FOR I DO NOT WANT YOU, BRETHREN, TO BE UNINFORMED OF THIS MYSTERY: Ou gar thelo (1SPAS) humas agnoein (PAN), adelphoi, to musterion touto: (Psalms 107:43; Hosea 14:9; 1 Corinthians 10:1; 12:1; 2 Peter 3:8) (16:25; Ephesians 3:3,4,9; Revelation 10:7)

 I do not want you to miss this hidden truth and mystery, brethren (Amplified)

For (gar) is a conjunction which means because. Whenever you see a verse begin with for, a good habit to develop is to ask yourself "Because of what?" "Why is this for at the beginning of the passage?" "What is Paul linking it with?" Observe that Paul has just asked "how much more shall these who are the natural branches (the Jews) be grafted into their own olive tree?" (see note Romans 11:24) Paul had just explained the olive tree which represents the promises given to the fathers (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob) which were rooted in the Abrahamic covenant. He had stated that the olive tree was a cultivated olive tree, and that the Gentiles who are participating in it as branches grafted in are not the natural branches, which are Jews. In light of this truth, Paul wants the Gentiles to understand that there is greater potential (how much more) for unbelieving Israel to come to faith than there was for Gentiles who are saved by adopting that which has a Jewish "foundation". In other words, Christianity was founded on the OT Scriptures which were the privileged possession of the Jews and we Gentiles have come to believe in a Jewish Messiah. Paul's point is that we Gentiles need to think about this dynamic (for I do not want you brethren to be uniformed...). If we Gentiles who were unnatural branches came to believe in the Messiah as our Savior, how much more likely is it for God to turn unbelieving Jews of Israel  to faith in Messiah. In other words, the Jews have a much greater affinity and natural connection then Gentiles.  And yet we Gentiles (wild olive branches) did come to faith, even though we had less affinity for the natural olive tree. And since this has happened to you Gentiles, don't be surprised when Israel comes to faith in what is often incorrectly regarded as a "western religion" for in fact more accurately Christianity is in its origin a "middle eastern religion".

I do not want you - Not identifies (ou) the absolute negation. So Paul is saying in the strongest way possible he does not want his readers to be ignorant of what he is about to explain. Clearly the truth Paul is about to reveal must be very important.

Uninformed (50) (agnoeo from a = not + noéo = perceive, understand) means to not have information about, to not know, to be unaware of or to be ignorant of. The present tense speaks of being continually ignorant. Ignorance in this area is not bliss but leads to one becoming wise in their own mind. The ignorance can be as simple as the fact that one has never been taught the truth inherent in the mystery or that the preaching in one's church is shallow and tends to avoid non-seeker friendly "controversial" topics as in Romans 9-11. The most heinous reason for ignorance is not that one has not heard the truth, but having heard the revelation of this mystery makes a conscious choice to reject it! There is what I would interpret as a subtle form of "anti-Semitism" in the church today, in which some believers simply do not like the fact that God has a chosen nation called Israel and that He is not finished with them. Dearly beloved, how is your heart in this area?

Mystery (3466) (musterion from mustes = one initiated [as into the Greco-Roman religious "mystery" cults] from mueo = to close or shut) (Click  for in depth study of musterion) as used in the NT speaks of some truth which is not discoverable apart from being revealed by God. Mystery in the NT is a truth previously unknown but now revealed.  Thus Paul is not using "mystery" like we do in modern parlance as something "mysterious", something "unknown". Quite the opposite is true, for when mystery is used in the NT it refers not to a truth which is difficult to understand, but to a truth previously unrevealed (and therefore unknown) which is now revealed and publicly proclaimed.

Here in Romans 11:25 the mystery revealed is that Israel's blindness or hardening is (1) partial (not complete - see notes below and study of the Jewish believing remnant through the ages) and (2) temporary (it will last only until the time when all the Gentiles whom God will save have in fact been saved [have "come in"]).

Mystery refers to the activity of God in salvation history, once hidden (Romans 16:25), but now made known to his people by revelation. The content of this mystery embraces Israel's present hardening--which is partial because the believing remnant constitutes an exception and because the hardening is limited in duration, lasting only "until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

SO THAT YOU BE WISE IN YOUR OWN ESTIMATION: hina me ete (2PPAS) (par) heautois phronimoi: (Ro 12:16; Proverbs 3:5-7; 26:12,16; Isaiah 5:21)

Lest you be self-opinionated (wise in your own conceits)  (Amplified)

So that (hina) means in order that, a term of conclusion. The application is clear. If believers today remain uniformed about God's plan for the Jews (the mystery revealed here by Paul) in the End Times, they will become wise in their own estimation. And sadly this is what has occurred in much of the church over the centuries and to a large extent in our own day.

Lest you be wise in your own estimation - Paul was concerned that some Gentile believers would be wise in their own estimation and would assume that racial distinctions (Jew and Gentile) no longer exist. And so Paul explains that God

Several Bible paraphrases bring out the idea nicely...

This truth will help you understand that you do not know everything (International Children's Bible: Nelson)

so that you may not be conceited (NIV - IBS)

so that you will not feel proud and start bragging (NLT - Tyndale House)

Estimation (5429) (phronimos from phronéo = think, have a mindset from phren  = mind) means wise, prudent, having the capacity to understand, often in the daily things of life and implies a cautious character.

Paul's point is that when Christians become conceited it is because they think they have understanding but sadly the mystery revealed here in Romans 11:25 is still mysterious to them! God’s sovereign plan to put Israel aside temporarily in order to show grace to Gentiles is no basis for conceit on the part of the Gentiles but is designed to display further the glory of God. Remember Paul has said if God can save Gentiles (unnatural branches) how much more will He be able to save all of Israel (natural branches) in His perfect timing!

THAT A PARTIAL HARDENING HAS HAPPENED TO ISRAEL: hoti porosis apo merous to Israel gegonen (3SRAI):

Partial (3313) (meros from meiromai = to get as a section or allotment) describes a division or share and thus a portion or a part (cf remnant).

What does Paul mean by partial? Is he saying that all of the Jews are "partially blind."? Or does he mean that complete blindness applies to part of the Jews? From the context (see verses discussed below - Ro 9:6-7, 11:1, 11:2-4, 11:5 - all allude to a remnant or part of the whole nation) the latter interpretation is the more accurate interpretation

Marvin Vincent a Greek scholar agrees writing...

Not partial hardening, but hardening extending over a part.

Paul had alluded to this partial hardening in Romans 9 writing...

it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; 7 neither are they all children because they are Abraham's descendants, but: "THROUGH ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS WILL BE NAMED." (See notes Romans 9:6; 9:7)

Underline partial. Don't forget this truth. Only some of the branches were broken off (see note Romans 11:17). Certainly God is saving Jews in our own time and in fact He has always had a Jewish remnant (see study) of men and women who believed in Yeshua, their Messiah as their personal Redeemer. Thus not only was the unbelief partial but it will also be temporary as indicated by the time phrase until as discussed more below. Notice that Paul himself a Jew now believing in Messiah is evidence that the blindness or hardening was only partial. In fact, Paul opened Romans 11 with the truth that God has always preserved a remnant of believing Jews. For example, in Romans 11:1 [note] Paul presents himself as an example of that the hardening is partial, and in Romans 11:2, 3, 4 he draws an illustration from the OT in the Divine response to Elijah that God had preserved a remnant of 7000. Then based on these examples, Paul emphasizes that...

In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God's gracious (not merited) choice. (See note Romans 11:5)

Paul doubly emphasizes that this remnant was in no way based on merit but on grace writing...

But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace. 7 What then? That which Israel is seeking for, it has not obtained, but those who were chosen (elect) obtained it, and the rest (the remaining ones = the remnant) were hardened (verb poroo - means to make hard like stone and thus calloused and insensitive to touch. In NT poroo is used only in a spiritual sense of hardened hearts in Mk 6:52; 8:17 Jn 12:40, of hardened minds in 2Cor 3:14). (See notes Romans 11:6; 11:7)

And so we see that Paul is returning to the subject with which he had begun Roman 11 to explain how God would work out His plan for His people whom He had not rejected. Beloved, the church needs to remember that God is not finished with Israel. Anyone who teaches that is conceited and lacks understanding of the mystery in this passage! Replacement theology (see excellent summary) is such an aberrant conceited understanding, in which the basic premise is propounded that God is finished with Israel because the Church is now the Israel of God (notes)!

Hardening (KJV = "Blindness") (4457) (porosis related to poroo [see note above] = to harden or petrify from poros = small piece of stone broken off from a larger one) means to made hard like a stone, and so callous or insensitive to touch.

When referring to the joints of the body, the verb poroo signified the stiffening of one's joints. Applied to the eyes, poroo meant blindness and this latter secular use led to the KJV rendering as "blindness".

Barclay remarks that porosis was used as a...

medical word, and it meant a callus (on skin this a thickened, hard area). It was specially used for the callus which forms round the fracture when a bone is broken, the hard bone formation which helps to mend the break. When a callus grows on any part of the body that part loses feeling. It becomes insensitive. The minds of the mass of the people have become insensitive; they can no longer hear and feel the appeal of God.

There are only 2 other NT uses of porosis...

Mark 3:5 And after looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness (porosis) of heart, He said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored.

Ephesians 4:18 (note) being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness (porosis) of their heart;

All 3 NT uses of porosis are figurative two specifying the heart as the "organ" that was hardened. Arteriosclerosis or hardening of the arteries of the heart will take a person to the grave, but spiritual hardening of the heart will take them to hell (unless God grants deliverance as in Romans 11:26) Porosis is thus a callousness or dullness to spiritual matters.

William Barclay has another note writing that...

Porosis comes from poros, which originally meant a stone that was harder than marble. It came to have certain medical uses. It was used for the chalk stone which can form in the joints and completely paralyze action. It was used of the callus that forms where a bone has been broken and re-set, a callus which is harder than the bone itself. Finally the word came to mean the loss of all power of sensation; it described something which had become so hardened, so petrified that it had no power to feel at all. That is what Paul says the heathen life is like (Ephesians 4:18) It has become so hardened that it has lost the power of feeling. In the Epistle to a Young Friend, Robert Burns wrote about sin:

“I waive the quantum o’ the sin,
The hazard of concealing;
But och! it hardens a’ within,
And petrifies the feeling!”

The terror of sin is its petrifying effect. The process of sin is quite discernible. No man becomes a great sinner all at once. At first he regards sin with horror. When he sins, there enters into his heart remorse and regret. But if he continues to sin there comes a time when he loses all sensation and can do the most shameful things without any feeling at all. His conscience is petrified. (This is because all men in Adam are totally depraved & have an inherent sin nature from Adam to commit sins). (Barclay, W: The Daily Study Bible Series. The Westminster Press or Logos)

In short, Paul paints the picture of hearts of a portion of Israel attaining to such a state in which a figurative callus had grown over their spiritual heart, making them insensitive and incapable of receiving the teaching regarding the Messiah. And so the first part of the mystery that is revealed is that there is partial hardening but of those affected, the hardening is complete.

Has happened - This verb is in the perfect tense which indicates that the hardening has occurred at a point in time in the past and is still in effect at the time of Paul's writing. And if anyone could understand this spiritual hardness and insensitivity, it would be Paul, who was violently opposed to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, even assenting to the stoning of Stephen in Acts 8:1 Luke recording that...

Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death...

The Geneva Study Bible notes are not a bad interpretation of this hardness (blindness) explaining that...

The blindness of the Jews is neither so universal that the Lord has no elect in that nation, neither will it be continual: for there will be a time in which they also (as the prophets have foretold) will effectually embrace that which they now so stubbornly for the most part reject and refuse.

UNTIL THE FULNESS OF THE GENTILES HAS COME IN: achri ou to pleroma ton ethnon eiselthe (3SAAS): (Psalms 22:27; 72:8-14,17; 127:1; Isaiah 2:1-8; 60:1-22; 66:18-23; Micah 4:1,2; Zechariah 8:20-23; 14:9-21; Revelation 7:9; 11:15; 20:2-4)

The second aspect of the mystery revealed is that the hardening has a definite lifespan and will end as identified by the conjunction until. The prerequisite condition for the hardness to depart is also specified as when the fulness of the Gentiles has come in.

Regarding the conjunction until, Robertson refers to this as "a temporal clause...until which time". (Word Pictures)

Until (891) (achri) in this context is an adverb of time (it can also be used of place but that is not the present context). Here achri is a conjunction expressing time up to a point. Up to what point is the question then? Or when is Until?  When is this partial hardening no longer partial but in fact lifted by God? Paul answers this declaring that it is when the fulness of the Gentiles has come in, at which time all Israel will be saved (Ro 11:26) which in turn is associated with the Deliverer's return or Messiah's Second Coming (Mt 24:31, Zec 12:10, 13:9), which will occur at the end of Daniel's Seventieth Week.

Fullness (4138) (pleroma from pleroo = make full, fill, fill up) describes fullness, a full measure, an abundance or a completion. Pleroma can describe a time period when all that is intended to be done during that period is accomplished. Pleroma is that which has been filled and thus refers to that which is to a sum total, to a complete amount, or a full number, in this case the "full number" of Gentiles who will come to belief in Messiah.  The NET Bible conveys the meaning clearly rendering it...

A partial hardening has happened to Israel until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.  (NET Bible)

When all the Gentiles whom God has chosen for salvation during the present age of Israel’s rejection have experienced salvation, God will carry out the events and effects described in Romans 11:26.

The fulness of the Gentiles does not necessarily equate with the removal of the church (as stated by C I Scofield) because we know that after the removal of the church there will be a great harvest of souls some of which appear to be Gentiles, John recording that...

After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands...These are the ones who (continually) come out of the Great Tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.  (See notes Revelation 7:9; 7:14)

These Gentiles are saved out of the Great Tribulation. Are these the last Gentiles to be saved? Although some associate the "fullness of the Gentiles" with the end of the Great Tribulation others feel the time phrase is more vague.

Morris for example states that...

When the full number (known only to God) has been reached...God will begin again to deal with Israel as His elect nation.  (Morris, Henry: Defenders Study Bible. World Publishing)

Fulness of the Gentiles
vs
Times of the Gentiles

Is the fulness of the Gentiles the same as the times of the Gentiles? They certainly sound similar but notice that fulness is not a synonym of times, so there is some distinction between these terms. Luke introduces the term the fulness of the Gentiles is in chapter 21 teaching that

Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. (Luke 21:24)

What characterizes these times? Is Luke speaking of the salvation of the Gentiles? Clearly, Luke is not referring to the salvation of Gentiles in this passage but to their exercise of political power and/or dominion over the city of Jerusalem by the Gentiles. In marked contrast, Paul speaks of the fulness which does refer to salvation of the Gentiles and not to their dominion over Jerusalem. Although both these descriptions occur over a period of time and that time undoubtedly overlaps significantly, we need to be accurate in our handling of these terms and retain the distinction intended by Luke and Paul. The times of the Gentiles began with the first sacking of Jerusalem and destruction of the Temple by Nebuchadnezzar in 586BC (Note: that some commentators feel these times begin with the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD). In either case these times extend to the Second Coming of Christ, for at that time the Gentile dominion will be removed as Messiah returns, defeats the Gentile powers gather to destroy Israel and sets up His Millennial Kingdom. on earth. At that time God will fulfill His promises to the redeemed nation of Israel, including the promise of "the Land" (see Ge )

Some commentators merge the two statements about the Gentiles. For example Henry Morris writes that...

God is now "[visiting] the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name" (Acts 15:14). When the full number (known only to God) has been reached, then the times of the Gentiles (Ed note: More accurately "the fullness of the Gentiles") will end (Luke 21:24), and God will begin again to deal with Israel as His elect nation.  (Morris, Henry: Defenders Study Bible. World Publishing) (Comment: Morris seems to merge these two phrases together and while certainly overlapping to a large extent, they still describe separate events as Dr Walvoord explains more fully below).

Dr Walvoord explains that...

When the two concepts, the times of the Gentiles and the fullness of the Gentiles are compared, it becomes evident that the times of the Gentiles is primarily a political term and has to do with the political overlordship of Jerusalem.

By contrast, the term the fullness of the Gentiles refers to the present age in which Gentiles predominate in the church and far exceed Israel in present spiritual blessing.

It becomes clear, therefore, that, while the two concepts may be contemporaneous at least for much of their fulfillment, the termini of the two periods are somewhat different. The times of the Gentiles will end only when Israel will permanently gain political control of Jerusalem at the second advent of Christ, whereas the fullness o