Who Is “All Israel”?
The Mystery of God’s Covenant People: Gentile Inclusion and the Restoration of God’s Covenant People.
A Comprehensive Teaching Drawn from Romans 11:25–26 of who Paul really meant!
Based on Jason A. Staples, Michael Heiser, Christopher Zoccali and Other Related Biblical Study
Opening Scripture
Romans 11:25–26
“Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, ‘The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob.
Introduction– Facing the Mystery Honestly
Few statements in the New Testament have produced more debate, more competing systems, and more passionate disagreement than Paul’s declaration that “all Israel will be saved.” For many believers the phrase immediately raises questions:
Does it mean every ethnic Jew who has ever lived will eventually believe?
Does it point to a future mass conversion of the modern nation of Israel when Christ returns?
Does it mean the Church has fully replaced ethnic Israel so that the Jewish people no longer have any distinct place in God’s purposes?
These are not small questions. They shape how we read the prophets, how we view the Jewish people, how we understand the mission of the gospel, and how we think about the end of the age. Michael Heiser, in Naked Bible Podcast episode 102, refuses to begin with modern systems. Instead he insists that we must first hear Paul in light of the Old Testament and the way Jews in the Second Temple period actually used the language of “Israel.” When we do that, a coherent and surprisingly beautiful picture emerges. This teaching walks through that picture in detail, incorporating every major text Heiser examines and every related question that arises from the passage.
1. The Four Main Interpretations Heiser Surveys
Heiser begins with a helpful overview drawn from Christopher Zoccali’s survey of scholarly options. Jason A. Staples does this as well and was written prior to Heiser. There are four primary ways interpreters have understood “all Israel will be saved”:
The Ecclesiastical Interpretation
“Israel” is simply another name for the Church. Ethnicity has been completely redefined. This view leans heavily on Romans 9:6 and tends to erase any ongoing significance for ethnic Jews. Heiser notes that it has fallen out of favor among many scholars because it is too categorical and can easily slide into dismissive or even hostile attitudes toward the Jewish people.The Total National Elect View
The complete number of elect individuals from ethnic/historical Israel will be saved through faith in Christ, just as Gentiles are. This view shifts attention from who the elect are to how they are saved.The Two-Covenant View
Every Jew is saved simply by belonging to the Jewish covenant, whether or not they believe in Jesus. Jews who also believe in Jesus receive a kind of double blessing. Heiser calls this a fringe minority position. It cannot be squared with Paul’s own testimony in Romans 9:1–5 or with his insistence throughout Galatians and Romans that no one—Jew or Gentile—is part of the people of God apart from Christ.The Eschatological Miracle View
After the fullness of the Gentiles comes in, every Jew alive at the time of Christ’s return (or immediately before it) will experience a sudden, supernatural conversion. This is the dominant view in much popular evangelical prophecy teaching. It often includes the idea that the Jews will “look on him whom they have pierced” (an allusion to Zechariah 12:10) and believe en masse.
Heiser finds each of these approaches either too extreme, too narrow, or insufficiently grounded in the Old Testament background Paul assumes.
2. “Israel” and “Jew” Are Not the Same Word.
One of the most foundational points Heiser makes is that Paul deliberately chooses the word “Israel,” not “Jews.” In the Old Testament and in Second Temple Jewish literature these terms are not interchangeable.“Jew” (Yehudi in Hebrew / Ioudaios in Greek) is a relatively late and largely outsider term. It refers to people associated with the southern kingdom of Judah—especially those who went into Babylonian exile and returned. Heiser walks through the actual biblical occurrences:
2 Kings 25:25 – In the chaotic period after Jerusalem’s fall, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah struck down Gedaliah “along with the Jews and the Chaldeans who were with him at Mizpah.”
Jeremiah 34:9 – During the final years before the exile the people are commanded that everyone should set free his Hebrew slaves “so that no one should enslave a Jew, his brother.”
The term appears repeatedly throughout the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther—all of which are exilic or post-exilic.
It appears in Daniel, whose setting is the exile.
Zechariah 8:23 – In a post-exilic prophecy: “In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’”
Heiser emphasizes that the term is almost never used of pre-exilic Israelites. It is geographically and historically tied to Judah and the experience of exile. Josephus confirms the same point: after the return from Babylon the people were called “Jews” after the tribe of Judah.
By contrast, “Israel” is broader and more theological. It can refer to:
The patriarch Jacob himself
The nation composed of all twelve tribes
The northern ten tribes after the monarchy divided
The covenant people of God as a whole
When the specific phrase “all Israel” appears (153 times in the Old Testament and only once in the New Testament—right here in Romans 11), it consistently points to the collective twelve-tribe covenant community. Second Temple writers, including Josephus and the Qumran community, carefully maintain this distinction. Once the northern tribes are off the historical stage, Josephus prefers “Jews” for the southern remnant and reserves “Israel” for contexts that still have the full twelve tribes in view. Paul knows this linguistic world. When he writes “all Israel will be saved,” he does not say “all the Jews will be saved.” If he had meant only ethnic Judeans he had a perfectly clear word available. He chose the broader, covenantal term instead.
3. Romans 9:1–5 and 9:6 – Paul’s Anguish and the True Israel.
Before we can understand Romans 11 we must hear Romans 9.
In Romans 9:1–5 Paul expresses deep personal anguish:
“I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit—that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.
”Paul has a high view of ethnic Israel. The privileges are real. The Messiah himself came from them. This is why the two-covenant view fails: Paul, a Jew, insists that he himself needed Christ and that his kinsmen need Christ. Then comes the crucial clarification in Romans 9:6–8:
“But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but ‘Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.’ This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.
”Heiser stresses that this is not Paul erasing ethnicity or writing ethnic Jews out of God’s story. It is Paul reminding his readers that covenant membership has always been defined by God’s promise and election, not merely by physical descent. The stories of Isaac over Ishmael and Jacob over Esau illustrate the point. True Israel has always been the people of the promise. This opens the door for Gentiles without closing the door on ethnic Jews. Extreme replacement readings that use Romans 9:6 to declare ethnic Jews non-elect go beyond what the text says.
4. The Fullness of the Gentiles– A Phrase with Deep Old Testament Roots
The expression “until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in” is not a vague chronological marker. It carries specific Old Testament freight.
Genesis 48:19 records Jacob’s blessing of Joseph’s sons. Crossing his hands, Jacob says of Ephraim (the leading tribe of the future northern kingdom):
“His younger brother shall be greater than he, and his offspring shall become the fullness of the nations” (melo hagoyim).
This is the only place in the Hebrew Bible where this exact phrase occurs. Paul’s Greek in Romans 11:25 (to plērōma tōn ethnōn) is a precise rendering of it. The northern tribes were later conquered by Assyria and scattered among the nations. In prophetic language they became “not my people.”
Hosea 1:9–10
“And the Lord said, ‘Call his name Not My People, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.’ Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea that cannot be measured or numbered. And in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ it shall be said to them, ‘Children of the living God.’”
Hosea 2:23
“And I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people’; and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’”
Paul quotes these very texts in Romans 9:25–26 and applies them to Gentiles. Because the northern tribes were absorbed into the nations and lost their distinct identity, the only way to restore “all Israel” (the full twelve-tribe people) is for God to bring the nations themselves into the covenant. Gentile inclusion is the restoration of the lost tribes in God’s surprising plan.
5. The Great Restoration Promises
Paul is reading the major prophetic hopes through this lens.
Ezekiel 37:15–22
The prophet is told to take two sticks—one for Judah and one for Joseph (the stick of Ephraim)—and join them into one stick. God declares that He will make them one nation under one king. They will be His people and He will be their God. The reunification of the twelve tribes is the heart of the prophetic vision. In Paul’s reading, Gentile inclusion is the unexpected but Spirit-empowered way God accomplishes that reunification.
Amos 9:11–12
“In that day I will raise up the booth of David that is fallen and repair its breaches, and raise up its ruins and rebuild it as in the days of old, that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations who are called by my name,” declares the Lord who does this.
This text becomes especially important when we turn to the New Testament.
6. The “Remnant of Edom” – A Closer Look
The phrase “remnant of Edom” has generated its own set of questions.
Who was Edom?
Edom was the nation descended from Esau, Jacob’s twin brother. They were Israel’s closest relatives by blood and yet frequently bitter enemies. In the prophets Edom often functions as a representative or archetype of the hostile nations that oppose God’s people.
The Textual Question:
The traditional Hebrew (Masoretic) text reads “remnant of Edom.” The Greek Septuagint reads “remnant of mankind” (or “the rest of humanity”). The difference is easy to explain in unvocalized Hebrew: אדום (Edom) and אדם (Adam/mankind) look nearly identical. The Dead Sea Scrolls (including 4Q82 and the Wadi Murabbaʿat Minor Prophets scroll) support the Hebrew reading “Edom.” The “mankind” reading is characteristic of the Septuagint tradition (3rd–2nd century BC) rather than an older Hebrew manuscript tradition.
Can both readings point to the Gentiles?
Lexically the words are not interchangeable. “Edom” is a specific nation; “mankind” is universal. Yet prophetically and symbolically they overlap. Because Edom stands as a concrete example of the nations that oppose Israel, the “remnant of Edom” can function as a representative of the surviving nations that will come under the rule of the restored Davidic kingdom. The Septuagint simply makes the universal scope explicit.
How the New Testament Writers Read It:
In Acts 15:16–17, at the Jerusalem Council, James quotes Amos 9:11–12 in its Septuagint form:
“After this I will return, and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who makes these things known from of old.”
James uses the broader wording as direct scriptural support for the full inclusion of uncircumcised Gentiles into the people of God. The rebuilding of David’s fallen tent results in the nations seeking the Lord. The apostles did not see Gentile inclusion as a temporary detour or Plan B. They saw it as the fulfillment of the ancient hope for a restored Davidic kingdom that would embrace the nations.
7. The Logic of Romans 11 – Putting the Pieces Together:
Paul’s argument now comes into clear focus:
A partial hardening has come upon ethnic Israel (Romans 11:25).
This hardening is not final or total; it serves a purpose.
It allows the fullness of the Gentiles—the “fullness of the nations” promised to Ephraim in Genesis 48:19—to come in.
In this way (Greek kai houtōs, “and thus” or “and in this manner”) all Israel is saved.
The inclusion of the Gentiles is not merely a stage that precedes the salvation of Israel. It is the very means by which the full covenant people—“all Israel”—is constituted and completed. “
All Israel” is therefore a theological construct: the totality of God’s covenant people—believing Jews and believing Gentiles together—defined by faith in the Messiah and participation in the promises.
Ethnic Jews are not excluded. The natural branches can be grafted back in (Romans 11:23–24). The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable (Romans 11:29). Gentiles are not an afterthought or a replacement. Their inclusion is the surprising but long-promised way God keeps His word to restore the full twelve-tribe people.
This reading rejects both extremes Heiser criticizes:
The hard replacement theology that discards ethnic Jews and sometimes breeds antipathy.
The popular eschatological nationalism that treats modern political Israel or a future mass ethnic conversion as the center of the text.
Paul is talking about a theological reality, not 1948 or a geopolitical restoration. The Israel he has in view is the complete people of God.
8. Pastoral and Theological Implications
Humility
“Lest you be wise in your own sight.” Gentile believers must never boast against the natural branches (Romans 11:18). We stand by faith alone.Hope for the Jewish people
God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. The hardening is partial. The door remains open. The remnant according to grace continues.Unity in the Messiah
There is one people of God, formed by the promise, not by ethnicity alone (Galatians 3). Jew and Gentile together constitute the full “all Israel.”Mission
The “fullness of the Gentiles” is still coming in. Every nation reached with the gospel is part of the ongoing restoration of all Israel.Rejection of extremes
We must resist both the anti-Jewish trajectory that sometimes accompanies replacement thinking and the uncritical elevation of ethnic national Israel that characterizes much popular prophecy teaching. Paul’s vision is better than both.
Conclusion:
Paul does not leave us with two separate peoples of God. He leaves us with one people—gathered from the remnant of Israel and from the fullness of the nations—united in the Deliverer who comes from Zion and banishes ungodliness from Jacob. The mystery is not that God changed His mind or abandoned His promises.
The mystery is that God has always intended to keep His promises to Israel by creating one new humanity in the Messiah—Jew and Gentile together—the full “all Israel.” “And in this way all Israel will be saved.” This is the revealed mystery.
This is the faithfulness of God.
This is the gospel that calls both Jew and Gentile to the same Savior.Amen.
Added Study of Amos 9:11-12 Prophecy
New Testament writers view the Amos 9:11–12 prophecy (including the “remnant of Edom / mankind” language) primarily as a prediction of Gentile inclusion in the restored people of God under the Messiah. The key passage: Acts 15 (James at the Jerusalem Council) This is the only place the New Testament directly quotes Amos 9:11–12. James cites the Septuagint version:
“After this I will return,
and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen;
I will rebuild its ruins,
and I will restore it,
that the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord,
and all the Gentiles who are called by my name,
says the Lord, who makes these things known from of old.”
(Acts 15:16–17)
How James (and the early church) understands it:
The “fallen tent/booth of David” is being rebuilt through Jesus the Messiah and the community of believers (Jews + Gentiles).
The purpose of this restoration is so that the rest of mankind / the Gentiles may seek the Lord and be called by God’s name.
This proves that God had always planned to include Gentiles as Gentiles (without requiring them to become Jews through circumcision and full Torah observance).
Therefore the influx of uncircumcised Gentile believers that Peter, Paul, and Barnabas reported is the fulfillment of Scripture, not a novelty or a problem.
In short, James treats the prophecy as directly authorizing and explaining Gentile inclusion in the people of God. Broader New Testament perspective
The New Testament writers (especially Luke, who records James’s speech, and the apostolic circle) accept the broader LXX-style reading that turns the text toward universal/Gentile inclusion.
They see the restoration of David’s house as already inaugurated in Jesus and the church, with the result that Gentiles are being brought in.
Edom itself is not a major topic elsewhere in the New Testament. When Edom/Esau appears (e.g., Romans 9:13 quoting Malachi 1:2–3), it is usually in the context of God’s sovereign election, not as a direct symbol for all Gentiles. The symbolic expansion of “Edom → nations” happens mainly through the Amos quotation in Acts 15.
The New Testament writers therefore read the passage (especially in its Greek form) as clear Old Testament support for the full, equal inclusion of the nations into the restored covenant people under the Messiah.