Theodore of Mopsuestia

5th century · AD 428 · Eastern & Byzantine · 491 passages

In his own words on Romans

Romans 1:1
All things are servants of Christ, and he is Lord of all. Therefore Paul calls himself a servant first of all, thereby encouraging the rest to do likewise. He also recalls the unique lordship of the Son but not in such a way as to deny the lordship of the Father, which is confessed by everybody. In saying that he was set apart, he showed that he was not only called but also chosen from among many as useful for the preaching of the gospel.
PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH
Romans 1:7
Paul says to all because with Christ everyone is equal. When he says: "to those beloved of God, called to be holy," he cuts out unbelievers. The forgiveness of sins and the gift of sonship may be what he means by "grace," and the defeat of the invisible enemies, from whom Christ has delivered us, may be what he means by "peace," as well as the refusal of the body to rebel against the reasonings of the soul and godly agreement with one another.
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Romans 1:8
It seems that Paul begins by giving thanks in his other epistles too, thereby teaching by word and deed those to whom the letter is written that one ought to begin by thanking God, not only for one's own but also for others. But here this salutation has a special importance, because after the teaching of Peter, anyonewho wanted to teach them the doctrines of godliness had to show that he accepted Peter's teaching and was not trying to introduce them to anything which went against that. Therefore his praise of the Romans was no accident. Often in his letters he used the salutation as a way of preparing those who would be better disposed toward him as a result of such praise, for the reading of what had been written."Through Jesus Christ" had to be added here, not to qualify Christ's ministry, as it seemed to some of the heretics, but because he is the cause of our thanks. Hence the apostle says that he thanks God for them all and that Christ is the cause of his thanksgiving.
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Romans 1:9
Paul rightly says "with my spirit," contrasting this with the carnal worship of the Jews in circumcision and sabbatarianism and other such sacrifices, none of which is either spiritual or true. Some have pointed out that the phrase is a simpler way of saying "with my mind and with my will."
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Romans 1:11
Paul showed by his longing to see them that his desire was genuine, and by his eagerness to share, that the Romans' spiritual gift was not something private but that he himself would be the one who would impart it.
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Romans 1:13
Paul here shows quite clearly that he wanted to go to Rome but that he had often been prevented. At the same time he wants to put them in fear, lest perhaps it was because of their unworthiness that he had been prevented from going to them.
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Romans 1:18
Since the forthcoming punishment of the ungodly and unrighteous has already been decreed, it is essential to walk in the righteousness of faith, in order to avoid the evils to come. Paul rightly said that the wrath of God is being revealed … in this present age, when God restrains himself and does not render the full punishment, so as not to remove the opportunity to repent, with the result that either they will turn around and be saved or else they will turn away and have no excuse.
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Romans 1:25
The truth about God is that he is the true God. But human beings have made idols and falsely called them gods. They have transferred the truth of God to idols. In other words, they have changed what could rightly be said and thought about God into a lie by applying it to idols instead.
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Romans 2:2
"Judgment" means the tribunal and judgment seat of God, and as if to make the condemnation of the wicked certain Paul added "rightly."
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Romans 2:12
So as not to appear to be condemning them out of hatred Paul has repeated himself here, saying that those who have sinned without the law will perish without the law and that those under the law will be judged by the law.
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Romans 2:16
Paul continually preached that there will be a day of judgment and that it will be necessary to have believed in Christ in order to escape punishment.
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Romans 2:17
This is not to be read as a question, as some people think, but rather as a statement, as if to say: "Not as a true Jew, albeit in secret, but merely claiming to be one and making false pretenses."
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Romans 2:20
By "embodiment" is meant not the form but the substance and the knowledge and the truth, like the one "who was in the form of God."
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Romans 2:29
"Spiritual" here does not refer to the Holy Spirit. For Paul is not talking about those who have been put right by grace but is referring above all to those outside the faith who do the works of the law and who show themselves to be better than those transgressors who are under the law.
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Romans 3:12
Paul did not treat this passage as if it were prophetic but rather because what David said about transgressors was still a good summary of what was going on in Paul's day. Even now we still cite texts of this kind in our sermons, because what they say can be applied to our congregations.
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Romans 3:27
Now you say to me (says Paul), What new law has thrown the old one out? For when the ruler adds to the law, the law is changed. Paul answers: When the law of works came in it did not abolish the former law—on the contrary, it actually contained the former law. But when the law of faith appeared it did abolish the earlier law, having overcome the boasting which came from the law of works. These things have been given to us by the grace of God, which our forefathers, however hard they may have tried, were unable to obtain.
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Romans 3:28
Paul did not say "we hold" because he was himself uncertain. He said it in order to counter those who concluded from this that anyone who wished to could be justified simply by willing faith. Note carefully that Paul does not say simply "without the law," as if we could just perform virtue by wanting to, nor do we do the works of the law by force. We do them because we have been led to do them by Christ.
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Romans 4:8
Sinful works are not counted against the faithful. God's love of humanity is the greatest thing that has happened.
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Romans 5:13
The coming of the law did not remove sin. On the contrary, even though the law was observed and kept by men, sin continued to increase and the law could do nothing to stop it.… So far was the law from being the cure for sin that Paul even says that there would not have been sin at all had there been no law! By "law" Paul means the discernment which comes by both the natural law and the law of Moses. For without this discernment, nobody would be able to call sin by its name, since there would be no way of knowing the difference between good and evil.
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Romans 5:14
Death came to all men not because they committed the same sin as Adam but because they sinned.… Death is not just the punishment for one particular sin; it is the punishment for every sin.
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Romans 5:16
There is one great difference between Adam's sin and God's gift in Christ. Adam's sin brought punishment on all those who came after him, and so they died. But the free gift is different. For not only did it take effect in the case of those who came afterward; it also took away the sins of those who had gone before. It is therefore much greater, because where sin harmed those who came after, grace rescued not only those who came after but those who had transgressed before as well.
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Romans 5:17
Paul shows just how superior grace is to sin, because while death, which came into the world by the sin of Adam, held full sway, the enjoyment of the gift of grace through Christ has been given to us, through which we shall be raised from the dead and in righteousness cease to sin. But we have not yet received it fully; it does not yet hold full sway. We are still waiting for the life to come, even though we now enjoy it in part.
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Romans 5:21
Paul says that just as sin once ruled us even against our will, because we were so used to it, so now our zeal for God reigns and will reign in us forever. Since we have been made worthy of eternal life through the resurrection and live in true and certain righteousness, we shall no longer be receptive to sin.
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Romans 6:14
Having shown that they should avoid sinning for the sake of future benefits, Paul goes on to add that they should live as though they were incapable of sinning at all. For if the time was coming when they would be transformed and act as sinless people, then here and now they ought to cleanse their minds of any thought of sin and earnestly try to do what is good.
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Romans 6:15
I think that Paul is saying this to the Jews because it is the nature of the law to tell us what we should and should not do. If we find ourselves outside the law, there is nothing to stop us from doing what we like, but if there is some way of determining what should and should not be done, then we are back under the law again, and what is said here will easily apply to us. Paul has expressed himself in this seemingly contradictory way because he is saying that since we are free of sin we are no longer under the law. He does not mean that the outpouring of grace has given us license to sin.
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Romans 7:4
The phrase "in order that we" should be read as: "and so we shall".… For Paul wants to say that once we have been established in this life we shall bear the fruits of righteousness for God, since we have been changed from our behavior under the law.It is most remarkable that Paul says that we have died not through baptism but through the body of Christ. For Adam was the beginning of this life, and Christ is the beginning of the life to come. So, just as in this life we have everything in common with Adam, so also in the next life we shall have everything in common with Christ, beginning with his resurrection. We are said to be a part of the Lord's body because we share this with him. So just as we have been metaphorically born again by baptism, Paul says that we have become a part of Christ's body by sharing in the resurrection which is typified by baptism.
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Romans 7:5
Holy Scripture sometimes calls our human nature "flesh," and sometimes it goes beyond this and includes the concept of mortality as well.… In any case, the flesh is never said to inherit or to be capable of inheriting eternal life in the age to come.
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Romans 7:6
Now everything has changed, Paul says. We have died to this life and are no longer under any obligation to keep the law. Our life no longer has anything in common with that, because we have been renewed by the power of the Spirit and have become different people. We have crossed over from this present life to life eternal and cannot tolerate any captivity of the flesh.… What is more, we who follow Christ are much better off than those who are governed by the law.
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Romans 7:7
We often covet the things of this life, not merely food and drink and sex but fame and fortune as well. We have these desires inside us and would never know there was anything wrong with them unless the law told us so.
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Romans 7:8
Paul says that without the law to define it sin would not be effective. Why? Because it is not the deed by itself which is sin but rather doing something when you know that it is wrong.
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Romans 7:12
Paul calls the law "holy" because it gives us the principles on which to tell the difference between good and evil, … "just" because after showing us what is good it necessarily points out the punishment for the transgressor, but also "good" because it is the source of good things, showing us what they are and persuading us that they are desirable.
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Romans 7:23
Paul was right to refer to his members here, because sin takes many forms according to the nature of our members. There are sins of the eyes, sins of the tongue, sins of other parts of the body as well.
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Romans 8:2
The apostle says that the resurrection takes place by the working of the Spirit. … Paul calls the Spirit the "Spirit of life" because the Spirit is the firstfruits of the eternal life which we shall then enjoy. The Spirit has been given to us in the hope of immortality, and faith in Christ has permitted us to enjoy him, because he has set us free from death and sin. Clearly Paul is using the things which are to come as evidence for what has been promised to us in Christ.
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Romans 8:14
It is clear that these people will live the blessed life with their Father.
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Romans 8:15
The text should be read like this: "You have not received the Spirit; instead you are again in fear of slavery." … The slavery in question is slavery to the law.
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Romans 8:19
Paul is referring here to the resurrection on the last day.
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Romans 8:22
How did the whole creation suffer this? The invisible creatures did it by thinking and feeling; the visible creatures did it by sharing in the thing itself.
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Romans 8:28
We must not worry if we find that things which we expect to turn out for our good are unexpectedly evil in the present life, because we know that in the end everything works together for good for those who love God.
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Romans 9:20
How can the thing which is made blame its Maker for the construction of its own nature? Everything must be content with its own nature, whatever that may be.
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Romans 9:21
Whoever heard of a clay pot made for menial use blaming the potter for the way it was made and demanding to be remolded for some better purpose?
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Romans 9:22
What Paul is saying is this: God has made this present life one of struggles and not of reward, and he agrees that wicked men and good ones alike will be tested in both good and bad things in order to have an exact touchstone for the predestination of each person. In this way those who are good will follow the path of virtue and will cling to it through all the changes of life, neither boasting in the good times nor being unable to bear reverses. Wicked people, on the other hand, will in all circumstances be shown to be lovers of evil, ignorant of the reason for their good fortune when they enjoy it and exaggerating the wretchedness of their condition when they suffer grief. God gives each of these what they deserve in the next life.
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Romans 9:32
It is impossible to be justified by the works of the law because it would be necessary to keep the whole law, which is not possible. But anyone who sins (which is inevitable) lies under the judgment of the law.
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Romans 10:15
If the heralds of these things are deemed worthy of such great admiration, how essential and how advantageous a thing the teaching of the apostles must be.
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Romans 10:16
The first part of this [verse] ought to be read as a question to which the second part is the apostle's answer.… There is nothing surprising about this, for Isaiah also testifies to the small number of believers.
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Romans 10:17
It is perfectly clear to us, says Paul, following the voice of the prophet and what we have said, that there can be no faith without teaching, and the teaching of godliness is impossible unless it shows the truth about God.
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Romans 10:18
It is clear that Paul did not put this here as a kind of prophecy but rather as a statement of what was actually going on at the time.
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Romans 11:1
Paul has mentioned not only his first ancestor but also the head of his tribe in order to show that he is not fabricating his claim.
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Romans 11:9
Paul is using these words not as a prophecy but as a statement from the Scriptures which backs up what he has already said about the Jews, and at the same time he shows that there is nothing new under the sun.
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Romans 11:16
By "first fruits" Paul means Christ, because he was selected out of the entire race of the Jews; by "root" he means Abraham, from whom the race descended.
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Romans 11:22
Paul is telling us that we ought to learn from both these things and consider how great God's love for us is, that we should have been counted worthy through faith. We ought to become ever more eager to live a godly life bearing in mind how God rejected them because of their unbelief and do everything in our power not to fall in the same way.
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Romans 12:13
Paul says that it is right for us always to remember the saints, to regard their needs as our own, and thus to lighten their suffering.
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Romans 13:7
"Taxes" refers to property taxes; "revenue" refers to sales taxes.
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Romans 13:9
Every law either forbids evil or tells us to do good. Legislators pass the first kind of law in order that we should not harm one another and the second kind in order that we should help one another as far as possible. But they are all summed up in the one command that we should love our neighbor.
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Romans 13:11
"Our salvation" means the general resurrection on the last day, for it is then that we shall enjoy true salvation.
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Romans 13:12
By "day" Paul means the time since the coming of Christ, for his appearing has made it much easier to tell the difference between good and evil. "Night" refers to the time before his coming.
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Romans 13:14
Paul wants to say that by the regeneration of baptism we have been conformed to Christ and become members of the one body of the church, of which he is the head, and so we must put him on in the understanding of what we are expecting, in that we hope to share in his resurrection.
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Romans 14:8
If we live, it is Christ's life that we live; if we die, we die with him, under his custody.
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Romans 14:10
"Why do you pass judgment on your brother?" was said to the Jews. "Why do you despise your brother?" was said to the Gentiles. Neither of you should do either, says Paul, because you are under obligation to maintain Christ's standards of behavior in your life.
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Romans 14:13
Paul is saying this to the Gentiles, even if it appears that he is speaking to the Jews.… For the Gentiles at Rome were doing many things deliberately in order to upset the Jews, partly because they were the majority in the church and partly because they were of a higher social class.
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Romans 14:17
We ought to laugh at those who think that after the resurrection we shall eat and drink, when Paul's words so clearly say the opposite.
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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.