^{page 460 note 1} Scottish Journal of Theology (1969), pp. 257–277.Google Scholar

^{page 462 note 1} Martin Noth has well observed that the account in Exodus gives the impression that ‘from the beginning it was only Yahweh who was really at work’, Exodus (S.C.M. Press Ltd., London, 1962), p. 68.Google Scholar

^{page 464 note 1} See Brown's, Raymond E. instructive commentary on this passage, The Gospel According to John, I–XII (Doubleday and Company, Inc., Garden City, New York, 1966), pp. 484–486.Google Scholar

^{page 466 note 1} Strack-Billerbeck, , Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch, vol. 3, p. 269.Google Scholar

^{page 467 note 1} Interpretations by early church fathers are well given by Schelkle, Karl H., Paulus, Lehrer der Väter (Patmos-Verlag, Düsseldorf, 1956), pp. 341–353Google Scholar. See also Michel, Otto, Der Brief an die Römer (Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen, 1963), p. 237Google Scholar; Sanday, W. and Headlam, A. C., The Epistle to the Romans (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1913), pp. 269–272.Google Scholar

^{page 467 note 2} ‘Pharaos Verstockung zu Luthers Lehre von der Prädestination’ in Viva Vox Evangelii, Festschrift für Hans Meiser (Claudius-Verlag, München, 1951), pp. 196–223.Google Scholar

^{page 469 note 1} For post-reformation interpretation see Philippi, F. A., Commentary on the Romans (T. and T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1879), vol. II, pp. 113fGoogle Scholar, also Hodge, Charles, Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans (A. C. Armstrong and Son, New York, 1896), pp. 459ff.Google Scholar

^{page 470 note 1} Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, vol. V, p. 1024.Google Scholar

^{page 471 note 1} In Rom. 9.20 there is an allusion to Isa. 45.9 in which the potter-clay figure is used to describe God's relationship to his people. In this context Israel challenges Jahweh's use of Cyrus to be his anointed (Messiah!) to deliver Israel from Babylon (45.13). The prophet points up the sovereign freedom of God to bring about salvation in the history of Israel. This idea serves Paul's purpose well to point up God's similar design for Israel of Paul's time, which is that ‘all Israel will be saved’ (Rom. 11.26).

^{page 471 note 2} An appeal can be made to 2 Cor. 4.4, ‘In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.’

^{page 472 note 1} Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart³, VI, col. 1385.Google Scholar

^{page 472 note 2} I owe much to G. von Rad's careful treatment of the problem of the hardened heart in his comments on Isaiah (6.gf; 8.17; 29.9–14). He turns away from the common practice of importing exegesis into the text and insists that the troublesome passage be explored in the full context of the prophet. The hardening of the heart is not the final word, for the creative powerful Word of Jahweh will indeed create a new and responsive heart. Thus, it is not necessary to labor the problem of the cause of the hardened heart, for the creative Word, which directs redemptive history, also works within mankind. Old Testament Theology, vol. II (Harper and Row, New York, 1965), pp. 151–155.Google Scholar

^{page 473 note 1} Die Chrislliche Wahrheit (Carl Bertelsmann Verlag, Gütersloh, 1962), pp. 629f.Google Scholar

Formal treatment of our subject is found in: Schmidt, Karl L. in ‘Die Verstockung des Menschen durch Gott: Eine lexikologische und biblische-theologische Studie’, Theologische Zeitschrift (1945), pp. 1–17Google Scholar; Hesse, Franz in ‘Das Verstockungsproblem im Alten Testament’, Beihefte Z.A.W., 74 (1955).Google Scholar