Origen of Alexandria

3rd century · AD 253 · Early Fathers (before Nicaea) · 2,917 passages

The most prolific early commentator on Scripture. He read the text on several levels — literal, moral, and spiritual — and shaped how later fathers preached.

Background on Origen of Alexandria

In his own words on Romans

Romans 1:1
"Set apart for the Gospel of God." In Paul not the general calling alone to the apostolate is designated, but also the election immediately following according to God's foreknowledge, through this that he is said to be "set apart for the Gospel of God"; just as elsewhere he himself says of himself: "But when it pleased God, who set me apart from my mother's womb, that he might reveal his Son in me." Which nevertheless the heretics turn into a calumny, saying that he was set apart… And in the Epistle to the Galatians the Apostle declares these things about himself: "But when it pleased him, who set me apart from my mother's womb, that he might reveal his Son in me." But these words those who do not understand foreknowledge so interpret as though predetermination were the cause why the things foreknown come to pass; and for this reason they introduce certain people as saved by their nature and condition. Some from those words take away from us freedom of choice, and they use also these words of the psalm: "Sinners are estranged from the womb," by which they argue that Paul was set apart together with his mother's womb, for this reason, that the goodness of nature was in him; just as, on the contrary, concerning those who are of an evil nature it is said in the Psalms that sinners are set apart from the womb. But we say that neither was Paul chosen by chance or by a difference of nature, but that he gave the causes of his election in himself to him who knows all things before they come to pass; nor are the sinners who are separated from the belly separated by the injustice of the judge, and it is permissible to meet the objection with a question; for it is written: "Sinners are estranged from the womb, they have gone astray from the belly of their mother, they have spoken false things: their fury is according to the likeness of the serpent." And we shall ask of those who take those words as plain, whether the sinners who are estranged from the womb, as soon as they came forth from the maternal womb, went astray, and were led away from the way of salvation by some act of their own. But how did sinners estranged from the womb go astray from their mother's belly, and speak false things? For they will not show that these, as soon as they were born, uttered a true and full voice, bringing forth something false. But if we look at those things which are said about predetermination in this Epistle which we are expounding, we shall be able — once those things are demolished by which simpler folk are drawn over to the opinion of him who accuses the divine teaching of injustice — to answer concerning him who destines from the mother's womb, and who sets apart Paul, the servant of Jesus Christ, called an apostle, for the Gospel of God. These are the words: "We know that to those who love him all things work together for good, to those who are called according to his purpose, because those whom he foreknew, these he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he himself might be the firstborn among many brethren. And those whom he predestined, these he also called: and those whom he called, these he also justified: and those whom he justified, these he also glorified." Let us therefore attend to the sequence of the statements. God justifies those whom he first called: but he did not justify those whom he did not call: and he calls before the calling those predestined, whom he would not have called unless he had predestined them; nor is predestination itself the beginning of their justification and calling. For if this were the beginning of the things which follow, doubtless those would prevail who introduce the absurd doctrine of nature: but before predestination there is foreknowledge: "For those whom," he says, "he foreknew, these he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son." God therefore, who looked ahead upon the sequence of things to come, and knew the inclination of our freedom, and the impulse and affection of some toward piety following upon this inclination, and that these would give themselves wholly to virtue, foreknew them: knowing indeed things present, but foreknowing things future; and those whom he thus foreknew as about to be conformed to the image of his Son, he predestined. The Son of God, therefore, is the image of the invisible God, and the image of this one is that which is called the image of the Son of God, which we judge to be that human soul which the Son of God assumed, made an image through the power of the image of God. And to this — which we hold to be the image of the image of the Son of God — God predestined those to become conformed whom through his foreknowledge concerning them he predestined. Therefore God's foreknowledge is not to be reckoned the cause of things to come: but because it was going to be according to the proper impulses and affections of the doer, therefore he foreknew it, who knows all things before their coming to be; some he foreknew and predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, others he saw as estranged. But if to these things someone objects, whether it can happen that those things not be which God foreknew would be such: we shall answer that it cannot happen that they do not come to pass; but not for this reason, because it cannot happen that they do not come to pass, is it necessary that they not come to pass, or that they come to pass. For they happen by no means out of necessity, but it can also happen that they do not happen. But this topic concerning things that are able to happen requires acuteness and clear-sightedness of reason and understanding, so that one who has wiped clean the eye of his mind, having attained the subtlety of the demonstrations, may be able to understand how even in the smallest matters there is no hindrance… Finally, see at once in what follows what the divine word says about these. For it is written: "Sinners are estranged from the womb, they have gone astray from the belly, they have spoken false things." If we understand how, as soon as they come forth from their mother's belly, sinners have gone astray or have spoken false things, we understand equally that the just are set apart from the belly. Therefore, as to Paul's being called both "separated unto the Gospel" and separated from his mother's womb, he who is not ignorant of the mind saw in him the causes and the merits for which he ought to be separated unto this. For he foresaw that he would labor in the Gospel more abundantly than all the rest; that in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness, in perils of robbers, perils of rivers, perils of the sea, he would preach the Gospel of Christ, knowing that woe would be to him if he did not preach the Gospel; and that he would chastise his body and bring it into subjection, lest by chance, when he had preached to others, he himself should become a castaway. Foreseeing therefore these things in him from his mother's womb, and many others like them, Jesus for their sake separated him unto the Gospel. For if, as the heretics suppose, he had been chosen either by the uncertainty of chance or by the prerogative of a better nature, he would surely never have feared that, if he held the reins of his body more loosely, it might come about that he should be made a castaway, or that woe would be his if he ceased to preach the Gospel. Finally, he himself, discoursing more fully in what follows, says that "whom he foreknew, he also predestinated to be made conformable to the image of his Son," plainly showing that those whom God foreknew would be such as to conform themselves to Christ in his sufferings, these same he also predestinated to be conformable and like to his image and to his glory. Therefore God's foreknowledge goes first, by which are known those who will have labors and virtues in themselves, and so predestination follows; nor again, however, is foreknowledge to be thought the cause of predestination. For that which among men is weighed as merit from each one's past deeds, this among God is judged from things future; and he is exceedingly impious who does not so believe God in this, that what we see in things past, he sees in things to come.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 1:1
"Separated," he says, "unto the Gospel of God." In other places of Scripture they say it is the Gospel of Christ, as the evangelist Mark also writes: "The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as it is written in Isaias the prophet." But since Christ is the Word, and "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God," it is one and the same thing to say "the Gospel of God" and "the Gospel of Christ" — or because the Lord himself says that "I and the Father are one"; and again he says to the Father: "All mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them." Therefore the Gospel of the Father is also the Gospel of the Son. But Paul also says: "My Gospel, which I preach among the Gentiles"; which perhaps he says as a co-heir of Christ, and as one who is a co-heir in the Gospel, since elsewhere too he says that the Gospel belongs to very many, as to the Galatians: "But if our Gospel also be veiled"; "ours," that is, of all of us who are co-heirs of Christ. But also according to this, that he himself is its preacher, Paul rightly says the Gospel is his own.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 1:1
The first question seems to arise for us concerning the name of Paul himself: why he who is called Saul in the Acts of the Apostles is now called Paul. We find in the divine Scriptures that the names of certain of the ancients were changed, so that from Abram he was called Abraham, from Sarai Sarah, and from Jacob Israel. In the Gospels too, from Simon came Peter, and the sons of Zebedee were named sons of thunder. But we read that these things were done at God's command; nowhere, however, do we find that any such thing was done in Paul's case. On which matter it has seemed to some that the Apostle took to himself the name of the proconsul Paulus, whom he had subjected to the faith of Christ in Cyprus, so that, just as kings are accustomed to be named — for example, "Parthicus" from the Parthians they have conquered, and "Gothicus" from the Goths — so also the Apostle, having subdued Paulus, was called Paul. Which we for our part do not think should be altogether dismissed. Nevertheless, because no such custom is detected in the divine Scriptures, let us rather seek a solution from those things which are in our own examples. We find, therefore, in the Scriptures that some used two names, and others even three: as Solomon, who was also Jedidiah; Zedekiah, who was also Joachim; Uzziah, who was also Azariah; and very many others in the books of Kings or of Judges you will find called by two names. But neither indeed do the Gospels reject this same custom. For Matthew himself relates concerning himself that, when Jesus was passing by, he found a certain man sitting at the tax-booth, Matthew by name. But Luke says concerning the same man that, when Jesus was passing by, he saw a certain publican named Levi, and said to him: Follow me. But the same Matthew also, in the catalogue of the apostles, says after many others: Matthew the publican, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, and Simon the Canaanite. But Mark relates thus: Matthew the publican, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus. This same man, whom Matthew set down as Lebbaeus, Mark set down as Thaddaeus. But Luke set it down thus: Matthew, Thomas, James, and Jude the son of James. Therefore the same man whom Matthew called Lebbaeus, and Mark Thaddaeus, Luke wrote of as Jude the son of James. And it is certain that the evangelists did not err in the names of the apostles; but because it was the custom of the Hebrews to use two or three names, each one set down different appellations of one and the same man. According to this custom, therefore, it seems to us that Paul too used a double name; and that so long as he ministered properly to his own nation, he was called Saul, which also seemed more native to the designation of his homeland; but that he was called Paul when he writes laws and precepts for the Greeks and the Gentiles. For this very thing which Scripture says: But Saul, who is also Paul, evidently does not show that the name of Paul was then first imposed upon him, but indicates that it belonged to his older appellation. "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ." We have already spoken concerning Paul. Let us now inquire why he is called a servant, who elsewhere writes: "For you have not received the spirit of servitude again in fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption, in which we cry: Abba, Father"; and again: "And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying: Abba, Father. And so he is now no longer a servant, but a son." How then, when he says even to those to whom he was preaching that a man is now no longer a servant but a son, does he himself profess to be a servant? Whether we suppose this to be said according to that humility which the Lord taught, saying: "Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart," we shall not go astray. For by this the truth of the freedom in Paul is not injured. For he himself also says: "For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all." He serves Christ, therefore, not in the spirit of servitude, but in the spirit of adoption, because the servitude of Christ is nobler than all freedom. Or whether he declares it as an imitator of him who had said: "Behold, I am in the midst of you, not as one reclining at table, but as one who serves"; and of him who "emptied himself, taking the form of a servant," so that, just as to those who are under the law he became himself under the law, and to those who are without the law he became himself without the law, so also he himself, for the sake of those who are still servants and not yet led through the spirit of adoption into the freedom of sons, might become a servant — this will not appear contrary to reason. To this may also be added the fact that the same Apostle, writing to the Corinthians, and giving precepts concerning marriage or chastity, inserts as it were under another heading certain things about freedom and servitude, saying: "Were you called as a servant? Care nothing for it: but even if you can become free, rather make use of it. For he who was called in the Lord as a servant is the Lord's freedman: likewise also he who was called free is the servant of Christ. You were bought with a price; do not become the servants of men." These things certainly seem to some to have been inserted contrary to reason. For why, in precepts about marriage or chastity, is a mention of servitude and freedom taken up? But we understand Paul's meaning thus, that he calls a servant the man who is bound by the conjugal condition: because "the woman does not have power over her own body, but her husband; and the man does not have power over his own body, but his wife." On account of which he also says in other places concerning them, that "a brother or a sister is not made subject to servitude in such matters" — meaning, that is, that in other matters he knew them to be subject to servitude. There is, then, a servant who is called, who, being placed in wedlock, comes to Christ, to whom it is said: "Were you called as a servant? Let it not concern you: but even if you can become free, rather make use of it"; because among spouses the freedom of continence in the one begets for the other a peril to chastity. For they ought not, except by consent, to be free for prayer for a time, and again they must return to the same, lest Satan tempt them because of their incontinence. He, therefore, who has been called a servant by reason of the bond of marriage, is the Lord's freedman. For a freedman is neither wholly free nor wholly a servant. If in the other virtues he has been free, if he has held to the freedom of faith, of patience, of mercy, of justice, he is called the Lord's freedman, inasmuch as he is free by reason of the virtues of his soul, and a servant by reason of conjugal necessity. But free is he who, without a wife, through the purity of continence, comes to Christ — who nevertheless becomes the servant of Christ, since he wholly serves the virtues. Paul therefore, as some relate, was called along with a wife; concerning whom he says, writing to the Philippians: "I ask you also, true yokefellow, help them": he, since he was made free from her by consent, names himself the servant of Christ. But if, as it seems to others, he was without a wife, nonetheless he who was called free is the servant of Christ. And what is it to be a servant of Christ, except to be a servant of the word of God, of wisdom, of justice, of truth, and of absolutely all the virtues, all of which Christ is? But let us also, if it seems good, add this in this place: that just as the knowledge which is now given to the saints is given "through a glass and in an enigma," and prophecy, and the rest of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, so also the freedom which is now bestowed upon the saints is not yet full freedom, but as it were "through a glass, and in an enigma"; and therefore the saints say that they are servants, in comparison with that freedom which is granted "face to face." For who, being placed in the flesh, can attain complete freedom, so that he no longer serves the flesh in anything? Just as neither can anyone placed in the body have the adoption of sons wholly. And would that at least this could be obtained in the life of mortals, that a man might become wholly a servant of Christ: and not of flesh, not of blood, not of vainglory, not of desire, not of avarice, not of anger, not of envy; but that he might serve Christ alone, that is, all the virtues together. So much concerning that which is written: "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ."
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 1:1
"Called an apostle." This name, that is, "called," since it pertains to all who believe in Christ, can seem general; but each one, according to that which God foresaw and chose in him, is called either an apostle, or a prophet, or a teacher, or free from a wife, or a servant in a marriage; and according to the diversity of grace there is fulfilled that which is written: "Many are called, but few are chosen." Yet it must be known that it is possible for someone to be a called apostle, or a called prophet, or a called teacher, and, if he neglects the grace of his calling, to fall away from it: just as also Judas, who was called an apostle, and, neglecting the grace of his calling, from an apostle became a betrayer. He was indeed a called apostle, but he was not a chosen apostle. Moreover that prophet also who in the third book of Kingdoms is reported to have prophesied concerning Jeroboam was a called prophet; but whether he was also chosen, do you yourself examine, since indeed, having been forbidden to eat bread in Israel, he ate, and was slain by a lion. There are also many called teachers throughout all the Churches of God, and called ministers; but I do not know which among these are chosen teachers and chosen ministers. So too I think that there are some indeed called to suffer for Christ, yet not chosen; that is, called martyrs, but not chosen martyrs: such as those who, after the contests of tortures and of prisons, did not persevere to the end in the endurance of confession. There is also a called virgin, but not a chosen virgin; namely, one who has not been holy in body and spirit. And there is a called shepherd, but not a chosen shepherd, who indeed presides over the flock, and uses its milk, and is clothed with its wool; but does not seek out the weak, and does not gather the lame, and hems in the strong with labor. So too there is a called abstinent, but not a chosen abstinent, namely one who fasts with a sad face, and disfigures his countenance that he may please men. But through each of the grades of graces likewise you will find many indeed called, but few chosen.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 1:2
"Which he had promised before by his prophets in the holy Scriptures." Whether the Gospel promised by God through the prophetic Scriptures ought to be taken simply, or by way of distinction from that other Gospel which John in the Apocalypse calls eternal — which is then to be revealed when the shadow has passed away and the truth has come, and when death has been swallowed up and eternity restored — consider you also, you who read. To which eternal Gospel those eternal years too will seem to correspond, of which the Prophet says: "And I had the eternal years in mind." And to it can be joined also that book of life in which the names of the saints are said to be written; and likewise those books which in Daniel, when the judgment sat, were opened; or those which in the prophet Ezechiel are said to be written within and without — all of which are recorded as written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God. Concerning these matters, although it may seem hazardous to commit discourse to paper, nevertheless the sayings of the wise and their riddles are not to be passed over idly, but are to be contemplated with a very fine edge of mind, so far as the subject allows, as though through some mirror: lest perchance he who, the Word made flesh, appeared to those set in the flesh — as the Apostle says, that "he was manifested in the flesh, justified in the spirit, appeared to angels" — lest, I say, in this that he appeared to angels, he appeared to them without a Gospel; even as not to us men either, to whom he says he was sent "to preach the Gospel to the poor, to release the captives unto remission, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." If therefore, when he appeared to us men, he did not appear without a Gospel, the consequence seems to show that neither did he appear to the angelic order without a Gospel — that one, perhaps, which we have shown above to be the eternal Gospel mentioned by John. But whether some such thing was done by him also among the remaining heavenly orders, appearing to them in that form in which each several one exists, and announcing peace, since indeed "through the blood of his cross he made peace not only for the things that are on earth, but also for the things that are in heaven" — this too do you examine with yourself. "Which he promised by his prophets in the holy Scriptures." What things were foretold by the prophets concerning Christ, these are to be understood as foretold concerning the Gospel also, although the evangelist Mark seems to make a distinction between Christ and the Gospel, when he says: "Whosoever shall leave father and mother," etc., "for my sake, or for the Gospel's sake." And even if the promises of the Gospel are to be sought properly, you will find them abundantly in the prophets, as is that saying: "The Lord shall give the word to them that preach the Gospel with great power"; and: "How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of good things." To this also looks the saying: "Their sound hath gone forth into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world"; and: "His word runneth swiftly"; and also: "Behold, I send many shepherds, and many hunters, and they shall take them upon every mountain and upon every hill." Through Jeremias there is promised concerning the Gospel that which Paul now says, namely that God promised through his prophets in the holy Scriptures concerning his Son.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 1:3
"Who is the Son, according to the flesh indeed, from the seed of David." He was made, without doubt, according to the flesh that which before he was not. But according to the Spirit he was before, and there was not a time when he was not. But certain persons meet us, raising most bitter questions: how Christ can be seen to descend from the seed of David, since it is agreed that he was not born from Joseph, into whom the line of the generation descending from David is brought down. Although it is troublesome to meet these objections according to the reasoning of the letter, nevertheless it is answered by our people that Mary, who, having been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit, was without doubt joined according to the law to a man of her own tribe and kindred. And although it is said to her by the angel that Elizabeth also, your kinswoman, will herself likewise bear a son in her old age (and Elizabeth is said to be of the daughters of Aaron), nevertheless it is affirmed by our people that the name of kinship can suitably be applied not only to those of the same tribe, but also to all who are of the race of Israel, in relation to one another, as also the same Apostle says of all together: "Who are my kinsmen according to the flesh." These things indeed, and others like them, are answered; but how valid they are against the assertions of those who press us from the testimonies of the Scriptures, do you who read judge for yourself. To us, however, these things seem rather to be understood according to the spiritual or allegorical reasoning, according to which it is no obstacle even that Joseph is called the father of Christ, though he is in no way his father; because in the generations also it is reported by Matthew that Josaphat begot Joram, and Joram begot Ozias; but in the fourth book of Kings it is written that Joram begot Ochozias, and Ochozias begot Joas, and Joas begot Amasias, and Amasias begot Azarias — the very one who is sometimes named Ozias; and Azarias begot Joatham. This Ozias therefore, who is also Azarias, although in the fourth book of Kings he is said to be the son of Amasias, is written by Matthew as the son of Joram, three generations in between being passed over. The discussion of this matter, it is certain, rests not upon the history, but upon the spiritual understanding; which is not now to be knocked at by us in passing, for it will be touched upon in its own place. Meanwhile it suffices for us to answer those who oppose us, that just as Jesus is said to be the son of Joseph, from whom he was not begotten, and Ozias begotten from Joram, from whom he was not begotten, so also Christ can be understood as from the seed of David according to the flesh, so that whatever reasoning or assertion they have brought forward regarding Joram and regarding Joseph, this we say must be accepted regarding David also.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 1:4
In what way indeed he who is said according to the flesh to have been made of the seed of David is Son of God from the resurrection of the dead, it is not difficult to perceive for one who has read that which is written: "For it was fitting that he through whom are all things, and in whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, should perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings." Now the end of Christ's sufferings is the resurrection; and because after the resurrection he dies no more, "death shall no longer have dominion over him"; and again it is said that, "even if we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him so no longer", and therefore all that is in Christ is now already Son of God. But in what way this too is to be referred to him who "was destined Son of God in power" — this constrains our understanding, save that through the indissoluble unity of the Word and the flesh all things that belong to the flesh are ascribed also to the Word, just as the things that belong to the Word are also predicated of the flesh. But "Jesus" and "Christ" and "Lord" we find often referred to both natures alike, as in that passage: "One Lord of ours, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things"; and: "For if they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of majesty." Christ, then, is called the first-fruits, or the firstborn, from the dead. But we must inquire whether he alone is firstborn or first-fruits from the dead, and has none who share with him also in that primacy of first-fruits — those concerning whom the Apostle says that "he raised us up together with Christ, and made us sit together in the heavenly places." Perhaps, then, these also whom he says were raised up with Christ, and sit with him in the heavenly places, are themselves firstborn, or first-fruits from the dead, just as those also were who are said to have risen with him, when "the tombs were opened, and the bodies of many saints appeared and entered into the city of the saints." And of such as these perhaps the Apostle says that there is that "Church of the first-fruits" which he records as "enrolled in the heavens."
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 1:4
It must be observed that he does not say: Who was predestined the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of sanctification; but, Who was destined the Son of God. And let no one think that we are examining this expression more curiously than the matter allows. For although in the Latin copies "predestined" is customarily found, nevertheless according to what the truth of the interpretation holds, "destined" is written, not "predestined." For he who is is destined, but he who is not yet is predestined, as are those of whom the Apostle says: "But whom he foreknew, them he also predestined." Therefore those who are not yet can be foreknown and predestined; but he who is, and always is, is not predestined, but destined. Let these things be said by us on account of those who speak impiety against the only-begotten Son of God, and, being ignorant of the difference between "destined" and "predestined," suppose that he is to be numbered among those who, since they did not exist before, were predestined that they should exist — he who was never predestined to be the Son, but always was and is, just as the Father also is. He therefore who always is, is destined, as we have said, not predestined; but he who is predestined was not yet at the time when he was being predestined, but began from time. The Apostle therefore uses a necessary distinction, saying that he who is from the seed of David according to the flesh was made; but him whom he names the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of sanctification, destined. And indeed, when he had said "Son of God," he added not superfluously, "in power," indicating by this that he is Son in substance according to the Spirit of sanctification. For Christ is called the power of God and the wisdom of God, who is also called the breath of the power of God, and the purest emanation of the glory of the Almighty, and the brightness of eternal light, and the image of the goodness of God. But the question is raised: if that which is born of the seed of David is according to the flesh, but that which is destined in power according to the Spirit of sanctification is the Son of God and is in the substance of God, how is it to be understood concerning the soul of Jesus, which here is by no means named along with the flesh and the Spirit of sanctification or the substance of the divine power — the soul concerning which the Savior himself says elsewhere that "my soul is sorrowful even unto death"; and: "Now is my soul troubled"; the soul which he also laid down of himself, indeed which descended even to hell, concerning which it is also said: "You will not abandon my soul in hell." For it is certain that this was not begotten from the seed of David. For he says that what was made from the seed of David is according to the flesh. Since therefore it seems to be reckoned neither in that which is according to the flesh, nor in that wherein the Son of God is destined in power according to the Spirit of sanctification, I think that the Apostle employs his customary usage in this place also, knowing that the soul is always midway between the spirit and the flesh, and either joins itself to the flesh and becomes one with the flesh, or associates itself with the spirit and is one with the spirit — from which, if indeed it be with the flesh, men become carnal; but if with the spirit, spiritual. And for that reason he does not name it separately, but only the flesh, or the spirit; for he knows that the soul necessarily cleaves to one of these, as also in those to whom he says: "But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit"; and: "He who joins himself to a harlot is one body" (here calling the flesh or the body a harlot), "but he who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit." So therefore also now, knowing concerning the soul of Jesus that, being associated with the Lord and cleaving to him, it has been made one Spirit of sanctification with him, he did not name it separately, lest he should dissolve Jesus: "For what God has joined together, let not man separate." But he is called the Spirit of sanctification according to this, that he furnishes holiness to all, as also is written elsewhere concerning him: "Who was made for us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption."
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 1:5
He says that through Christ he received grace and apostleship, inasmuch as Christ is the "mediator of God and men". "Grace and apostleship": grace is to be referred to endurance in labors; apostleship to the authority of preaching, since Christ himself is called an "apostle", that is, one sent by the Father, seeing that he says he was sent "to preach the gospel to the poor". Because, therefore, what is his own he gives also to his disciples. "Grace" is said to be "poured out upon his lips". He gives to his apostles also grace, laboring with which they may say: "I have labored more abundantly than all of them: yet not I, but the grace of God with me." And because it was said of him: "Having therefore Christ, the High Priest and Apostle of our confession", he grants to his disciples the dignity of apostleship, so that they too are made apostles of God. For the nations, which were "strangers to the covenant of God and to the manner of life of Israel", could not have believed the Gospel except through the grace which had been given to the apostles, through which, as the apostles preach, the nations are said to obey unto faith; and "into all the earth" the sound of their grace concerning the name of Christ is recorded to "have gone forth", so that it reached even those who are at Rome, to whom the Apostle says: "Among whom are you also, the called of Jesus Christ." Paul is called "an apostle by calling", and the Romans are indeed called, yet not apostles, but "called saints", unto the obedience of faith. But concerning the diversity of those who are called we have already spoken above.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 1:6
Paul is said to be called to be an apostle, and the Romans are also called, though not to be apostles. Rather they are called to be holy in the obedience of faith. We have already spoken above about the different callings.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.116
Romans 1:7
This blessing of peace and grace, which the apostle Paul gives to the beloved of God to whom he writes, I think is not less than was the blessing of Noah upon Shem and upon Japheth, which was fulfilled through the Spirit toward those who were blessed; and likewise that in which Abraham was blessed by Melchizedek, and Jacob by his father Isaac, and the twelve patriarchs who are blessed by their father Israel; or the blessing of Moses, with which he blessed the twelve tribes of Israel. I do not, then, judge this blessing of the Apostle, with which he blessed the Churches of Christ, inferior to all these. For he too says of himself: "For I think that I also have the Spirit of God." In the Spirit of God, therefore, the Apostle writes, and in the Spirit he blesses. Through that same Spirit, then, those who are blessed by the Apostle receive the blessings — if, that is, they are found worthy for his blessing to come upon them. Otherwise that will happen which is written: "If there be there a son of peace, your peace shall come upon him; but if not, your peace shall return to you." What is written, therefore, concerning peace will hold also for grace, since he joins grace together with peace. Yet it must be known that this custom of writing is not preserved by the Apostle toward all the Churches. For to the Corinthians indeed, in the first and second epistles, and to the Galatians, and to the Ephesians, and to the Philippians, he writes in like manner. But to the Colossians he says, "Grace to you and peace from God our Father", and does not add, "and our Lord Jesus Christ". To the Thessalonians the first epistle has thus: "Grace to you and peace", and nothing further. But in the second: "Grace to you, and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ." To Timothy, the first and the second: "Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father, and Christ Jesus our Lord." But to Titus: "Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father, and Christ Jesus our Savior." And although an observation of this kind may seem overly curious, nevertheless one who believes that nothing in the divine Scriptures is idle will judge that even these differences and diversities are not empty.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 1:8
Since, when writing to certain people, the Apostle says that he gives thanks for them all, as also now to the Romans; but when writing to others he does indeed give thanks, yet does not add, for all — if you observe carefully you will find that where he says that he gives thanks for all, he does not press upon them any grave faults or reproaches; but where he censures or convicts certain persons, he does not add to the thanksgiving that he gives thanks for all, as in the letters to the Corinthians or to the Colossians. To the Galatians, however, he does not set down any thanksgiving at all, since he marvels that they are so quickly transferred from him who called them to another Gospel. The first utterance, therefore, begins from thanksgiving. And to give thanks to God is to offer the sacrifice of praise; and for this reason he adds, "Through Jesus Christ", as through the great High Priest. For he who wishes to offer a sacrifice to God must know that he ought to offer it through the hands of the high priest. But this too, that he said, "To my God", is not to be taken idly. For this utterance can belong to none but the saints, whose God he is called, as the God of Abraham, or of Isaac, or of Jacob. He cannot call the Lord his God whose God is the belly, or whose God is avarice, or whose God is the glory of the age and the pomp of the world, or the power of perishable things. For whatever anyone worships above all else, that is his God. But let us see for what the Apostle gives thanks to his God. Because, he says, your faith is announced in the whole world. If we take "in the whole world" simply, this seems to designate that in many places of the world — that is, of this earth — the faith and religion of those who are at Rome is proclaimed. But if, as in some passages, in this place too "world" designates that which consists of heaven and earth and all things that are in them, then this also can be understood: that the powers, of whom it is said that they have joy over one sinner doing penance, much more rejoice also over the conversion and faith of the Romans, since those angels announce it to them who ascend and descend to the Son of man. For they too marvel at the conversion of the Gentiles, and that the sound of the apostles of Christ Jesus has gone out into all the earth. Finally, beholding also their contests in this world, they rejoice, as the Apostle says: "For we are made a spectacle to this world, and to angels, and to men." Yet it can also be understood thus: that this faith which the Romans have is the very same, and not another, than that which is announced and believed in the whole world, by which it is preached not only on earth but also in the heavens: because Jesus made peace through his blood not only for the things which are on earth, but also for those which are in heaven; and at his name bend the knee not only things earthly, but also heavenly and infernal. And this is for faith to be preached in the whole world, through which the whole world may be made subject to God. It must certainly be observed that to this which he said, "first indeed", he did not render, for instance, so as to say: "But secondly"; but it is as we said before concerning less finished forms of expression — unless perhaps it seems to be rendered where he says: "But I would not have you ignorant, brethren."
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 1:9
God is a witness to his saints, because they too are witnesses of God, according to what the prophet says: "You shall be my witnesses, and I am a witness, says the Lord." But the Savior also says to the disciples: "You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in Samaria, and in all the ends of the earth", according to that which is written: "He who shall confess in me, I also will confess in him before my Father." But let us see what it is that he says, "whom I serve in my spirit." To serve in the spirit seems to me to be like — indeed, something even greater than — to worship in the spirit, as the Lord himself said to the Samaritan woman: "The hour comes, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth." But Paul not only worships in the spirit, but also devotedly serves in the spirit. For one can worship even without affection; but devoted service belongs to him whom affection binds fast. The Apostle therefore devotedly serves God, not in the body, nor in the soul, but in the better part of himself, that is, in the spirit. For he indicates that these three are in man when writing to the Thessalonians, when he says: "That your whole body, and soul, and spirit may be preserved in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." And Daniel says: "Praise the Lord, you spirits and souls of the just." The Apostle therefore everywhere prefers the spirit, and rejects the flesh or the things which are of the flesh. Finally he praises the spirit of the law itself; but the letter he spurns as though it were flesh, when he says: "The letter kills, but the spirit gives life." And also when he says: "For in that wherein the law was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh" — by the flesh of the law he means, without doubt, the letter of the law. For through the letter the law was made weak, so that it could not be fulfilled. For who could fulfill even what is written concerning the Sabbath: "You shall not move from your place on the day of the Sabbath" (for how could it come about that anyone should not move at all from his place on the day of the Sabbath?), or the laws concerning leprosy arising in the warp, or in a wall, or in a skin, and a thousand other things in which, according to the letter as according to the flesh, the law was made weak? For this reason therefore the Apostle says that the law is spiritual. He, then, who understands the law to be spiritual, this man serves God in the spirit. Whence he says elsewhere: "For if you live according to the flesh, you shall die" — that is, according to the letter which kills; "but if by the spirit you mortify the deeds of the flesh, you shall live." It must indeed be asked whether the ancient fathers also, the patriarchs or the prophets, who were themselves also perfect, are to be believed to have served God in the spirit; for Abraham too desired to see the day of the Lord, and saw it, and rejoiced; and Moses and Elijah appeared in glory speaking with Jesus on the mountain. In which it is shown that the Law and the Prophets are in harmony with the Gospels, and shine forth in the same glory of spiritual sight and understanding.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 1:10
In that he says that without ceasing he prays for those to whom he writes, mindful of his own command he fulfills in deed what he enjoins in word. But since he says that he beseeches that if by any means at length at some time he may have a prosperous journey, so that by the will of God he may come to the Romans, it must be considered that the apostle of God, setting out for a holy work, that is, the work of the Gospel, waits until by his entreaties he may obtain not only that his journey be made prosperous, but that it be made prosperous by the will of God. Whence much more must prosperity of journey be sought from God by us, who have not so great a consciousness either of the work or of merit, when we plan to do anything. Yet I think that the Apostle wished this too to be understood: that prosperity of a journey is not always accomplished by the will of God. Finally, Balaam too had a prosperous journey in going to Balak, that he might curse the people of Israel; but that prosperity was not from the divine will. And many in the affairs of the age enjoy prosperous successes, and exult in their prosperities; but such prosperity is not from the will of God, unless the work of our journey be such as the Apostle here designates.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 1:11
First of all we ought to learn that it is an apostolic work to long for the brethren, yet for no other cause than either that we may confer upon them something of a spiritual gift if we are able, or, if we are not able, that we ourselves may receive from them. For without this, the desire of going about among the brethren is not commendable. But in that he says, "that I may impart to you some spiritual gift", he seems to indicate that there is something which is indeed a gift, yet not spiritual. For the gift of faith is without doubt spiritual, and the gift of wisdom, and of knowledge, and of virginity likewise. But where he says, speaking of marriage and virginity: "But each one has his own gift from God, one after this manner, another after that"; he calls marriage indeed a gift, since, as it is written, "a wife is fitted to her husband by God"; yet this gift is not spiritual. Many other things too may be called gifts of God, such as riches and bodily strength, such as comeliness of form, such as an earthly kingdom. For these also are given by God, as Daniel too says: "For it is he who makes kings and changes them"; but these are not spiritual gifts.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 1:12
Blessed therefore are those to whom the Apostle wishes to impart spiritual grace for the confirming of their faith, that they may no longer be little ones, nor be carried about with every wind of doctrine. And when this is done by Paul, he himself also receives consolation, seeing his own work firm and stable; and those are consoled who are made partakers of the apostolic grace.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 1:13
There is indeed a hyperbaton in this passage; there is also a defect of expression. But the hyperbaton we may render in this way: "But I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that I have often purposed to come to you, that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among the other nations, Greeks and barbarians, wise and unwise, and have been hindered until now." The defect of expression, however, will be supplied in this manner. In the place where he says: "And among the other nations, Greeks and barbarians, wise and unwise", there seems to be lacking "to whom", so that what follows may be read thus, "to whom I am a debtor"; and the sequence would be of this kind: "Just as I have fruit among the other nations, Greeks and barbarians, wise and unwise, to whom I am a debtor, so, as much as in me lies, I am ready to preach the Gospel to you also who are at Rome. For never among any nation have I been ashamed to preach the Gospel, because the power of God is in it unto salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew first, and to the Greek; because in the Gospel the righteousness of God is revealed, which before lay hidden and veiled in the Law." And it is revealed in those who come from the faith of the Old Testament to the new faith of the Gospel, as it is also said in the prophet, that the righteous man, even if he is still under the Law, believing God and his servant Moses, lives by faith; and when he comes to the Gospel, he is directed from the faith of the Law into the faith of Christ, and thus he advances from faith to faith. Let these things be said so far as pertains to the sequence of the Apostle's own words. But now let us inquire into what belongs to the understanding. In saying, "that I have often purposed to come to you", he shows the charity which he had toward the Romans. But in that he added, "and have been hindered until now", if indeed he be thought to have been hindered by God, it is shown by this that even this is a care to God, whither each of the apostles ought or ought not to go, and that by a certain dispensation he permits the word of God to be preached to some and forbids it to others, as he also says elsewhere: "And when we attempted to go into Bithynia, the Spirit of Jesus forbade us"; and in the Gospels it is said by the Savior: "To you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, but to others in parables, that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not hear." But if the words, "I have been hindered until now", be referred to him of whom he himself says elsewhere, that "Satan hindered us", he fittingly shows that he strives without ceasing in his prayers, that, the hindrances of Satan being overcome, his journey may be made prosperous in the will of God to see those who are at Rome. For he longs, and does not cease to beseech in his prayers, that he may gain some fruit from them, as from the other nations. Whence Paul, as one desirous of great riches, longs to gather in revenues from many rational possessions. He gathers fruits from the Greeks, he gathers from the barbarians, he gathers from the wise, he collects something even from the unwise, while to some, as to the perfect, he speaks wisdom, and to others, as to the unwise, he says that he knows nothing else save Christ Jesus, and him crucified; while some he teaches from the Law and the Prophets, and others he persuades by signs and mighty works. But Paul brings forth all these fruits because, as a good branch, he abides in the true vine, which is Christ, whom the Father the husbandman more frequently prunes, and therefore he brings forth much fruit. And he prunes him in labors, in tribulations, in persecutions. For there are other branches which indeed abide in the vine, but bear no fruit, and are dry. Of these are they who in name indeed abide in Christ, but in works and deeds are found unfruitful and dry; who are said to be cut off by the Father, and cast into the fire. For as the first man Adam was a kind of vine, and the root of the human race, which brought forth some fruitful branches indeed, such as Seth, Enos, Enoch, and the rest down to Noah; but others unfruitful and useless, such as Cain, and all the stock which was begotten from him: so also in Christ, who is the last Adam, there are certain fruitful branches, bearing fruit as in the true vine; but certain dry ones, to be cut off by the Father the husbandman. But this also is to be observed, that the Apostle names the fruit of good things in the singular number, as also elsewhere: "But the fruit of the Spirit is charity, joy, peace"; whereas the works of the flesh which he reproaches he sets forth in the plural. But if anyone should object what is written in the Psalm, "You shall eat the labors of your fruits", spoken both in a good sense and in the plural; it must be known that, just as he who was trading in many pearls, finding one precious one, sold all and bought that one; so a man, beginning from many fruits, ought to press on toward the one fruit of perfection.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 1:14
We can see how in a short time this religion has grown up, making progress through the persecution and death of its adherents and through their endurance of the confiscation of their property and every kind of torture. And this is particularly miraculous, since its teachers are themselves neither very skillful nor very numerous. But in spite of everything, the Word is now preached in all the world, so that "Greeks and barbarians, wise and foolish" now adopt the Christian faith.
ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 4.1.2
Romans 1:14
Now we must inquire how the Apostle is a debtor to Greeks and barbarians, to the wise and the unwise. For what had he received from them, whereby he should become their debtor? I think that he was made a debtor to the various nations for this reason, that he received through the grace of the Holy Spirit to speak in the tongues of all nations, as he himself also says: "I speak with tongues more than you all." Since therefore one receives the knowledge of tongues not for himself, but for those to whom he must preach, he is made a debtor to all those whose language he has received the knowledge of from God. And to the wise he is made a debtor through this, that he received the wisdom hidden in a mystery, which he might speak to the perfect and the wise. But how also to the unwise? In that he received the grace of patience and of long-suffering. For it belongs to the highest patience to bear the impulses of the unwise.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 1:15
And most gracefully he added in what follows: "So, as much as in me lies, I am ready to preach the Gospel to you also." He testifies that he is ready, who also says elsewhere: "If I do this willingly, I have a reward." For one is ready to speak to the prudent. But concerning the unwise, we must understand that which he says: "But if unwillingly, a dispensation is entrusted to me"; and: "Woe is me if I preach not the Gospel."
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 1:16
For I am not ashamed of the Gospel. For it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. Many reproaches indeed arose against the Gospel at the beginning of its preaching; but Paul had learned patience from the prophets, who say: Do not be overcome by their reproaches, and do not give way before their revilings; and he knew that he preached the Gospel not in the persuasive words of human wisdom, but in the power of the Spirit. Therefore, defining what the Gospel is, he declares: For it is, he says, the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and to the Greek. In saying, it is the power of God unto salvation, he seems to show that there is, as it were, some power of God which is not unto salvation but unto destruction. For he knows that it is written also in the prophet: And the caterpillar, my great power; and again in the Psalms he says: In your power destroy them; and therefore here he says: the power of God unto salvation. We must therefore consider whether perhaps on account of these differences in the powers of God a right hand and a left hand are spoken of in God, so that the power unto salvation is called his right hand, and the power by which he destroys is called his left. But this too must be noted, whether perhaps, since Christ is called the power of God, and the Gospel is the power of God, Christ ought to be understood also as the Gospel, just as he is understood as many other things as well; and perhaps what is called the eternal Gospel should be taken as spoken of him. To everyone, he says, who believes, to the Jew first and to the Greek. The Greeks originally reckoned the whole race of men under two designations, that is, calling each man either a Greek or a barbarian; and their distinction was such that everyone who was not a Greek was held to be a barbarian. But Paul employs a far truer distinction, naming the Jews first, and afterwards the Greeks, and last of all the barbarians. For since the Greeks, because they themselves made use of laws, called all the rest barbarians as living without laws, the Jews are deservedly preferred by the Apostle even to the Greeks themselves, because they both began to live by laws before them, and their laws were promulgated by God and not by men.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 1:17
For the justice of God is revealed from faith unto faith. The justice of God is revealed in the Gospel through the fact that no one is excluded from salvation, whether he come as Jew, or Greek, or barbarian. For the Savior says equally to all: Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened. But concerning from faith unto faith we have already said above that the former people also was in faith, because it had believed God and Moses his servant, and from that faith it has now passed over to the faith of the Gospel. But as to what he says from the testimony of the prophet Habakkuk, that the just man lives by my faith: either he is understood who is under the Law, that he should believe the Gospels also, or he who is in the Gospels, that he should believe the Law also and the Prophets. For the one without the other does not possess the integrity of life.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 1:18
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and iniquity of men, who hold back the truth in iniquity: because what is known of God is manifest in them. For God has manifested it to them. Concerning the wrath of God we have spoken more fully in other places; nevertheless a few things will be said in the present passage as well. Now then, the wrath of God is said to be revealed not against some part, but against all ungodliness and iniquity; and yet not against all men, but against those alone who hold back the truth of God in iniquity: they do hold it, indeed, but they hold it in injustice. To these he also says that what is known of God is manifest, showing that there is something of God which is known, and something of him which is unknown. He says, then, that the wrath of God is revealed to those who hold back the truth in iniquity. Things that are revealed are brought forth from what is obscure and hidden into knowledge. Since therefore here too the wrath of God is said to be revealed from heaven not to those ignorant of the truth, but to those holding it, though holding it badly, it seems that he says the reason and knowledge of the wrath of God is made manifest to those to whom the truth is known, although they hold it back in iniquity. And this indeed, as is made clear from what follows, is understood to be said of the wise of this world, and the learned, or the philosophers, who, when they had come to know the truth and justice of God, did not glorify him as God or give thanks, but became vain in their thoughts, turning to idols; and saying that they were wise, they became fools, because they exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of the image of man, and of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and of serpents. In these men the Apostle also shows this, that whatever came to the wise of this age concerning the knowledge of the truth came by God's revealing it; but while they either pursue empty glory, or flatter ancient errors, or are held in check by fear of rulers, they become the judges of their own condemnation; by them the truth which they had known through God's revelation is either covered over because freedom is shut out, or denied through the iniquity of their deeds. Thus, then, the wrath of God sometimes seems to be called that very power by which he presides over the ministers of punishments, and which inflicts torments upon sinners; as I think is signified in what is recounted, that the wrath of God had moved David to order Joab to number the people. But his ministers and associates are also signified, in that it is said: He sent upon them the wrath of his fury, tribulation, and wrath through evil angels. Sometimes, too, the goads of our own conscience, which avenge and punish us when we transgress, are called wrath, as the same Apostle says: You store up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath; and elsewhere: Their thoughts among themselves accusing or even defending them, in the day when God shall judge the hidden things of men. But the affliction of tribulation or of temptation is likewise named the wrath of God, as Job also says: But the wrath of the Lord is in my body. Yet why is the wrath now said to be revealed from heaven? Perhaps to distinguish it from another wrath which is not from heaven, such as that: The fury of dragons is their wine, and the fury of serpents is incurable. Or perhaps because those very men against whom the discourse is directed are said to sin not in ignorance but in knowledge of the truth, and therefore the punishment is directed against them from heaven: for it is from there that the minister of punishments receives his authority. Or certainly, because the spiritual forces of wickedness against which our contest is are said to be in the heavenly places, it follows that the wrath of God is said to be hurled from heaven against those who are overcome by them: as if we should say that fiery darts are brandished against them from there, and that from there they receive the wounds by which they run into sins. But those who are wholly without any share in the truth, as having nothing in common with heaven and light, endure the wrath either of their own vices and passions, or of the demons to whom they have willingly subjected themselves. Against all ungodliness and iniquity of men, who hold back the truth in iniquity. Ungodliness is to sin against God; iniquity, against men. Therefore those who hold back the truth in iniquity sin both against God and against men. And men are to be believed to have recognized this truth by natural reasonings implanted in the soul by God; to which so much prudence has been granted that they might recognize what is known of God — that is, what can be known about God by inference from creation — recognizing his invisible things from those which can be seen. On this understanding the judgment of God will be just even toward those who, before the coming of Christ, when they could have known God, turned aside from his worship and diverted themselves to the adoration of images of men and of animals. For, to speak briefly and with the whole definition gathered into one, to adore anyone other than the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, is the crime of ungodliness.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 1:19
Because what is known of God is manifest in them; for God has manifested it to them. We have already said above that what is known of God is that which they can attain from the order and reasons of this world, as the Apostle himself indicates from what follows, saying that his invisible things are contemplated through the things that have been made. But what is unknown of God is to be understood as the account of his substance or nature; and what its proper character is, I think lies hidden not only from us men, but from every creature: or if at some time there shall be so great an advance of rational nature that it can arrive at this knowledge also, it belongs to God to know. For something of this sort seems to me to be hoped for from those things which are said by the Savior, that no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and he to whom the Son wills to reveal him. For he would not have added, And to whom the Son wills to reveal him, unless he knew that there are some to whom he wills to reveal him.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 1:20-23
For his invisible things, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, and also his eternal power and divinity; so that they are inexcusable, because when they had known God, they did not magnify him as God, nor give thanks; but they became vain in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was darkened. For saying that they were wise, they became fools, and they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of corruptible man, and of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and of serpents. Almost every one of these points has already been discussed above. For we said that these things, although they pertain to all human beings in whom there is natural reason, nevertheless look chiefly to the wise men of this world and to those who are named philosophers, whose particular discipline it is to examine the creatures of the world and all the things that have been made in it, and through the things that are seen to gather by reasoning the things that are not seen. Yet it must be known that the invisible things which he here names, he speaks of concerning created things; about which the same Apostle also writes in another place: that all things were made through him, that is, through Jesus Christ, whether the things that are in heaven or the things that are on earth, visible and invisible. And therefore, besides those things which he called invisible, he adds: And his eternal power and divinity. Therefore the power of God, which is eternal, and the divinity, which is no less eternal, is recognized from inferences drawn from the creature. Power is that by which he governs all things; divinity that by which he fills the universe. From this, then, they are made inexcusable: because, although they came to know God when God made himself manifest, they did not worship him as is worthy, nor give thanks; but through the vanity of their own thoughts, while they sought forms and images in God, they lost the image of God within themselves, and those who seemed to boast of themselves in the light of wisdom were rolled down into the deep darkness of folly. For what is so foul, so obscure, and so shrouded in darkness, as to turn the glory of God into a bodily and corruptible likeness of the human form — as is the custom of those who venerate idols — and to make the eminence of the divine majesty equal with birds and four-footed beasts and serpents?
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 1:20
From this we infer that all who live on this earth have to begin with the use of the senses upon sensible objects in order to go on from them to a knowledge of the nature of intellectual things. Yet their knowledge must not stop short with the objects of sense.
AGAINST CELSUS 7.37
Romans 1:23
These people have lowered to a body without soul or sense the identity of the One who gives to all sentient and rational beings not only the power of sentience but also of sensing rationally, and to some even the power of sensing and thinking perfectly and virtuously.
ON PRAYER 29.15
Romans 1:24-25
For which causes God most justly indeed delivered them up, in the desires of their heart, to uncleanness, so that they might dishonor their own bodies among themselves: who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Although each of these points seems to be explained consistently according to the faith of the Church — namely, that for the foregoing causes of their faults, those who hold down in iniquity the truth which they know by God's revealing are by right and desert abandoned by God, and that through this abandonment they are handed over to the desires of their own heart, whose heart's desires were these, that they should afflict their own bodies with uncleanness and dishonor among themselves; and that with whatever judgment they used toward the veneration of the divinity, while they drag down the glory of the incorruptible God to base and unworthy forms of men or of animals, with such a turn also they should be dealt with toward themselves, so that men endowed with reason live after the manner of irrational beasts — nevertheless let us ask those who deny that the good God is also a just judge, what they answer concerning the things the Apostle says, that God handed them over, in the desires of their heart, to uncleanness, so that they should dishonor their own bodies. For in this it will seem that not only their reasoning, which is utterly excluded, but our own reply as well is hemmed in. For how will it be just that one who is handed over — even though he be handed over on account of sins — should nevertheless be handed over to lusts, and handed over for this purpose, that he should afflict his own body with uncleannesses and lusts? For just as it cannot be imputed to a man who, for example's sake, is delivered to darkness for punishment, that he is in obscurity; and one who is delivered to fire cannot be blamed for the very fact that he burns; so to those who are handed over to desires and uncleannesses that they may dishonor their own bodies, it will not seem worthily imputed if, being placed among desires and uncleannesses, they stain their bodies with dishonor. Marcion, therefore, and all who have sprouted from his school like the brood of serpents, will not dare to touch the solutions of these matters even with the tip of a finger: seeing that on account of questions of this kind they cast away the Old Instrument, wherever perchance they had read anything of the sort in it. But what did it profit them, when they are none the less choked by similar questions in the New Instrument? We, however, who confess one God, good and just, of the Law and the Prophets and the Gospels, the Father of Christ, use the same explanations both in the New and in the Old Testament, calling upon him who placed in Sion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, that he himself may open to us, through his Holy Spirit, the stumbling and offense of the apostolic reading, by which doubting minds seem to be made to stumble. Frequently we find in the Scriptures, and it has often been discussed by us, that man is said to be spirit and body and soul. But when it is said that the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, without doubt the soul is set in the middle, which either acquiesces in the desires of the spirit or is inclined to the concupiscences of the flesh: and if indeed it joins itself to the flesh, it is made one body with it in its lust and concupiscences; but if it associates itself with the spirit, it will be one spirit with it. And so at length, concerning those whose souls had joined themselves wholly with the flesh, the Lord says in the Scriptures: My spirit shall not remain in these men, because they are flesh; but concerning those whose soul had been allied to the spirit, the Apostle says: But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. There are besides (as we find in many places of Scripture) certain angels who are also the promoters and helpers of either side, or of either way. For the devil favors the flesh lusting against the spirit, and his angels, and all the spiritual wickednesses in the heavenly places, and all those against whom men have their wrestling, the principalities, and powers, and rulers of the darkness of this world. But on the contrary, the spirit contending against the flesh, and striving to call back to itself the human soul which is in the middle, is favored and helped by the good angels, all those of whom the Lord says, that their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven; and of whom the Apostle says to the Hebrews: Are they not all ministering spirits, sent for ministry on account of those who receive the inheritance of salvation? The Lord himself also favors it, seeing that he even lays down his own life for his sheep. But on either side of this favor the rule of discipline is preserved. For the matter is not conducted by force, nor is the soul bent to one side or the other by necessity; otherwise neither fault nor virtue could be ascribed to it, nor would the choice of good deserve a reward, nor the turning away from evil deserve punishment: rather, the freedom of its own choice is preserved for it in all things, so that it may itself incline to whichever it wills, as it is written: Behold, I have set before your face life and death, fire and water. Life, therefore, is Christ, and death is the last enemy, who is the devil. The soul therefore has it in its own choice, if it wills, to choose life, Christ, or to turn aside into death, the devil. But if the soul, recognizing God, has not embraced Christ its life, nor magnified him as God, nor given thanks, but has become vain in its thoughts, and has changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of corruptible man, and of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and of serpents, and in all these things has turned aside to the flesh and to those who favor the desires of the flesh: it will without doubt be left behind and abandoned by those who by their favor were inspiring it to be joined to the spirit; and they will yield it up, or hand it over, to the desires of its own heart, by which it is allied to the flesh and clings to it. For they will not call it back, while it resists and struggles against them, to those things which it shuns and rejects. If the image of this matter still seems obscure, we shall render it clearer and plainer by some such illustration as this. Let us suppose that there is a certain dwelling, in which the soul lives together with the body and the spirit as with two counselors; and that before the doors of this dwelling there stands piety, and with it all the virtues; and on the other side impiety, and all the forms of luxuries and lusts, and that they await the soul's nod as to which of the two choirs waiting before the doors it desires to have brought in to itself, and which to have driven away. Will it not be the case that, if obeying the spirit and using the better counselor it calls to itself the choir of piety and chastity, that other one will depart, scorned and rejected? But if, using the counsels of the flesh, it brings in to itself the troop of impiety and lust, that whole company of holiness and piety, to which the soul preferred the council of evils, will withdraw with just indignation, leaving it to the desires of its own heart, so that it may afflict its own body with ignominy and dishonor within itself — it who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and, bringing in to itself the prince of impiety and unbelief, worships and serves the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. But for what causes the human soul undergoes so precarious a condition of so great a hazard, it is not the place of the present passage to discuss. It belongs, then, to those who are enslaved to idols to dishonor their own bodies; and it belongs to those who have forsaken the Creator to worship the creature. But we, who worship and adore no creature, but the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit — as we do not err in worship, so let us not sin even in our acts and manner of life; nor let us imitate those who dishonor their own bodies among themselves: but looking to what the Apostle says: Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? and again: That your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit — let us keep our bodies, as members of Christ and the temple of the Holy Spirit, in all holiness and purity, so that they may become worthy not only of the entrances of angels, but also of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and of the abiding of the Father and the Son, who says of him who remains in his commandments: I and the Father will come, and will make our abode with him.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 1:26-32
"Therefore God handed them over to passions of dishonor. For even their women exchanged the natural use for that use which is outside nature. And in like manner the males also, having abandoned the natural use of the woman, were inflamed in their desire for one another, males working shamefulness with males, and receiving in themselves the wage which was due for their error. And as they did not approve of holding God in their knowledge, God handed them over to a reprobate mind, so that they do those things which are not fitting, being filled with all iniquity, malice, fornication, wickedness, avarice; full of envy, murders, strife, deceit, malignity; whisperers, detractors, hateful to God, insolent, proud, puffed up, inventors of evils, disobedient to parents, senseless, disorderly; without natural affection, without covenant, without mercy. And these, though they had come to know the justice of God, did not understand that those who do such things are worthy of death; and not only those who do them, but also those who consent to those who do them. Therefore you are inexcusable, O every man who judges; for in that wherein you judge another, you condemn yourself. For you do the same things which you judge." This is the third time that we find set down by the Apostle: "God handed them over." And for the first handing-over he gave the causes, namely, "Because, when they had known God, they did not glorify him as God, nor give thanks; but they became empty in their thoughts, and their senseless heart was darkened. For saying that they were wise, they became fools, and they exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of the image of corruptible man, and of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and of serpents." "Therefore," he says, "God handed them over, in the desires of their heart, to uncleanness, so that they should treat their own bodies with dishonor among themselves." The cause of the second handing-over he seems to put forward when he says that "they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator." "Therefore," he says, "God handed them over to passions of dishonor." Yet this second handing-over seems to be liable to graver outrages. "For their women," he says, "exchanged the natural use for that use which is outside nature. In like manner the males also, having abandoned the natural use of the woman, were inflamed in their desire for one another, males working shamefulness with males, and receiving in themselves the wage which was due for their error." He seems also to give the causes of the third handing-over when he says: "And as they did not approve of holding God in their knowledge, God handed them over to a reprobate mind, so that they do those things which are not fitting, being filled with all iniquity, malice," and the rest of the crimes which he goes on to enumerate. But these distinctions among the causes do not seem to me to correspond sufficiently to the offenses which are subjoined to each one of them. For how is he who serves the creature handed over to fouler outrages more than he who exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of the image of corruptible man, and of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and of serpents? Or how are those who did not approve of holding God in their knowledge handed over, beyond both of these, to what is as it were a whole swarm of evils? Hence it seems to me rather that all these causes, which are set before the several handings-over, are to be heaped together into one, and again the kinds of handing-over into one, so that (for the sake of argument) we should speak thus: Since indeed men exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of the image of corruptible man, and of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and of serpents; and since they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, nor did they approve of holding God in their knowledge: on account of all these things God handed them over, in the desires of their heart, to uncleanness, so that they should treat their bodies with dishonor; and he handed them over to passions of dishonor, so that their women exchanged the natural use for that which is outside nature; and in like manner the males also, having abandoned the natural use of the woman, were inflamed in their desire for one another, males working shamefulness with males. But he also handed them over to a reprobate mind, so that they do those things which are not fitting, because they were filled with all iniquity, malice, wickedness and avarice, and were full of envy, murders, strife, deceit, and the other evils which are written; and because, when they had come to know the justice of God, they did not understand that this is what it is — that those who do such things are worthy of death, not only those who do them, but also those who consent to those who do them. And therefore, for all these evils they will be inexcusable, so long as they both judge and condemn others for the very crimes which they themselves commit. For a man pronounces sentence upon himself when he punishes another for the things which he himself commits. But I think that what was said above concerning the manner of the handing-over is sufficient — how God is said to hand over those whose deeds and whose mind, turning aside from him and indulging in vices, he abhors and abandons; and I consider it superfluous to repeat the same things. There are, however, two things which I judge to be indicated in this passage, of which the one seems to be signified by means of the other. For it is certain that, if God has handed anyone over either to the desires of his own heart, or to passions of dishonor, or to a reprobate mind, at once, as in the worst and reprobate soil, that whole harvest of crimes springs up in him who is handed over. And again, if anyone, though he has known God, does not glorify him as God nor give thanks, but is such a man as the apostolic discourse has described point by point, there is no doubt that a soul of this kind has been abandoned by God and handed over. For it is not possible that God should have his dwelling together with these evils, or that these evils should proceed from the place where God dwells. But since in these three the Apostle seems to have enumerated all the kinds of impiety — both of those who worship idols, and of those who serve the creature rather than the Creator, and also of those who did not approve of holding God in their knowledge — and since under the first of these headings the pagans generally are designated, and under the second their wise men and philosophers: I think that under this third are indicated the heretics, who either deny God the Creator, or utter various blasphemies against the Most High. Therefore, if each one of those whom we have said above to err in the worship of the Godhead is designated by such titles of evils, let us who seem to be in the Church and to hold the right faith examine ourselves, and weigh with all circumspection whether perhaps, separated from these men only by the name of the true worship, we may be associated with them in the very same deeds and acts. For it is certain that he who (for example) is filled with iniquity, malice, wickedness, avarice, has not approved of holding God in his knowledge, and is of the number of those whom God handed over to a reprobate mind. And again, those whose women, or whose males, having abandoned the natural use, are inflamed toward that use which is against nature — it is certain that they are of the number of those who serve the creature rather than the Creator, and whom God handed over to passions of dishonor. And likewise, if any treat their bodies with dishonor in uncleanness, they are of those who exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of the image of man; except that he who is already a believer defiles the temple of God by a graver sacrilege than the man still profane defiles the temple of idols. Nor indeed should this apostolic saying be passed over, in which, when he says that "they exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of the image of man," he is to be understood not only as reproving those who worship idols, but also as refuting the Anthropomorphites, who, though placed within the Church, say that the bodily image of man is the image of God — being ignorant of what is written in Genesis, that man was made to the image of God: and what is to be thought concerning that man is expounded by the Apostle when he says: "Putting off the old man with his deeds, and putting on the new, who is created according to God." Do you hear that he calls the new man the one created according to God? And this same new man he elsewhere calls the interior man; but this corruptible one, whose image he here rejects, he names the exterior, when he says: "For even if our man who is without is corrupted, yet he who is within is renewed." And that those who go astray concerning the image of God may know his meaning still more plainly, let them hear whom the Apostle says to be the man who is created to the image of God, when he writes to the Colossians in this manner: "Do not lie," he says, "stripping yourselves of the old man with his deeds, and putting on the new, who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him." From which he evidently shows that the interior man, who is renewed through knowledge, is himself created to the image of God. But those who say that the exterior man, that is, the bodily and corruptible one, is to the image of God, are associated by the Apostle with those "who exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of the image of corruptible man." Truly it was fitting that not even these things should be omitted in the explanation of the apostolic discourse, so that in this chapter of the Apostle, as also in very many others, the Anthropomorphites — that is, those who say that the bodily image of man is the image of God — might recognize themselves to have been convicted and refuted. But let us now conclude with these things the contents of the first volume.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 1:26
Would those so condemned not have remained in the lusts of their hearts, even if they had not been given up to them by God? Would they not have fallen into dishonorable passions, even if they had not been given up to them by God? Would they not have fallen into an unfit mind quite apart from being given up to it by God?
ON PRAYER 29.12
Romans 2:2
"But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who do such things." That the judgment of God is according to truth, not only against those who do the things enumerated above, but also against all who in any manner whatever have done anything good or evil, is to be expected and believed. But this is what seems to be shown in this passage: that judgment according to truth belongs to God alone. For there are certain things that are committed with an evil deed, but not with an evil intention: as if someone, for example, should commit a homicide unwillingly. And other things are done with a good deed, but not with a good intention: as if someone should perform an act of mercy, not on account of God's commandment, but that he may be praised by men. But there are other things in which, whether in good or in evil, the intention agrees with the deed. And because to know the hearts of men belongs to God alone, and to discern the secrets of the mind, therefore he alone is the one who can hold judgment according to truth. But it is asked whether, toward those whose iniquities have been forgiven through the grace of baptism, or whose sins have been covered through repentance, or to whom sin is not to be imputed through the glory of martyrdom, God may be seen to preserve judgment according to truth. For the truth of judgment demands this, that the evil man receive evil things, and the good man good things: and although the gifts and bounty of God by no means admit the curiosity of one who scrutinizes them, nevertheless let us show even in this how great is the truth of his judgment. It is a common profession that the good ought not to be punished, nor the evil to obtain good things. If therefore there be someone, for example, who has at some time done evil things, it is certain that he was evil then, when he was doing evil things. But if he, repenting of things past, should correct his mind toward good things, and act well, speak well, think well, will well — he who does these things, does he not seem to you good, and deservedly to receive good things? Likewise also if someone should be turned from good to evil, he will no longer be judged good, which he was and is not, but evil, which he is. For acts, whether good or evil, pass away, but according to their own quality they stamp and shape the mind of the one acting, and leave it either good or evil, to be destined either for punishment or for rewards. It will therefore be unjust either that a good mind be punished for evil deeds, or that an evil one be rewarded for good acts. But that what we are saying may become still plainer, we shall add these things also: let us suppose there is a soul in which impiety, injustice, folly, and wantonness dwell, and the whole multitude of evils, to which, that is, it has subjected itself as their servant and handmaid. But if, returning into itself, this soul should open the door of its mind again to piety and to the virtues, will not piety, having entered, immediately drive out impiety? Likewise also justice will thrust out injustice, and wisdom folly, and sobriety will put wantonness to flight; and thus, the barbarian inhabitants having been driven out from itself, it will offer to the virtues a civil and lawful lodging. How then will it be just to accuse a soul now full of virtues concerning those things which it did when it was not yet a friend of the virtues, and to condemn one that is pious for impiety, one that is just for injustice, one that is sober for wantonness? In this manner, therefore, even in those whose iniquities have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered, God is to be believed to preserve judgment according to truth.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 2:3
"But do you suppose this, O man, every one of you who judges those who do such things, and does them yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God?" If all the things which the Law speaks, it speaks to those who are under the Law, then the things which the Gospel, or the Apostle, now speaks, it speaks not to the princes of this age, nor to the kings of the world, but to the rulers and leaders of the Churches, namely to those who judge those who are within, that is, to bishops, or presbyters and deacons. To these, therefore, he says that they should not suppose they will escape the judgment of God, if they themselves commit those things concerning which they judge and condemn others. And therefore each one ought first to judge concerning his own conscience, and then to examine the deeds of him whom he judges. And if this were done, all ambition for approaching ecclesiastical honor would be utterly cut off, if those who wish to preside over peoples were to consider that they are rather to be judged than to judge. Let no one therefore suppose that he can escape the judgment of God, as the Prophet also says: "Whither shall I go from your spirit, and whither shall I flee from your face?" And because these things are said especially to those who preside over the judgments of peoples, therefore he says elsewhere also that "judgment begins at the house of God." And again elsewhere the Lord says: "In those who draw near to me I will be sanctified;" as was done in the case of Nadab and Abihu, when they offered strange fire, that is, not sacred fire, upon the divine altars. Judgment therefore begins first from the sons. For "God scourges every one whom he receives into the number of sons." But, as I reckon, not even if one could, ought he to wish to escape the judgment of God. For not to come to the judgment of God is to come neither to correction, nor to health, nor to remedy.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 2:4
"Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and patience? Do you not know that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?" That man can recognize the riches of God's goodness who considers how many evils men commit daily upon the earth, and how nearly all have turned aside and together become unprofitable, and walk the broad and spacious road of perdition, neglecting the narrow way of life — and yet, for all these, God daily brings forth his sun and supplies the rains; and he who considers how many blaspheme God daily, and stretch out their tongues against heaven. And what shall I say now of frauds, of violence, of crime, of sacrileges and of deeds requiring expiation? Yet among all these, in this passage, those seem to be given precedence in wickedness who, while judging others, themselves commit the very things they punish in the rest. If, therefore, anyone despises this goodness of God, and his forbearance, and his patience, he does not know that through these he is being summoned to repentance. But forbearance seems to differ from patience in this, that those who sin more from weakness than from deliberate purpose are said to be borne with; whereas those who with obstinate mind, as it were, exult in their offenses must be said to be endured patiently. But just as God made all things in measure and weight and number, so also there is a fixed measure of his patience — a measure which we must believe was filled up either by those who perished in the flood, or by those who were destroyed in Sodom by fire from heaven. Whence it is also said concerning the Amorites: "For the sins of the Amorites are not yet filled up until now." God therefore bears patiently, and awaits the repentance of each one. But let this not make us lax and slow to conversion, since there is again a fixed measure of his patience and forbearance.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 2:5
"But according to your hardness and impenitent heart, you treasure up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath, and of the revelation of the just judgment of God, who will render to each one according to his works." A heart is said in the Scriptures to be hard when the human mind, bound fast as wax by the cold of iniquity, does not receive the impress of the divine image. This same thing is elsewhere called a thick heart, as when it is said: "The heart of this people has grown thick." But the opposite of hard is soft, which in the Scriptures is named a heart of flesh; and the opposite of thick is fine, or thin, which the Apostle calls the spiritual man — he who examines all things. Therefore, when someone knows what things are good, and does not do the good, he must be believed to hold contempt for all good things through hardness of heart. But thickness of heart is where the perception of subtle and spiritual understanding is not received; and thus a heart made impenitent treasures up for itself wrath in the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God, since the good work is not done because of hardness, while good understanding is shut out through the thickness of the heart. Concerning the wrath of God, both above — so far as the subject allowed — and in other places, it has often been discussed. But what he says, "You treasure up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath," must be considered. That is called a treasury in which wealth and riches of various kinds are gathered together. Of this we read a threefold signification in the Scriptures. For in the Gospel there is said to be a certain treasure on earth, in which the Lord forbids treasure to be laid up; and another treasure in heaven, in which he bids all the faithful to store away their wealth; and here now the Apostle speaks of treasures of wrath. All men, therefore, through the things they do in this world, gather treasures in some one of these three. For either a man is unbelieving and unjust, and through hardness of heart and an impenitent heart stores up his deeds in the treasury of wrath. Or he is earthly, and is wise concerning the earth, and speaks of the earth, and when his field has brought him abundant fruits, he pulls down his barns and builds greater ones, and treasures up on earth. And the former indeed is called hard, but this one foolish. For it is said to him: "Fool, this night they will demand your soul from you, and the things you have prepared, whose shall they be?" Or he is wise, and rich toward God, and while walking on earth has his conversation in heaven, and all that he does is worthy of the kingdom of heaven: and such a one lays up the treasures of his riches in heaven. Thus, then, the possessor and founder of each treasury may be called, the one a carnal man, another a natural (animal) man, and another a spiritual man. Now let us see what is the day of wrath which the Apostle here names — which, however, will more easily be recognized if we inquire what the rest of the Scriptures also indicate about it. Therefore we shall fit to the matter such examples as can come to hand at present, and from these it will be shown what the day of wrath is. It is written in the prophet Amos: "Woe to those who desire the day of the Lord. To what end is the day of the Lord for you? And it is darkness, and not light. As if a man should flee from the face of a lion, and a bear should meet him, and he should enter into his house, and stretch out his hands to the wall, and a serpent should bite him. Is not the day of the Lord darkness, and not light, and gloom that has no brightness?" But Joel also says to the priests and to those who serve at the altar: "Cry to the Lord without ceasing: Alas for me, alas for me for that day, for the day of the Lord is near, and it will come like misery out of misery!" And a little after: "Sound the trumpet in Zion, proclaim on my holy mountain, and let all who dwell upon the earth be confounded, for the day of the Lord is at hand, for the day of darkness and gloom is near, a day of cloud and mist. Like the morning there shall be poured out over the mountains a people many and strong. There has been none like it from the beginning of the age, and after it there shall be none unto the years of ages of ages. Before it a consuming fire, and after it a kindled flame. Like a paradise of delights shall the land be before its face, and behind its back a field of desolation, and there is none that escapes it. As the appearance of horses is their appearance; and as horsemen, so shall they follow. Like the sound of chariots they shall leap upon the tops of the mountains." And he writes all that follows about the same day, up to that place where he says: "And the Lord will utter his voice before the face of his host, for the multitude of his camps is exceedingly great, and mighty are the works of his words. Wherefore great is the day of the Lord, great and exceedingly notable: and who shall be fit for it?" But Zephaniah speaks thus: "Stand in awe before the face of the Lord God, for the day of the Lord is near, and the Lord has prepared his victim, he has sanctified those whom he has called." And a little after: "Near is the great day of the Lord, it is near and exceedingly swift. The voice of the day of the Lord is bitter, and it is set as harsh and mighty. A day of wrath is that day, a day of distress and constraint, a day of bitterness and destruction, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of cloud and mist, a day of the trumpet and of the war-cry over the fortified cities and over the lofty walls. And I will afflict men, and they will walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord: and I will pour out their blood like dust, and their flesh like dung. Their gold and their silver shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord. In the fire of his jealousy the whole earth shall be consumed, for he will make an end, and that speedily, of all who dwell upon the earth." Isaiah likewise records: "For behold, the day of the Lord will come, of incurable fury and wrath, to make the world a desert, and to destroy sinners out of it." And a little after: "For heaven shall be kindled with fury, and the earth shall be shaken from its foundations, because of the fury of the wrath of the Lord of Sabaoth, in the day in which his fury shall come upon it." Having gathered together so many and such testimonies concerning the day of wrath, I think that this passage needs no further exposition. For plainly in all of these the day of wrath is designated as the day of vengeance and of judgment. And so finally to "the day of wrath" the Apostle adds, "and of the revelation." For thus he says: "In the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God." For that all things must be revealed is indicated also in the Gospel, when it is said: "Nothing is hidden that shall not be made manifest; nor covered, that shall not be revealed." But the Apostle too, in what follows in this Epistle, says: "Their thoughts accusing, or even defending them, in the day when God shall judge the hidden things of men." In which he certainly shows that the hidden things of men are not to be revealed except in the day when God is to judge, just as he says still more plainly to the Corinthians: "Do not," he says, "judge before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both illuminate the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the counsels of hearts." All of which things are certainly understood to be said of this same day, in which darkness and mourning and sadness are said to be in store, on account of those who, pierced through with many wounds of sins, will stand in need of the remedies of fire. At which time it will be said to the saints: "Go, my people, enter into your storechambers, shut your door, hide yourself for a little while, until the fury of my wrath passes by." How great the riches of God's goodness are hidden away in these words, on account of those who despise his patience and goodness, there is no need to make manifest. It is indeed asked by some why this day, concerning which we above set in motion the prophetic libraries, has been appointed at the end of the world, so that all who have died from the beginning of the age up to its end are reserved to be judged on this last day. It is certain that the inner causes of this matter are covered over by more secret mysteries. But "it is good to hide the mystery of a king." Nevertheless, for the sake of explanation we shall speak, insofar as it is possible to commit the words to pages. There are many who, departing from this life, have left behind them certain seeds either of goods or of evils, from which the people who survive receive occasions either of salvation or of destruction: for example, I might say, such as are all those who founded among the philosophers depraved sects estranged from God; or those who devised magical sacrileges, or the errors of the stars and their decrees; or certainly those who among us have arisen as authors of heretics and of depraved doctrines by publishing books; or also those who have worked schisms in the Churches, and scandals and dissensions. But on the contrary there is the work of the apostolic writings, and the progress of the universal Church through them, and the conversion to God, and the correction of the whole world. The causes of all these things will not be closed off except with the end of the world itself: and therefore the judgment of God would not be just, so long as either the advances or the hindrances from each of these were still hanging in the balance. This too the Apostle seems to signify, when he says: "The sins of some men are manifest, going before them to judgment; but those of some follow after them." Now indeed, if even those placed outside the body — whether the saints, who are with Christ, do anything and labor on our behalf, after the likeness of the angels who administer the services of our salvation; or again if sinners also, themselves placed outside the body, do anything according to the purpose of their mind, after the likeness nonetheless of the angels on the left hand, with whom they are said by Christ to be sent also into the eternal fire — let this too be held among the hidden things of God, and mysteries not to be committed to paper. Let these things suffice concerning the day of wrath and revelation.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 2:6
Now let us inquire concerning the just judgment of God, in which he will render to each one according to his works. And first indeed let the heretics be excluded, who speak of good or evil natures of souls; and let them hear that God will render to each one not according to nature, but according to his works. In the second place let the faithful be built up, lest they suppose that this alone can suffice for them, that they believe; but let them know that the just judgment of God renders to each one according to his works. Certainly, since he says that the just judgment of God consists in this, that he render to each one according to his works, it will seem that the Gentiles can by no means be excluded by this saying, if perhaps they too do good works and act more uprightly. But that also which is written in Ezekiel seems to be opposed to this opinion. For he says: "When the just man turns himself away from his justice, and commits iniquity according to all the iniquities which the unjust man has done, all his acts of justice which he has done shall not be remembered in his lapse by which he has lapsed; but in his sins which he has sinned, in these he shall die." For indeed, if nothing of the just man's justice will be remembered when he has lapsed, how will God render to each one according to his works? But let us see whether perhaps the divine word may find its own resolution within itself, if we observe how it is written when it says: "When the just man has been turned away from his justice," and it was not enough for him to say: "When he has been turned away from his justice," but he added: "And has committed iniquity according to all the iniquities which the unjust man has done." In this he seems to have secretly inserted an understanding of this sort, so that if perhaps the just man has not acted according to all the iniquities which the unjust man has done, not all his acts of justice are taken away from memory; but if he has committed all the iniquities which the unjust man does, then at last all his acts of justice are withdrawn from memory in his lapse. Although the Holy Spirit has hidden these things in the Scriptures on account of those who despise the riches of his goodness and patience, nevertheless he has not utterly taken them away; because the treasure hidden in a field is indeed not found by all, lest it be easily plundered and perish: yet it is found by the prudent, who are able to go and sell all that they have, and buy that field. And so these things also, although they are hidden in the Scriptures, as it is written: "How great is the multitude of your sweetness, O Lord, which you have hidden for those who fear you!" — are nevertheless found by those who defend, from the things that are concealed in the mystery of the Scriptures, that the God of the law and the prophets is not only just, but also good. Of these things necessity has demanded that we disclose a few, for the sake of expounding the apostolic saying in which he says: "Of the just judgment of God, who will render to each one according to his works."
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 2:7
"To those indeed who, according to the patience of good work, seek glory and honor and incorruption, eternal life; but to those who are of contention, and who indeed disbelieve the truth but obey iniquity, wrath and indignation: and tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that works evil, of the Jew first, and of the Greek; but glory and honor and peace to everyone that works good, to the Jew first, and to the Greek. For there is no respect of persons with God." To those who seek glory and honor and incorruption, he says, eternal life will be given in return for the patience of good work — not only to the Jews, to whom the oracles of God seem to have been entrusted, but also to the Greeks, because the judgment of God is just, and he is not the God of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. But to those who through contention of mind and depravity of soul do not believe the truth but follow iniquity, wrath and indignation are repaid, tribulation and anguish — not only to the Gentile, but also to the Jew, because there is no respect of persons with God. These things, indeed, so far as regards the order of the words. But now let us inquire into what pertains to the inner meaning. "To those," he says, "who through the patience of good work." In saying "the patience of good work," he shows that a certain labor and struggles are imminent for those who wish to do good work. For "our wrestling is," as the same Apostle also says, "not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, and powers, and the rulers of this world"; all of which are opposed to good work. And therefore patience is necessary, because it is written: "In your patience you shall possess your souls." But let us see what he calls good work. The Lord in the Gospel says of that woman who poured out the alabaster jar of precious ointment upon his head that "she has worked a good work upon me," indicating that he who pours ointment over the word of God — that is, who joins works to the word — works a good work. For the discourse becomes fragrant, filled with all the sweetness of ointments, when it has been adorned with work and deeds. Now let us inquire what it is to seek glory and incorruption. In many places of holy Scripture they write concerning glory. For in Exodus it is said of Moses that when he came down from the mountain his face was glorified. Recounting this, the Apostle says to the Corinthians: "But if the ministry of death, engraved in letters upon stones, was made in glory, so that the children of Israel could not look upon the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which is done away; how much more shall the ministry of the Spirit be in glory! For if there is glory in the ministry of condemnation, how much more shall the ministry of justice abound in glory?" And a little after he adds: "But we all, with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord." There is therefore, according to the Apostle, a certain glory which is not glorified — such as that which was on the face of Moses, which is said to have been destroyed, and which can be understood as the letter of the Law, having indeed a certain glory of precepts, but one which cannot be glorified. And there is another glory, which remains and is glorified in Christ. For when he had gone up into the mountain with Peter and James and John, he is written to have been transformed into glory. "And then there appeared," he says, "Moses and Elias talking with him." By which it is shown that the glory of the Law and of the prophets then appeared when Christ had been transformed in glory, so that prophecy and law, illuminated by his glory, with the veil of the letter removed, might be understood in the spirit. But since in Exodus also it is said that the glory of God filled the tabernacle of testimony; and again, at the dedication of the temple, that the glory of God nonetheless descended and filled the house with smoke, darkness, and cloud — in which assuredly the very presence of God is indicated to be there — that glory must be thought to be spoken of in these passages of which the Apostle, writing to the Hebrews, says concerning the Son, that he is "the splendor of glory, and the express image of his substance." By which this is declared: that the Father himself is called the fount of glory, from whom the Son, the splendor of glory, is begotten, by participation in whom all creatures are said to have glory — as it is written of those who are of the resurrection: "One glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, another glory of the stars. Star differs from star in glory." Those, therefore, who seek this glory which is of the resurrection, and honor, and incorruption, will without doubt find that which is written: "The body is sown in dishonor, it shall rise in glory; it is sown in corruption, it shall rise in incorruption." And therefore the seeker of this glory and honor and incorruption obtains eternal life through the patience of good work. But since we have discussed glory as far as we could, let us see what honor also indicates, since those who hasten to eternal life seek not only glory but also honor. It is written that "man, when he was in honor, did not understand; he was compared to the senseless beasts, and was made like unto them." He seeks, therefore, that honor which he had before he was compared to the senseless beasts — that is, the one he had in paradise before he sinned, the honor by which he was worthy to hear the voice of God, the honor by which he enjoyed the fruits of paradise and the tree of life. But that also which the Apostle says — "Render to all their dues; to whom honor, honor" — seems to me to look toward this. For I so understand that the honor due is rendered to God if what is owed to justice is rendered, and nothing on its side is conceded to injustice; and likewise to truth, if what belongs to it is so rendered that nothing on its part is left to falsehood; and to wisdom too, and to innocence and goodness, if we so render what is theirs that we permit nothing of their goods either to folly, or to craftiness, or to malice. For when, for example, in judging you have either shown partiality to the person of a powerful man, or for the favor of a friend have suppressed what is true, you have not rendered the honor due to justice nor to truth, but you have dishonored justice and done outrage to truth; and since Christ is justice and sanctification and truth, you will be like those who struck Christ with blows, and who spat in his face, and who, beating his head with a reed, placed a crown of thorns upon his head. But what honor is owed by man to all these virtues, we are taught in the Gospels, the Lord saying: "That all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father." He therefore honors the Father and the Son who renders worthy honor and zeal to wisdom, and to justice, and to truth, and to all those things which Christ is said to be. In this manner, then, those who hasten to eternal life seek glory and honor and incorruption. But what incorruption indicates we shall quickly know, if we examine what is contrary to it. Incorruption has corruption as its contrary. Corruption is said to happen in two ways: bodily and spiritually. It happens bodily when that comes to pass which is written: "If any man shall corrupt the temple of God, God shall destroy him." But spiritually, when that happens which the Apostle likewise says: "But I fear lest, as the serpent seduced Eve by his cunning, so your senses may be corrupted from the simplicity of the faith which is in Christ Jesus." If anyone, therefore, has remained uncorrupted in body and spirit from those things we have spoken of above, he is said to seek incorruption — namely, that through this incorruption of observance he may be worthy to obtain that incorruption which is of the resurrection. But let us see what is given to those who seek these things. "Eternal life," he says: that of which the Savior teaches when he says: "But this is eternal life, that they may know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." By which he shows that the substance of eternal life abides in the knowledge of God and of Christ Jesus. But how the knowledge of God may be had, we are taught in the Psalms, when it is said: "Be still, and know that I am God."
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 2:8-9
"But to those who are contentious, and who indeed disbelieve the truth but obey iniquity, wrath and indignation, tribulation and anguish." Whoever takes these words simply believes it enough for understanding that, according to what was said above, God renders to each one according to his works: that is, just as to those who by patience in good work seek glory and incorruption he renders eternal life, so also to these who out of contentiousness disbelieve the truth but obey iniquity he renders wrath and indignation, tribulation and anguish. But whoever believes that in the apostolic writings, through which Christ speaks, not one iota or one tittle is idle, will affirm that it was not by mistake that the Apostle came to use such a manner of speech, saying: "Who will render to those indeed who by patience in good work seek glory and honor, eternal life." But of those who out of contentiousness obey iniquity, he did not say "wrath and indignation," so that this too should be referred to the "he will render" which he had said above; rather he says: "Wrath and indignation, tribulation and anguish." Hence he who is spiritual, and understands what the Spirit speaks in Paul, says that the Apostle wrote these things not through unskillfulness but through divine skill: namely, that by them he might show that those things which are to be rendered to such as seek glory and incorruption according to patience in good work are rendered by God — that is, eternal life; but that those things which follow upon such as through contentiousness disbelieve the truth and obey iniquity are not given by God, whose gifts are surely lasting and worthy of himself, but that out of the consequence of their own deeds there will be, for those who work evil, wrath and indignation, tribulation and anguish, according to what they have treasured up for themselves. For surely, just as there he had put "eternal life" in the accusative case, so here too he would have put wrath and indignation, tribulation and anguish in the accusative case, had he wished to refer it to the person of the God who renders. And this is understood to be indicated in like manner in other places of Scripture as well, as in the first book of Kings, where the Lord says: "Those who glorify me I will glorify; those who despise me shall be despised." In which it is plainly shown that the Lord says of those who are to be glorified that they are to be glorified by himself; but of those who are to be despised, that he did not refer it to himself, but said absolutely that they shall be despised. For if God bestowed evils through himself just as he furnishes goods through himself, it would follow that, in the same way as he said, "Those who glorify me I will glorify," so he would say: Those who despise me I will despise. But in another place too something similar seems to be shown through the prophet, in that those who go into the fire find it kindled not by God but by themselves, as Isaiah says: "Walk in the light of your fire, and in the flame which you have kindled." And that the discussion of these things may become still plainer, let this also be added: If someone, against the physician's precept, has taken the juices of bad foods and, the body's balance being disturbed, has fallen into fevers or any diseases of this kind, it is certain that he has received the plague of his sickness not through the physician but through his own intemperance; but if, keeping the physician's precepts, he continues in soundness, he will surely be said to have the grace of health through the physician. In this way, then, it will consistently be seen that God himself through himself renders to each one according to his works, those which are good; but evils will be understood to come not from God, but from the worst juices of intemperance and the raw depravity of one's deeds. But let us not leave undiscussed this very thing which he said: "Who out of contentiousness indeed disbelieve the truth, but obey iniquity." For in these several expressions certain sicknesses of the soul are designated by the Apostle, whose remedy no one will find unless he has first come to know the causes of the diseases. And therefore in the divine Scriptures the ailments of the soul are enumerated and the remedies described, so that those who have submitted themselves to apostolic instruction may, having recognized their own sicknesses from what is written, be healed and able to say: "Praise the Lord, O my soul, who heals all your sicknesses." One sickness of the soul, then, among the rest — and indeed the worst — is to be understood to be contentiousness, through which every depraved work is carried out. Through this heresies are born, through this schisms, and all scandals are generated in the Churches, while those who are prudent in their own eyes and wise in their own sight defend whatever pleases them as though it were law; and thence it comes about that the truth is disbelieved, while iniquity is obeyed. Moreover "to disbelieve" is customarily found in the holy Scriptures for "not to believe" or "not to obey," as also in this place; which perhaps the Latin translator would have rendered more aptly had he said: Who do not obey the truth, but obey iniquity. Everyone, therefore, who enters upon a road foreign to the truth, and does not follow him who said, "I am the truth," disbelieves the truth and is disobedient to it. So too those who err not only in acts but also in perceptions and in faith; which happens most of all out of contentiousness. But those also who set themselves against wisdom, and against righteousness and sanctification, disbelieve Christ, who as he is truth, so also is wisdom, so also is sanctification. But not to obey Christ, who is righteousness, this is to obey iniquity, and those acts which are without doubt followed by the things that are written: "wrath and indignation, tribulation and anguish." Concerning wrath we have often already said that sometimes the very torment which is inflicted upon the soul from the consciousness of sin is called wrath; but by indignation is signified a certain swelling of that same wrath, and its agitation in each particular: as if, for example, we should set down some very bad wound as the wrath, while the swelling and distension of it should be called the indignation of the wound. But the tribulation which anguish follows is not to be thought like that tribulation of which the Apostle says that "tribulation works patience." For that sort of tribulation does not have anguish following upon it, as the Apostle himself also says: "We suffer tribulation, but we are not in anguish." Indeed, that tribulation of the saints not only has no anguish, but has breadth. Finally the just man speaks thus: "In tribulation you have enlarged me." Of this breadth the Apostle also, conscious of it in himself, writes to the Corinthians: "You are not straitened in me, but you are straitened in your own inward parts." And he added: "Be you also enlarged." Therefore God says of his saints, whom he knows to be enlarged and to have within the dwelling of their heart spaces spread far and wide: "I will dwell in them, and I will walk about in them." This gift also Solomon received from God among the other gifts of wisdom, as it is written: "And the Lord gave," he says, "to Solomon very great prudence, and breadth of heart." In this breadth, then, of the heart of the saints God not only dwells but also walks about. But in the hearts of sinners, where there are narrow straits, because they have given place to the devil to enter in, the devil indeed enters, yet not to dwell nor to walk about — for they are narrow — but to lie hidden as in a cave; for he is a serpent. So then within itself the unhappy soul which this most evil snake has besieged, stiffening with serpentine cold, is drawn together and constricted, and is forced into every narrowness; whereas that soul which obeys the truth is enlarged after the likeness of heaven, and is spread abroad, and is illumined by the rays of the sun of righteousness, and becomes the hall of wisdom and of truth.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 2:10
Yet why wrath and indignation to the Jew first, and to the Greek? Because glory and honor also belong to them first. For to them first were entrusted the oracles of God, and they themselves say: "Blessed are we, O Israel, for the things that please God are known to us." And therefore, according to the sentence of the Gospel, "the servant who knew his lord's will and did it not shall deservedly be beaten with many stripes" — this is the Jew; "but he who did not know it," the Greek, that is, the Gentile, "shall be beaten with few." For there is a difference between having known God and having known the will of God, since God could be known "from the creation of the world through the things that were made" even by the Gentiles, and "his eternal power and divinity"; but his will is known only from the Law and the prophets. But since the Apostle puts the Jews first and the Greeks after, both for punishment and for reward, we must inquire whom he wishes to be understood here as Greeks and whom as Jews. If he calls those Jews who are still under the Law and do not come to Christ, and calls Christians Greeks — that is, those who believe from among the nations — he seems to go against the sense of the whole mystery. For how shall those be called first of whom it was said: "Behold, the first shall be last"; and to whom again he says: "Behold, your house shall be left to you desolate"? And again, when the Savior had come to the fig tree on which he found no fruit, he said that "never let fruit be born from you." And two peoples were signified in the womb of Rebecca, of whom it is said that "the elder shall serve the younger," and the younger received the blessing of the birthright. But you will find countless other things of this sort in the Scriptures. If, however, he calls us Jews — that is, Christians, and those who have believed out of every race, whom he himself calls Jews in secret — it remains that he calls those Gentiles Greeks who have not yet believed. But how does the Apostle set so great a hope before Gentiles who have not yet believed, when the ecclesiastical rule seems to stand in the way, which lays down that "unless one be born again of water and the Holy Spirit," he cannot "enter into the kingdom of heaven"; and again Peter in the Acts of the Apostles declares concerning Christ, saying: "For neither is there any other name under heaven whereby we must be saved"? How then does he here make the nations partakers of glory and honor and peace in the second place after the Jews? But let us see whether perhaps that goodness and sweetness of God which is wont to be hidden in the holy Scriptures may here too be contriving something secret. In this passage the Apostle seems to me to have made three orders. For first he speaks of those "who by patience in good work seek glory and honor and incorruption," that God renders to them "eternal life." But it is certain that patience in good work is found in those who endure the contests and struggles of piety — which we expounded above to be said plainly of Christians, among whom martyrs are made. This is proved also by what the Lord says to the apostles, that "you shall have tribulation in this world, and the world shall rejoice, but you shall mourn"; and he added a little later: "In your patience you shall gain your souls." It belongs, then, to Christians to suffer oppression in this age and to mourn, and theirs is eternal life. And do you wish to know that eternal life belongs to no one except him who believes in Christ? Hear the voice of the Savior himself plainly declaring it in the Gospels: "But this is eternal life, that they may know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." Everyone therefore who has not acknowledged the Father, the only true God, and his Son, Jesus Christ, is a stranger to the eternity of life. For this very acknowledgment and faith is designated as eternal life. This, then, is the first place, that of Christians, to whom, as they seek glory and honor and incorruption through patience in good work, eternal life will be rendered — that life, without doubt, which says: "I am the way, the truth, and the life." And in Christ, who is eternal life, is the fullness of all good things. In the second place are set those "who are of contention, and who indeed disbelieve the truth but obey iniquity"; over whom hang "wrath and indignation, tribulation and anguish" — that is, upon every soul that works evil, of the Jew first, and of the Greek. But to these same, in the third place, a recompense of good things is also promised with an equal distinction, when he says: "But glory and honor and peace to everyone who works good, to the Jew first and to the Greek." Which, so far as I can grasp it, he says of Jews and of Gentiles, both being as yet unbelievers. For it can happen that even among those who are in the Law, if someone by reason of the common persuasion does not believe in Christ, yet works what is good, holds to justice, loves mercy, preserves chastity and continence, guards modesty and gentleness, and performs every good work — this man, even though he does not have eternal life, because believing in the only true God he has not also believed in his Son Jesus Christ whom he sent, nevertheless the glory of his works, and peace, and honor will be able not to perish. But the Greek also, that is, the Gentile, if, though he has not the Law, he is a law to himself, showing the work of the law in his heart, and moved by natural reason — as we see some among the nations — either holds to justice, or preserves chastity, or guards prudence, temperance, and modesty: this man, although he seems a stranger to eternal life because he does not believe in Christ, and cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven because he has not been born again of water and the Spirit, nevertheless it seems, from these things which are said by the Apostle, that he cannot utterly lose the glory and honor and peace of good works. For if, according to what we have discussed above, the Apostle seems to condemn the Gentiles on the ground that, having known God by natural understanding, they did not magnify him as God, why do we not think that he can and ought also to praise them, if any among them, knowing God, magnify him as God? I do not think, therefore, that it can be doubted that the one who would have deserved to be condemned for an evil work would likewise, if he had done a good work, be held worthy of the reward of the good work. For you see the Apostle saying that "we must all stand before the tribunal of Christ, that each one may carry back the proper things of the body, according as he has done, whether good or evil."
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 2:11
From this, finally, comes what he adds in this passage: "For there is no respect of persons with God." But if this still seems doubtful to you, hear also what Peter declares in the Acts of the Apostles, when he had entered in to the Gentile Cornelius: "I find," he says, "that God is not a respecter of persons, but in every place and in every nation, he who does his will is accepted by him." But it can be objected against us what the Lord says in the Gospel: "Everyone who believes in me shall not be judged. But he who does not believe is already judged, because he does not believe in the name of the only-begotten Son of God." But let us see how we who believe in Christ are not judged, that we may know how he too who does not believe is already judged. Do we suppose, perhaps, that one who has believed in Christ and after this has committed murder or adultery, or has borne false witness, or has done something of this kind — things we sometimes see even the faithful commit — that for these he who has believed in Christ will now not be judged? It is certain that all these come to judgment; and therefore the Lord's word which he says, "He who believes in me shall not be judged," is to be understood thus: that according to the fact that he has believed he shall not be judged as an unbeliever and faithless man; but concerning his own acts he shall without doubt be judged. So then he too who does not believe is already judged according to the fact that he has not believed; and just as for the believer, if he has committed anything of sin outside, his faith being safe, judgment remains: so also for the unbeliever, if he has done any good work, apart from his unbelief, the reward will not perish. Unless perhaps someone should wish to object something harsh and intolerable, so as to say that he who sins is not to be counted among believers; because if a man believes, he does not sin; but if he sins, by this very fact he is convicted of not believing. But I think it is doubtful to no one how hard this opinion is. For how few will be found on earth who so balance their life as to fail in nothing whatever? But John the Apostle too in his Epistle plainly marks an opinion of this sort, when he says: "If anyone says that he has no sin, he is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if we confess our sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus the just, who entreats for our sins." These things, then, have been discussed by us in this passage as far as we could, considering also what the Apostle says: "Or is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also"; so that through these things the explanation may become clearer of how Jews are placed first, and then Greeks, by the Apostle. But nevertheless let it be in the judgment of the reader to test what has been said. We, however, have brought many things into the treatment, lest we should seem to leave anything of the Apostle's meaning undiscussed.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 2:12-13
"For whoever have sinned without the law shall also perish without the law, and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified." Since the Apostle says that those who have sinned without the law will perish without the law, the question arises whether this is to be understood of the law of Moses alone, or also of the law of Christ, or even of any human law whatsoever under which it happens that each mortal lives, so that whoever sins under it may be judged according to it; or whether he who is outside the law of Moses alone, even if he lives under some law, perishes when he has sinned as one placed outside the law. For the apostle Paul himself, when he says that to those who are without the law he became as one without the law, adds: "though I was not without the law, but was in the law of Christ," and thereby shows that he was indeed not in the law of Moses, yet was under a law. But consider too whether human laws, as we have said, ought to be reckoned for this same purpose. As for the natural law, however, which is present in all men alike, it must be considered whether it makes nearly all men sin within a law, as he says in what follows: "For when the Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature the things that belong to the law, these, not having the law, are a law unto themselves, and they show the work of the law written in their hearts." Unless perhaps we should say that those are placed outside the law who obey neither written laws, nor conscience, nor their own thoughts rebuking and accusing them. But how does he say, "As many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law"? Surely he who is in the law of Christ shall be judged by the law of Christ, and he who is in the law of Moses shall be judged by the law of Moses; nor is he who is under the law of Christ — although he may also seem to be subject to the law of Moses — to be thought judged according to it as to why he is not circumcised, or why he does not keep the Sabbath. And even if he is to be thought judged according to the law of Moses, he will be judged according to that respect in which the law is spiritual. For this is what it means that not the hearer of the law but the doer is justified. But as to the fact that he who has sinned without the law seems to be struck with the heavier sentence, since he is pronounced destined to perish — whereas surely he might seem worthy of some pity, having had no help from the law — let us see whether here again, as we have shown in other places, some divine goodness lies hidden, which He always hides for those who fear Him. For perhaps it is on this account that the Lord Himself shows in the Gospel that He has a more eager care for those who perish, when He says that "the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which had perished." And again He says: "I was not sent except to the sheep that have perished of the house of Israel." And David says: "I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek Thy servant." Moreover, in the Gospel the drachma which had been lost is found by the woman when the house has been cleaned; and the father rejoices over the younger son who repents, who "was dead, and is alive again; had perished, and is found," more than over the one who had not perished nor been found. Which younger son, as I judge, had already fled even from the natural law itself: for this seems to be indicated in his consuming, by living luxuriously, the portion of his father's substance that fell to him. Moreover, in the prophet Ezekiel it is charged against the shepherds that they did not bind up the weak, and did not seek what had perished; and a little later the Lord Himself says: "And what has perished," He says, "I will seek out." Yet it must be observed that in all these passages God is nowhere said to have destroyed anyone, but each one suffers of himself this perishing, as he says in this very place: "They shall also perish without the law"; and, "The Son of Man came to seek that which had perished," not that which He had destroyed; and "to the lost sheep of the house of Israel," not those which He had destroyed. And when the Lord Himself says, "All," He says, "whom Thou hast given Me, I have kept, and none of them has perished," He did not say: I have destroyed none of them. Indeed, wherever God is said to destroy, you will find it said rather in the sense of "reject," as when He says: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will reject the understanding of the prudent." But as to His saying that "as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law," consider whether perhaps, according to those penalties which are written in the Law, by which judgments were carried out — where men are commanded to be stoned, or handed over to the fire, or to go to the city of refuge, or to suffer other such things — the future judgment may also be of this sort: since indeed those who are under the law are said to serve a pattern and shadow of heavenly things; lest perhaps by some similar reasoning the future judgment also be conducted against those who have transgressed the law. Since therefore it has become clear that different laws are spoken of in the Scriptures, if anyone has so far fled from all of these that even the natural law itself, which is lacking to almost no one, seems in him to be blotted out and abolished, whether through hardness or through grossness of heart, of such a one it may seem to be said that he perishes without the law; whereas he is said to be judged by the law who lives under the law, since the Apostle also testifies that everyone who has himself circumcised is a debtor to keep the whole law.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 2:14
"For when the Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature the things that are of the law, these, not having the law, are a law unto themselves: who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness to them, and their thoughts among themselves accusing or even defending one another, in the day when God shall judge the hidden things of men, according to my Gospel, through Jesus Christ." It is certain that the Gentiles, who do not have the law, are not said to do by nature the things that are of the law with regard to Sabbaths or New Moons, or the sacrifices which are written in the law. For this law is not written in the hearts of the Gentiles; but this is what they can perceive by nature: for example, that they should not commit murder, not commit adultery, not steal, not bear false witness; that they should honor father and mother, and things like these. Perhaps too the fact that God is the one creator of all things is written in the hearts of the Gentiles. Nevertheless, these things which are said to be written in the heart seem to me to accord rather with the laws of the Gospel, where all things are referred back to natural equity. For what is so close to natural perceptions as that men should not do to others what they do not wish to be done to themselves? But the natural law can agree with the law of Moses according to the spirit, not according to the letter. For what natural understanding will there be in this, for instance, that one should circumcise an infant on the eighth day, or that wool should not be woven together with linen, or that no one should eat anything leavened on the day of the New Things? And when we had several times put these objections to the Jews, and demanded that they show what usefulness there might be in them, we know that they were accustomed to reply only this: that so it seemed good to the lawgiver. But we who hold that all these things are to be understood spiritually, for that reason also believe that not the hearers but the doers of the law are to be justified — not of the law according to the letter, which certainly, on account of its impossibility, cannot have a doer, but according to the spirit, through which alone the law can be fulfilled. This, then, is the work of the law which the Apostle says even the Gentiles can fulfill by nature. For when they do the things that are of the law, the law seems to be "written" in their hearts by God, "not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God."
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 2:15
But as for his saying "in the hearts," it must not be supposed that the law is said to be written in that member of the body which is called the heart. For how could flesh either put forth such perceptions of prudence, or contain such great storehouses of memory? But it must be understood that the rational power of the soul is customarily called the heart. And the Apostle says that those who hold the law inscribed in their hearts make use of the testimony of a sound conscience. Hence it seems necessary to examine what this is that the Apostle calls conscience: whether it is some substance other than the heart or the soul. For this conscience is spoken of elsewhere too, in that it rebukes and is not rebuked, and judges the man and is not itself judged, as John says: "If our conscience," he says, "does not rebuke us, we have confidence toward God." And again Paul himself says elsewhere that "this is our glorying, the testimony of our conscience." Since therefore I see so great a freedom in it, which in good deeds indeed always rejoices and exults, but in evil ones is not itself accused, but rebukes and accuses the very soul to which it clings, I judge that it is that spirit which is said by the Apostle to be with the soul, according to what we have taught above — joined to it as a kind of tutor and guide, so that it may admonish it concerning better things, or chastise and accuse it for its faults; concerning which the Apostle also says that "no man knows the things of a man, except the spirit of the man which is in him"; and that this is the spirit of conscience, of which he says: "The Spirit himself bears witness to our spirit." And perhaps this is that very spirit which clings to the souls of the just, which have been obedient to it in all things; and therefore it is written: "Praise the Lord, you spirits and souls of the just." But if the soul has been disobedient and defiant toward it, it will be divided from it after death, and separated. And on this account I think it was said in the Gospel concerning the wicked steward, that "the Lord will divide him, and will set his portion with the unbelievers." Perhaps this is the spirit of which it is written, that "the spirit in men is incorruptible." And according to what we said above, that it is divided and separated from the sinful soul, so that the soul may receive its portion with the unbelievers, that saying too can likewise be applied to these matters: "There shall be two in the field, one shall be taken and one shall be left; and two at the mill, one shall be taken and one shall be left." So much concerning what is written: "Their conscience bearing witness."
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 2:16
Now let us see what follows: "And their thoughts among themselves accusing one another, or even defending them, in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men according to my Gospel, through Jesus Christ." Who would doubt that the judgment of God is right, where accusers and defenders and witnesses are employed? And indeed from this just judgment of God let us men take an example, and let us never suppose that a judgment can be held just without an accuser, and a defender, and witnesses. Next we must see how, on that day when God shall judge the secrets of men, the thoughts will either accuse the soul or defend it — not, surely, those thoughts which shall then exist, but these which are now in us. For when we think either good things or evil, just as upon wax tablets, so in our heart there are left behind certain marks and impressions of both good and evil thoughts, which, now placed in the hidden part of the breast, are said to be revealed on that day by no other than him who alone can know the secrets of men; and our own conscience too will bear witness that the causes of those signs, or of those marks, are not hidden from God. Yet this judgment, according to Paul's Gospel (that is, the one which Paul announces), will take place through Jesus Christ, "for the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son." Marcion, however, and all who by their various fabrications introduce diverse natures of souls, are most plainly refuted from this passage, since Paul says that God judges the secrets of men through Jesus Christ: and it is shown that each one is to be judged not by the privilege of nature, but accused or excused by his own thoughts, by the testimony of his own conscience.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 2:17-24
"But if you are called a Jew, and rest in the law, and glory in God, and know his will, and approve the more useful things, being instructed by the law, and are confident that you are a guide of the blind, a light of those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, having the form of knowledge and of truth in the law. You then who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal? You who say that one should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abominate idols, do you commit sacrilege? You who glory in the law, by transgression of the law do you dishonor God. For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written." Just as we have observed in the prophetic Scriptures that not only is the person of the speaker secretly and suddenly changed, but also that of those to whom the discourse is addressed, or concerning whom it is made — for example, that some things are said now in the person of the Father, now of the Son, or of the Holy Spirit, now also in the person of the prophet, or of any others whatever; and that now indeed the discourse is directed to the people of Israel, now to foreign nations, or to kings, and to a thousand others — so it seems to me that this Epistle also was written to the Romans in such a way that at times the person of the speaker is changed, and sometimes indeed the spiritual Paul speaks, as in many places of the Epistle; but sometimes the carnal Paul, as, for example, when he says: "But I am carnal, sold under sin," as will be shown when, with the Lord's guidance, we come to that very passage. And at times there occurs also a change of the persons to whom the discourse is addressed, so that now it is said to the whole Church of the Romans: "I give thanks to my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is announced in the whole world"; but in other places not to the whole Church, but to everyone who judges another and himself does those things which he condemns in others, and is inexcusable. But now this discourse is made neither to the Church nor to him who judges, in which he says: "But if you are called a Jew, and rest in the law, and glory in God, and know his will," and the rest, as far as that passage: "And the uncircumcision which is by nature, fulfilling the law, shall judge you, who by the letter and circumcision are a transgressor of the law." Just as in the prophetic Scriptures he who wishes to grasp the understanding of what is written must attend vigilantly to the persons — whether of those speaking, or of those to whom, or of those about whom the discourse is made — so now, it seems to me, must we proceed in the Epistle to the Romans. But let us now see what those things are which the Apostle says to him who is called a Jew. For first this must be observed, that he did not say of him: "But if you" are a Jew; but, "you are called a Jew": because to be a Jew and to be called a Jew are not the same thing. For Paul himself teaches in what follows that he is truly a Jew who is circumcised "in secret" with the circumcision of the heart, who keeps the law "in the spirit, not the letter," "whose praise is not from men, but from God." But he who is circumcised "openly, in the flesh," observing the law for this purpose, that he may be seen by men — he is not truly a Jew, but is called one. For concerning these the Apostle himself also says: "Behold the circumcision: for we are the circumcision, who serve God in the spirit." But John too in the Apocalypse speaks thus of certain ones: "Who say that they are Jews, and are not": whom he also declares to be "of the synagogue of Satan." Yet it must be known that he who is "in secret" and truly a Jew draws his name from that Judah of whom it is written: "Judah, your brothers shall praise you: your hands shall be upon the back of your enemies. Judah is a lion's whelp," and the rest, which were prophesied concerning the Lord and Savior. Therefore, if it has become clear about the distinctions of persons, and who is truly a Jew, but who is called so by name alone, let us see what the apostolic discourse says to this man who boasts that he is a Jew, and is not. You, he says, who are called a Jew, and place all your rest in the letter of the law, and glory in God as one who is his portion, and to whom it has been granted to know the will of God, and as one skilled in testing boast that you can know and discern what things are more useful, and their differences, so that you not only know what things are good, but also discern what are better and more useful, you are also confident that you can be a guide of the blind: doubtless you are of those guides of whom the Lord said: "They are blind guides of the blind. But if a blind man leads a blind man, both fall into the pit." He is confident, then, that he is a guide of the blind, and a light also of those who are in darkness. But to these too the Lord nonetheless says: "But if the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness itself!" Yet they are confident that they are instructors of the foolish, and teachers of infants, as those who have received from the letter of the law the form of knowledge and of truth. And because they indeed profess these things, yet do not truly hold them, the Apostle says to them: "You therefore who teach another, do you not teach yourself? And you who preach that a man should not steal," you steal the coming and presence of Christ, which has shone forth upon the whole world; "you who say that one should not commit adultery," you commit adultery against the synagogue of the people of God, bringing upon it a depraved and adulterous word of doctrine; and you unite it with the letter of the law which is outside, though you read what is written of her, that "all the glory of the king's daughter is within"; and to whom you read it likewise said through the prophet: "Unless you hear in secret, your soul shall weep." You therefore who deny that one should commit adultery, commit so grave an adultery as to introduce an adulterous meaning to her of whom you read it said by God: "I will betroth you to myself in faithfulness and mercy." You who abominate idols, commit sacrilege, violating the true temple of God, which is Christ Jesus. For you destroy the temple of God which was raised up in three days for those who believe. But he too who steals and conceals the word from the law and the prophets which proclaims Christ, lest the people hear and believe, commits sacrilege, and truly violates the temple of God. Likewise also this man who is called a Jew, and glories in the letter of the Law of Moses, is convicted as a transgressor of the Law when he does not believe Christ. For if he believed Moses, he would surely believe him of whom Moses wrote. Because of such men, therefore, who are called Jews and are not, the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles, not only for their most wicked works, but also because of the low and debased understanding which they have in the law and the prophets.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 2:17-24
For they become ridiculous even to the Gentiles themselves when, following the letter of the Law, they say: "Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle: all of which things are unto corruption according to the commandments and doctrines of men." But these things the Apostle indeed says to him who is a Jew in name, not in deed; yet they can pertain also to every man in whom there is only the name of religion and piety, while works, and knowledge, and faith are lacking. And therefore we ought to examine these matters with greater care in ourselves than in those who do not come to faith in Christ, lest any of us who through faith in Christ and through the circumcision given in baptism has been made a true Jew, and rests in the law of Christ, and boasts also that, having driven off the error of idols, he has come to know God and that His will has become known to him (for he knows how to prove what is good, and well-pleasing, and perfect, and has advanced so far that he is even a leader and teacher of the Church for enlightening those who are blind in knowledge, and for instructing the little ones in Christ) — lest, I say, such a man be willing indeed to teach others quite strictly, and to demand from those whom he instructs the highest discipline of chastity, while he himself is driven by the vice of intemperance and of covetousness, and sometimes even burns with the flames of hidden lust. To a man of this sort, then, this apostolic word is fittingly applied, saying to him: "You who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal? You who say that a man should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery?" But if also, as sometimes is wont to happen, he has turned to his own gains the offerings taken up for God, and the alms given for the use of the poor, it is rightly said to him: "You who abhor idols, do you commit sacrilege?" But if he even runs into open disgrace, and by his avarice, and unjust judgments, and drunkenness he already bears a public mark of infamy, God is dishonored in his deeds; and when a teacher of the Church has become known to the peoples as being such, "the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles." For it is certain that disciples are like their master. Yet these same things can, in a third place, be applied also to heretics. For they too are called Christians, and some of them have even held to the Law, and, instructed by it, profess themselves to be guides of the blind and teachers of infants, approving as more useful the things which they say lie hidden from the men of the Church. But since these men steal the words of God, and by a perverse exposition filch away their meaning, and bring an adulterous understanding of the faith into the royal bridal chambers, to the Church, the Bride of Christ, it is rightly said to them: "You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal? You who say that a man should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery?" — and those who "abhor idols" commit "sacrilege," stealing the precious vessels from the temple of God, that is, the pearls of the true faith from the holy Scriptures: through whom also "the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles," while they stain the chaste and honorable teachings of the Church with the corrupt and shameful errors of heretical depravity. For from them have arisen, to the discredit of the holy religion, the reproaches of infanticide and incest and of other like crimes. It must be known, however, that the Apostle says these things to the Jews by way of irony. For he who truly rests in the Law, and boasts in God, and approves the more useful things, is not to be believed to do the things that have been enumerated. Now the testimony which he set down, that is, "For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you," is taken from Isaiah.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 2:25
"Circumcision indeed profits, if you keep the law; but if you are a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. If therefore the uncircumcision keep the righteous requirements of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be reckoned as circumcision? And shall not that which by nature is uncircumcision, fulfilling the law, judge you, who by the letter and circumcision are a transgressor of the law? For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men, but from God." What that circumcision may be which the Apostle says profits, or what law it is that profits if it be kept, seems to require a rather careful inquiry, so that when we have understood these things we too may be able to be circumcised. For indeed, if circumcision profits, according to the word of the Apostle saying that "circumcision profits, if you keep the law," the Apostle himself in what follows teaches that it is not "that circumcision which is outward in the flesh," but "the circumcision of the heart," made through the spirit, not through the letter, that has praise not from men but from God. And elsewhere he says: "Behold the circumcision: for we are the circumcision, who serve God in the spirit, and put no confidence in the flesh." This, as I think, is the circumcision which the Apostle says profits, if you keep the law: not the law of the letter, whose circumcision in the flesh you certainly do not receive, but the law of the spirit, according to which you are circumcised in heart. "For the letter kills, but the spirit gives life," since the law of God also is reported to be "written not with ink," but with the finger of God, which is His Spirit, "and not on tablets of stone, but on the tablets of the heart." But it can be objected to us that, if the Apostle says that circumcision profits — which surely is understood to be nothing else than the purging of the soul and the casting off of vices — how does he still add that a circumcision of this kind profits only then if you keep the law, when this very circumcision seems to come about from nothing else than the observance of the law? But consider whether perhaps to cut away vices and to cease from evils signifies circumcision, while to do the things that are good and to accomplish the things that are perfect is to keep the law. For perfection does not consist in this, that one cease from evils, but in this, that one do good things, as we are more plainly taught in the Psalm, when it says: "Turn away from evil" — and it did not stop there, but added: "and do good." Similarly, therefore, the Apostle also, as one steeped in these things, says that circumcision and the casting off of evils profits only then, if you keep the law of good things. For no one can be perfect if he has done nothing evil, but only if he has done something good. Whence that very circumcision also which was performed in the flesh will be signified not apart from the image of this understanding which we are now expounding. Indeed, it was given to little ones on the eighth day, who assuredly had as yet done no work at all. But if anyone should bring forward to us that passage which is set down at the beginning of the book of Job concerning his praise, where it is said: "And Job was a man truthful, blameless, just, a worshipper of God, abstaining from every evil thing" — as to why, when the praise of good work comes first, abstinence from evil is reckoned last: I think indeed that this indicates what often is wont to happen, namely that very many men do indeed the things that are good, yet mix in also something of evil work; but few are such as Job, who are so truthful and irreproachable, so just and worshippers of God, that while doing all these things they abstain from every evil thing. "If therefore," he says, "you are a transgressor of the law" — as we expounded above, by not doing the things that are good — "your circumcision has become uncircumcision," since even this, that you have seemed to abstain from evil, is reckoned to you, who do not do the works of faith and of righteousness, unto unbelief. For it is not possible for anyone's fleshly circumcision to be turned back again into uncircumcision, since assuredly the flesh of the foreskin once cut off cannot return again. More worthily, therefore, and more plainly is it understood that abstinence from evil work, which is signified by circumcision, is reckoned unto uncleanness if it does not have the works of faith. But also in the Church, he who is circumcised through the grace of baptism, if after this he is a transgressor of the law of Christ, the circumcision of baptism will be reckoned to him as the uncircumcision of unbelief: since "faith without works" is said to be "dead," and the portion of the wicked steward is placed with the unbelievers.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 2:26-27
"But if the uncircumcision keeps the righteous requirements of the law, shall not that which is by nature uncircumcision, fulfilling the law, judge you, who by the letter and circumcision are a transgressor of the law?" We said above that the Apostle is discussing two Jews and two circumcisions, and that he mentions now the carnal, now the spiritual. In the present passage, therefore, he seems to call "uncircumcision" the Gentiles, who came to faith in Christ while in the uncircumcision of the flesh: these, as keepers of the spiritual law, he sets alongside and compares with the Jews, who by the letter and the circumcision of the flesh are transgressors of the law, and whom he says are to be judged by those in whom there is not circumcision of the flesh but observance of the law. And from this comparison we can also admonish our own people in the Church; for example, if we were to say that catechumens, or even the heathen, are still in uncircumcision, and that the faithful have been circumcised through the grace of baptism. If, then, a catechumen who has not yet been circumcised through the grace of the laver keeps the law of Christ, and guards its righteous requirements and commandments, does he not by this comparison judge the man who is called faithful and does not keep the precepts, but despises the law of Christ and his commandments? Indeed, the Lord himself said: "The queen of the South shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation and shall condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon." Let this much, then, be said by us for the instruction of the Church. But consider whether that other understanding also can be admitted in this passage: that it may be said that even after the coming of Christ the circumcision of the flesh, which is observed from the law, is of some profit to those who keep the law — according to the fact that in the beginning of our faith it was still observed by believers, as is taught in the Acts of the Apostles that Peter did in the distinguishing of foods, or Paul in the sacrifices of purification; whether perhaps here too the Apostle may seem to have set forth a circumcision of this sort, which he says profits only if the law is also kept; and if not, this circumcision is to be turned into uncircumcision, that is, it will profit nothing — indeed, that he even incurs the greater judgment who by circumcision of the flesh appears to profess observance of the law, and by transgressing the law is judged by him who has not indeed received the circumcision of the flesh, yet has kept the righteous requirements of the law. If, then, this sense too ought to be accepted, do you also who read observe that, since the Apostle himself professes that to the Jews he becomes a Jew, and to those who are without the law as one without the law, and becomes all things to all, that he may gain all — whether perhaps for this reason he seems here to concede to the Jews what, writing to the Galatians, he does not concede to those who had believed from among the Gentiles. For he says: "Because if you are circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing." Circumcision, then, profited nothing to those who supposed that something of justification was received from it; but it did profit those who thought that they must not come to Christ if they were forbidden to circumcise their sons. For there were some in the beginnings who kept circumcision with excessive love, as it were the native badge of their nation; and they seemed to be hindered from the faith if that were forbidden them which they could not do without. Therefore the Apostle seems to speak to men of this sort, lest he shut the door of faith against them, saying: "Circumcision profits, if you keep the law; but if you are a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision." On the contrary, however, if believers from among the Gentiles were compelled to circumcision, injury would seem to be done to the faith of Christ and to the preaching of the word. But this too must be observed, that when he had said, "Circumcision indeed profits, if you keep the law," he did not add, "But if you do not keep it," as seemed to follow, but said, "But if you are a transgressor of the law." In which he shows that it is one thing not to keep the law, and another to transgress the law. For even Paul himself does not always keep the law, yet he is never a transgressor of the law. Therefore in what follows he says: "But if the uncircumcision keeps the righteousness of the law, shall not that which is by nature uncircumcision, fulfilling the law, judge you, who by the letter and circumcision are a transgressor of the law?" He keeps the law, then, who observes it according to the letter; and he transgresses it who does not hold its spiritual meaning. But the righteousness of the law is its moral part. For "law" is a general term, whereas righteousness is a part of the law. For the law contains righteous requirements, and judgments, and commandments, and justifications, and very many other kinds. If, then, uncircumcision — he does not say the law itself, but if it keeps the righteous requirements of the law — is so far preferred to the circumcision that transgresses the law that it even judges it. And he well added, "fulfilling the law." For he who lives according to the letter is said to keep the law; but he who lives according to the spirit, to fulfill it: and the fulfillment of the law is in Christ, who said: "I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it." And to fulfill the law is to bring the law to perfection. The carnal Jew, therefore, keeps the law, but the spiritual Jew fulfills it — he who is a Jew in secret. In which the one becomes a transgressor of the law, but the other becomes the judge of the transgressor. And the carnal Jew becomes a transgressor because the law itself was weakened through the flesh. For unless it had been weakened according to the flesh, it would surely not be said: "For what was impossible for the law, in that it was weak through the flesh." But you will never find it written that the law is weakened through the spirit, and therefore "those who are in the flesh cannot please God"; but those who through the spirit have mortified the deeds of the flesh shall not only live, but shall be judges not only of men but also of angels: because the praise of the one is from men, but of the other from God. Let this much, then, be said by us toward the explanation of the apostolic discourse which we set out to expound. Yet it will not seem out of place also to examine the general rationale of circumcision itself, since the passage itself has prompted us concerning it. Let us therefore go back and bring forward into the open whatever is contained about it in the law or in the rest of the Scriptures. We find in Genesis the first commandment written concerning circumcision, when the responses were given to Abraham in this manner: "And God said to Abraham: But you shall keep my covenant, and all your seed after you in their generations. And this is the covenant which I have appointed between me and you, and between me and the midst of your seed after you in their generations: every male of you shall be circumcised, and you shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be for a sign of the covenant between me and you: and the child among you shall be circumcised on the eighth day, every male in your generations: the homeborn, and the one bought with money from all the sons of strangers, who is not of your seed — with circumcision shall be circumcised the homeborn of your house and he who was purchased by you with money: and my covenant shall be upon your flesh an everlasting covenant: and the uncircumcised male who shall not have been circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin on the eighth day, that soul shall be exterminated from his kindred, because he has broken my covenant." Yet it ought not to escape us that in other copies the phrase "on the eighth day" is not found placed there — in this passage at least. Likewise it is written in Leviticus: "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the children of Israel, and you shall say to them: Whatever woman shall have received seed and shall have borne a male, she shall be unclean seven days; according to the days of her purification she shall be unclean, and on the eighth day he shall circumcise the flesh of his foreskin, and for thirty-three days she shall sit in her blood, unclean." These testimonies indeed we have set down from the law of Moses. But the Savior in the Gospel says that a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath, and the law of Moses is not broken; and he says that it is from the fathers, and was given before Moses. Moved by the authority of this saying, and at the same time by the weight of the legal precept, certain persons even after the coming of Jesus were persuaded to be circumcised, though they were of the Gentiles. But others, shuddering at the burden of the precept, fled away utterly even from those very laws in which these things appeared to be written, so that they supposed these were not the commandments of the good God, nor of him whom our Lord and Savior had come to proclaim. And therefore it seems to me that in such passages a more diligent examination must be brought to bear: whether there is anything of usefulness in a commandment of this kind even according to the letter; and if there are those for whom it is useful, or toward what end its usefulness tends; or whether something more useful is indicated figuratively. Therefore, taking up again those testimonies which we have brought forward from the law, let us examine more attentively whether a commandment of this sort seems to press upon the Jewish people alone, or whether it binds by equal lot all those also who have believed from among the Gentiles. Let us look, then, at that oracle which is delivered to Abraham, by which he is commanded to keep the covenants of circumcision. "You," he says, "shall keep my covenant, and all your seed after you throughout their generations. And this is the covenant which I have appointed between me, and you, and them: that every male of them be circumcised, and that they circumcise the flesh of their foreskin, that it may be for a sign of the covenant between me and them; and every male shall be circumcised on the eighth day." And which persons even from among the foreigners — that is, those who are by no means said to be of the stock of Abraham — he wishes to be circumcised, he plainly declares. For he says: "Your home-born slave, and the one bought with money from all the sons of foreigners, who is not of your seed, shall be circumcised with circumcision." Nowhere did he make mention of the proselyte, that is, the newcomer; but he commands the home-born slave — surely one of that nation, born in the house — or even one purchased at a price, to be circumcised; he does not bind the free man, nor the guest, nor the newcomer. Let us now also search out the law of Leviticus, how God likewise commands Moses: "Speak," he says, "to the children of Israel, and you shall say to them: If a woman shall have received seed and shall have borne a male." And after a little: "On the eighth day," he says, "he shall circumcise the flesh of his foreskin." Observe here too how concerning the law of circumcision Moses is commanded to speak only to the children of Israel, and no mention is made of foreigners. For if we believe that the things which are brought into the law were written through the divine Spirit, surely it must not be thought that anything is either added or passed over in silence to no purpose; and therefore, since in certain commandments it is said, "Speak to the children of Israel, and you shall say to them," while in certain others it is added that he should speak not only to the children of Israel but also to the proselytes, that is, to newcomers, the distinction must necessarily be observed. For just as in those places where it is said, "Speak to Aaron," and elsewhere, "Speak to the sons of Aaron," and elsewhere, "Speak to the Levites, and you shall say to them," it is certain that the rest of the children of Israel are not subject to those laws which were promulgated either to the sons of Aaron, or to the Levites, or to Aaron himself: so also, in those things which are commanded to the children of Israel, where no mention at all is made of the foreigner, it must not be thought that the commandment in these matters is common, or that a common law is made, where there is an exception in the designation. Let us nevertheless bring forward, out of many, a few testimonies for the proof of these things, by which we may establish that the addition or exception of names of this kind is necessary. In the first parts of Leviticus a law of this sort is delivered to the children of Israel alone: "Speak," says the Lord, "to the children of Israel, and you shall say to them: If a man from among you offer gifts to God from the cattle," and the rest; and again: "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the children of Israel: If a soul shall have sinned not willingly," and the rest. Who would doubt that these things, and things of this kind, are commanded to the children of Israel alone? But others are commanded not to them, but to Aaron, or to his sons, as he says in what follows: "And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Command Aaron and his sons, saying: This is the law of the holocausts," etc.; and again: "The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying: This is the law of sin: In the place where they shall have slain the holocaust, there shall they slay the sin offering in the sight of the Lord"; and again to Aaron: "Wine," he says, "and strong drink you shall not drink, you and your sons with you, when you enter into the tabernacle of testimony." But other things are commanded neither to Aaron nor to the children of Israel, but to the elders of Israel, in this manner: "Speak," he says, "to the elders of Israel, saying: Take a he-goat from the goats for sin," etc. Is it doubted at all that this law is prescribed to the elders of the children of Israel alone? Moreover, concerning clean and unclean animals, a special law is nonetheless seen to be given to the children of Israel. For thus it is written: "And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: Speak to the children of Israel, saying to them: These are the animals which you shall eat," and the rest. So therefore also concerning circumcision, whether in those things which were answered to Abraham, or in those which are contained in Leviticus, no one else is bound by the law of circumcision, unless he either draws his origin from Abraham, or is their home-born slave, or one bought at a price. But do you wish to see that, wherever he wishes foreigners also to be bound by one and the same law, he shows it expressly? Hear what is written: "And the Lord spoke," he says, "to Moses, saying: Speak to Aaron, and to his sons, and to all the children of Israel, and you shall say to them: A man of the children of Israel, or of the newcomers who shall be among you, whoever shall eat any blood, I will set my soul against that soul which shall have eaten blood, and I will destroy it from among its people; for the soul of all flesh is its blood; and I have given it to you, that from it propitiation may be made upon the altar for your souls, because the blood shall make expiation for the soul. Therefore I said to the children of Israel: Every soul among you shall not eat blood, and whatever newcomer shall be among you shall not eat blood." You see, then, that this law concerning the observance of blood, which was given in common both to the children of Israel and to the newcomers, is observed also by us who from among the Gentiles believe in God through Jesus Christ. For Scripture is accustomed to call us proselytes and sojourners, when it says: "The sojourner who is among you shall ascend above you upward; but you shall descend downward. He shall be your head, and you shall be his tail." For this reason, then, the Church gathered from the Gentiles has also received the law concerning the observance of blood in common with the sons of Israel. For it was understanding in this way the things written in the law that the blessed council of the apostles then made its decree, writing ordinances and decisions for the Gentiles, that they should abstain not only from the things sacrificed to idols and from fornication, but also from blood and from what is strangled. But perhaps you will inquire whether, just as the matter has become clear concerning the observance of blood, so also concerning what is strangled it may be shown that the law was given in common to the sons of Israel together with the sojourners, since the apostles' decrees ordain that the Gentiles observe this too. Hear how carefully provision has been made in the laws of God on this point as well: "A man, a man," it says, "of the sons of Israel, and of the sojourners who are among you, whoever hunts a wild beast or a bird that may be eaten, let him pour out its blood, and let the earth cover it, because the soul of all flesh is its blood." See, then, how carefully the lawgiver, where he wishes the commandment to be common, joins the sojourners to the sons of Israel; but where he gives special precepts, he has distinguished by whom he wishes them to be observed. But since among those things which we quoted above from Leviticus this too is set down in writing: "A man, a man of the sons of Israel, or of the sojourners who are among them, whoever offers a whole burnt offering or a sacrifice, and does not bring it to the door of the tabernacle of witness to make it to the Lord, that man shall be cut off from his people" — and through this it seems that the matter of sacrifices is enjoined upon the sojourner also, and that the Church gathered from the Gentiles becomes liable to the offering of whole burnt offerings — here too the words, and, so to speak, the syllables of the law must be observed more diligently. For it says, if he "offers a whole burnt offering or a sacrifice," that he should bring it "to the door of the tabernacle of witness." The law does not command that he offer, but if perchance he does offer, it teaches how he ought to do so. For it is certain, and it cannot be doubted, that while the temple stood at Jerusalem and the religion handed down from the fathers flourished, very many even of the Gentiles used to come to worship and to offer sacrifices. But since this was commanded to be done in one place only — concerning which he also here enjoins that the victim be brought to the door of the tabernacle to be slaughtered — it could lawfully be done only so long as the standing of that place remained unimpaired. Indeed, the Savior too said to those ten lepers whom he had cleansed: "Go and show yourselves to the priest, and offer for yourselves the sacrifices which Moses commanded"; and when one of them had returned to the Savior giving thanks, the Lord said: "Were not ten cleansed? Where are those nine? None was found to return and give thanks to God except this foreigner." So then, while the standing of the temple endured, it was the custom for foreigners also to offer sacrifices; but now, why is that demanded of the sojourners which not even its own worshippers are permitted to perform? Now all these things have been said by us in order that we might show how great a distinction of commandments there is in the law, and especially that we might teach concerning the precept of circumcision that it was enjoined upon none other than those who trace their descent from Abraham, and upon their home-born slaves, or those purchased with a price; but that those who through Christ believe in God from among the Gentiles are free from laws of this kind. These matters, however, we have for the present discussed without the addition of any allegory, lest, as commonly happens, there should remain to those who are of the circumcision any occasion for clamoring against the truth. But they may still be able to raise a strong weapon against us, maintaining that proselytes too are made subject to circumcision by the law, on the basis of what is written in Exodus in this manner: "But if any proselyte comes to you and keeps the Passover to the Lord, you shall circumcise every male of his, and then he shall come near to keep it, and he shall be as one native-born. No uncircumcised person shall eat of it. There shall be one law for the native-born and for the sojourner who has come to you." Although this objection may seem shrewd, nevertheless the admirable caution of the lawgiver everywhere comes to our aid. For consider that here too he did not say that the sojourner who comes to you should keep the Passover to the Lord and be circumcised; rather, with the most careful restraint he decrees, saying: "If he comes to you and keeps the Passover." For it cannot be doubted that if anyone keeps the Jewish Passover with the Jews, he ought also to be circumcised; and the lawgiver's caution has, for the present, made provision for this one point, by which the gainsayers may be blunted. There is, besides, that against which they will not be able to mutter a word. The Passover which the law commands to be kept, it commands to be kept in that place which the Lord God has chosen, that is, at Jerusalem. For it is decreed that sacrifices be offered in that temple only. Let them therefore first recover the standing of the temple, and then let them contend about circumcision; but if, according to the Savior's sentence, there has not remained there one stone upon another that has not been thrown down, the pleading about circumcision is superfluous. And circumcision is so far the native mark of that people itself, and of no other nation, that nowhere in the histories of the ancients is any other reported to have been punished on account of it, save the son of Moses, whose mother Zipporah restrained by circumcision the violence of the angel that threatened her son's death. From all these things, then, it is shown that Israel, which is according to the flesh, is alone subject to the circumcision of the flesh; but the proselyte people that comes to it is free and a stranger from it — the people that has ascended and been set on high, while the other has descended and been set below; and through the mercy of Christ this people has been made the head, and that one the tail. For "the last have become first, and the first last"; and on this account the uncircumcision which is by nature, fulfilling the law, judges those who through the letter and circumcision are transgressors of the law. For it is not this circumcision which is performed openly in the flesh that purifies the soul; rather, that circumcision of the heart which is in secret — that is what purifies the mind and cuts away the stains of the vices. Thus far let what we have said about fleshly circumcision suffice, according to our strength.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 2:28-29
Come now, following him who said "that the law is spiritual," and who says of the things related in the law that they were spoken by way of allegory, let us see also what is to be thought about circumcision according to the allegorical laws. I know that many have delivered sayings or writings on this subject; but we too shall add what the Lord may grant to those things which seem to have been fittingly composed by others. To circumcise is to cut away some part from the generative member, through which the succession of the human race and the propagation of the flesh is administered. By this, therefore, I think it is figuratively indicated that there must be cut away from the soul any impurity that has clung to it from its association with the flesh, if any sense of ill-persuading lust has covered it over. Therefore this cutting is inflicted not upon other members but upon the genital members, so that it may be made clear that vices of this kind come to the soul not from its own substance, but from the innate motion and incitement of the flesh. But as to the circumcision being given on the eighth day, I judge that this is signified: that to the present age the week of seven days has been assigned, while the eighth day holds the mystery of the age to come. Theirs, then, is the spiritual circumcision who serve as soldiers of the age to come, in which "they shall neither marry nor be given in marriage, but shall be as the angels of God"; and theirs "who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of God," and whose "conversation is in heaven" though they walk upon earth, and who look not at the things "which are seen, but at the things which are not seen," and who know that "the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal." But, as we mentioned above, it has also been said by others that spiritual circumcision is to cut away and cast off from the heart every unclean thought and impure perception. Yet against explanations of this sort there stands what is reported as written in Ezekiel, where the Lord says: "Every son of a stranger, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, shall not enter into my sanctuary, among all the sons of strangers who are in the midst of the house of Israel." For plainly the prophetic word in this place points to two circumcisions when it says: "Uncircumcised in heart, and uncircumcised in flesh." Hence we are compelled, according to the laws of allegory, to assign the forms and kinds of each circumcision — although this same objection might also be brought against us in the interpretations we set forth above. But for the present let us pursue what figure of the two circumcisions may be maintained according to allegory; and let us see whether perhaps it may be referred to two general classes of sin, in which it is not expedient to be uncircumcised, that is, in faith and in works: so that he is uncircumcised in heart who does not have faith, and uncircumcised in flesh who does not have works. For the one without the other is rejected, since faith without works is said to be dead, and from works without faith no one is justified before God. Thus then, as I judge, the prophetic saying will be fittingly applied to the people of the faithful, to whom it is said: "Every stranger who is among you in the midst of the house of Israel, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, shall not enter into my sanctuary" — which is doubtless the same thing that the Lord also says in the Gospel: "He who believes in me keeps my commandments"; and again: "He who hears these my words, and does them"; and again: "But why do you say to me, Lord, Lord, and do not do the things I say?" You see, then, that everywhere faith is joined with works, and works are associated with faith. And so it is circumcision of the heart to think nothing sordid, nothing unworthy concerning the faith. Circumcision of the flesh is to commit nothing unclean, nothing defiled in deed and action. For whoever is uncircumcised and unclean in either one of these is by the words of God forbidden to enter into the sanctuary. Yet even the stranger enters into the sanctuary, into which, according to the letter of the law, none but the priests alone were permitted to enter. But now it is granted even to strangers that they should enter, provided they have been purified by the circumcision of faith and of deeds. But if anyone should strive to call us back to the earlier questions, and should again lay before us what is written concerning the stranger — that from him who wishes to enter into the sanctuary not only circumcision of the heart but also of the flesh is required — to such a one, persisting so troublesomely, we for our part set over against him that which the prophet Jeremiah says: "Behold, your ears are uncircumcised." Let this exactor of a fleshly circumcision show us a circumcision of the ears that is perceptible and bodily, if he can: but it is certain that he can in no way do so. He will therefore be driven by necessity back to allegories, and will say that the ears are circumcised when, according to Solomon's admonitions, they do not receive an empty report, and when they are stopped up so as not to hear the judgment of blood, and when they are hedged about with thorns so as not to receive detraction, but so that they lie open to the word of God alone, and to those things which are spoken for edification. Let that circumcision of the heart, then, be of the same sort as this circumcision of the ears, which is seen to be expounded in the common way. And in this manner one is also said to be uncircumcised in lips who has not circumcised blasphemy, scurrility, and filthy speech from his mouth, who has not set a guard upon his mouth and a door of restraint about his lips, who has not circumcised his mouth even from an idle word. Finally, where Moses says to the Lord: "Provide, Lord, another whom you may send, for I am slow of tongue and of feeble voice" — they say that in the Hebrew copies they themselves have: "But I am uncircumcised in lips." And if in the manner we have described above one can be seen to be uncircumcised in ears and uncircumcised in lips, why should not one likewise be said to be uncircumcised in the foreskin of his flesh who pours himself out too immoderately and intemperately toward the natural motion of intercourse — while he is held to be circumcised who in a matter of this kind employs only such acts as are lawful and as suffice for posterity? But since we are treating of the meaning of circumcision, it does not seem out of place to add to these things also that Jesus the son of Nave is recorded, at the Lord's command, to have circumcised the children of Israel a second time with knives of stone: which, so far as the letter is concerned, seems to have been an impossible thing to do. For once they had been circumcised in the flesh of the foreskin, what could a second circumcision find to take away? But our Jesus, who truly after Moses leads the children of Israel into the holy land flowing with milk and honey, into the land of promise, plainly circumcises the believing people not once but a second time. For his first circumcision is that by which he cut away from them either the worship of idols or the fabrications of philosophical persuasion. But he applies a second circumcision when he cuts away from them the habit of the old man, and the passions and vices of the flesh: and then is fulfilled what is written in Jesus son of Nave: "This day I have taken away from you the reproaches of Egypt." For a man carries the reproaches of Egypt about with him if, though placed within the Church and serving as a soldier under Jesus his captain, he keeps Egyptian manners and barbarous motions of the mind. Marcion indeed, who is pleased to have nothing understood by way of allegory, will find no way at all to explain what the Apostle says, that circumcision profits. But neither will he be able in any degree to give an account of the several things that follow. To oppose, and with a certain mockery to brand, the God of the law who gave circumcision, is the custom not of him alone, but of all the heretics who repudiate the Old Testament, together with the pagans, who all heap up such things against the God of the law as though in a confederacy of disparagement. The Stoics say: Granted that circumcision indicates something mystical and holds an allegorical figure; was it then fitting that the kinds of figures and the riddles of the law should be established with the punishment and peril of little children, with tortures inflicted on tender and still innocent infancy? Had the lawgiver no place to put his mystical forms except in the dishonoring of the parts of shame; and could the law of Almighty God, the seal of the eternal covenant, be placed nowhere but in the obscene parts of the members? Is that God good, then, who commanded a newborn human being to be wounded at once, in the very first auspices of the new light? And if, as it seems to you, he himself is the creator both of the soul and of the body, then either he brands himself as having formed superfluously that part of the body which he afterwards orders to be cut away — so that through the torments of wretched people he might correct his own mistake — or else he wrongly commands to be taken away what he made of necessity and to good purpose. And then besides, if God is concerned that very many be brought to the worship of his religion, the greatest obstacle arises from circumcision. For both because every man shrinks from pain, and also because he flees the derision attaching to what is shameful, this ought to be reckoned rather an impediment to religion than a badge of it. These things and many like them the Gentiles clamor against the lawgiver, or the heretics do; and I think it necessary to answer them, but first the Gentiles. No wise man censures in others what he holds honorable and great in his own house; for circumcision among you, O Gentiles, is held to be so great a thing that it is not entrusted indiscriminately to the ignoble crowd, but only to priests, and to those among them who have been devoted to the more select studies. For among the Egyptians, who are reckoned in your superstitions both the most ancient and the most learned, and from whom nearly all the rest have borrowed the rite of their sacred things and their ceremonies — among these, I say, no one used to study geometry or astronomy, which among them are held to be the foremost disciplines; certainly no one searched out the secrets of astrology and of the casting of nativities, than which they think nothing more divine, unless he had first received circumcision. Among them the priest, the diviner, or the minister of any sacred rites whatever, or, as they call him, every prophet, is circumcised. The priestly letters, too, of the ancient Egyptians, which they call hieroglyphic, no one learned unless he were circumcised. Every hierophant, every seer, every initiate and knower of heaven and, as they suppose, of the underworld, is not believed among them to be such unless he has been circumcised. Do you then judge that shameful and obscene among us which among you is held so honorable and great that you believe the secrets of things heavenly and infernal cannot be declared to you except through marks of this kind? But if among you, for the sake of so many and such great secrets of yours which are performed with circumcision as their handmaid, it will be necessary that a reason be sought — and such a reason as ought not to be despised, lest along with it all your ceremonies alike be undermined — why do you not expect that this same thing can hold among us as well? Indeed, if you unroll your own histories, you will find that not only the priests and hierophants of the Egyptians made use of circumcision, but also the Arabs and the Ethiopians and the Phoenicians, and others among whom zeal for superstitions of this kind flourished more nobly. Let this suffice as said against the Gentiles, to whom it was not fitting to speak more openly about the mysteries of our Law. Now let our discourse be directed to those who do indeed believe in Christ, but do not receive the Law and the Prophets. You confess without doubt that what is written in the Epistle of Peter is true: that "we have been redeemed not with the corruptible price of silver and gold, but with the precious blood" of the Only-begotten. If therefore we have been "bought with a price," as Paul also confirms, we have without doubt been bought from someone whose slaves we were, who also demanded the price he wished in order to release from his power those whom he held. Now the devil held us, to whom we had been sold off by our sins. He demanded, then, as our price the blood of Christ. But until the blood of Jesus should be given, which was so precious that it alone sufficed for the redemption of all, it was necessary that those who were being trained under the Law should each one for himself, as it were in a certain imitation of the redemption to come, give his own blood; and therefore we, for whom the price of Christ's blood has been paid in full, have no need to pay a price for ourselves, that is, the blood of circumcision. But if it seems blameworthy to you that the God of the Law commands wounds to be inflicted on infants and blood to be shed, then you also blame what was done in Christ, who both was circumcised on the eighth day and received the wounds of the passion and poured out his blood in the punishment of the cross. And as to your view that, because of the horror of circumcision, access to religion seems difficult, far more difficult does the entrance to the Gospel appear, where one is bidden to lay down not a tiny part of the body, but the soul itself. But, according to you, the examples of the martyrs will keep people from coming to the faith. Or is a religion rather believed to be firm precisely because it promises nothing lax, nothing dainty or soft? And even if circumcision held figuratively no other sacred meaning, what would be absurd in it, if for distinction from the other nations the people that was being trained under the law of God should bear some badge of its own? And if the amputation of some part seemed necessary, what was so fitting as to find that part which seemed shameful, and to take away those things whose diminution would in no way hinder the body's function? But as to what they say — that if that part of the member was not necessary, it ought not to have been made by the Creator, and if it was made of necessity, it ought not to be taken away — let us too question them, whether they call the procreation of children necessary. Without doubt they will answer that it is necessary. Blameworthy, then, will be those who, under the pretext of continence and virginity, do not serve the necessary functions of nature; and all will have to be compelled to marriage who, according to the laws of the Gospel, "have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of God," having as the author of this example both many others of the saints and also the Lord Jesus himself. But in sum it must be said that, just as many baptisms were necessary before the baptism of Christ, and many purifications before purification through the Holy Spirit came about, and many victims before Christ, the one victim, the spotless Lamb, offered himself as a victim to the Father — so also there was need of many circumcisions, until the one circumcision in Christ should be handed down to all; and the shedding of the blood of many went before, until through the blood of one the redemption of all should be accomplished. These things indeed are what could occur to us at present concerning the rationale of circumcision; yet let them be said by us under this rule, that if anyone shall have spoken better and more reasonably, his views rather than these of ours should be held. But after a digression perhaps more ample than is fair, let us return to the conclusion of the Apostle's chapter. Since, therefore, this treatment is frequent with the Apostle, whereby he indicates that in each single person there are two men — of whom he is accustomed to name the one outer, the other inner, and says that the one is according to the flesh, the other according to the spirit (instructed, I suppose, from those things which are written in Genesis, where one is reported to have been made to the image of God, the other formed from the mud of the earth) — and these same he now calls the one a Jew in the open, the other a Jew in secret: it must be known that each of these two makes use of practices that are in some respects discordant, but in some cases shared. For there are certain things which take their beginning from the inner man and reach as far as the outer; while others, begun from the outer man, reach as far as the inner. What I mean is this. If chastity takes its beginning from the inner man, it reaches without doubt as far as the outer. For it cannot happen that a man who does not first commit adultery in his heart should be able to commit adultery in his body. But it does not follow at once that if someone begins from the chastity of the outer man, he also arrives at inner continence, so that if he does not commit adultery in the body, he does not commit adultery in the heart either. According to these things, then, let the circumcision of the inner and of the outer man be understood by allegorical rules, when that inner man no longer lusts in the heart, and this outer one no longer serves lust in the body: so that he is said to be circumcised in the flesh whom the Apostle declares to be no longer in the flesh, but in the spirit, and who mortifies the deeds of the flesh through the spirit. But since he who is circumcised has given up some flesh to destruction and preserved some unharmed, in that which he gave up to destruction I think that flesh is signified of which it is written: "All flesh is grass, and all its glory as the flower of grass." But the flesh which is preserved and remains unharmed, I think, holds the form of that flesh of which it is said that "all flesh shall see the salvation of God." But there is need of ears able to hear what that flesh is which perishes, and what that flesh is which shall see the salvation of God — which after the laying aside of the flesh of the foreskin remains safe, when the other has fallen away like the flower of grass. And whoever understands this will find that the forms of immense mysteries have been set forth beforehand in the rationale of circumcision, and will find that he who is a Jew in secret, and who is circumcised in the inner man, so far surpasses and is more eminent than him who is a Jew according to the flesh, as that Judah surpasses and is eminent — whom his brothers praise together, and who slept as a lion and was raised up as a lion's whelp — over that Judah who was born from the loins of Jacob according to the flesh.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 3:2
In this Epistle Paul, sitting as a kind of arbiter between the Jews and the Greeks — that is, those who believe from among the Gentiles — so summons and invites both to faith in Christ that he neither gives offense to the Jews by utterly destroying the Jewish rites, nor casts the Gentiles into despair by confirming the observance of the law and the letter; and whether he makes mention of the promises or of the punishments, he divides his word to each people. As, for example, when he says: "But to those who are of contention, and who indeed distrust the truth, but believe iniquity, wrath and indignation: tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that worketh evil, of the Jew first, and of the Greek." This concerns the punishments. But concerning the promises he adds: "But glory, and honor, and peace to everyone that worketh good, to the Jew first, and to the Greek." Again he seems to speak of the Gentiles: "For whosoever have sinned without the law, shall perish without the law." And again of the circumcised: "And as many as have sinned in the law, shall be judged by the law." But again, lifting up the Gentiles, he says: "For when the Gentiles, who have not the law, do by nature those things that are of the law, these, not having the law, are a law unto themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts," and so forth. And again he turns his discourse to the Jews, saying: "But if thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law," and the rest, up to that place where he says: "For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you." And lest he should seem to be excessive in his rebukes of the Jews, he says: "Circumcision indeed profiteth, if thou keep the law." But again, lest he should exalt those who place too much glory in circumcision, he added: "But if thou art a transgressor of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision." And in order to lift up a little also the spirits of those who believe from among the Gentiles, he adds: "But if the uncircumcision keep the just ordinances of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be reckoned for circumcision?" And that he might more strongly raise up the spirits of the Gentiles, and that they might know that they can, if they observe the law more perfectly, even become better than the Jews, he says: "And that which by nature is uncircumcision, fulfilling the law, shall judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision art a transgressor of the law." But since he knew that there are many promises in the Law and the Prophets which seem to be made to the Jews, lest the Gentiles should be able to despair as though they had no fellowship in the promises there recorded, he teaches them that according to the mystical reckoning they too are Jews, and have circumcision. Therefore he says: "For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outwardly in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God." But since in all these things he had in a certain way made the cause of the Gentiles superior, again, as though meeting the complaints of those who are of the circumcision, he sets before himself the things which are contained in the present chapter, saying: "What then is the advantage of the Jew? or what is the profit of circumcision? Much in every way." If therefore, he says, he "who is a Jew outwardly, and that which is circumcision outwardly in the flesh," is not reckoned as such, "but he who is a Jew inwardly, and circumcision of the heart," which is made "in the spirit," is itself the true circumcision, you will say to me: What is the advantage in those Jews who are reckoned by this appellation? or what profit is held in bodily circumcision? To these things, lest he should seem to have sat as a less than just arbiter between the two peoples, he declares what advantage the Jew has, and that circumcision which is in the flesh, and says that they have much advantage in every way. And what that great advantage is he adds: "First," he says, "because the oracles of God were entrusted to them." For although the oracles of God are now entrusted to the Gentiles also, yet to them, he says, they were entrusted first. Yet I inquire what it means when it is said that to them first the oracles of God were entrusted: whether he says this of the letters and books, or of the sense and understanding of the law. For we see very many of the Jews always learning from infancy even to old age, and never arriving at the knowledge of the truth: and how will that seem to be true which is said, that they have something more in this, that to them first the oracles of God were entrusted, in which they understand "neither the things which they say, nor the things concerning which they affirm"? But if, according to Solomon, he is called wise who "understands the things that are from his own mouth, and" who "carries understanding upon his lips": these things must be understood as said of Moses and the prophets, and the rest like them, to whom the oracles of God were entrusted, since it cannot be doubted that they too were Jews and had circumcision: but also, if there was among them any wise man, and understanding hearer, and wonderful counselor, whom the Lord is said to take away from Jerusalem, being offended at the impieties of the people. For thus says Isaiah: "Behold the sovereign Lord of Sabaoth shall take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the strong and the mighty"; and after a little: "And the prophet," he says, "and the diviner, and the elder, and the captain of fifty, and the wonderful counselor, and the wise architect, and the prudent hearer." To such as these, then, it must be judged that the divine oracles were first entrusted, and in these it must be confessed that there was much advantage in every way; but also if there were any others like these, as the Apostle recalls what is written in the books of Kingdoms: "I have left me seven thousand men, who have not bowed their knees before Baal." But the apostles of Christ themselves also, and Paul himself, the vessel of election, coming from the Jews and from the circumcision, had an advantage in every way over those whom he taught from among the Gentiles. For the oracles of God were entrusted to them. But this very thing also which he says, "Because the oracles of God were entrusted to them," must be considered: that he did not say that the letters were entrusted, but "the oracles of God." Whence a way is given us of understanding that to those who read and do not understand, and who read and do not believe, the letter alone has been entrusted, that letter of which the Apostle says that "the letter killeth": but the oracles of God have been entrusted to those who, understanding and believing the things which Moses wrote, believe also in Christ, as the Lord also says: "But if you had believed Moses himself, you would surely have believed me also: for he wrote of me." But be it so: let the Jew have an advantage in the letters, let him have something also in the oracles of God: have those who come from among the Gentiles to Christ been utterly abandoned? or is there also for them a place where they have something more?
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 3:2
Hear the Lord saying to the centurion, a believer from among the Gentiles: "Amen I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such faith." See therefore how much more the Gentiles have when it comes to faith; concerning whom the Lord says in another place: "For they shall come from the east and the west, and from the four winds of the earth, and shall recline with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of God: but the sons of the kingdom shall be cast out into the outer darkness." Where, then, it is a question of laws and letters, the Jews have more, "much in every way"; but where it is a question of faith, so that I may speak by way of comparison, the Gentiles have more, "much in every way." It must indeed be asked whether it is also to be said of the Samaritans that to them first the oracles of God were entrusted, since indeed even among them the law of Moses appears to be kept. But of them I would say that not even that letter itself which is said to kill was entrusted to them. For the prophet says of them: "Woe to those who despise Mount Zion, and who trust in the mountain of Samaria"; for they indeed make themselves strangers to "the writings of God," repudiating the prophets. But neither of the heretics, who speak iniquity against the Most High, and who by their impiety divide the unity of the Godhead, and who separate the law from the Gospels, would I say that the oracles of God have been entrusted to them, merely on the ground that the divine volumes appear to be read among them; but since they perceive nothing spiritual in them, nothing worthy of God, I would say that among them only that letter which kills has a place. But if perchance the Jews are unwilling to accept the judgment of our Apostle, which says that "the letter" of the law "kills," and think that an injury is done to the law if it seems to be despised according to the letter, let us return to Moses himself, and let us see how great he himself made the letter of the law; who, when he had received the stone tablets inscribed by the finger of God, paid such honor to the letter of the law that he cast the tablets from his hands, and shattered tablets written indeed by the finger of God, and yet was not on this account charged with the fault of impiety. You see, therefore, that not Paul alone despises the letter of the law, but long before him Moses both despised, and cast away, and ground to pieces the letters of the law, doubtless signifying even then this, that the honor and the power of the law lay not in the letters, but in the spirit. But also the Lord in the Gospel, when he says, speaking to the Jews: "The kingdom of God shall be taken away from you, and shall be given to a nation producing its fruit"—I think that he called the meaning of the law the kingdom of God, which was taken away from the Jews, only the letters of the law remaining with them, and was given to the Gentiles, who are able through faith to produce the fruit of the spirit. Since these things are so, why are we so cowardly and slothful that we do not at last, having cast off all malice, hasten with simplicity and purity of heart to receive the oracles of God, and to grasp from them the mind of Christ, seeing that we hear that in them is the kingdom of God? Certainly let each one, according to his strength, take in what oracles of God he can; and if he is fit for solid food, let him receive those oracles of God which are the wisdom that the Apostle speaks among the perfect. But he who is not yet fit for this, let him receive the oracles of God in which he recognizes nothing more than Christ Jesus, and him crucified. He who cannot do even this, let him receive the oracles of God in such a way that he uses milk and not strong food. But if he is still weak in faith, let him take the oracles of God in vegetables. Only let us all alike know that "the oracles of God" are "chaste oracles," and "silver tried by fire, proved of the earth, purified sevenfold": that is, that in chastity and in holiness of heart and body we may keep the divine oracles.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 3:3
The oracles of God, therefore, were entrusted to those first ones of whom we spoke above; but some, as he says, did not believe, whether God or the oracles of God. You see that those who do not believe are themselves according to the flesh, of whom he says also elsewhere: "The natural man does not perceive the things which are of the Spirit of God; for it is foolishness to him." But their unbelief does not make void the faith of God. By "the faith of God" we understand either that faith which God has toward those to whom he entrusts his own oracles, or that faith by which those believe God who receive the divine oracles from him. We are admonished, therefore, that when the unfaithfulness of those who either do not come to faith, or fall away from it, perchance mocks us as we perform the works of faith—whether when we fast, or when we do deeds of mercy, or when we devote ourselves to study and to the law of God, or even when we endure torments for the martyrdom of Christ—we should always remember that their unfaithfulness does not make void the faith of God which is in us.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 3:4
After these things, what follows seems indeed to have been joined on with less orderly arrangement; for he says: "But let God be true, and every man a liar, as it is written: That you may be justified in your words, and may overcome when you are judged." Nevertheless, by a certain turn of thought we shall attempt to fit this to what precedes. Although, he says, some of the Jews have not believed, yet concerning their unfaithfulness this must be said, that God alone is true, but every man is a liar: because even if someone is just, it is nevertheless necessary that in some point he fall away from the truth, which it is well-nigh impossible for human nature to preserve in all things. Since, therefore, every man is a liar, on this account certain of the Jews, as lying men, did not believe. For since every man is a liar, necessarily on that day, when the Lord shall come to judgment with men, he alone will be justified in his words. For his words are true in all things, because they are the words of truth. But that the Lord comes to judgment with men, the prophet says: "Come, and let us be judged together, says the Lord"; and: "The Lord himself will come to judgment with the elders of the people"; and again: "Remember thou, and let us be judged, says the Lord." These things the Apostle introduced with an eye to that objection which he sets before himself in another place, where he says: "But if our injustice commends the justice of God." Concerning which we shall inquire when we come to its place. Now, therefore, let us see what it is that he says: "But let God become true, and every man a liar." For thus it stands in the Greek copies. For the Latins read "let him be" (sit) instead of "let him become" (fiat). First, then, this is to be known, that what he said, "let it become," he does not say in the imperative mood. For it is foolish if it be thought that God must be commanded to become true. But just as we say: "Thy will be done, as in heaven, so also on earth"; or, as again we say: "Let peace be made in thy strength"—not commanding, but wishing, nay rather declaring, and so forth, since peace cannot be made except in the power of God—so also here the saying is to be taken as that of one declaring: "But let God become true, and every man a liar." But this too is to be known, that this saying, that is, "Every man is a liar," is taken from the one hundred and fifteenth psalm, where it says: "I said in my ecstasy: Every man is a liar." But here, for the more evident illumination of the Apostle's meaning, let it not seem burdensome to readers if we briefly expound the content of the psalm itself, from which he takes his testimony. It seems to me, then, that the Prophet is announcing some such meaning as this. Although there are, he says, many doctrines among men, and many philosophize about the search for truth, and although in all these questions the Son of God ought to come first: others indeed, who sought without first believing, did not find; but I, because I believed before I sought, therefore found what I was seeking, and not only found it, but also spoke, and announced to the peoples the truth I had found. Nor yet, having found the truth, was I lifted up in wisdom, nor puffed up in my knowledge; but I was all the more humbled, when I recognized and understood that it is the Lord who teaches all knowledge. Then, considering what things and how many the men — whether among the philosophers or among the rest of the barbarians — have said about truth, and that, though saying much with great labor, they found nothing, because they did not believe before they sought: considering all their sayings or writings, and being placed in an ecstasy of mind, that is, struck with astonishment of heart, because all those volumes of the philosophers, which seemed composed in splendid and dazzling speech, stood far off from the truth, being placed in ecstasy and in astonishment of mind I said: "Every man is a liar." But I, to whom God had shown these things, was not ungrateful, but I pondered and inquired within myself what gift I might render to the Lord in return for this, that the Lord had granted me the knowledge of the truth: yet I understood that that eternal nature, mistress of all things, has need of nothing. Therefore I found one thing only which I ought to offer to God, namely, that I should believe concerning him that he can never receive anything from man, but always give; and therefore I said: "I will take the cup of salvation"; as if I were answering him who says, "Can you drink the cup which I am about to drink?" and I should say: I can, Lord. So then I say: I will willingly and with my whole will take up the cup of your passion; and that I may preserve to the very end the grace of your cup, that is, of your passion, I will not act by my own strength, but "I will call upon the name of the Lord." For precious in your sight is the death which is undertaken for piety and for truth. According to this, therefore, the words "Every man is a liar" are also to be taken in the apostolic sayings, whether of him who trusts in the letter of the law without faith, or of him who glories in doctrines and writings of any kind whatever. But it is objected against us: If every man is a liar, then Paul himself, since he is a man, will be a liar. And David too, who said these things, since he was a man — if every man is a liar, he himself will also be a liar, and this very thing false which he says, "Every man is a liar," since he necessarily pronounces himself a liar along with the rest of men; and if he is a liar, surely what is said by a liar will not be true, namely that "every man is a liar." His statement, then, seems to have fallen into the syllogism which is called *aporos*, that is, "insubstantive" (without substance), which is also called false. But if we return to the inner understanding of Scripture, we shall find that all the prophets or apostles are among those to whom the word of God comes, as it is written: "And the word of the Lord came" to this or that prophet. These, then, to whom the word of God comes, the Lord in the Gospel declares to be not men, but gods. For he says thus: "But if he calls them gods to whom the word of God comes, and the Scripture cannot be broken." Since therefore the word of God came both to David as a prophet and to Paul as an apostle, without doubt they were not men, but gods, to whom the word of God came. Therefore, since they were not men but gods, what he pronounces about the rest of men, to whom the word of God did not come, is true, namely that "every man is a liar." But what follows is likewise taken from the fiftieth psalm, that is: "That you may be justified in your words, and may overcome when you are judged." Now the complete sense in the psalm is set down in this way: "Against you only have I sinned, and done evil before you, that you may be justified in your words, and may overcome when you are judged." And since it is a great digression for us to go back to the beginning of the psalm, for the sake of brevity let us examine only this saying which we have set in the middle; in which at the very outset this explanation seems difficult. For if we follow the history which is written in the title of the psalm, it is there reported that, Uriah the Hittite having been killed, David took his wife. How then does he say, "Against you only have I sinned," when surely he sinned also against Uriah himself, and against his kinsmen, and also against Bathsheba herself and her whole house, upon which he seems to have brought the stain of adultery? But it must be known that the content of a psalm does not always follow the history of its title, as anyone who observes will find in a great many psalms. And to speak by way of example, the title of the seventeenth psalm is: "Unto the end," it says, "for David the servant of the Lord, who spoke the words of this song in the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul, and he said." But the content of the psalm contains something far other than the title. For what foundations of the mountains were shaken? Or how was the earth made to tremble, when David was fighting against his enemies? Or where is it recorded that there was darkness under the feet of the Lord? Or where is it indicated that he ascended upon the cherubim and flew, or upon the wings of the winds, and nearly all the rest of the things which in every way disagree with the history of the title? In this manner, then, in the fiftieth psalm also there are things which do not fit according to the history. We must consider whether perhaps mention of the woman was made in the title figuratively, so that under this designation some such woman may be understood as either that valiant woman who is described as having made double cloaks for her husband, or certainly one contrary to her, such as those women who are said to have turned aside the heart of Solomon, so that he built altars to the nations, and idols. And these, when taken allegorically, are not from the divine wisdom, but from those things which are contrary to it, that is, sects alien from God. Such, then, can this wife of Uriah the Hittite also be understood to be — of a man alien from Israel — whom David, stationed on the upper places, beheld washing her uncleannesses in the waters and wishing to wash away her filth, and desired her and took her. But because it was not the will of the Lord that sects alien from the truth of God should be brought into the house of David, her first offspring and first fruit is extinguished, so that by a second progeny a wise king might be born of the foreign woman. But it is a long task to pursue the figures and riddles of these things. Yet that which pertains to the matter we shall briefly pursue. Since, he says, there is much subtlety in the variety of the sects, and since it belongs to no one to know or to judge which meaning is according to God and which is alien from God in the treatises and disputations of the wise, save to God alone, who alone can catch the wise in their own craftiness: therefore "against you only have I sinned, and done evil before you," because all the rest, being as they are natural men, cannot pass judgment on me, who am spiritual, even if I have erred: for "the spiritual man judges all things, but he himself is judged by no one." But since Paul adds "spiritual," and says: "But he who judges me is the Lord" — David too, knowing this, that the Lord alone is the one who judges the spiritual man or the prophet, therefore says: "Against you only have I sinned," by whom alone I can be judged. For man's day cannot judge the spiritual man. And what follows also looks to this sense: "That you may be justified in your words, and may overcome when you are judged." For God is judged in the disputations of the wise, while some think of God in this way, others in another, and each one differently. But he overcomes those who pass judgment on him, when, while all go astray, he himself reveals his own verdict concerning himself, how and in what manner he is to be believed and venerated.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 3:5
"But if our iniquity commends the justice of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust, who inflicts wrath? I speak according to man. God forbid. Otherwise, how shall God judge this world? For if the truth of God has abounded through my lie unto his glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner? and not (as we are blasphemed, and as some affirm that we say) let us do evil that good may come? whose condemnation is just." Perhaps the order of speaking arranged by the apostle Paul through nearly the whole text of this Epistle will seem highly inconsequent, since his discourse is now directed against the Gentiles, now moderated on behalf of the Gentiles, and again is set against the Jews, and again concerning the Jews, or even on behalf of the Jews; and of these same people he calls some worthy of praise and censures others. And this variety of meanings will again be thought to have led him outside the lines of the subject he had proposed — as when he employs that exclamation in which he says: "But let God be true, and every man a liar"; or even that which he consequently adds when he says: "But if our iniquity commends the justice of God," and the rest, so that by this he may seem to have slipped from one digression into another. But we who believe him when he says that "he has made us fit ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit," find his meaning far loftier than the method of human art is believed to possess. For through the whole text of this Epistle he wishes to trace what salvation there was even before the coming of Christ for those living according to the law; or how, through the coming of the Savior, salvation is in turn conferred upon the Gentiles out of the unbelief of Israel; and again, that neither do the Gentiles come to salvation in their entirety, but only those who have believed; nor is Israel cast off in its entirety, but "the remnant" of believers "shall be saved." And for this reason the order of speaking seems, as I said, confused, while he pursues the diversities of believers and unbelievers on both sides. In these matters he necessarily turns his discourse also to God, so that amid all these differences of acceptances and rejections he may teach that the judgments of God are indeed true and just, but that much falsehood abounds among men; and therefore he says: "But let God be true, and every man a liar; as it is written: That thou mayest be justified in thy words, and mayest overcome when thou art judged" — concerning which we have spoken above as far as we were able. Seeing then that a plausible objection could be raised against him from the contrary side — namely, that if it is necessary for every man to be a liar in order that God may be true, and if the justice of God is commended through the injustice of men, then God will seem unjust who inflicts wrath upon men, since he sees his own justice approved through the injustice of men: for if our injustice, that is, the injustice of men, commends the justice of God, then surely those men will not seem worthy of punishment through whom the justice of God is held to be more provable and more manifest — But God forbid, he says, that we should accept it thus, that God should seem unjust who brings wrath against men. For how shall he be thought unjust who judges the world, since by the very name of judge it is shown that he does nothing without judgment? And where there is judgment, it is agreed that there is justice; for justice is named both judge and judgment. If then, as unjust men, he says, happen to assert of us, "the truth of God has abounded through my lie," then it is superfluous that "I am judged as a sinner." But rather that will be seen wherein they blaspheme us, he says, as though we were seen to say this: if the truth of God is more displayed in the lie of men, and his justice is proved through the injustice of men, then let us "do evil, that" out of evils "good may come"; and let us lie, so that from our lie the truth of God may shine forth. But these things indeed they invent about us who blaspheme us, as though these things seemed to be said, or to follow, from the logic of our own assertion. But the reasoning of our teaching in no way admits this, since we understand God to be a just and true judge. It should surely be known that in certain Greek copies it is found thus: "Is God unjust, who inflicts wrath against men?" And according to this sense the things we have said will seem to fit better. But according to what we find in the Latin copies, and in some of the Greek: "Is God unjust, who inflicts wrath? I speak according to man. God forbid" — it seems it must be understood in this way. This statement that "God is unjust who inflicts wrath," on the ground that "our injustice commends the justice of God," is not said according to God, nor according to the wisdom of God, but "according to man," and according to that which is said, "every man is a liar." Now these things we have said while still treating the very order of the discourses and the sequence of the statements, so that the division itself of the words might make the way of understanding more open to us. But now let us inquire what sense is to be held in these discourses according to apostolic worth. Every discipline consists of favorable things and of adverse or contrary ones. For example: medicine professes the knowledge not only of health but also of sickness; and although it pursues the study of health, it nevertheless cannot be ignorant of what belongs to sickness. Similarly prudence too consists in the knowledge of good and evil; and temperance knows what things are to be chosen and what are to be avoided; and fortitude is not ignorant of what pertains to fear. So also justice. If we wish to know what justice is, it is necessary for us to know what injustice is; and when we have grasped the full knowledge of injustice, from that very thing we shall come to know what justice also is; for when it has become clear what is unjust, consequently what is just also will appear. And since justice is in God, whose nature is inaccessible to human perception, but injustice is found in us men, or even in every rational creature, it is from this injustice of ours, which is known to us, that that justice of God which is, as it were, inaccessible and incomprehensible to us is known and commended, and as it were the contrary is disclosed from its contrary. The apostle Paul therefore marks the ignorance of those who raise an inconsequent question, thinking that God is unjust who brings wrath upon men, on the ground that his justice is commended from our injustice; not knowing, however, that it comes about not by the benefit of our sins but by the very nature of reason, that contraries are proved from contraries. Therefore the Apostle speaks thus: "But if our injustice commends the justice of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust, who inflicts wrath? I speak according to man. God forbid. Otherwise, how shall God judge the world?" God is therefore not proved unjust in this, if the method of instruction proves contraries from contraries, and commends justice from injustice; but rather, with full consistency, justice is worthily and deservedly hostile to injustice and opposed to it, just as life is hostile and opposed to death, and light to darkness. And therefore God, in whom righteousness resides, is said to bring wrath upon those men in whom unrighteousness dwells. For these two are by nature opposed to one another. And how, even on this very account, will God appear unrighteous, who opposes unrighteousness? And for this reason perhaps the Apostle did not say that we unrighteous men commend the righteousness of God; but he says: "If our unrighteousness commends the righteousness of God" — so as to show that it is not God who is contrary to men, but righteousness that is contrary to unrighteousness; and that wrath is brought upon men because they have given a place to unrighteousness within themselves. God therefore, who is righteousness, will not appear unrighteous when He is angry against unrighteousness, toward which it is not fitting that He should be favorable; but this wrath reaches even to those men who have offered themselves as ministers of the unrighteousness at which God is angry. For in no one can unrighteousness and righteousness both subsist; but just as righteousness is the effect of a righteous and upright work, which is found first in God, and then also in those who imitate Him, so too unrighteousness is the effect of an unrighteous and crooked work, which is detected first in the devil, and then also in those who are willing to imitate him. And therefore wrath is deservedly said to be brought upon them, even though out of their unrighteousness, as by way of contrast, the righteousness of God seems to have shone forth. For they might, just as they received into themselves the disposition of an unrighteous and crooked work, much more have received that of a righteous and upright one. Justly, therefore, is wrath said to be brought by God upon all men. For those in whom wrath has no place are already to be called not men, but above men. And for this reason perhaps the same apostle Paul makes his pronouncement concerning all men, saying that "we were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest." For he did not say, "We were children of wrath," but he added: "We were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest." For all men have been made by nature children of wrath, from the fact that they were gods and sons of the Most High, and through this were called men. For attend more diligently to how he says: "I said: You are gods, and sons of the Most High"; and he added, "all of you." This addition signifies the whole human race bound together at once under this title. Finally, in what follows he says: "But you shall die like men." Hence also that which is written: "And God reflected that He had made man upon the earth; and it repented Him in His heart, and God said: I will blot out man whom I have made from the face of the earth" — this I think was said not only with reference to the destruction of the flood, but that something was also foretold by it, under a mystery, concerning things to come: so that what is said, "I will blot out man," may be understood in the same way as when God says through the prophet: "For behold, I blot out your iniquities like a cloud"; that He may be seen to blot him out according to that which is man, so as afterwards to make him god, at that time when "God will be all in all." And to this sense may also be applied what is said in Genesis: "The time of every man has come before my sight" — so that it may be thought to have been said not only about that time of the flood then, but also about the mystery of baptism; just as the apostle Peter says that, as Noah was then saved from the flood, so now also in like manner believers are saved through baptism. And thus what he says, that "the time of every man" has come, can be understood with reference to salvation, so that believers are understood, through the grace of baptism, to be destined to be changed from men into a higher order, when the day of resurrection shall have come, where all the saints "shall be as the angels of God." Let this be what has been said, so far as it could occur to us, concerning that which was stated: "Is God unrighteous who brings wrath," or "against men," as we said is read in certain copies, or, as we have it, "I speak after the manner of man. God forbid."
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 3:6
But as to what he says: "Otherwise how shall God judge the world," in this passage by "world" he means the men who are in this world, just as we read elsewhere, "that the whole world lies in the evil one"; which surely shows that the men who dwell in this world are set in wickedness.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 3:7
After this let us now see how it was said: "For if the truth of God has abounded in my lie unto His glory." There are in this world many kinds of religions, many sects of philosophers, many teachings handed down with false assertions and composed with lying arguments, whose authors — though under a false title of wisdom — are nevertheless held to be men of no slight or contemptible authority; and it is from their prestige that false things have been received as true, so that they have taken possession of almost the entire world with lying opinions about religion, so that even the elect, if it can be said, were being led into error. Since therefore the truth of God, and His wisdom, and His Word, coming into the world, reproved and refuted every lie, and cut away all the assertions of false teachings by the faith of the truth, through each single lie which had previously been asserted by men the truth of God abounded, by exposing the surreptitious plausibilities and by handing down, in each and every teaching, the simple truth of the faith: and in this way the Apostle says that the truth of God abounded in the lie of men. But, that what we are saying may become still clearer, let us bring forward some things by way of example. There was among men a teaching which declared that the highest good is pleasure; and in this it is consequently asserted also that there is no Providence, since one must live not by laws but by pleasure: and these things are set out through innumerable volumes with such abundant and ornate speech and with the most forceful arguments. But observe now how he who defends the truth of God, and who is a philosopher according to Christ, who is the truth of God and the wisdom of God, teaches men that the highest good is eternal life; and that this is eternal life, that men should know the one only true God, and His Son Jesus Christ: and how with all confidence he asserts the providence of God, saying: "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny, and not one of them falls to the ground without the Father's will?" and that He Himself "commands His sun to rise upon the good and the evil, and rains upon the just and the unjust." Now through each of these things, while those teachings of a false knowledge are refuted, the truth of God abounds in the lie of men. There are likewise others who say that there are three kinds of good: one pertaining to the soul, another pertaining to bodies, a third external. Since each of these is held to be advantageous, they affirm that the highest good consists of them. These men too, cutting back the providence of God, contend that it extends only as far as the sphere of the moon, but that below that, that is, to men, it by no means descends. There are likewise others who say that nothing invisible or incorporeal exists, but assign all things that are to bodies, whence they have also said that God, the Father of all, is a body. But because the consistency of their own reasoning pressed them — by which it stands that every body is corruptible, so that if they assert that God too is a body, they must without doubt confess Him to be corruptible as well — they turned a trick of words, and said that He is indeed of a corruptible nature, yet is not corrupted, because there is nothing superior to Him by which He could be corrupted or dissolved. There are also innumerable other fabrications of men, put together with dialectical subtleties and the deceit of sophisms. And when the truth of God, through churchmen instructed in divine wisdom, convicts each of these, and refutes the snares of their arguments, the truth of God is said to abound in the lie of men — and not only to abound, but to abound unto His glory. Which I think is to be understood in this way: if a teacher of the Church instructs hearers who are simple and not yet taken up with false teachings, and opens to them the account of the divine truth concerning each several matter, in teaching of this kind the truth of God will be seen to abound. But if the discourse is addressed to those who resist the truth, who contradict the words of sound doctrine, and the contradictors are refuted and convicted, so that, forsaking the darkness of their errors, they come to the light of truth; then the truth of God will not only abound, but will abound also unto His glory. For God is glorified through him who, snatched from the error of the lie, has beheld the light of truth.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 3:8
He therefore who has understood in this way will certainly not say what is put forward in what follows as a foolish objection: "Why am I still also judged as a sinner?" but he perceives that he is deservedly to be judged, if he remains in the lie of men: and he who, according to what we have expounded above, being convicted by the truth of God perceives that he has erred, turning from his error glorifies the true God when the truth is recognized, and no longer blasphemes those who preach the truth, as though they said: "Let us do evil that good may come," knowing that in such a saying the condemnation of the blasphemer is just. It must also be observed that of those who preach the truth he said not so much that they are spoken ill of, which pertains to men, but that they are blasphemed, which pertains to God.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 3:9
Finally, in that passage where he said: “But I was alive without the law once,” he added: “But when the commandment came, sin revived.” In this he shows indeed that in childhood, before one has discernment of good and evil, a person is said to be without law; since even if he sins, because the law is not in him, sin is not imputed to him. But when he has received discernment of good and evil, the law is said to have come to him and to have given him commandments. Now where the force of the commandment is present — that is, a conscience that convicts — sin, which before was dead in him, is said to have revived. From this time on, therefore, if anyone subjects himself to the law of Moses so as to observe it according to the letter, he becomes a Jew outwardly; but if he follows it according to the spirit, he becomes a Jew inwardly. These things are said with respect to what was written: “For we have charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin.” That is, let “all” be understood as spoken of those who, it is agreed, are taught not to sin either by the natural law or by the written law. For concerning the Gentiles too, who are placed under sin, we understand it in the same way we said above: when they have begun to do naturally the things of the law and to be a law to themselves, then they are convicted by conscience in those things which they are seen to do against the law. For this reason those men also seem to me to have judged rightly who call the law of nature the law of God, and call the law of Moses the written law. For if Paul were speaking of the written law, that is, of the law of Moses, when he says: “But sin is not imputed when there is no law,” it will seem that sin was not reckoned to Cain, nor to those who perished in the flood, nor to those whom fire consumed in Sodom. But since we see that not only were sins reckoned to them, but vengeance also was inflicted upon them, it is shown from these things that Paul is speaking of the natural law, which — apart from the first age of childhood — is present in all human beings; and through this he says most rightly: “For we have charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin.” Hence it does not seem to me that a certain one of the wise men defined the matter contrary to reason when he said that in the whole race of mortals, when a person has come to that age at which he receives the discernment of right and wrong by the entrance of the natural law, first of all malice is stirred up, and after this, by teachings, training, and admonitions, it is little by little driven out, and a passage is made to virtue. For Paul too seems to me to have thought in harmony with these things in what he says: “But when the commandment came, sin revived.” And the Savior also, when he says in the Gospels: “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin,” will be seen to have spoken according to this same reasoning: that by that power with which he is said to fill the world, he comes to each individual person and speaks in his heart and teaches the judgment of good and evil.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 3:9
"What then do we hold further? For we have charged that Jews and Greeks are all under sin, as it is written: That there is none righteous, none that understands, none that seeks after God. All have turned aside, they have together become unprofitable; there is none that does goodness, there is not so much as one. Their throat is an open sepulchre, with their tongues they dealt deceitfully, the poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and unhappiness are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes." We have already said beforehand that in this Epistle Paul, like a kind of arbiter between those who have believed from the circumcision and those from the Gentiles, always tempers and balances his speech, so that now these, now those he seems to reprove in certain matters, and again he encourages each party with the sure hope of the promise. Since therefore he had seemed in the earlier passages to say that if the uncircumcision keeps the righteous requirements of the law, it shall judge him who in circumcision is a transgressor of the law: again, in order to lift up those whom he had humbled, he added: "What then is the advantage of the Jew? or what is the profit of circumcision? Much in every way. First indeed, because to them were entrusted the oracles of God." After these things, when he had gone on consequently with certain matters connected with these, he now adds and says: "What then do we hold further? For we have charged that Jews and Greeks are all under sin." But if all are under sin, then there will be no cause of boasting for the one against the other, since each comes to salvation not out of his own righteousness, but out of God's mercy. He proved therefore that the Greeks, that is, the Gentiles, are under sin, when he says: "For professing themselves to be wise, they became fools: and they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of corruptible man, and of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and of serpents: wherefore God gave them over to a reprobate mind," and the rest: and the Jews, when he says: "But if you are called a Jew, and rest in the law," and the rest. To which he added: "You therefore who teach another, do you not teach yourself? you who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal?" and so forth. After these things therefore he says that "we have charged that Jews and Greeks are all under sin." But after this, as is his custom, he wishes to confirm from the holy Scriptures what he had said; and at the same time he offers an example to the teachers of the Church, that the things they speak to the people they should bring forward not presumed from their own opinions, but fortified by divine testimonies. For if he himself, so great and such an Apostle, does not believe that the authority of his own words can suffice unless he shows that what he says is written in the Law and the Prophets, "how much more ought we, the least, to observe this, that when we teach we bring forward not our own opinions, but those of the Holy Spirit?" This too we consider must necessarily be pointed out, that in some Latin copies the testimonies which follow are found placed consecutively and in full in the thirteenth psalm; but in almost all the Greek copies there is no more in the thirteenth psalm than up to that verse where it is written: "There is none that does good, there is not so much as one." But also what the Apostle said: "As it is written: That there is none righteous: none that understands, none that seeks after God," is not found in the same words in the psalm, but some are changed, some are taken up, some are left out. And if this be observed rather carefully by any diligent students, I think that apostolic authority is given in this matter, so that when we must use the testimonies of Scripture, we should grasp the sense from it rather than the words. For you will find this frequently done also in the Gospels. In the thirteenth psalm, then, it is thus written: "The Lord looked down from heaven upon the sons of men, to see if there is one that understands, or that seeks after God." But in the fifty-second psalm it says thus: "God looked down from heaven upon the sons of men, to see if there is one that understands, or that seeks after God." And the same sense seems to be preserved also in that which the Apostle set down: "There is none that understands, none that seeks after God." And as for what he said: "There is none righteous," I think that he took it from what is written: "There is none that does goodness, there is not so much as one": in which, even if the wording seems to be altered, nevertheless one and the same sense is preserved. But that which is said in what follows: "Their throat is an open sepulchre, with their tongues they dealt deceitfully," you will find in the fifth psalm. After this: "The poison of asps is under their lips," which I think was itself also taken from some psalm, the wording being changed, as we said above. But what follows: "Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness," seems to be received from the ninth psalm. Then next: "Their feet are swift to shed blood," you will find either in Isaiah or in Proverbs. But also, "Destruction and unhappiness are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known," I do not indeed fully recall where it is written: I suspect, however, that it can be found in one of the prophets. And in the Psalms it is written: "There is no fear of God before their eyes." Now he seems to have wished to gather all these testimonies for this reason, that he might show that when he charges that "Jews and Greeks are all under sin," he pronounces not so much his own opinion as that of holy Scripture. But let us inquire what this very thing is, to be under sin: for his statement seems to involve all without exception, whether they be Jews or Gentiles. But there meets us another statement of his own, in which he says: "But where there is no law, neither is there transgression." Among the Jews indeed it is manifest that there is the law of Moses: but among the Gentiles he affirms that there is the law of nature, which convicts the offender by the testimony of conscience. Where then do we seek a man in whom there is no law, and who through this may seem not to be in the transgression of sin, since Paul himself also says of himself: "But I was alive without the law once." When did Paul live without the law, who again says of himself: "Circumcised the eighth day, a Hebrew of the Hebrews"? How then will it be true that he once lived without the law, who on the eighth day of his birth received the sign of circumcision according to the law? Whence it is established that a man then comes to be under the law when he has arrived at that age at which he can choose, and discern what the law is: nor does he take upon himself the yoke of that outward law before he begins to have the firmness of the inward and natural law.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 3:10
For this reason, then, Paul says it is written: “Because there is none righteous; there is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God: all have turned aside, together they have become unprofitable”; just as elsewhere the Prophet says: “For in your sight shall no living person be justified.” And this may perhaps seem contrary to other Scriptures, which bear witness to some as though they were righteous — so much so that it is even said to Jerusalem concerning Sodom that “Sodom has been justified more than you.” But consider more carefully the caution of divine Scripture, how it did not say, “Sodom has been justified,” but rather says: Since you commit many crimes, and the things you do are such that you surpass all in the greatness of your sins, by comparison with your crimes Sodom is now justified. And here too, then, when it says, “In your sight shall no living person be justified,” it did not mean this to be understood, that no living person shall be justified, but that “in your sight” — that is, God's — he shall not be justified. For however righteous a person may be, however holy, not only among human beings but even among the higher and more eminent creatures, it is certain that by comparison with God he cannot be justified. Finally, in the Apocalypse of John also, where the sealed book is offered in the sight of the Ancient of Days, and search is made among every tribe, tongue, and people for one who might be able to open it, no one was found except the Lamb alone from the tribe of Judah, who was justified in the sight of God; and he alone was worthy to open the book, who alone is the one “who opens, and no one shuts; who shuts, and no one opens.” Therefore our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ alone is justified in the sight of the Father, because “whatever things the Father does, these the Son likewise does.” But every creature is justified by comparison with those beneath it. As, for example, if we should say: by comparison with the rest of the people, Miriam the sister of Moses was righteous; and again, by comparison with Miriam, Aaron was righteous; and again, by comparison with Aaron, Moses was righteous. Yet blessed is the one who is called righteous by comparison with better people, and not by comparison with the worst, as Sodom, which is recorded as justified by comparison with Jerusalem. Hence I too fear that, because of us who seem to be in the Church of God and to devote our efforts to his law and to serve the evangelical precepts, some of the unbelievers may be found who are to be justified. To speak by way of example: if we are slaves to lust and unchastity, while a pagan who is a stranger to the faith of Christ keeps chastity, that pagan is justified over against us. Likewise, if we are entangled in avarice, rapacity, pride, and other evils of this kind, while a pagan abstains from all these — those who do not know the law of God will be justified over against us, and we shall be condemned by comparison with them. Rather, let us take pains that, just as we go before the Gentiles in faith, so we may excel them in deeds and works, lest our evils become another's goods, and their self-restraint convict our lack of restraint. What he said — “There is none righteous” — or what he says — “In your sight shall no living person be justified” — can still be explained in yet another way: that as long as anyone lives in the body, he cannot be justified nor be pronounced righteous, but only when he has gone out of the body and departed from the contest of this life, as Scripture also says: “Call no one blessed before his death, for you do not know what his last things will be”; and again Ecclesiastes says: “And I praised the dead who are already dead, more than the living who are still alive; but better than both is he who has not yet been born.” You have still another saying of Scripture as well, which says that whoever is least in the kingdom of God is greater than one who is in the body, even if it be that John, than whom there was none greater among those born of women. Therefore “there is none righteous.”
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS
Romans 3:11
And he added: “There is none that understands.” And indeed, since the Apostle himself says that he knows in part and understands in part, who will there be that may be called understanding? For however much a person may understand, he will be seen to understand in a mirror and in an enigma; because it is only after the laying aside of the earthly body that one is said to understand face to face. But now, as Scripture says: “The corruptible body weighs down the soul, and the earthly dwelling presses down the mind that ponders many things.” Hence it comes about that no one is “understanding,” nor “seeking after God.” For while we are occupied with the anxieties of the body and seek the things that are of human beings, we cannot seek God nor think upon the things that are of God.
COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS

Quoted verbatim from public-domain English translations of the fathers — Aquinas's Catena Aurea, the Ante-Nicene and Nicene & Post-Nicene Fathers, and related editions. Each quotation links to its source.