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As the self-appointed apostle to the Gentiles, Paul pushed the interests of his constituency at the expense of Jews and the messages of their prophets. As we have seen in my previous articles, Paul accomplished this by adding to or changing the words of Old Testament Scriptures so that their meaning was foreign to the original passage and what God intended His people understand. Paul repeated this same pattern in his use of Hosea's prophecy regarding Israel's redemption.
In Rm. 9:25-26 Paul professed to quote from Hosea 2:25 and 2:1. Paul's rendering of the two transposed passages of Hosea is
Paul evoked Hosea's verses as a “proof'' of his thesis that God had called the Gentiles to be His people along with the Jews. He inferred that these verses were addressed to Gentiles and not to people of Israel. What I find amazing is that Paul offers to his Gentile followers the distinction of being called "Israel" yet without the very thing that caused them to become a "Holy Nation and a Royal Priesthood" in the first place...namely the acceptance of the Words of God at Sinai...His Laws.
Exod 19:8 8 And all the people answered together, and said, All that the LORD hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the LORD. (KJV)
This dear ones refer to God's Laws and Commandments; the very same Laws that Paul negates and preaches deliverance from!
Before answering Paul's claim, let us look briefly a prophet and the episodes leading to his prophecy.
Hosea's life was an allegory of the relationship between God and Israel. Hosea’s unfaithful wife symbolized Israel's infidelity to God and Hosea’s children’s names, "No Mercy” and “Not My People,” reflected God's attitude toward Israel and not the Gentile nations. However, the situation changed and God forgave the nation. Hosea's ransom of his wife from prostitution represented the redemption of Israel after it had been purge of it's sinfulness.
In Hosea 2:25 God spoke, through the prophet, of that redemption and forgiveness of Israel, in this way:
And I will have compassion on her that had not obtained compassion And I will say to them that were not My people: “You are My people;” And they will say: “You are my God.”
Take a minute to read chapter 2 of Hosea before you proceed. Thanks.
Throughout Chapter 2 of Hosea, where the above verses are found which Paul misquoted and again used out of context, the message is straightforward. God reversed the negative decree against Israel. He accepted the nation as His own and would show it compassion as a result of its repentance and making amend (not their faith alone but faith that repents and finally obeys).
Now listen carefully because I have heard this passage preached wrong so many times. These words were addressed by Hosea exclusively to Israel and not to any other people (non-Jews). He came from Israel and was designated by God as a prophet to Israel and not to the Gentile nations!
Answer for yourself: Having seen for yourself that God commanded Hosea to name one of his children “Not My People,” does it not stand to reason that when God says He will “call them…who are not my people" [Hosea’s child was representative of the Jews] “sons of the living God,” that He was re-accepting the Jewish people?
Answer for yourself: Did you catch and understand, when you read the chapter, the key phrase “in the very place where it was said to them 'Your are not my people'" that this phrase pinpoints exactly where and to whom the prophecy is directed…..the Jewish people in Israel where the prophecy was first delivered?
Paul would have us believe it is referring to non-Jews who were not God’s people, but who through his ministry and acceptance of the Pauline Yeshua, are now God’s people (the sons of the living God). Paul would have us believe the the Jews' refusal to accept his unique understanding of the Messiah (which goes totally against the Jewish Scriptures) caused them to be replaced by Paul's Gentile believers as the "New Israel Of God." Such is a total perversion of the text. Again Paul takes a Jewish passage out of context and completely changes the subject of the passage which the original writer intended.
Again Paul quotes from a Prophet and borrows Prophetic authority for his unique message but completely changes the meaning of the text in doing so. But Paul is wrong again in his use of the Jewish Scriptures and completely twists the intended meaning of the Prophet for his personal theological agenda
Since Paul's main interest was in the Gentiles, he endeavored repeatedly to inject the concept of “Gentile replacement of the Jews” into his quotations from the Hebrew Bible when it was not the natural translation or obvious meaning of the Hebrew word, "goyim". In Rom. 15 there are four passages from the Hebrew Bible in which the word “Gentiles” is used inappropriately. It should be noted that in the original Greek which Paul wrote and even in the Latin translation in the Vulgate [Catholic Bible] the word used is “nations” which is an exact translation of the Hebrew. But in the current modern translations from the Greek, the New Testament conveys a different meaning.
Thus, each of the following quotations from Romans gives a different impression to the reader than the original verse provides when it is correctly translated and seen in its Jewish context as taken from the Jewish Scriptures. Each phrase is juxtaposed below, as I compare for you how the wording appears in Romans on the first line and how it appears in the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible) on the second line. You be the judge if Paul has faithfully represented the Jewish Scriptures in the New Testament!
Romans I5:19
I will praise you among the Gentiles; I will sing hymns to your name.
Psalm 18:50
Therefore, I will give thanks Unto You, O Lord, among the nations, I will sing praises to Your name.
Next we have:
Romans l5:10
Rejoice you Gentiles with his people
Deuteronomy 32:43
Sing aloud, you nations, of His people.
Next we have:
Romans l5:11
Praise the Lord all you Gentiles
Psalm 117:1
Praise the Lord all you nations
Next we have:
Romans I5:12
There shall be the root of Jesse And he that arises to rule over the Gentiles, On him shall the Gentiles hope;
Isaiah 11:10
It shall come to pass in that day That the root of Jesse that stands for an ensign of the peoples; Him shall the nation seek,
Answer for yourself: What should we learn from the passages quoted by Paul when comparing them with the contexts of the original verses in the Jewish Scriptures?
The above phrases include a song of triumph, a song of deliverance, a summons to praise God, and a rallying cry of the people. Each verse appeals to all nations to join Israel [NOT REPLACE ISRAEL] in exalting and praising God. But not one of these verses is a call to the Gentiles to follow and acclaim anyone but the God of Israel who is the Covenant making God. God's Covenants again are His Laws imposed upon His subjects. Paul's purpose in addressing the Gentiles or nations in the above verses becomes clear in the light of proclamations in the preceding chapters of this epistle where he negates the Law of God. Take Rom. 10:4 for example; (Christ is the end of the law)....This is but one example among many in which Paul changes the religion of Yeshua for his Gentiles by teaching the abolition of the Laws of God which is contrary to which Yeshua and Moses and the Prophets always taught. Shalom.
The very irony of this is that the acceptance of Paul's theology and Paul's Jesus as a replacement for the Law and the true salvation of God render those who do so not the "New Israel" as Paul would have you believe...but the "rejected Israel" of God who are "not His people."