“For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.”
If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches. — Paul shifts to the olive tree image with preparatory metaphors from Numbers 15:20-21 (the firstfruits dough). The logic: holiness of the first consecrates the whole. The root (Abraham, the patriarchs) is holy, so the branches retain sanctification even amid current hardening.
Church Fathers on Romans 11:16
“For if the first-fruits be holy, the lump also is holy; and if the root be holy, so are the branches;” So calling in this passage by the names of the first-fruit and root Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, the prophets, the patriarchs, all who were of note in the Old Testament; and the branches, those from them who believed. Then since the fact met him that many had disbelieved, observe how he undermines (ὑ ποτέμνεται, see p. 345) it again, and says,
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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