The religious idea of Israel as a chosen people has consistently played an important role in Christian antisemitic polemics. For example, in his well-known book On the Jews and Their Lies (Von den Jüden und jren Lügen), Martin Luther drew the picture of the boasting Jews with respect to God’s election (M. Luther, Von den Jüden und jren Lügen (1543), in: WA 53 p. 419, line 36 – p. 420, line 3). Luther, however, left no doubt that the Jews were in his view by no means to be considered any longer as a chosen people, on the contrary (M. Luther, Von den Jüden und jren Lügen (1543), in: WA 53).

Israel and the Idea of Election in Selected New Testament Scriptures

1. In the first century C.E., the followers of Jesus Christ, who believed him to be the nation’s God-given Messiah, could not ignore the religious idea of the special status of Israel because this was testified in many Jewish Holy Scriptures, which they themselves accepted as authoritative. On the other hand, they were faced with the fact that the majority of the members of the chosen people did not accept Jesus as their Messiah. Consequently, the first Christians were forced to take up a stance with respect to this part of Israel.
2. All Israel will be Saved: Israel as God’s Chosen People in Romans 11

A closer look at the passage may complicate this friendly picture: Paul compared the non-Christ-believing¹Jews with branches of an olive tree that were “broken off” by God (v. 17, 20); furthermore, the apostle described them as “hardened” by God until all plans with the gentile world will be fulfilled (v. 25); he classified their behavior, using scriptural language, as “iniquities” and “sins” (vv. 26–27); he claimed them to be God’s (!) “enemies” with regard to the gospel (v. 28) (R. Jewett, Romans: A Commentary [Minneapolis: Fortress, 2007], 707), and referring to God (not to Paul nor to the Christians/the Christian gospel, thus, e. g., R. N. Longenecker, The Epistle to the Romans [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2016], 901), as correctly pointed out by C. E. B. Cranfield, The Epistle to the Romans. Volume II, 5th ed. (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1989), 580, and cf. furthermore Rom 9:13. D. Zeller, Der Brief an die Römer (Regensburg: Pustet, 1985), 199). These are strongly negative terms (see Konrad, “Schriftprinzip,” 122 f). It was Paul who wrote one of the worst antisemitic statements of the whole New Testament in his first epistle to the Thessalonians (1 Thess 2:14–16) and who applied in his epistle to the Philippians in one passage the term “rubbish” to his Jewish roots, education, and way of life (Phil 3:8).

1. Chosen Israel without Salvation: non-Christ-believing Jews in Acts 13
2. The book the Acts of the Apostles was written by Luke presumably in the last decades of the first century C.E. Especially important with regard to the topic of this paper is Luke’s narrative about Paul and his missionary activity in Pisidian Antioch in Acts 13. The vast majority of scholars agree that this narrative is not a faithful report about historical events. Rather, Luke, with help of this narrative, which includes a long sermon put into Paul’s mouth, tried to explain to his readership from his point of view the theological message of the apostle (See, for example, C. K. Barrett, Acts 1– XIV (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1998), 625).