Origen, Commentary on Romans — Book 8
Latin source: J.-P. Migne (ed.), Patrologia Graeca 14 (Rufinus's Latin version of Origen's Commentarii in Epistulam ad Romanos ). This English translation is in the public domain.
BOOK 8
[§1] "Brethren, the desire of my heart indeed, and my prayer to God is made for them unto salvation. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For being ignorant of the justice of God, and seeking to establish their own justice, they have not been subject to the justice of God" (77). Both from the beginning, and as the text of the Epistle proceeds, we have said that Paul at one time speaks on behalf of the Gentiles, at another also on behalf of Israel. Since, therefore, in those things which were recently expounded he made use of many testimonies of the prophets against Israel, so that he brought forward from Isaiah: "Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we should have become as Sodom, and should have been made like unto Gomorrha;" and again: "If the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved:" and to these he adds (64-65), that "Israel, following after the law of justice, did not attain to the law;" therefore now, wishing again to console his own people, and through this to invite them to faith, he says: "Brethren, the desire of my heart indeed, and my prayer to God is made for them unto salvation." And he shows the cause why his desire and prayer is held before God on their behalf. "(66-67) For I bear them witness," he says, "that they have indeed a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge." Although, he says, they are entangled in so many and such great evils of their own sins, nevertheless there is in them an unspeakable zeal and emulation of God. And this cause moved me to entreat God on their behalf, that at least at the end they may at some time attain to salvation. For they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. And he proves in what way they have a zeal of God not according to knowledge: because "being ignorant," he says, "of the justice of God," they submit to their own justice. It profits little, therefore, to have a zeal of God and not to have the knowledge of that zeal. Accordingly the Jews, thinking that they were acting with zeal for God, became sacrilegious against the Son of God: because they were not zealous according to knowledge, as was Phinees the son of Eleazar, who, being zealous according to knowledge, slew the Madianite woman together with the Israelite who was fornicating with her: and as was Elias, who said: "With zeal I have been zealous for the Lord God omnipotent of Israel, because the children of Israel have forsaken thee, they have slain thy prophets, and overthrown thy altars;" and as was Mathathias, of whom it is written in the first book of Machabees, that "he was zealous in the law of God, and his reins trembled, and his fury went up according to judgment." The zeal and emulation of all these was according to knowledge, but the zeal of the Jews was not according to knowledge, for this reason: because being ignorant of the justice of God, they were attempting to fulfil their own, that is, that which seemed justice to men; whereas it would surely rather have been fitting for them to obey the justice of God, which is Christ. But see now whether perhaps this saying may seem to be spoken not to them alone, that they "have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge." For the Apostle can likewise say of others also, that "I bear them witness" that they have the fear of God, but not according to knowledge: and of others, that they have the love of God, but not according to knowledge. For if anyone have an affection toward God, but be ignorant that charity ought to be patient, kind, not envious, not dealing perversely, not puffed up, not ambitious, not seeking the things that are her own: and if he have not these things and things like to these in his charity, but love God in affection alone, it will fittingly be said to him also that he has the love of God, but not according to knowledge. And likewise it can be said of another, that he has the faith of God, but not according to knowledge, if he be ignorant that "faith without works is dead:" and that the faith of God is not in words alone, which are sometimes learned as composed or written by another, but in such a disposition of mind as she had who said within herself: "If I shall touch the hem of his garment, I shall be saved." If anyone therefore have not faith in such a way as to show by his good acts in whom he believes, it can be said to him also that he has the faith of God, but not according to knowledge. It can be said of another too that he has the chastity of God, but not according to knowledge. And another has care for the poor, but not according to knowledge: namely, if he wishes to be praised by men. And another can be called abstinent, but not according to knowledge, if he fasts for this reason, that he may be pleasing to men. And thus in each single thing that we do, unless we do it according to knowledge and understanding, it can be said to us that we have a zeal for a good work, but not according to knowledge. And therefore attention must especially be given to knowledge, lest the matter turn out unhappily for us, so that, being placed in faith, we be cheated of faith, and having zeal for good things, we fall away from good things. But do you wish to know that a person can, if he have not knowledge, come to nothing in faith? Hear Paul himself saying to certain persons: "Unless you have believed in vain." It has happened, therefore, that those have believed in vain who do not give attention to knowledge, so as to receive also, in that which they have believed, the understanding of the truth. Accordingly the apostles too, clearly perceiving that this is the difference between faith simply handed down and faith which is according to knowledge, said to the Saviour: "Increase our faith," that is, that we who have that faith which is not according to knowledge may have also that which is according to knowledge. And so Paul bears witness to the Jews that they have a zeal of God, although not according to knowledge. Nevertheless, because in some fashion they have a zeal of God, they gave the Apostle a cause for which he might offer prayer for them to God. For it is better to have a zeal of God, although not according to knowledge, than not to have it at all. For "he that hath," as it is written, "to him shall be given," even in the last times when all Israel shall be saved; "but he that hath not, from him shall be taken away even that which he hath."
[§2] "For Christ is the end of the law, unto righteousness to everyone that believes. For Moses writes, that the man who does the righteousness which is of the law shall live in it. But the righteousness which is of faith speaks thus: Say not in your heart: Who shall ascend into heaven? that is, to bring Christ down; or, Who shall descend into the abyss? that is, to bring Christ back from the dead. But what does the Scripture say? The word is near, in your mouth and in your heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach. For if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, that everyone who believes in him shall not be put to shame." For Christ is the end of the law : that is, the perfection of the law and righteousness is Christ, but for those who believe. Those, however, who do not believe, since they do not have Christ, do not have the perfection of the law; and therefore neither will they be able to attain to righteousness. "For Moses writes, that the man who does the righteousness which is of the law shall live in it. But the righteousness which is of faith speaks thus." Already in the passages above the Apostle had made mention of two righteousnesses, where he says that Israel, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, sought to establish its own righteousness; and here now again he speaks of two righteousnesses, one which is of the law, and another which is of faith. But it seems to me that the one which he said above was unknown to Israel — the righteousness of God — is this very righteousness which is of faith; whereas that one of which he says, "seeking to establish their own righteousness," is the very one which here too he intimates in the words of Moses, namely that "the man who does the righteousness which is of the law shall live in it." But observe the difference of the righteousnesses, and likewise of the lives. For of that righteousness of God, that is, of Christ, "who was made for us righteousness from God," and peace — see how he speaks: "And this is eternal life, that they may know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." This righteousness, then, furnishes not merely life, but eternal life. But of that righteousness of the law, of him "who does" it, he did not say that he shall live forever, but only that he "shall live in it": since, if the end of the law, as the Apostle says, is Christ, not even that righteousness which is of the law will he be able to fulfill without Christ, who does not receive Christ, the end of the law. This righteousness, then, which is of faith, which is Christ, as living and subsisting, this, he says, speaks thus: "Say not in your heart: Who shall ascend into heaven? that is, to bring Christ down; or, Who shall descend into the abyss? that is, to bring Christ back from the dead." And do not wonder that, although Christ himself is righteousness, he here seems to speak of himself as though of another. For in many places you will find the Savior speaking of himself as though of another; as in the Gospel he says: "And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left: and he shall say to those who are on the right hand," and again to those who are on the left, the things that are written. Now what he says: "Say not in your heart: Who shall ascend into heaven, or who shall descend into the abyss?" — apart from the clauses which he inserts in between, "that is, to bring Christ down, or to bring him back from the dead" — and also, "The word is near, in your mouth and in your heart," seems to be taken from Deuteronomy, where it is written in this manner: "This commandment, which I command you this day, is not too high for you, nor far from you. It is not in heaven, that you should say: Who shall ascend for us into heaven, and take it for us, that hearing it we may do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say: Who shall cross over the sea for us, and take it, that hearing it we may do it? The word is very near you, in your mouth, and in your heart, and in your hands, that you may do it." Since, therefore, these things are taken from Deuteronomy, and the Apostle writes that the righteousness which is of faith — which is Christ — says these very things, without doubt the Apostle declares that what is said in Deuteronomy was said by Christ. It is he, then, who says: "This commandment, which I give you this day, is not too high for you, nor far from you," and the rest that follows. What, then, is it that the Apostle teaches through this? Namely, that we should not say in our heart, and suppose, that Christ is confined in some one place, and is not everywhere, and diffused through all things: seeing that he, while he was on earth, said that he was also in heaven. For thus he spoke to his apostles: "No one has ascended into heaven, except him who descended from heaven, the Son of Man who is in heaven." He did not say, who was, but "who is in heaven." And again, lest we suppose that he is only in heaven, and that the abyss is empty of his presence, therefore the righteousness which is of faith says: "Say not in your heart: Who shall ascend into heaven?" And as though this were like saying, to bring Christ down from heaven, so the Apostle added: "That is, to bring Christ down." And again, if anyone should descend in mind and thought into the abyss, supposing Christ to be contained there alone, as though this were like calling Christ back from the dead, so he subjoins: "That is, to bring Christ back from the dead." But you ought, he says, so to think concerning Christ, as concerning the Word, and truth, and wisdom, and righteousness of God. Now all these things are not sought in a place, but are present everywhere: nor are they summoned up from the regions below, but are grasped by the mind and understanding alone. As Word, therefore, and as wisdom, he is near, in your mouth and in your heart. And "this," he says, "is the word of faith which we preach. For if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." We ought also to know this, that it is one thing for a potentiality to be in someone, another for there to be effectiveness or actualization — what the Greeks call dynamis (power, capacity) and energeia (activity, actualization). For example: a child newly born is a rational man in potentiality; for he can be rational if he grows up. And in potentiality he is also called a craftsman, and a helmsman, and a grammarian; for it is possible that he be some one of these.
But in efficacy or actuality — that is, in the thing itself and in operation — he is none of these while he is a little child; but if he begins to be capable of reason, or to accomplish something of the craftsman's art or of any other, then at last he is called rational in efficacy, or a craftsman, or whatever it is that he performs by the effect of his work. In this way, therefore, Christ also, who is the Word of God, must be believed to be in potentiality according to us — that is, according to every human being — as reason is in little children; but he is said to be in me in efficacy when I have confessed with my mouth the Lord Jesus and have believed in my heart that God raised him from the dead. But do you wish to know that he is present everywhere, and is in the midst even of those who do not know him and do not confess him? Hear how John the Baptist bears this very witness concerning him: "There stands," he says, "in the midst of you one whom you do not know, who comes after me." He is therefore in the midst even of those who do not know him, but he is in their midst in potentiality, not in efficacy. For they are able to receive him, but they do not yet receive him. But in efficacy or actuality he is in the midst of those to whom he said: "Wherever two or three have been gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." For these confessed with their mouth the Lord Jesus, and believed in their heart that God raised him from the dead. Otherwise it seems absurd, if he is said to be in the midst both of those who are gathered in his name and of those who do not know him — unless a distinction of this kind be maintained, that among the ignorant and those who do not yet believe he is said to be in the midst in potentiality, but among believers in efficacy, that is, by the effect of the thing itself and of the work. But observe also this, that he says: "Because if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved." For it will seem to some, from this, that even if someone lacks the privileges of good work, even if he has given no labor to the virtues, yet by this very fact that he has believed, he does not perish but is saved, and has salvation, even though he cannot have the glory of blessedness. But see whether this ought rather to be understood: that he who truly and not falsely confesses with his mouth the Lord Jesus, and believes with his heart, confesses at the same time that he is made subject to the dominion of wisdom and of justice and of truth and of all the things that Christ is; and that mammon is no longer lord over him — that is, that neither avarice any longer, nor injustice, nor unchastity, nor falsehood holds dominion over him. For once he has confessed Jesus Christ as Lord, he professes that he is a slave to none of these. And further, believing in his heart that God raised him from the dead, it is certain that he believes him raised for his own justification. Otherwise, what will it profit me to know and to believe that God raised Jesus from the dead, if I do not have him raised within myself? Therefore, if I do not walk in newness of life, and do not flee the old habit of sinning, Christ has not yet risen from the dead for me. And to this sense the words that follow also agree, when he says: "For the Scripture says, everyone who believes in him shall not be put to shame." Now this is written in Isaiah. But if everyone who believes in him shall not be put to shame, while everyone who sins is put to shame — as Adam sinned, and was ashamed, and hid himself — then whoever still incurs the blush of sin does not appear to believe.
[§5] "For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. For the same is Lord of all, rich toward all who call upon him. For everyone, whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved." How there is no distinction of Jew and Greek in faith we have already shown frequently above. But that he is the same Lord of all, you will understand according to what we have just now set forth; that is, if justice and truth, sanctification and wisdom — all of which is Christ the Lord — hold dominion over us. For these are his riches, inasmuch as he is the one "in whom the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden." Yet he did not say that he bestows these riches on all men, but on all whoever shall call upon his name. But here too a question similar to the earlier ones seems to arise. For not all who in any manner whatsoever call upon the name of the Lord can be saved, even if they have not done works worthy of the name they invoke — especially since the Wisdom of God also says in Proverbs: "It shall come to pass that when you call upon me, I will not hear you." In which it seems to me that Wisdom exhorts and urges those who wish to be saved, that they should call upon Wisdom quickly and not delay or defer, lest perhaps, when the appointed time has passed — that is, the time in which there is opportunity for repentance — they should call too late thereafter, where there is no place for repentance. And hence she says: "You shall call upon me, and I will not hear you." Yet this saying which the Apostle sets down, that is, "Whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved," is written in the prophet Joel in this manner: "And I will give portents in the heaven above, and on the earth below: blood, and fire, and the vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and glorious day of the Lord comes. And it shall be: whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Yet it seems to me that something great is designated in the divine Scriptures under this name of "calling upon." For it is not of just any men, but of great and outstanding ones, that it is written that "Enos first hoped to call upon the name of the Lord"; and in the Psalms: "Moses and Aaron among his priests, and Samuel among those who call upon his name. They called upon the Lord, and he heard them: in the pillar of cloud he spoke to them." 5. "How then shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed? Or how shall they believe him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good tidings of good things." Plainly in these words he says this: by the words "How then shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed?" he taught that what he had set down above as spoken by the prophet — that "everyone whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" — is to be referred to Christ the Lord. For after he said, "Everyone whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved," he adds: "How then shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed?" For the Jews did not believe in Christ, and therefore they do not call upon him in whom they have not believed. Moreover, at the beginning of the Epistle which he writes to the Corinthians, where he says, "With all who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place of theirs and of ours," he declares that the one whose name is invoked is the Lord Jesus Christ. If therefore Enos also, and Moses, and Aaron, and Samuel "called upon the Lord, and he heard them," without doubt they were calling upon Christ Jesus the Lord. And if to call upon the name of the Lord and to pray to the Lord are one and the same thing, then as God is called upon, so Christ is to be called upon; and as God is prayed to, so also is Christ to be prayed to; and as we offer prayers first of all to God the Father, so also to the Lord Jesus Christ; and as we offer petitions to the Father, so we offer petitions also to the Son; and as we offer thanksgivings to God, so also do we offer thanks to the Savior. For the divine word teaches that one and the same honor is to be rendered to both, that is, to the Father and to the Son, when it says: "That all may honor the Son as they honor the Father." But as to what we have just now brought forward from the Epistle to the Corinthians, where the Apostle first says, "To the Church of God which is at Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints," and after this, as though they were of another rank and another order, he thus adds certain persons of whom he says, "With all who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place of theirs and of ours" — perhaps it will seem to have some difference, that the former he names the Church of God, and sanctified, and called to be saints, but the latter only "those who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." And see whether perhaps this diversity shows something such as the present chapter also seems to contain, in which he teaches that the name of the Lord cannot be invoked unless one first believes in Christ. But when someone has believed in Christ, even if he is not yet sanctified and joined to the body of the Church, nevertheless it is necessary that he should already call upon him in whom he has believed. For Christ came to reconcile the world to God, and to offer to the Father those who believe in him. And those whom he offers to the Father, the Holy Spirit receives, that he may sanctify them, and quicken them as members of the heavenly Church of the firstborn, and restore them to the solidity and perfection of the whole body — and so at last they may deserve to be called the Church of God having neither spot nor wrinkle. Before, therefore, they come to the level of this perfection, they call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ as the mediator of God and men; but after the Spirit of God has been in their heart crying, "Abba, Father," that same Spirit teaches them also to call upon the name of the Father. Therefore he says, "How shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed?" and in this he binds them with a most tight conclusion. There is no salvation, he says, except for one who calls upon him. But no one calls upon him who does not believe. Therefore, because you do not believe, you do not call upon him; and because you do not call upon him, you are not saved. But "how," he says, "shall they believe him whom they have not heard?" That they have not heard we can understand in this way: that they were unwilling to hear either him himself when he was set in the flesh, or his apostles preaching about him. For so the Lord himself says: "He who hears you hears me; and he who despises you despises me." But this too can be understood: that even now and always Christ, as the Word and Reason, speaks to each one in the heart, and teaches concerning piety, and urges concerning justice, and testifies concerning chastity, concerning modesty, and concerning all the virtues together — just as he himself says: "My sheep hear my voice." So finally he spoke also in the heart of Paul, so that he could say: "Do you seek a proof of Christ who speaks in me?" There follows: "And how shall they hear without a preacher?" In this he shows rather that Christ is heard through the word of those who preach, in whom, according to what we said above, Christ is shown to speak and to teach.
"But how shall they preach, unless they be sent?" A certain difficulty seems to me to arise in this statement. For if we understand it in this way, that they do not preach for this reason, because they are not sent; and that with no one preaching they will not hear; and not hearing they will not believe; and not believing they will not call upon; and not calling upon they will not be saved: it is gathered from these things that the cause by which they were not saved falls back upon the fault of the author, who did not send preachers. But let us rather turn aside to that path of understanding which is more correct: and what he said, "How shall they preach, unless they be sent," let us take as though the Apostle were saying: We, the heralds and preachers of Christ, could not preach, nor would any power of announcing subsist in us, unless he himself who sent us were present with us. But if, when we preach, you are unwilling to hear, the fault is now yours; and if, hearing, you do not believe, and not believing you do not call upon, and not calling upon you cannot be saved. Because, therefore, they were sent to preach, for this reason it is written concerning those who were sent by him: "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good tidings of good things." That he here calls the feet beautiful not bodily but spiritual, I think that, however much someone may be a friend of the letter, he could not deny. For he will not reduce the apostolic meaning to such absurdity as to suppose that the feet of the evangelists which can be seen with bodily eyes are called by him comely and beautiful; but those feet are comely and beautiful which walk along the way of life. For according to him who said, "I am the way," understand the comely and beautiful feet of those who bring good tidings, which are worthy to advance along such a way. These are the feet with which Paul also said that he had run the race, and had so run that he might lay hold of it; that is, the vigor of the soul by which it strains and hastens toward heaven. And you will pleasingly affirm that these are the feet which Jesus washes for the disciples, and wipes with the linen cloth with which he was girded. And although it was then fulfilled in bodily appearance, nevertheless, when Peter understood only this which he saw being done, and, as it were for honor's sake, excused himself lest the Lord should wash the feet of him who was a servant, hear what a word of profound mystery is brought forth. "If I wash thee not," he says, "thou shalt have no part with me." And again he brings forth another utterance like this, as though from the hidden treasures of knowledge, and says: "What I have done you do not know now: but you shall know hereafter;" and he adds, that "as I, the Lord and master, have washed your feet: so do ye also wash one another's feet in turn. For I have given you an example." Let us see, therefore, what that example is, by which masters ought to wash the feet of disciples, or with what water to wash them. If anyone should find living water, and if anyone should receive drink from Jesus, and that water should become in him a fountain of water springing up into life eternal, he can with this water of spiritual doctrine wash the feet of the disciples, and wash away all the uncleannesses and filth from their soul: and doing this he will fulfill the example given by the master. "Beautiful," therefore, "are the feet of those who bring good tidings of good things." Concerning these same feet I think the Bride also says to the Word of God in the Song of Songs: "I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them?" And concerning them nonetheless it is said: "Thy legs are as pillars of marble with bases of silver." And perhaps because this beauty is in the feet of the evangelists, therefore the Lord Jesus does not wish them to cover them with sandals and to hide their beautiful appearance; but he commands them not even to have a sandal on the way. But let us see what those good things are which they evangelize, that is, which they announce. Although this very word "to evangelize" is interpreted as "to announce good things," yet let us inquire what those good things are which he added to the good. One and true good is God, whose image of goodness is the Son, and his Spirit, who is called good. This one good, therefore, because it is in God the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, he named "good things." For this is what the evangelists announce, according to the precept of our Lord and Savior, who says: "Go, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." These, therefore, are the good things of those who bring good tidings. But since he himself is called both a good messenger, and to announce concerning good things, let this be the reason: that they not only announce good things, but also announce good things well. For there are some who do indeed announce and preach concerning the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit; but not sincerely, not soundly: as are all the heretics, who do indeed announce the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit; but they do not announce well, nor faithfully. For either they wrongly separate the Son from the Father, so as to say that the Father is of one nature, the Son of another: or they wrongly confound them, so as to think either that God is composed of three, or that there is in him the designation of a merely threefold appellation. But he who announces good things well will indeed give to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit their own properties, each to each; yet he will confess that there is no diversity in substance or nature. Those, therefore, who thus announce the Gospel, not only announce good things, but announce good things well and soundly. This example, however, seems taken from Isaiah; but there the prophet referred the office of evangelizing to the Lord himself. For thus he says: "Since I myself who was speaking am present, as an hour upon the mountains, as the feet of one bringing good tidings of the hearing of peace, as one bringing good tidings of good things." But it seems to me that Paul, because the prophet had said, "as the feet of one bringing good tidings of the hearing of peace, as one bringing good tidings of good things," recalled this as though from a comparison with another; as if he were saying: So shall I be present, like a man who evangelizes peace, and evangelizes good things. But this the apostles shall do: and therefore he seems to have taken this as said concerning themselves, that is, concerning the apostles, in comparison with whom Christ had said through the prophets that he would be present and would evangelize good things. 6. "But not all obey the Gospel. For Isaiah says: Lord, who has believed our report? Therefore faith comes from hearing; and hearing through the word of Christ. But I say: Have they not heard? Their sound went out into all the earth; and their words unto the ends of the world. But I say: Did Israel not know? First Moses says: I will lead you to jealousy by that which is not a nation, by a foolish nation I will lead you into wrath. But Isaiah is bold and says: I was found by those who did not seek me: I appeared openly among those who did not ask after me. But to Israel what does he say? All the day long I stretched out my hands to a people that does not believe, and that contradicts." Neither did all of the Gentiles believe the Gospel, nor all of Israel: yet more, and many more, from the Gentiles than from Israel.
Therefore, when the Apostle sets down that Isaiah said, "Lord, who has believed our report?" — the word "who" is said in the sense of "few"; and we ought to observe that this expression in the Scriptures is sometimes put for "few," and sometimes for "no one at all." For example, when it says, "Who is wise, and he shall understand these things?" and, "Who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord?" and, "Who is the man that desires life?" — in all these "who" signifies "few." But where it says, "Who has ascended into heaven? that is, to bring Christ down; or who has descended into the abyss? that is, to bring Christ back from the dead," here "who" is understood as "no one." For there is no one who ascends into heaven to bring Christ down from there. Now therefore, in what Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our report?" the "who" signifies "few." Yet it is fitting for us to know that "Lord, who has believed our report?" does not have "Lord" in the Hebrew copies, but it is so in the translation of the Seventy Elders; and the Apostle, approving what is found among them, put "Lord." Isaiah, however, seems to prophesy these things in the person of the apostles, to whom the office of preaching had been entrusted; and they, seeing the scarcity of believers especially from the people of Israel, say to the Lord, "Lord, who has believed our report?" — just as that other saying is also spoken in their person, that "we have announced him as a child before him, as a root in a thirsting land." And it is likewise they who speak as though they were placed with him and beheld him in human condition, saying, "we saw him, and he had neither form nor comeliness," and the rest. But even if these words are referred to the person of the prophets themselves, as of men complaining before the Lord that no one, or only very few, out of that people believed the things they had prophesied concerning Christ, it will not seem foreign to the sense. Or is it not to be supposed that Moses says to the Lord: Lord, no one has believed my report? For if they had believed my writings, they would certainly have believed Christ as well; for I wrote concerning him. "Therefore faith comes from hearing; and hearing through the word of Christ." Here "the word of Christ" signifies the preaching about Christ. For not only those believed who heard the word from Christ Jesus the Lord himself as he spoke; but far more numerous are they who heard him through others preaching him, as the Lord himself had foretold when he spoke to Thomas: "Because you have seen me," he says, "you have believed; blessed are they who do not see and yet believe." Every word, therefore, which the apostles — and any others who, having received grace from him, preached concerning Christ — he declares to be the word of Christ. Moreover, in the Church, if anyone speaks the wisdom that is from God and the truth of God, if anyone teaches the way of God, which is Christ, and expounds his righteousness, without doubt what he speaks is the word of Christ. "But I say: Have they not heard? Their sound went out into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world." This is taken from the eighteenth psalm, where it says: "There are no speeches nor discourses whose voices are not heard. Their sound went out into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world." In which, by the variety of tongues and speeches, the nations are without doubt understood; and it is said that the sound of the apostles of Christ went out indeed into all the earth, but that to the ends of the world not the sound but the words came. This can be understood in this way: that by "the earth" it means all those who are untrained and unteachable, to whom there came not the words, in which the reason of faith and the explanation of wisdom is contained, but the sound of faith by a common and simple preaching; whereas by "the end of the world" it has named all the more learned and more prudent. For "end" indicates the perfection of things. To such as these, then, it declares that not the sound of a voice but words and reason have come — men who, hearing the discourse of faith, are also able to search out and examine the divine Scriptures, so as to recognize the truth of those words which have been announced to them through the apostles. And the Apostle, knowing that there is this difference among them, that is, between sound and words, says in a certain place: "And my speech and my preaching were not in the persuasive words of wisdom, but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power" — so as to show that "word" is that by which, through the power of the Spirit, the wisdom of God is more lucidly expounded, whereas "preaching" is that of which the Prophet speaks, that "their sound went out into all the earth": in which, namely, there is the simple announcement of faith, sufficient for all the simpler sort. But elsewhere too he says of himself that he is "a preacher and an apostle, and a teacher of the nations." In which "apostle" indeed indicates the general name of the office, of one who not only preaches but also teaches: he preaches indeed the simple faith, as to those to whom he says, "For I judged that I knew nothing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified"; but he teaches those to whom he said, "Yet we speak wisdom among the perfect." In these it is shown that to the former he set forth the sound of preaching, but to the latter he expounded the wisdom of God through words. "But I say: Has Israel not known? First Moses says: I will lead you to jealousy by a non-nation, by a foolish nation; I will bring you into wrath." He seems to have spoken the things said above concerning the nations; but now, as is his custom, to add something also concerning Israel; and he wishes to prove by suitable witnesses that Israel is without excuse. Moses himself, he says, speaks in the person of God: "I will lead you to jealousy by a non-nation" — speaking without doubt of the Christians, who have been taken up by God to provoke the jealousy of the former people, unbelieving and contemptuous. But perhaps it may seem that Moses addressed rather insultingly a nation chosen by God for the merit of its faith and devotion, when he says, "by a non-nation," and so counts it as nothing, so as not to deign even to call it a nation; or, if he does call it one, to name it foolish. But Moses is not insulting, being as he is the friend of God, toward God's elect; nor will there seem to be any reproach in the expression, if the reason of the expression be made plain. Every single nation — for example, of the Egyptians, or the Syrians, or the Moabites — is called this nation or that for the reason that it is distinguished by its own boundaries, and language, and dress, and customs and institutions; and Syrians are never called Egyptians, nor are Moabites called Idumaeans, nor Arabs Scythians. But of Christians there is not one nation, but out of all nations one people; and therefore Moses named it "a non-nation" as the highest honor, because it was not one nation but, if it may be so said, the nation of all nations.
But we shall seem to be excluded in what follows, where he says: "I will lead you into anger by a foolish nation" — in that he has called them both a nation and foolish. Yet not even in this does Moses, the servant of God, do dishonor to the people of God; rather he foresaw in the Spirit that if anyone wishes to be wise in this world, he must become foolish, that he may be wise with God; and "since the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe"; and that through the preaching of the cross of Christ, which is foolishness to the Gentiles, a people would be gathered which should become foolish in this world, that it might be wise with God. The Jews, then, are angry that, when they themselves made excuses and refused, the Gentiles were invited to the king's banquet — not looking to those things which long ago concerning this mystery "Isaiah dares to say: I was found by those who did not seek me; I appeared openly among those who did not ask after me. But to Israel what does he say? All the day I have stretched out my hands to a people that does not believe and contradicts." Just as in the passages above we have often shown that the Apostle Paul speaks now of the Gentiles, now of Israel, and yet does not plainly and openly declare the change of person, so Isaiah too does in these words which the Apostle has brought forward as an illustration; and the first part indeed, that is, "I was found by those who did not seek me; I appeared openly among those who did not ask after me," he says without doubt concerning the Gentiles; and where the prophet secretly changes the person, the Apostle has given a clear distinction by his own words in that he added, "But to Israel what does he say?" And the former words he expounds as referring to the Gentiles, but the following as to be referred to Israel, in which he says: "All the day I have stretched out my hands to a people that does not believe and contradicts." But first of all, as to what he says, "Isaiah dares to say," let us see what he dares, or what daring of the prophet is here taught. If we attend to the words of the blessed Stephen, who says: "Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute, who announced the coming of the Just One?" — then we understand Isaiah's daring, who, with persecutions and death set before him, nevertheless dared to preach the coming of the Just One, and for the good's sake dares even to die. Yet in this at the same time that also is shown, that the prophets did not, as some suppose, fail to know what they were saying, and prophesy as it were with their own understanding estranged from them. For what the Apostle says of Isaiah, that "he dares and says," indicates this: that despising death and the persecutions which were being inflicted, although he knew that danger threatened him, he nevertheless dares and preaches the word of God — as Paul himself also said: "I know that bonds and prisons await me at Jerusalem; but I do not hold my life dearer to myself." So then Isaiah too knew indeed that he was to be sawn asunder and slain by the impious, yet he dares, and in the person of Christ says: "I was found by those who did not seek me." Now it is certain that it was the Gentiles who neither had known how to seek Christ nor had learned to ask after him; yet they found him whom they did not seek, because he first sought them. For he is the Good Shepherd, and he sought out the sheep that had perished; and he is the Wisdom that sought the lost drachma, and in seeking found it. But the Jews even to this day seek concerning Christ, and question the Scriptures about him, and do not find; because his cross is to the Jews a stumbling-block. And therefore he says to them: "All the day I have stretched out my hands to a people that does not believe and contradicts" — that is, when he hung upon the cross, they not only did not find him, but moreover said: "If you are the Son of God, come down now from the cross, and we will believe you." But hear also what is said in the Wisdom of Solomon: that "he will not be found by those who tempt him; but he will appear to those who are not unbelieving toward him." Yet neither is it fitting that this be unknown to us, that in the copies of the Hebrews the words "and contradicts" are not found. The Apostle, however, followed in his writings the truth of the Seventy Translators, and sets it down just as they translated it.
[§7] "I say then: Has God cast off his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not cast off his people whom he foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says in Elijah — how he pleads with God against Israel? Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have dug down your altars, and I am left alone, and they seek my life. But what does the divine answer say to him? I have left for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed their knees to Baal. So therefore at this present time also a remnant according to the election of grace has been saved. But if by grace, then no longer of works: otherwise grace is no longer grace." Since from the things said above the Jewish people might perhaps seem to have been cast off by God and to bear no hope, seeing that God has led them into jealousy by a no-nation, and into anger by a foolish nation, and has been made manifest to those who did not seek him, and has been found by those who did not ask after him — therefore the Apostle, wishing to remedy these things and to show that a way of salvation remains for the people of Israel if they believe, and that they were not cast off for the reason that they are of the race of Israel, but because they were unbelieving, says: "God has not cast off his people whom he foreknew." And that he might prove this by a present example, he adds: "For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin" — and yet I teach the faith of Jesus, and announce that he is the Christ. But if it has not been a hindrance to me that I am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, so as to keep me from believing in Christ and being justified by faith in him, it is certain that "God has not cast off his people whom he foreknew." And in what sense "whom he foreknew, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified," has already been said above; and that for God to foreknow is set down in the Scriptures as meaning not only to know beforehand things future (which cannot even be doubted), but to approve, and to deem worthy of his knowledge. But lest it should seem a small thing that he taught by his own example that the people of God had not been cast off, the Apostle seeks stronger examples, and says: "Or do you not know what the Scripture says in Elijah? How he pleads with God against Israel? Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have dug down your altars, and I am left alone, and they seek my life. But what does the divine answer say to him?" In these words we are taught that the prophet, once filled with zeal for God, laid before God his complaint of the transgressing people, who had not only killed the prophets and overthrown the altars, but were also trying to destroy Elijah, who seemed to be the only one left of the prophets of the Lord. And when Elijah made this lament before God, hear what the divine oracles answer him: "I have left for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed their knees to Baal." Baal is the name of an idol, to whose worship that people had fallen away, having abandoned the law of God. These are the things which the Apostle brings forward as an example for the present time. And he adds: "So therefore at this present time also a remnant according to the election of grace has been saved. But if by grace, then no longer of works: otherwise grace is no longer grace." We must therefore show, so far as we are able, how, just as it happened under Elijah, where the prophet had supposed the whole people together to have been rejected, and seven thousand men are found who had remained in the covenant of God — so it happened also at the coming of Christ, and in those times in which Paul was preaching. And see whether we can perhaps set John the Baptist, who went before the coming of the Savior, in the place of Elijah: since indeed the Gospel bears such witness of him, that he came "in the spirit and power" of Elijah; and the Lord himself said of him: "And if you wish to know, he is Elijah. He who has ears to hear, let him hear." This man, then, who had come in the spirit and power of Elijah, had so despaired of that people that he said they were not the offspring of Abraham but the offspring of vipers; and added to this: "Do not say that we have Abraham for our father. For I say to you that God is able from these stones to raise up sons of Abraham." To him, then, thus complaining about the people, let this be answered by our Lord and Savior: "I know whom I have chosen"; and again: "My sheep hear my voice, and I go before them, and my own follow me"; and again: "I have other sheep which are not of this fold: I must bring them also." But let us see what the very number of seven thousand men indicates. The number seven pertains to rest. For "on the seventh day God rested." Hear then also how Christ invites those who believe in him to rest, and says: "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened; and you shall find rest for your souls." To this number seven, therefore, belongs everyone who, coming to Christ, has laid down the burdens of sin and found the rest of salvation. Rightly then does the Apostle say that "so at this present time also a remnant according to the election of grace has been saved" — calling a remnant those of the circumcision who believed, both the apostles, among whom he numbers himself as well, and the rest who together with them followed the faith of Jesus Christ. But as for his saying that the remnant was saved "according to the election of grace," this addition of "election" does not seem to me superfluous. For he could have said: "A remnant has been saved" by grace; but by these words he shows that there is a grace both without election and with election. For all indeed who are saved through faith are without doubt saved through grace; but those who are saved through "the election of grace" seem to me to be shown to be of a more perfect soul. For just as everyone who is descended from the race of Israel is called Israel, but he is the true Israel who with a pure mind and a sincere heart sees God, so also we can understand this: that all indeed who come to faith in Christ come through grace; but he who adorns the gift of grace with works of virtue and purity of heart, he will be said by Christ to be saved not only through grace, but through "the election of grace." Finally the apostle Paul himself, if anyone observes him carefully in his words, sees how he uses distinctions of this kind: in one place naming Israel according to the flesh, in another making no mention at all of the flesh concerning him — as in the present passage, where, when he said that "God has not cast off his people," and wished to set forth the nobility of the Israelite soul, he says: "For I also am an Israelite." But in the second Epistle to the Corinthians, where he is compelled to answer certain men who boasted of Israelite descent according to the flesh, see what he puts first: "What I speak," he says, "I speak not according to God, but as it were in foolishness, in this matter of boasting. Since indeed many boast according to the flesh; I too will boast." And after a little he says: "Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I." So then, where he was speaking of Israel with reference to that inner man (for such is that people whom God foreknew and did not cast off), he does not say Israel "according to the flesh"; but to those who boasted in fleshly descent he first declared that concerning boasting of this kind he would speak neither "according to God" nor in wisdom, but, as he himself says, "in foolishness." Such, then, is the "remnant" which "according to the election of grace has been saved." And he added: "But if by grace, then no longer of works." It must be known that the works which Paul rejects, and frequently censures, are not the works of righteousness which are commanded in the law, but those in which they who keep the law according to the flesh glory — that is, either circumcision of the flesh, or the rite of sacrifices, or the observance of sabbaths and new moons. These, then, and such as these are the works from which he says no one could be saved, and about which in the present passage he says that it is "not of works: otherwise grace is no longer grace." For if anyone is justified through these, he is not justified freely. But he who is justified through grace — these works indeed are not required of him; yet he ought to take care that the grace he has received does not become void in him, as Paul also says: "his grace in me was not void, but I labored more than all of them." And again he adds, as one mindful of grace: "Not I," he says, "but the grace of God with me." He, therefore, does not make grace void who joins to it works worthy of it, and is not ungrateful for the grace of God. For he who sins after obtaining grace becomes ungrateful to him who bestowed the grace. But if you do not make grace void, grace will be multiplied to you, and as it were as a reward for good work you will obtain an abundance of graces — as he himself also writes, and Peter says in his Epistle: "May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God"; and again elsewhere: "As good stewards of the manifold grace of God."
[§8] "What then? What Israel was seeking, this it did not obtain; but the election obtained it, while the rest were blinded; as it is written: God gave them a spirit of compunction; eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, unto this present day. And David says: Let their table become a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling block, and a recompense unto them. Let their eyes be darkened that they may not see, and bow down their back always." In these words the Apostle divides Israel into two parts: one of which he calls the election, which has obtained what it was seeking; the other he names "the rest," who not only did not obtain what they were seeking, but were blinded with a spirit of compunction. And he says that God even "gave" to them "eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, unto this present day," that is, unto the consummation of the age. But a question is raised for us: how can it seem to be said worthily of the good God that he himself gave to the remainder of Israel eyes with which they should not see, and ears with which they should not hear? And see whether perhaps this is rather a recompense and the wage of unbelief, according to what we expounded in the earlier portions, where it is said that, because "they did not approve of having God in their knowledge, God delivered them over to a reprobate mind." For here too he speaks of the eyes and ears of the heart, not of the body, with which those men are blinded and do not hear — those, namely, who, seeing Christ in the body and hearing his teaching, were willing neither to believe the works which they saw nor to obey the word which they heard. But on this very question enough has been said by us in the first parts of this Epistle. Where, however, this very thing may be written which the Apostle says — "As it is written: God gave them a spirit of compunction, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, unto this present day" — I have thus far been unable to find. But if anyone applies himself to the divine Scriptures more diligently than we, let him make it plain if he finds it. Yet I think the Apostle spoke in this manner: "But the rest were blinded; and, as it is written of them, God gave them a spirit of compunction," so that he seems to say in his own words that God gave them a spirit of compunction in accordance with those things which were said through Isaiah about the blindness of the eyes and the hearing of the ears. For Isaiah speaks thus: "Go, and say to this people: With hearing you shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing you shall see, and shall not see. For the heart of this people has been made gross, and with their ears they have heard heavily; and they have closed their eyes, lest perchance they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them." Now therefore the Apostle seems to have set forth the sense of Isaiah, but in his own words; yet because he was giving the prophet's sense, he added: "As it is written." And he does likewise with those things which he declares to have been said through David. For he says: "And David says: Let their table become a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling block, and a recompense unto them. Let their eyes be darkened that they may not see, and bow down their back always." For as to what he says, "Let their table become a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling block" — "a trap" is not found written in the Psalm, neither in our copies of the Seventy Translators nor in those of the Hebrews. And again, in the Psalm it stands: "Let their table before them become a snare"; but the Apostle did not put "before them." These things we have mentioned concerning the order of the words and the character of the testimonies taken up, in order to show point by point that apostolic authority in no way puts its trust in the copies of the Hebrews, nor does it always serve the words of the translators, but sets forth the sense of the Scriptures in the words that suit it. Now therefore let us see how the sense of the chapter before us ought to be explained. The blindness of heart by which the remainder of Israel — that is, the part which did not believe — was blinded, he proves by two prophetic testimonies, the one which seems to be taken from Isaiah, and the one from David; and in both a single sense, in a certain way, is set forth. For here eyes are given them with which they may not see, and ears with which they may not hear; and there it is wished that their table before them may become a snare, and a trap, and a recompense, and a stumbling block, and that their eyes may be darkened so that they may not see. And it does not seem idle to show how these things may be believed to be worthily said, and especially in the psalm from the person of Christ. See, then, whether we can explain in this way what is sought. Just as each person uses his bodily eyes for seeing either good things or evil, and has it in his power either to lift up his eyes to heaven and, through what he sees, to acknowledge its Founder and to praise the Creator, or to turn them toward the spectacles of the circus or of the theater, or to the delights of any sordid sights whatever, by which the mind is inflamed either to lust or to rapacity or to any other vices: so understand for me also the eyes of the soul, which some indeed use so as to recognize the Word of God and the teaching of truth, and daily to take profit from his wisdom; but others use these eyes to the contrary end, exercising themselves daily, namely, and inquiring how they may break down the doctrines of truth and, so far as it seems to them, assail the faith of Christ. Let us suppose, then, that someone prays for those who are sharp-sighted and full of argument in false knowledge, and says: May God give them "eyes that they may not see" the subtleties of a perverse understanding, "and ears that they may not hear" the teachers, namely, of falsehood, and "let their eyes be darkened that they may not see" — does not the man who wishes for them those things by which their sins are lessened seem to you one to be embraced? For it is much better not to know than to know evilly. Does it not seem to you, I say, that Marcion, who composed blasphemous writings against God the Creator, or Basilides, or Valentinus, or the other authors of depraved doctrines, would have been blessed if they had not had those eyes of the heart with which they understood evilly? For of these Isaiah says: "Woe to those who write! For in writing they write wickedness." And in like manner David also prays in the Psalms for those who teach evilly and speak evilly, and says: "Let the wicked lips be made mute, which speak iniquity against the just man in pride and contempt." So then it is said also of Israel: "Let their eyes be darkened that they may not see," and, May God give them "eyes that they may not see." Let this be said so far as concerns the blindness of eyes which seems to be given by God to the ill-seeing and unbelieving Israel as a kind of remedy. Now let us also consider the table which is said to become "a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling block, and a recompense to them."
But first a few things must be said to those who reject allegories in the divine Scriptures and are accustomed to laugh at those who do not in all things follow the historical sense. Let them tell us, then, whether the Prophet here means that table of the Jews at which they are wont to take their lunch or their supper, so that this very table should become for them a snare to catch them; or whether that same table is made for them a recompense, so that from it they receive vengeance for the offenses they have committed; or let them explain in what way it is a stumbling block to them. But if they are unable to give an account of these several points, and see their laughter turned into confusion, then let them come along with us, and inquire from the divine Scriptures how this table of Israel may be understood. To us, therefore, so far as our understanding can grasp it, it appears thus: that all the Scriptures which existed before the coming of the Lord among Israel (for "to them first were entrusted the oracles of God"), and everything that is called the Old Testament, is the table of Israel — at which table, if anyone wished to eat the word of God, he was fed by the words of the Law and the Prophets set before him. And this, I think, is the table of which Solomon says: "If you sit down to sup at the table of a ruler, understand intelligently what is set before you, and put forth your hand, knowing that you must prepare such things yourself." And when the Savior too says, "When you shall eat and drink at my table," what else do we understand his table to be, except where he teaches those who are worthy, and those who are able to receive the word of wisdom and the knowledge of things? This Solomon also attests in the Proverbs concerning Wisdom, saying: "Wisdom has built herself a house, and set up seven pillars; she has slain her victims, she has mingled her wine in the bowl, and has prepared her table." Every Scripture, therefore, is the table of Wisdom. But let us see how David prays that this table may become to the unbelieving Israelites "before them a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling block, and a recompense." The divine Scripture becomes a snare to them when they read the things prophesied concerning Christ: "He shall build my city, and shall turn back the captivity of my people," and they say that these things were not fulfilled under Jesus. For he did not build, they say, the city of God, nor did he call back the captivity of the people. But they say these things because, sitting at the table of the ruler, they do not do what Solomon admonished, namely, to understand intelligently the things set before them. For Christ was prophesied as about to do these things not visibly, but intelligibly, that is, spiritually. For he did indeed build the city of God, but out of living stones, from which he raised up sons of Abraham, and from these he built the Church of God; and he turned back the captivity of the people, of those whom the devil held captive in their sins. Since, therefore, they do not understand in this way, this table of the divine Scripture has been made for them "a snare and a trap." And that trap of this table may also be seen in that by which the Lord caught them when he said to them: "What do you think concerning the Christ? Whose son is he? And they answered: David's. And the Lord said: How then does David call him Lord, saying: The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand? And they were not able to answer him a word." And this table is made "a recompense" to them, to speak briefly, according to that word of the Lord in which he says: "Do you think that I shall accuse you before the Father? There is one who accuses you, Moses"; and according to what the Apostle says: "As many as have sinned under the Law shall be judged by the Law." And this table is made "a stumbling block" to them in this way. From the Scriptures the Jews had learned that "Christ abides forever"; but seeing Jesus in the flesh, and not only in the flesh, but even in death, and the death of the cross, they were made to stumble at him, not knowing that "although he suffered from the weakness" of the flesh, "yet he lives by the power of God." Because, therefore, they did not receive intelligibly these several things which were set before them at the table of the ruler, they were made to stumble, and the very table of the divine Scriptures was made for them a stumbling block, and their eyes were darkened according to what we said above, and their back is bowed down always. For those who have sinned against the Creator of heaven, and against the Lord of majesty, ought no longer to look up to heaven. But each one of us also must fear lest perhaps this table of the divine words, at which we seem to have sat down that we may take the food of the word of God according to our capacity, become a snare, or a recompense, or a stumbling block, if we do not receive from it intelligibly, and as is fitting, the clean and pure and spiritual foods of wisdom — observing likewise this also, that we do not sit down at the table of wisdom in unclean and filthy garments, that is, with a polluted body or heart; but, already now meditating upon the appearance of that future banquet in the heavens, let us through conversion and repentance daily prepare cleaner and nuptial garments, by the use of which we may be worthy to enter the hall of wisdom and the bridal chambers of the king's son.
[§9] "I say then: Have they so stumbled that they should fall? God forbid. But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, that they may emulate them. But if their transgression is the riches of the world, and their diminishment the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fullness?" When the Apostle had set forth those things in which Israel was rejected and the Gentiles were brought in, and had also enumerated the prophecies which had foretold concerning their blindness, and the snare, and the recompense, and the stumbling-block, lest he should again furnish the Gentiles with occasions for insulting and matter for pride, he says that the very fall of Israel was of such a kind, not that they should fall, but that by their transgression they should give salvation to the Gentiles; and he says: "I say then: Have they so stumbled that they should fall? God forbid. But by their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles." And he shows how salvation is given to the Gentiles out of their transgression: "That they may emulate them," he says: that is, that seeing the conversion of the Gentiles, and the covenant of God, which they themselves had first received, handed over to those others, and the law and the prophets held among them with greater and worthier observance, they too may take up zeal at least in the last times; and just as now their fall has given salvation to the Gentiles, so the faith and manner of life of the Gentiles may confer upon Israel the emulation of conversion and of salvation. It must nevertheless be observed that Paul sets down one thing as stumbling and transgressing, and another as falling; and for stumbling indeed, or for transgression, he provides a remedy; but that they have fallen — as though there were in this some despair — he does not admit. For he says: "Have they so stumbled that they should fall? God forbid. But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles." And it is a wonder how, amid so many and such things as the whole text of the Epistle sets forth concerning them, the Apostle nevertheless denies that they have fallen. But it seems to me that Paul well knew the differences of falling, and knew that it is one thing to fall according to that which is written: "Seven times shall the just man fall, and shall rise again"; and again: "Do not insult me, O my enemy, because I have fallen: I shall also rise again"; and according to what Jeremiah says: "Shall not he who falls add that he may rise again? or shall he who has turned away not be converted?" But Job too says concerning himself: "At the appointed time it was prepared for him to fall under others, and for his house to be plundered by strangers"; and in the fourth book of Kings it is written: "Hezekiah fell from the elation of his heart." And all these falls, of which we have recalled that Scripture has spoken in the passages cited above, do assuredly have a rising again; and their turning away has a conversion. But in the present chapter, as though the Apostle knew that if they had fallen they could by no means rise again, so does he deny that they have fallen, and strongly excuses them in that he says: "Have they so stumbled that they should fall? God forbid." Lest perhaps, then, the Apostle, looking to another kind of fall, should excuse Israel and deny that it has fallen — to that fall, perhaps, of which our Lord and Savior was speaking when he said that "I saw Satan fallen from heaven like lightning"; and also that of which Isaiah says: "How has Lucifer fallen from heaven, he who rose in the morning?" It is with such a fall, then, that he here denies that Israel has fallen. For their conversion will take place even at the end of the age, when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, and all Israel shall be saved; but of that one who is said to have fallen from heaven there will be no conversion even at the end of the age. Let us therefore observe that the fall we spoke of above — that is, in which he who falls shall add that he may rise again — is similar to this which in this very place the Apostle names a stumbling, and which he calls a transgression: which seems to me to be something of this sort, if at any time a just man, overcome in some one thing — for example, either in the frailty of the flesh or in some other transgression — has fallen, and yet has not on that account departed from every observance of the law, but holds to justice, cultivates mercy, keeps faith, piety, gentleness, and does not neglect to meditate upon the law of God: concerning such a one we can say, "Has he so stumbled that he should fall? God forbid." So also the Israelites, although they denied their Redeemer, and stoned and persecuted those who were sent by him, nevertheless still have something remaining. There is among them the meditation of the law, though they do not believe nor understand. There is among them also a zeal for God, though not according to knowledge. And therefore the Apostle says that they have not "so stumbled that they should fall"; that is, that they should turn aside utterly from all observance or meditation of the law of God. And a fall of this kind he named a transgression. For "by their transgression," he says, "salvation has come to the Gentiles." Therefore David too, knowing that there are transgressions of this kind, in which he who has fallen rises again, and that there are others, in which he who has fallen does not rise again even at the consummation of the age, said: "Who understands his transgressions?" — or falls. There follows after this: "But if their transgression is the riches of the world, and their diminishment the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fullness?" Consider in these things the wisdom of God, how with him not even transgressions and falls themselves turn out to be useless; but while each one transgresses out of the freedom of his own purpose, the dispensation of divine wisdom, in that very thing by which those men become poor through the loss incurred by their negligence, makes others rich. For indeed, "when God divided the nations, and scattered the sons of Adam, he established the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the angels of God. And the Lord's portion was then made Jacob, and Israel the cord of his inheritance." But when those angels, to whom the portion of the Gentiles had been distributed, in a certain way seduced and corrupted individuals from the Lord's portion, they made them stumble, so that the Lord said through the prophet: "My desirable portion has become to me an execration"; it was necessary that, when that portion had been refused and rejected, there should be another portion of the Lord upon the earth, which should receive the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the services of the worship of God (all of which were the riches of the Lord's portion), and should be called the Lord's portion in place of that portion which had stumbled. For this reason "their transgression" becomes "the riches of the world." For now no longer is one nation of the Hebrews, but the whole world has been made the portion of the Lord. For the Savior himself says: "Because I came not to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through me." And lest the term "world" should seem ambiguous — since indeed the designation of "world" is often referred to heaven and earth, often to the earth alone, and sometimes even to all men — for that reason the Apostle repeats it, and more plainly indicates in what sense he has said "world." For he says: "And their diminishment, the riches of the Gentiles." For what was diminished and taken away from those who stumbled has been conferred upon the riches of the Gentiles, who through faith have been made the Lord's portion and his inheritance. And well has he rendered "fullness" in answer to "diminishment," and not without some profound meaning does Paul call the people of Israel a "fullness." In which I, according to my powers, understand something of this sort: Now indeed, while all the nations are coming to salvation, the riches of God are being gathered from the multitude of believers; but as long as Israel persists in unbelief, the fullness of the Lord's portion will not yet be said to be complete. For the people of Israel is lacking to its integrity. But when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, and Israel in the last time has come through faith to salvation, that will be the people which was indeed the first; but coming last, it will in a certain way complete the very fullness of the inheritance and portion of the Lord. And therefore it is called a "fullness," because what was lacking in God's portion, it will itself complete in the last times; and thus the dispensation of the almighty and good God makes the transgressions of some fruitful for others, just as in the present case it makes the transgressions of Israel the riches of the world, and their diminishment the riches of the Gentiles. Now indeed, whether from the transgressions of the Gentiles also, which they necessarily commit, the Dispenser of all things may do something of this sort, and confer riches upon some of them — lest this should seem to have been something special belonging to Israel alone, but rather that equity may be held to exist with the just and good God over all — you also who read must inquire this for yourself.
[§10] "For I say to you Gentiles: As long indeed as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I will glorify my ministry, if by any means I may provoke to emulation my own flesh, and may save some of them. For if the loss of them is the reconciliation of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?" As we have often observed in this Epistle, Paul sometimes speaks on behalf of the Jews, sometimes on behalf of the Gentiles, and at times directs his discourse to one or the other of these, or to both, as when he said, "But if you are called a Jew," speaking as though to a Jew; and again, "to the Jew first, and to the Greek," speaking as though to both. So now, openly addressing the Gentiles — that is, chiefly those in the city of Rome who had come to faith from among the Gentiles — he says: "For I say to you Gentiles." Let us therefore see what he says to the Gentiles. "As long indeed as I am," he says, "the apostle of the Gentiles, I will glorify my ministry, if by any means I may provoke to emulation my own flesh, and may save some of them." Someone will say: What he says, "As long as I am the apostle of the Gentiles," seems to show that he will not always be the apostle of the Gentiles, but that, once his ministry is completed, he will be the apostle of some others, whoever they may be. But so far as may be gathered both from his own words and from the course of what actually happened, he is proved to have remained the apostle of the Gentiles in faith and truth as long as he was in this world. What then shall we say? Was it perhaps that, like a good and faithful servant who had been faithful in a few things, he knew that he was to be set over many things, and that he would be an apostle even after his own departure, not only of the Gentiles but also of the Israelites, and perhaps of others invisible, there where the spirits and souls of the just bless the Lord, sing a hymn, and exalt him above all forever? Or ought we rather to take it as simply said, "As long as I am the apostle of the Gentiles," just as the Lord also says to the apostles: "And behold, I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the age" — not that he says he will not be with them after the consummation of the age, but that, to show that he would never depart from them, he said "even to the consummation of the age"; so too the Apostle said "As long as I am an apostle" in the sense of "always and without end." But which of the two expositions ought to be accepted we leave to the reader's judgment. Therefore, as long as Paul is the apostle of the Gentiles, he says that he glorifies his ministry: and what is so fitting as that each one should adorn the ministry which he receives through God's providence? Now he adorns and glorifies his ministry who ministers well, just as, on the contrary, he dishonors his ministry and makes it notorious who has ministered negligently and unworthily. For example, in the ministry of the Church, "the deacon," he says, "who has ministered well acquires for himself a good standing, and much confidence in the faith of Jesus Christ." But if he has not ministered well — that is, if he has not shown himself such as the Apostle describes, grave, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre, but holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience — he acquires for himself not now a good standing, but an evil punishment, as one who has done insult to the divine ministry. And in like manner, whoever receives the rank of the presbyterate in the Church, let him take pains to glorify the ministry of a presbyter. For to him pertain both those things which the Apostle writes to Titus concerning presbyters, and those things which Isaiah writes when he says: "The Lord himself will come into judgment with the elders of the people and with its princes he will enter into judgment"; and he adds: "But why do you set my vineyard on fire, and the plunder of the poor is in your houses? Why do you do injury to my people, and put to shame the persons of the poor?" And according to these things the bishop too glorifies his ministry in the episcopate, if he be such as the Apostle describes — blameless, watchful, prudent, of good behavior, hospitable, a teacher, not given to wine, not a striker, but modest; not quarrelsome, not covetous, ruling his own house well, having his children in subjection with all gravity, not puffed up with pride, lest he fall into the judgment of the devil. He who is such glorifies the ministry of his episcopate, so that he too may hear: "Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will set you over many things." In like manner also the widow, if she continues in prayers and supplications night and day, glorifies the ministry of her widowhood. But if she be such as the Apostle censures — idle, and talkative, and not only talkative but also a busybody, speaking what is not fitting; or if she be one living in pleasures, and dead while she lives — she has dishonored and not glorified the ministry of her widowhood. In the same way also the virgin consecrated to God glorifies the ministry of her virginity, if she be holy in body and spirit, and think not on the things of men, but on the things of God, how she may please God. But if she acts otherwise, not only does she not glorify the ministry of her virginity, nor does she make her lamp shine, but on the contrary her light is extinguished, and she becomes one of the foolish virgins. Let each one placed in the Church consider these same things within himself, so that in whatever place he stands, whether among the clergy or among the people, he may glorify the ministry of his faith, and so order his deeds that "men, seeing" his "good works, may glorify the Father who is in heaven." For this is what Paul also was doing, by teaching and instructing the Gentiles, whose apostle he was; nourishing the weak with herbs, feeding the little ones with milk, offering to the strong the stronger food of the word; and travailing again in birth with a mother's affection over those who erred and wavered in the faith and were reduced as it were to something abortive, until Christ should be formed in them: and through all these things, by glorifying the ministry of his apostleship, he was leading his own flesh — that is, his kinsmen according to the flesh — into an emulation of faith and a zeal for good conduct; so that, if not all, he might yet save some of them. Thus therefore, while he exercises vigilant care and unceasing solicitude over the teaching of the Gentiles, and renders their conduct and life highly commendable, the Israelites who were his kinsmen according to the flesh, seeing these things, are invited and provoked to imitate those who advance in faith in God: and it is the glory of his ministry when from their instruction a benefit accrues to those others as well. "For if the loss of them is the reconciliation of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?" This is what the Apostle seems to me to show in these words: that, Israel having been cast off and the preaching necessarily transferred to the Gentiles, the world (that is, all the nations) has been reconciled to God, according to what is written: "For God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing to them their offenses"; and again, as Paul says: "Who has placed in us the word of reconciliation"; through which word he was saying: "We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God." If therefore, he says, the casting off of this Israelite nation furnished reconciliation to the world, and if so great was the grace toward that nation that, when taken from it, it sufficed to reconcile the whole world to God, how much do you think the world will then merit, when that nation too shall have merited to be reconciled to God? And what it is that the world will gain from the reconciliation of Israel, he shows briefly, saying: "Life from the dead." For then will be the receiving of Israel, when the dead too shall receive life, and the world shall from corruptible become incorruptible, and mortals shall be endowed with immortality. For it would seem absurd that, when their offense bestowed reconciliation upon the world, their receiving should not bestow upon the world something greater and more excellent.
[§11] "But if the firstfruits are holy, so is the lump; and if the root is holy, so are the branches. But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, though you were a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became a sharer in the root and the fatness of the olive tree, do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, it is not you who bear the root, but the root you. You say then: The branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in. Well: they were broken off because of unbelief. But you stand by faith: do not be proud in your thinking, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Behold, then, the goodness and the severity of God: toward those indeed who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in goodness. Otherwise you too will be cut off, and they, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in. For God is able to graft them in again. For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into the good olive tree, how much more shall these, who are according to nature, be grafted into their own olive tree?" I do not know how those who come from the school of Valentinus and Basilides, failing to hear these things thus spoken by Paul, suppose that there is a nature of souls which is always saved and never perishes, and another which always perishes and is never saved: when Paul plainly says that the branches of the good olive tree were broken off because of their own unbelief, and stood in need of the vengeance of divine severity; and again that the branches of the wild olive — which among them is set down as a nature that is lost — were grafted into the root and fatness of the olive tree. But to those people, indeed, an easy answer may be given by these words. Nevertheless, even to us who say that the nature of all human beings — nay rather, of all rational beings — is one, and equally capable of salvation and, if it be careless, of perdition, an objection can be raised, and it may be said: How then does Paul set down a good olive tree and a wild olive, since surely, if he knew the nature of all to be one, he would not have introduced the example of trees of different kinds? To this, then, it must be said: Just as all bodily matter, though it is beyond doubt of one nature, brings forth diverse species through the qualities that accrue to it — whether of bodies, or of trees, or of grasses — so also, since the nature of all rational beings is one, endowed equally with the liberty of its own free choice, the particular movements of each one, brought forth from the power of free choice, leading the soul subject to them either toward virtue or toward lust, form that soul either into the species of a good tree or of a bad one: so that it is called a good tree, if through the power of free choice it has chosen good things; or is called bad, if it has chosen evil things. And thus each one, according to the movements of his own purpose, will be named either a good olive, if he walks the path of virtue, or, if he pursues the contrary, a wild olive. Hence, finally, the Lord also said in the Gospel: "Either make the tree good, and its fruits good; or make the tree bad, and its fruits bad;" so as to show that a tree is not born good or bad, but becomes so. But now, if something should be added to the liberty of choice which from without either provokes to evils or exhorts to good things through certain ineffable dispensations of divine Providence, this in no way damages the consistency of the solution proposed; for the rational nature has within itself the liberty of choice, vigorous also with respect to these things, by which it can either obey, if it will, the one provoking, or, if it will not, spurn the one exhorting. But what we said — that qualities accruing from without to bodily matter render diverse species, some indeed enduring for a long time, some for a short, and some scarcely lasting not only a few years but sometimes even a few months or days — is to be understood thus. For example: the species of heaven, and of the sun, or the moon, or the stars, have been formed with certain such qualities as suffice to endure until the end of the age, and until they are set free "from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the sons of God." But other are the qualities of earthly bodies, and among these too there is much difference. For the bodies of some animals, or of trees, or of birds, can last for very many periods of time; but of others, for few, or for exceedingly few. But if you have understood these things well, let us now pass over from the examples of bodily quality to the quality of the rational nature: and see how some indeed endure many ages in the qualities of blessedness; and others nonetheless spend many ages in the quality of wickedness; some of them remain a short time either in virtues or in wickednesses; others a very short time, others an exceedingly brief time. Of these things, one by one, we men — weighed down as we are by the burden of a corruptible body — can grasp a very slight knowledge, or even none at all. But he who searches all things, even the deep things of God, the Holy Spirit, knows all things, and makes them known to whomever he himself wills to reveal them. For in these matters especially, that is, in the dispensation of the rational nature, that apostolic saying must be uttered: "O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out." Thus, then, each one, by the power of free choice, becomes either a good olive or a wild olive, either of the Israelite race or of another blameworthy nation, so that it is said of him: "Sinners are estranged from the womb, they have gone astray from the belly: they have spoken false things;" so that they are strangers to the covenants and aliens to the promises of God. And others are cast upon God from the womb, and say: "Upon you was I cast from the womb, from my mother's belly you are my God." But since, as we have said, the liberty of choice always remains to this nature, it is possible that one who is of the Israelite nation, and a branch of the good olive tree, should fall into unbelief and be broken off; and again that another who had chosen to be of a blameworthy and sinful nation, and on this account was called a branch of the wild olive, should, if he turns to the faith (for he has within himself the liberty of his own choice, by which he can be converted to the good), be grafted into the good olive tree through faith, and become a sharer of the root and fatness of the olive tree. But this root some name Abraham, others Seth, others set down some one of the fathers of good desert. I, however, know no other root that is holy, and no other holy firstfruits, save our Lord Jesus Christ. For he is the firstfruits of all, or the "first portion" (delibatio), as we have it in the present passage of the Apostle, according to what is said elsewhere of him: "Who is the firstborn of all creation." For into this root everyone who is saved is grafted, and from this holy firstfruit the whole lump of the human race is sanctified: and truly, as a holy root he supplies the fatness of holiness to the branches that remain in him, while through his Holy Spirit he gives life to those who cling to him, cultivates them by the word, makes them flourish with wisdom, and causes them to bear rich fruits in the fullness of all virtues: so that it too may say of them: "But I am like a fruitful olive tree in the house of God." For indeed, if the branches that were broken off were broken off because of unbelief, and those who stand, stand by faith: who else will there be in whom they stand, except Jesus Christ? And who else is he from whom they were broken off through unbelief, except the very one in whom they did not believe?
Therefore always, whoever came as a stranger to the faith, or to the manner of life of Israel, was being grafted into Christ, who was the true Israel. Especially, however, from the time of his coming, much wild olive is grafted into this root, or into its branches — that is, into the apostles and prophets of God — so that those who are grafted into them may become partakers of the root and of the fatness of Christ. After this the Apostle teaches us not to exalt ourselves against the root, or against the Israelites who are the broken branches, nor to insult them: because we do not bear the root, but the root bears us. For we have nothing that we have not received. And if we have received it, why do we boast as though we had not received it? Then next, as though against certain persons more shamelessly insulting and saying: "If the branches were broken off — well and good: they were broken off because of unbelief, so that I, who believed, might be grafted in" — the Apostle, restraining these, says: They indeed were broken off through unbelief, and you have been grafted in through faith, and you stand in faith; but remember that "everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled;" and therefore "be not high-minded," do not utter lofty and elevated things. For although you stand in the root, and stand well, yet fear, seeing that others also, whom you insult, once stood there where you now stand: and you, when you were not there, were transplanted from elsewhere to the root of this olive tree, and it is possible for you also to sin. For by this very thing, that you are proud and exalt yourself, you already sin: and know that "if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you." But after this, this man who is proud and insults the fallen is imbued by the Apostle with deeper meanings of humility; and it is said to him: You who say these things, "behold the goodness and severity of God:" and when you behold his severity toward the branches that were broken off, you must fear lest perhaps you too, while you are proud and insult the fallen, may yourself, by sinning, incur that severity of God with which he presses hard upon sinners. For his goodness abides in those who have abided in goodness. "Otherwise," by the same ordering, "you also," if you do not abide in goodness, "shall be cut off: and they, if they do not abide in unbelief, shall be grafted in." For it is not impossible for God "to graft them in again," if they withdraw from the unbelief through which they were broken off: since indeed it seems easier to restore to its own root the branches of its own tree than to graft in branches from another. But as for what he said, "from the natural wild olive," and again, "shall be grafted according to nature into its own olive tree," we ought to understand the nature of the olive or of the wild olive according to what we expounded above, namely that freedom of choice has made the nature of each one either that of a wild olive or of a good olive. It should certainly be observed that those who have fallen from their own olive tree are said to be broken off; but those who are grafted in from the wild olive, if they sin again, are said not to be broken — which would surely be lighter — but to be cut off. In which indeed the severity of God is vehemently indicated, if, after someone who was a wild olive, and gathered from the forest of sinners, has been brought to the root of faith and holiness, he should again put forth the bitter sap of wickedness. But let not even this escape us in this passage, that the Apostle has not set forth the comparison of the olive and the wild olive in the order which obtains among farmers. For they are accustomed rather to graft the olive into the wild olive, and not the wild olive into the olive: but Paul, by apostolic authority, changing the order, fitted the things to the causes rather than the causes to the things. 12. "For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, of this mystery, that you be not wise in your own conceit: that blindness in part has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles should come in: and so all Israel should be saved, as it is written: There shall come out of Sion he who shall deliver and shall turn away impieties from Jacob: and this is my covenant with them, when I shall have taken away their sins." Still addressing those who had believed from among the Gentiles, as being elated and proud against the branches that were broken off, and thinking that they had obtained this not by God's goodness and the ineffable dispensation of his wisdom, but by their own merits — namely that, with those broken off, they themselves, though they were wild olives, should be grafted into the good olive tree — he says: "I would not have you ignorant, brethren, of this mystery, that you be not wise in your own conceit;" because to insult the fallen, and to boast against the branches that were broken off, comes not from the wisdom of God, but from a human wisdom, notorious and ignorant of the mystery of God. For he who is wise according to God does not, amid God's benefits, insult those who have been cast down, but with fear gives thanks to the mercy that bestows them. The mystery, then, which was unknown to those who insulted, is of this sort: how, in the dispersion of the sons of Adam, when all the other nations were distributed according to the number of the angels, Israel was made a certain portion proper to God, as also in other places where it was fitting, and in these very passages a little above, we have recalled — to whom also the promises of good things, and the covenants, and the giving of the law were made. So long, then, as that portion of the Lord remained in its own state, it was not possible for us, who were Gentiles, to enter into the inheritance of God, and to succeed to the rights of his scepter. For this reason, therefore, God allows a blindness to come about in part — that is, not upon all, but upon some of Israel — brought upon them, without doubt, by those angels who had obtained by lot the rule of the other nations, under the pretext of envious rivalry. God therefore allowed it, and, though he could have prevented it, was unwilling to do so, in order that, in exchange for those who were deceived by blindness — that is, who fell through the dullness of their heart — God might make the portions of those very ones who had deceived them his own portion, so that in a certain way they might be caught in that very thing by which they had caught others. For by turning God's people to themselves through the enticements of sin, they made room for the Gentiles to enter into the inheritance of God, God holding judgment with them by a certain common and most equitable right: that so long as they held the people of God in the captivity of blindness, the number of the Gentiles should be rendered as it were in place of those whom from the beginning they had withdrawn from God's portion and his set-apart inheritance; but when the fullness of the Gentiles had been completed, and Israel, through emulation of their salvation, had begun to shake off from itself the blindness of heart, and, with eyes lifted up, to behold Christ the true light, then, according to the preceding prophecies, it might seek, being roused, the salvation which, having been blinded, it had lost, saying within itself that prophetic word: "I will return to my former husband, for it was better for me then than now." But that these things were promised to them through the prophets is found indeed in many prophetic volumes: we shall nevertheless set down what suffices for the present, a single testimony from Jeremiah, running thus: "If heaven be exalted on high, and the earth be humbled below, I will not reject the race of Israel for all that they have done." If, therefore, in order that the fullness of the Gentiles might enter in, blindness came upon Israel for all that they have done, without doubt, when the fullness of the Gentiles has entered in, the blindness will cease.
But if you wish, says the Apostle, to know how Israel is to be saved even after its blindness, hear how it is written: "There shall come out of Sion he who delivers, and he shall turn away impiety from Jacob: and this is my covenant with them, when I shall have taken away their sins." It should indeed be known that in the prophet Isaiah, from whom Paul takes this testimony, in place of what the Apostle said, "he shall come out of Sion," it is written, "he shall come for the sake of Sion;" and that what he says here, "when I shall have taken away their sins," is not written there at all, nor indeed among the Hebrews: yet it has been assumed on the Apostle's authority. Meanwhile the Lord, coming out of Sion, sets free and turns away impieties from Jacob. And he turns away impieties from him according to that which is written: That "the Lord shall wash away the filth of the sons and daughters of Sion, and shall cleanse the blood from the midst of her in the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning;" and that this should so come to pass was for them a covenant from God, that in this way impieties should be turned away from them and their sins taken away. But who this "all Israel" is that shall be saved, or what this "fullness" of the Gentiles will be, God alone knows, and his Only-begotten, and any who perchance are his friends; to whom he may say: "No longer will I call you servants, but friends; for I have made known to you all things which I have heard from the Father." This, however, can occur even to our understanding: that just as Israel, so long as it remains Israel according to the flesh, and has not also according to the spirit been made a true Israelite seeing God with the mind, cannot attain to salvation, so neither indeed can all the Gentiles whatsoever be saved, but only those who shall be found within the fullness, whatever that is which is named by the Apostle "fullness." Thus therefore the mystery of God is handled by a certain ineffable dispensation of his wisdom, so that even when the soul has of itself brought upon itself a lot of evils, he who knows how to dispose all things makes its rejection and punishment the salvation of others. But this too seems to me in this passage to be more carefully considered, that he does not say that this blindness has befallen all Israel, but "in part. For the remnant according to the election of grace has been saved," concerning which remnant Isaiah also had prophesied, saying: "Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed." These remnants, therefore, are joined in blessedness with the fullness of the Gentiles: but the rest of Israel, who have been blinded, are put together with those Gentiles who could not attain to the fullness. So then, whatever things are found written in the discourses of the prophets concerning the promises containing blessedness, if they are about Israel, pertain to this remnant which has been chosen; if about the Gentiles, they look to the fullness. But if there be any sad things, if indeed they are spoken of Israel, they are without doubt referred to those remaining ones who were blinded: but if of the Gentiles, they assuredly bind those who are outside the fullness. Yet the end presses upon all things, and those indeed who are blessed, whether they come from Israel or also from the Gentiles, the word of the evangelical teaching of the present time purifies, that they may be such as were those to whom the Lord said: "Behold, now you are clean because of the word which I have spoken to you." But whoever spurns the purification of the word of God and of evangelical teaching reserves himself for sad and penal purifications, so that the fire of Gehenna may purge amid torments him whom neither apostolic teaching nor the evangelical word has purged, according to that which is written: "And I will purify you with fire unto purity." But in this very purgation which is applied through the punishment of fire, for how long a time, or through how many ages, torment is exacted of sinners, he alone can know to whom "the Father has handed over all judgment," who so loves his creature that for its sake he emptied himself of the form of God and took up the form of a servant, humbling himself even unto death, willing that "all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth." Nevertheless we ought always to remember that the Apostle wished the present passage to be held as a mystery, namely so that all the faithful and perfect should cover thoughts of this kind within themselves in silence as a mystery of God, and not bring them forth indiscriminately to the imperfect and the less capable. "For it is good," says the Scripture, "to conceal the mystery of a king." 13. "According to the Gospel indeed they are enemies for your sake: but according to the election they are most dear for the sake of the fathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance. For as you also once did not believe God, but now have obtained mercy because of their unbelief: so these also have now not believed, that through the mercy shown to you they too may obtain mercy: for God has shut up all in unbelief, that he may have mercy upon all. O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God: how inscrutable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counsellor? Or who has first given to him, and it shall be repaid to him? For from him, and through him, and in him are all things: to him be glory unto the ages of ages. Amen." The Apostle, still pursuing the same matters concerning Israel and the Gentiles, and reproaching the branches of the wild olive which insulted the broken branches of the olive tree, adds also these things: That Israel according to the Gospel has indeed been made an enemy to God, because it did not believe Christ: but so far as regards the honor due to the fathers, it is elect, and is held most dear with God. But election having once been granted to the seed of the fathers, and love conceded, God without doubt preserves his gifts and his calling toward the seed of those to whose merits he once bestowed this: nor does repentance come upon God, even if those upon whom the benefits promised to the fathers are conferred appear to be less worthy. But, as we have often advised, in the present passage also that distinction is to be observed, that the Israel which is an enemy to God is said to be that which cries out concerning Christ: "Away with him, away with him, crucify him." For how should they not be called enemies of God, who either then, or even now, have said such things, or say them? But when he says, "for your sake," this means, those namely whose salvation they envy, forbidding the apostles to speak to the Gentiles, and persecuting those who announce Christ. But according to the remnant which is said to be saved, in which the election of believers followed from Israel, they are "most dear for the sake of the fathers:" whose faith namely they follow, believing "in him who raised Christ Jesus from the dead." And according to this, toward such a seed "the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance." But after these things he opens also the hidden and deeper causes of their unbelief, and says: That just as you Gentiles once did not believe God, nor yet did God on that account utterly abandon you, but at last at some time you obtained mercy — yet the occasion of mercy being conferred upon you was the unbelief of the people of Israel — so also these who now from the people of Israel have not believed, and for their unbelief have been abandoned, so that the mercy of God might be turned toward you, will not be left forever in their unbelief; but after the dispensation of the fullness of the Gentiles has been fulfilled, they too shall obtain mercy.
In this passage the Apostle, wishing to display the goodness of God, by which he brings about the salvation of some through the unbelief of others, says: "God has shut up all in unbelief, that he may have mercy upon all"; not that he himself thrust upon them the purpose of unbelief, but that out of their own purpose of unbelief he opened up an approach to faith for others who had themselves previously been unbelievers. Now Paul, having taken his stand at these points and looking more deeply into causes of this kind — how it is that God does not at once cut away and excise an evil purpose, but suffers it and holds it in reserve, foreseeing that some good will come to others through another's evil purpose — turned, I think, the eyes of his heart from those of whom he was speaking to the very origin of wickedness: namely, that God from the beginning did not judge it useful to cut it away when it sprouted in those in whom it first arose, whoever they may be, and grew by the liberty of choice; but permitted them to use their own purpose, knowing and foreseeing that the progress and benefit of many would arise from the occasion of their wickedness. And so great is the room for virtue with the good God, that even the work of wickedness, though it be ruinous to him from whom it proceeds, is nevertheless so ordered as to confer a benefit upon him for whom it stirs up contests, when it has been overcome. Therefore the holy Apostle, considering that the riches of God's goodness are so great, and that so great a work of the divine wisdom is carried on toward rational natures, and that "God is so rich in mercy," and "rich toward all who call upon him," and that such is the magnitude of his goodness and patience and long-suffering — suddenly beholding these things with the inner eyes of the heart, and perceiving their immensity, struck at once with amazement and with awe, cries out and says: "O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!" For whence could the perception of the human mind have supposed such things — that, with the liberty of choice preserved to each one, the work of one man's wickedness should be turned to another's salvation, and should confer the palm upon the one who conquers it, while it brings ruin upon the one who practices it? Having therefore surveyed these matters by a general reasoning, as it appears, the Apostle cries out and says that so great is the depth of the riches of God, and so great is the depth of his wisdom, and no less great is the depth of his knowledge (for the word "depth" serves for all of these), that no one is capable of searching out his judgments, by which he dispenses to each single soul and to every rational nature, nor can anyone investigate the ways of God along which his providence proceeds. And by "anyone" we mean not only of human beings, but of the whole creation. For his judgments would not be called unsearchable, and his ways past finding out, save because there is no creature that is able either to investigate or to search them out. For the Son alone is he who knows the Father, and the Holy "Spirit" alone is he who "searches all things, even the depth of God." And therefore this depth of God, which he calls both unsearchable and past finding out, he calls unsearchable and past finding out to every creature. But of the Son and of the Holy Spirit he could not say these things, because the Son says in the Gospel to the Father: "Father, all mine are thine, and thine are mine"; and concerning the Holy Spirit Paul himself declares, saying: "For no one among men knows the things of a man, except the spirit of the man which is in him: so also the things which are in God no one has known, except the Spirit of God." You see, then, that Paul in the present chapter, in the words he speaks — "For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counsellor?" — is speaking of creatures, but excepts the nature of the Trinity: seeing that it has nothing in common with the creature save the work of beneficence. Moreover, as to what he says, "Who has been his counsellor?" — it is not as though he himself, being less than sufficient, stood in need of another's counsel, but he declares that there is no partaker of his counsel among creatures. For counsel is necessarily present to the wise one in his own wisdom, which is Christ, and in his holiness, which is the Holy Spirit. And in like manner also, "Or who has first given to him, and it shall be recompensed to him?" is to be understood. For no one has first bestowed anything upon his Maker: since even this very thing that he is, each one has received from his Creator. "For of him, and through him, and in him are all things." You see how at the end he shows that in all the things he has said above he has marked out the mystery of the Trinity. For just as in the present place what he says — "For of him, and through him, and in him are all things" — agrees with those sayings which the same Apostle records in other places when he says: "One God the Father, of whom are all things, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things"; and likewise he says that all things are revealed in the Spirit of God, and through these he designates that the providence of the Trinity is in all things; so also when he says "the depth of the riches," he signifies the Father, of whom he says all things are; and by the depth of wisdom he points to Christ, who is his wisdom; and by the depth of knowledge he declares the Holy Spirit, who also knows the deep things of God. Nevertheless, when he says "of him," he indicates this very thing that we are; but "through him," that we are dispensed in life through his providence; and "in him," that the perfection and end of all things will be in him then, when God shall be all in all: and then "to him be glory unto the ages of ages: Amen." "Unto the ages," because the perfection of all things is not confined within one age, but is extended into many, and is scarcely hoped to be fulfilled at some time. And he joins also "Amen," that we may understand that we must come to that blessedness through him of whom it is written in the Apocalypse: "These things says he who is the Amen."