger, many of the Jews searched out this claim and came to Him
as their Savior and Lord!
Thanks for asking.
Dr. Mal Couch
