Homilies on Romans 19 part 1/2

What then? That which Israel seeks for, this it did not obtain, but the election obtained it.

He had said that God has not cast off His people; and, showing how He has not cast them off, he again took refuge in the prophets.

And having shown through them that the greater part of the Jews had perished, lest again he should seem to bring the accusation of himself and to make his words offensive and, as though their enemy, to assail them, he takes refuge in David and in Isaiah, saying:

God gave them a spirit of stupor.

But rather we must begin the discourse from higher up.

For having spoken of the things concerning Elijah, and having shown what grace is, he added:

What then? That which Israel seeks for, this it did not obtain.

But this is the language not so much of one inquiring as of one bringing a charge.

For the Jew, he says, is at war with himself, seeking righteousness which he is not willing to receive.

Then, again depriving them of excuse, from those who had received it he demonstrates their perverseness, speaking thus:

And those men shall condemn these.

Just as Christ also said:

If I by Beelzebul cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges.

For that no one might blame the nature of the matter, but rather their own disposition, he points also to those who did obtain it.

Wherefore also he has employed the expression with great emphasis, indicating both the grace from above and their own diligence.

For not in order to do away with free will, he says, does he say that they obtained it, but in order to declare the greatness of the good things, and that the greater part was of grace, not the whole.

For it is our custom too to say, 'So-and-so obtained it, so-and-so found it,' whenever the gain that comes to pass is great.

For it was not by human labors, but by divine bounty that the greater part came to pass.

See when he took courage to declare in his own voice the casting out of the rest.

For he had indeed said it even before, but by bringing in the prophets as accusers;

but here he too at length pronounces the verdict himself.

Yet nevertheless not even here is he content with his own pronouncement, but again he brings in Isaiah the prophet;

for having said, 'They were hardened,' he added:

God gave them a spirit of stupor.

And whence came this hardening? He had indeed spoken of the causes before also, and turned the whole thing back upon their own head, showing that they underwent this from unseasonable contentiousness.

For when he says, 'Eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear,' he does nothing else than accuse their contentious disposition.

For having eyes so as to behold the miracles, and possessing ears so as to hear that wondrous teaching, they used none of these for what they ought.

But as to the word 'gave,' here do not think it means active working, but permission.

And by 'stupor' here he means the soul's condition toward what is worse, that which is incurable and unchangeable;

since elsewhere too David says:

That my glory may sing praise to You, and I be not pierced with compunction;

that is, I may not be changed.

For just as he who is pierced with compunction in reverence would not easily be moved away,

so also he who is fixed fast in wickedness would not again easily be changed;

for to be pierced with compunction is nothing else than to be embedded somewhere and nailed fast.

Therefore, to indicate the incurable and hard-to-alter character of their disposition, he said, 'a spirit of stupor.'

Then, showing that for this unbelief they shall pay the utmost penalty, again he brings in the prophet threatening the very things which came to pass and reached their fulfillment.

For let their table, he says, become a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling-block;

that is, Let their luxury, all their good things, be changed and perish, and let them become an easy prey to all.

And to show that they suffer these things as paying the penalty for their sins, he added:

And for a recompense to them.

Let their eyes be darkened that they should not see, and bow down their back continually.

Do these things, then, still need any interpretation? Were they not plain even to the exceedingly foolish? And even before our words, the very issue of events, coming beforehand, bears witness to what has been said.

For when were they ever so easily subdued? when so easily taken? when did He so bow down their back? when did they undergo such slavery? And, what is even greater, that there shall not even be any release from these calamities;

which the prophet also himself darkly intimated.

For he did not simply say, 'Bow down their back,' but also, 'Continually.'

But if you are contentious, O Jew, about the end, from the things that have already passed learn also the things present.

But it came to two hundred years, and God quickly delivered you from that bondage, and that when you were impious and committing fornication of the most grievous kind;

you were delivered from Egypt, and you worshiped the calf; you sacrificed your sons to Baal-peor; you defiled the temple; you went into every form of evil; you were ignorant of nature itself; you filled the mountains, the glens, the hills, the springs, the rivers, the gardens with your abominable sacrifices; you slaughtered prophets; you overthrew altars; you displayed every excess of wickedness and impiety;

but nevertheless, having delivered you over to the Babylonians for seventy years, He again brought you back to your former liberty, and gave back the temple and the fatherland, and the ancient form of prophecy, and prophets again and the grace of the Spirit;

or rather, not even in the time of the captivity were you forsaken, but there too were Daniel and Ezekiel, and in Egypt Jeremiah, and in the wilderness Moses.

After those things you returned again to your former wickedness, and were driven into frenzy, and went over to the Greek polity under Antiochus the impious;

yet even then, being delivered over to Antiochus for three years only and a little more, through the Maccabees you again set up your glorious trophies.

But now nothing of the sort has happened; on the contrary, quite the reverse has come to pass;

and this is what one may most marvel at, that the things of their wickedness have ceased, while the things of their punishment have been intensified, and it holds not even any hope of change.

For not seventy years only have passed, nor a hundred, nor twice as many, but even three hundred and much more, and one cannot find so much as a shadow of any such hope, and that too though you are neither practicing idolatry nor doing the other things which formerly you dared to do.

What then is the cause? The truth succeeded the type, and grace shut out the law;

which things, then, the prophet, foretelling from of old, said:

And bow down their back continually.

Did you see the exactness of the prophecy, how he both foretold the unbelief, and showed the contentiousness, and made plain the punishment that would follow, and displayed the endlessness of the chastisement? For since many of the grosser sort, disbelieving the things to come, wished to see the future from the present, from hence already Christ furnished the demonstration of His power in both directions, exalting above the heaven those of the Gentiles who believed, but bringing down to the utmost desolation those of the Jews who disbelieved, and delivering them over to irremediable evils.

Having therefore assailed them vehemently, both from the things wherein they disbelieved, and from the things which they had suffered and were about to suffer, again he consoles what has been said, writing thus:

I say then, Did they stumble that they should fall? God forbid.

When he had shown that they were liable to ten thousand evils, then he devises consolation.

And observe the discernment of Paul;

the accusation he introduced from the prophets, but the consolation he sets down from himself.

For that great sins have been committed by them, he says, no one will gainsay;

But let us see whether the fall is of such a kind as to be also incurable and to admit of no correction.

Do you see how he again lays hold of them, and, even while holding out the hope of consolation, makes them liable for sins already confessed? But let us see what consolation he also devises for them.

What, then, is the consolation? 'But when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in,' he says, 'then all Israel'—

'shall be saved,' at the time of the Second Coming and of the consummation.

But he does not say this straightaway;

for since he had vehemently borne down upon them, and heaped accusations upon accusations, bringing in prophets upon prophets to cry out against them—Isaiah, Elijah, David, Moses, Hosea—once, twice, and many times over;

lest in this way he should cast even these into despair and wall off their return to the faith, and lest, on the other hand, he should lift up into arrogance those of the Gentiles who had believed, so that they too, being puffed up, should be harmed in respect of the doctrine of faith—he again consoles them, saying:

'But by their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles.'

But we ought not simply to hear what is said, but to know the mind and the aim of the one speaking, and what he was eager to accomplish;

which is what I always exhort your love to do.

For if we receive what is said with this understanding, we shall see that in none of these things is there any difficulty.

For what he is now earnest about is to pull down the arrogance that arises among those of the Gentiles from what has been said;

for thus these too were destined to abide more securely in the faith, having learned to be moderate, while those of the Jews, being freed from despair, would come to grace with greater eagerness.

Looking, therefore, to this aim, let us hearken to all that is said in this passage.

What, then, does he say? And whence does he show that they did not fall incurably, nor were cast off utterly? From the Gentiles, speaking thus:

'By their trespass salvation has come among the Gentiles, so as to provoke them to jealousy.'

And this is not his word alone, but the parables in the Gospels also intend this same thing.

For he who made the marriage feast for his son, when those who were bidden would not come, then called those in the streets.

And he who planted the vineyard, when the husbandmen slew the heir, then let out the vineyard to others.

And even apart from a parable he himself said:

'I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.'

And to the Syrophoenician woman, when she persisted, he again said something further:

'For it is not good,' he says, 'to take the children's bread and give it to the little dogs.'

And Paul, too, said to those of the Jews who were seditious: 'It was necessary that the word of God should first be spoken to you;

but since you judge yourselves unworthy, behold, we turn to the Gentiles.'

And through all of this it is made plain that the sequence of events was this: that those should come first, and then those of the Gentiles;

but since they disbelieved, the order was reversed, and their unbelief and their trespass caused these to be brought in first.

Therefore he says: 'By their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to provoke them to jealousy.'

But if he speaks of that which came about by consequence as though it had happened by primary intention, do not be amazed;

for he wishes to console their stricken souls.

And what he says is of this kind:

they did not receive him though he worked countless miracles, but crucified him;

he thereupon drew in the Gentiles, so that the honor bestowed on these, stinging their insensibility, might—even out of rivalry toward others—persuade them to come.

For it was fitting that those should be received first, and then we;

'for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek';

but since they leaped away, we who were second have become first.

You see, then, how much honor he also gathers for them from this;

one honor, in that he says we were called only then, when they themselves were unwilling;

and a second, in that he says we were called for this end—not that we alone should be saved, but that they too, provoked to jealousy through our salvation, might become better.

What then? he says: had it not been for the Jews, would we not have been called and saved? We would not have been called before them, but in the fitting order.

Therefore also, when he said to the disciples, he did not say simply, 'Go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,' but 'Go rather,' showing that after this it was needful to depart to those others also.

And Paul again did not say, 'It is necessary that the word be spoken to you,' but 'It was necessary that it be first spoken to you,' showing that it should be so a second time also.

And these things both came to pass and were spoken, so that those men might not have even a shameless pretext, as though they had been overlooked and had for that reason not believed.

For this very reason Christ also, though foreknowing all things, nevertheless came to them first.

'But if their trespass is the riches of the world, and their diminishing the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fullness?' Here he addresses them so as to gratify them.

For even if these had fallen ten thousand times, the Gentiles would not have been saved unless they had shown forth faith;

just as, on the other hand, the Jews would not have perished, had they not disbelieved and given themselves to contention.

But, as I said, he consoles them in their fallen state, out of abundance preparing them to take courage concerning their own salvation, if they should change. For if, he says, when they stumbled, so many enjoyed salvation, and in their being cast out, so many were called, consider what it will be when they turn back.

For he did not say, 'how much more their turning back,' nor 'their change,' nor 'their setting-right,' but 'how much more their fullness'—that is, when all are about to enter in.

And this he said to show that even then there will be the greater abundance of grace, and of the gift of God, and, one might almost say, the whole of it.

'For I speak to you Gentiles: inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if by any means I may provoke to jealousy my own flesh, and may save some of them.'

Once more he was earnest to clear himself of an evil suspicion;

and he seems to be rebuking those of the Gentiles and humbling their thoughts, while gently pricking the Jew;

and he goes about seeking to cover over and console their so great a ruin, yet finds nothing, because of the nature of the matters themselves.

For, from the very things he has said, they were deserving of greater accusation, seeing that others, far inferior to them, have received the things prepared for them.

For this reason, then, he passes over from the Jews to those of the Gentiles, and inserts in the middle the discourse concerning these, wishing to show that he says all these things in order to teach them to be moderate.

'For I commend you,' he says, 'on account of these two things:

on the one hand, because I have a necessity laid upon me, having been entrusted with your ministry;

and on the other, that through you I may save others.'

And he does not say, 'my brethren, my kinsmen,' but 'my flesh.'

Then, indicating their contentiousness, he does not say, 'if by any means I may persuade,' but 'I may provoke to jealousy and save,' and not even here 'all of them,' but 'some of them';

And even in this very rebuke he again shows the things of the Gentiles to be glorious;

if indeed they become the cause of salvation to them, and that not through the same means;

for those became authors of good things to these out of unbelief, while these become authors of good things to those out of faith.

Whence the things of the Gentiles seem both to be equal and to have the advantage.

For what could you say, O Jew? 'Had we not been cast out, would you not straightway have been called?' But this also he of the Gentiles says:

'Had I not been saved, you would not have been provoked to jealousy.'

And if you wish also to learn wherein we have the advantage: I, out of believing, save you;

but you, by having stumbled, have given us a passage before yourself.

Then again, perceiving that he had touched them too sharply, he resumes the former point and says:

For if the casting away of them is the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? Yet this too condemns them again, seeing that others gained from their sins, while they themselves were not even profited by the good deeds of others.

But if he says that what came about of necessity belongs to those men, do not marvel;

for in order to both restrain these — as I have often said — and to encourage those, he thus shapes his discourse.

For as I said before, even had the Jews been cast off ten thousand times over, yet had the Gentiles not shown forth faith, they would never have been saved.

But he stands by the part that has grown weak, and helps that which has been afflicted.

And observe in what things he shows them favour, merely consoling them by words.

'For if,' he says, 'the casting away of them is the reconciling of the world—'

And what is this to the Jews? 'What shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?' Yet neither is this anything to them, unless they be received.

But what he means is this:

If, while angry with them, He bestowed so much upon others, when He is reconciled to them, what will He not bestow? But just as the resurrection

of the dead is not on account of their reception, so neither is our salvation now on their account;

but they were cast out because of their folly, while we were saved by faith and by the grace from above.

And none of these things will be able to profit them, unless they display the faith that is fitting.

Nevertheless, doing what is customary with him, he advances his discourse into another commendation — not truly a commendation, but only seeming to be one — imitating the best of physicians, who console the sick with just as much as the nature of the illness allows.

For what does he say? 'And if the firstfruit is holy, so is the lump;'

'and if the root is holy, so are the branches;'

here calling firstfruit and root those about Abraham and Isaac and Jacob — the prophets, the patriarchs, all who were held in honour under the Old Covenant;

and branches those of them who believed.

Then, since it stood against him that many had disbelieved, see how he again cuts this off, and says:

'But if some of the branches were broken off—'

'And yet above you were saying that the greater number perished, and few were saved;

how then here, concerning those who perish, have you put ''some,'' which is indicative of fewness?' 'It is not,' he says, 'that I fall into contradiction with myself, but that I am eager to heal and to recover those who have been afflicted.'

You see how throughout the whole passage he is shown to be establishing this — his wish to console them? And should you take it away, many contradictions will follow.

But do you consider his wisdom for me — how, while seeming to speak on their behalf and to devise consolation for them, he yet strikes them secretly, and shows them to be bereft of all defence, from the root, from the firstfruit.

For consider the wickedness of the branches, when, though not even having a sweet root, they imitate it;

and the evil of the lump, when it is not even changed from the firstfruit.

'But if some of the branches were broken off—'

'And yet the greater part was broken off;'

but, as I said, he wishes to console them.

For this reason he brings in the statement not from himself, but from those men, and in this way strikes them secretly, and shows them fallen away from kinship with Abraham;

for this was what he was eager to say — that they have nothing in common with him.

For if the root is holy, but these are not holy, then these are far from the root.

Then, while seeming to console the Jew, he again strikes those of the Gentiles through this accusation;

for having said, 'But if some of the branches were broken off,' he added:

'And you, being a wild olive, were grafted in.'

For the more worthless the man from the Gentiles is, the more does the Jew grieve to see this man revelling in what is his own;

and to the Gentile the shame from his lowliness is not so great as the honour from his transformation.

He did not say, 'You were planted in,' but, 'You were grafted in,' in this again biting the Jew, and showing the man from the Gentiles standing firm in the tree that was his own, and this man lying on the ground.

Therefore he did not even stop at this point, nor, having said 'You were grafted in,' did he depart, although by this he had made everything plain;

but nevertheless he dwells upon this man's prosperity, and enlarges his good repute, saying:

'And you became a partaker of the root and of the fatness of the olive tree.'

And he seems indeed to have placed him in the position of an addition;

but he shows him in no way harmed by this, but having all — as much as the branch that has grown up from the root would claim.

For lest, upon hearing 'But you were grafted in,' you should think him diminished when compared with the native branch, see how he makes him equal, saying:

'And you became a partaker of the root and of the fatness of the olive tree;'

that is, you have come into the same nobility, into the same nature.

Then, having rebuked him and said, 'Boast not against the branches,' he seems indeed to console the Jew, but shows his worthlessness and his great dishonour.

For this reason he did not say, 'Boast not,' but, 'Boast not against them' — do not boast against those men so as to break them off;

for indeed you stand in what is theirs, you enjoy what is theirs.

Do you see how he seems indeed to rebuke these, but bites those? 'But if you do boast against them,' he says, 'it is not you that bear the root, but the root you.'

What then is this to the branches that were cut off? Nothing.

For as I said before, a certain shadow

of feeble consolation he seems to devise, and in the very act of directing his words at the man from the Gentiles, he deals them a mortal blow.

For having said, 'Boast not against them,' and that 'If you do boast against them, it is not you that bear the root,' he showed the Jew that the things which had come to pass were worthy of boasting, even if one ought not to boast against them;

and rousing him and provoking him to faith, and casting himself in the position of an advocate, and showing him the loss which he underwent, and that others hold what was theirs.

'You will say then,' he says, 'The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in.'

Again, in the position of an antithesis, he establishes the contrary of the former statement, showing that even the things said a little before he did not say as his primary meaning, but as drawing them on.

For it is no longer by their transgression that salvation came to the Gentiles, nor is their transgression the riches of the world, nor were we saved because they fell, but the contrary.

And he shows that the providence towards the Gentiles was also primary, even if he seems to fashion what has been said otherwise;

and he weaves the whole passage through antithesis, freeing himself from the suspicion of hostility, and making his discourse readily acceptable.

Then he also strikes fear again, saying:

'By unbelief they were broken off, but you stand by faith, having been grafted in.'

Behold again another commendation of them, and an accusation of those men.

But again he checks their swelling pride, adding and saying:

'Do not be high-minded, but fear.'

For the matter is not one of nature, but of faith and of unbelief.

And he seems again to silence the man from the Gentiles, but he teaches the Jew that one must not cling to kinship of nature;

And he did not say, 'Be humble,' but, 'Fear;'

for presumption produces contempt and slothfulness.

Then, being about to portray their calamity in tragic terms, so as to make his discourse less burdensome, he sets it forth in the guise of a rebuke directed at that man, saying thus:

For if God did not spare the branches that were natural,

And he did not say, 'Neither will he spare you,' but, 'Take heed lest he also spare not you'—

thereby softening the harshness of the saying, and making the believer full of holy dread, while at the same time drawing in the one group and restraining the other.

Behold, then, the kindness and the severity of God.

Upon those who fell, severity;

but upon you, kindness—if you continue in his kindness; for otherwise you also shall be cut off.

And he did not say, 'Behold, then, your own good achievement, behold your own labours,' but 'the love of God for man,' showing that the whole is the work of grace from above, and preparing him to tremble.

For the very ground on which you might boast is the same that makes you afraid.

For since the Master has become kind toward you, on this very account fear;

for the good things do not remain fixed and immovable for you, if you grow slothful;

just as neither do the evil things remain for those others, if they change.

'For you also,' he says, 'if you do not continue in the faith, shall be cut off.'

'And those others, if they do not continue in their unbelief, shall be grafted in.'

For God did not cut them off, but they themselves were broken off, and fell.

And he well said, 'They were broken off';

for never did he thus cast them out, although often and in many ways they had sinned.

Do you see how great is the authority of the will? how great the power of the purpose? For none of these things is immovable, neither your good nor his evil.

Do you see how he both raised up the one who was in despair, and restrained the other who was over-confident? So neither must you, on hearing of severity, give up in despair, nor you, on hearing of kindness, become over-bold.

For this reason he cut you off severely, that you might long to return;

for this reason he showed kindness toward you, that you might continue.

And he did not say, 'in the faith,' but 'in the kindness'—that is, if you do things worthy of God's love toward man;

Do you see how he neither let those others lie prostrate, nor allowed these to think highly of themselves, but even provoked these to jealousy, again through those others granting the Jew to stand in this one's place, just as the former had beforehand taken the latter's ground? And the one from the Gentiles he makes to fear on account of the Jews and of what befell them, that they may not be lifted up against them;

but the Jew he prepares to take courage from what was granted to the Greek.

'For you too,' he says, 'shall be cut off, if you grow slothful;'

for the Jew too was cut off;

he shall be grafted in, if he be zealous;

for you too were grafted in.

And very prudently he turns the whole discourse toward the one from the Gentiles—a thing he is ever wont to do, correcting the weak under cover of a rebuke to the stronger.

This too he does at the end of the Epistle, when discussing the observance concerning meats.

Then he establishes his point also from things past, and not from things to come only;

which was the more persuasive to the hearer.

And being about to maintain an irrefutable sequence of reasonings, he first places his proof upon the power of God.

For even if they have been cut off and cast away, and others have taken their place beforehand, not even so should you despair;

'For God is able,' he says, 'to graft them in again,' he who does even the things that are beyond hope.

But if you seek also an order of facts and a sequence of reasonings, you have the example from your own case with even greater abundance.

'For if you,' he says, 'were cut off from the olive that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a good olive tree, how much more shall these, who according to nature shall be grafted into their own olive tree?' For if faith prevailed in that which is contrary to nature, much more shall it prevail in that which is according to nature.

For if this man, cut off from his own natural fathers, came contrary to nature unto Abraham, much more shall you be able to recover your own. For in the case of the Gentile, the evil was according to nature;

for he was a wild olive by nature;

for it was contrary to nature that he was grafted into Abraham;

but with you the contrary is true: the good is according to nature;

for you shall be fixed not in an alien root, as the Gentile, but in your own, if you are willing to return.

Of what forgiveness, then, would you be worthy, when, though the Gentile availed to do that which is contrary to nature, you cannot avail even in that which is according to nature, but betray even this? Then, since he had said 'contrary to nature' and 'you were grafted in,' lest you should suppose the Jew to have some advantage, he again corrects it, saying that he too is grafted in;

'How much more shall these,' he says, 'who according to nature shall be grafted into their own olive tree?' And again, 'God is able to graft them in.'

And before this too he says, that if they do not continue in their unbelief, they shall be grafted in.

But when you hear him continually saying 'contrary to nature' and 'according to nature,' do not think that he means that unchangeable nature, but rather that by these terms he is indicating what is likely and consequent, and again what is unlikely.

For good things and things not such are not matters of nature, but of will and purpose alone.

Consider also how he avoids giving offence.

For having said that 'you too shall be cut off, if you do not continue in the faith, and these shall be grafted in, if they do not continue in their unbelief,' he lets go the more gloomy part, and dwells on the more cheering, and ends with this very thing, weaving great hopes for the Jews, if they should be willing.

'For I would not, brethren, have you ignorant of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own conceits;'