Does “all” refer to every individual or groups?

Explanation:

Paul writes that God consigned all to disobedience that he might have mercy on all. We can detect to whom all refers by noticing that throughout  Romans 11:1–36 Paul had a corporate perspective in mind.² Specifically, throughout Romans 11:1–36 Paul referred to Israel as a corporate entity, signalled by his reference to salvation for all Israel in Romans 11:26. Paul has also referred to the Gentiles as a corporate entity (Romans 11:11–13). So, he has referred to two groups in Romans 11:1–36, namely, Jews and Gentiles. When he says, therefore, that God consigned all to disobedience that he might have mercy on all, he likely uses all in the corporate sense of groups. That is, God consigned the group of Jews and Gentiles to disobedience, that he might have mercy on both groups.

Counterargument:

Paul says nothing about Jews and Gentiles in this verse. The fact is, Romans 11:32 is not just a summary of Romans 11:1–36 but a summary of the whole letter up to this point.³ Paul has made it clear throughout Romans that salvation is for all individuals. For example, in Romans 1:16 Paul says the gospel is the power of salvation to all who believe. In Romans 2:8–9 Paul writes there will be tribulation and distress for every human who does evil, and glory and honour to all who do good. And in Romans 10:13 Paul writes that all who call on his name will be saved.⁴ Given the theme that salvation is for all individuals, and that Romans 11:32 is a summary of important themes from throughout the letter, all in Romans 11:32 likely refers to all individual humans.

Response to counterargument:

In each of the examples cited, Paul refers to Jews and Greeks. In Romans 1:16 Paul says the gospel is the power to save, first to the Jews and then to the Greeks. Then in Romans 2:8–9 he writes that there will be tribulation and glory, the Jew first and then the Greeks. Finally, Paul prefaces Romans 10:13 by writing that there is no distinction between Jew or Greek, for all who call on the Lord will be saved. So Paul consistently has two groups in mind throughout this letter, namely, Jews and Greeks, where Greek is equivalent to Gentile. So when Paul writes that God has consigned all to disobedience that he might have mercy on all, he has in mind the group of Jews and the group of Gentiles.

The weakness here is that it seems unnecessary to distinguish groups from every individual. According to this view Paul has two groups in mind, namely, Gentiles and Jews. Of course, all of humanity can be categorized as either a Gentile or a Jew, for Gentiles are simply defined as non-Jews. So if all in Romans 11:32 refers to the groups of Gentiles and Jews, Paul is really referring to every human. So, he may be saying that God consigns every human to disobedience that he might have mercy on every human being by offering the gospel. Thus, it is unnecessary to posit that Paul refers to two groups.

Explanation:

Paul uses a literary device known as reduplication in Romans 11:32 in order to convey a certain meaning. Reduplication is when an author repeats a term in order to create a new meaning or intensify a point. In the case of Romans 11:32, Paul repeats the term all. Specifically, he writes that God has consigned all to disobedience that he might have mercy on all. Given the reduplication, it is clear that when Paul uses the term all for the second time he has in mind all individual persons.⁸ Reduplication suggests that Paul essentially says, God has consigned all, as in all persons, to disobedience and mercy. Of course, if all individual persons receive God’s mercy, then Paul is saying that all individuals will be saved. So Paul is teaching universal salvation.⁹

Counterargument:

There are two problems with this argument. First, it is not self-evident that Paul’s repetition of all implies that all refers to all persons. The fact is, Paul has been explaining throughout this letter the mystery that salvation has gone out to the Gentiles. Highlighting all by way of repetition is likely done to highlight that the Gentiles are included as God’s people.

Second, even if all does refer to every individual person, this does not mean that Paul is saying every individual person will be saved. There is a difference between mercy and salvation. That God offers salvation to disobedient people such as the Gentiles and Jews is a merciful act. Of course, unless those people have faith, they will not be saved. So while the offer for salvation is an act of mercy, it is not salvation itself.

Explanation:

In Romans 15:24 Paul reveals that he hopes to visit the Christians in Rome while he is on route to Spain. He even says that he hopes the Romans will support him on this journey, likely implying that he requires financial assistance to carry out the mission. It is important to understand what Paul writes in Romans 11:32 in light of this mission to Spain. For when we realize that Paul is going to ask the Romans for financial support in a few short chapters, this sheds new light on what he means when he says that God has mercy on all. Likely, Paul is inferring that God has mercy on all in the sense that all individual persons will be saved. He says this because he wants to soften his audience for his eventual request for financial aid. In other words, since there is no cultural bias with God, there should be no cultural bias toward the Spanish, and so the Roman Christians should be glad to offer financial aid for his missionary journey.¹⁰

Counterargument:

First, the idea that Paul explains that God consigns all to disobedience that he might have mercy on all, in order to gain financial support for his missionary trip to Spain, is an instance of eisegesis. Eisegesis is when one reads ideas into the text rather than interpreting what the text actually says. We can detect that this is a case of eisegesis because Paul simply alludes to his trip to Spain in passing in the farewell sections near the end of the later. On the other hand, he has spent considerable effort explaining the mystery of the gospel going to the Gentiles, and how Jews misunderstood God’s desire for faith, not works of the law. All of this culminates in the edifying doctrinal fact that God consigns all to disobedience in order to have mercy on all. Nothing from the text indicates that these doctrinal statements are stated for the purpose of gaining financial support.

Second, even if Paul did explain that God consigns all to disobedience that he might have mercy on all, for financial support, this does not mean that he taught universal salvation. Rather, if all Paul is trying to do is show that cultural bias should not stand in the way of the gospel, he may use all to refer to the groups of Jews and Gentiles. God consigned the group of Jews and Gentiles to disobedience that he might have mercy on both groups. Since the two groups, Jew and Gentile, comprise all human cultures, using all to refer to both groups is consistent with the idea that Paul is diminishing cultural bias for financial support.

The main weakness in this view has been explained in the counterarguments: it treats mercy and salvation as if they were the same thing. Another general weakness of this view is that universal salvation does not fit well with Paul’s teaching that one is justified by faith. Without faith, one is not saved. So why would Paul insist on justification by faith, only to set faith aside by saying that all will be saved?