Commentary on Revelation & Paul 1

CHAPTER ONE. 'Paul'—that is, small and least; from Saul, Paul, just as Abram became Abraham, so that even in his very name he might be new. 'A servant of Jesus Christ.' So Isaiah says: 'It is a great thing for thee to be called my servant.' 'Called an apostle.' Already in foreknowledge called and predestined to this, that he should be an apostle. 'Set apart.' As it says in the Acts of the Apostles: 'Set apart for me Paul and Barnabas for the work to which I have chosen them.' 'Unto the Gospel of God, which he had promised beforehand.' The Gospel is called good tidings; and what greater good than that Christ, born and having suffered, has risen again for us? 'Through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son, who was made to him.'

To nourish the faith of the Jews, he asserts that he preaches that One whom the prophets announced in the holy Scriptures. This whole passage tells against the Manichaeans, who say that the God of the prophets is one and the God of the New Testament another. 'Of the seed of David.' Of Mary, who came from the stock of David, as Isaiah said: 'Behold, a virgin shall conceive in the womb and shall bear a son.' 'According to the flesh.' And this crushed Photinus, and him who says he is a mere man, not understanding that in Christ there are two substances. 'Who was predestined the Son of God in power, according to the spirit of sanctification, by the resurrection of the dead of Jesus Christ our Lord.'

He was predestined to rise before all and to open to the sons of God the way of resurrection, so that as the head, so also his body might rise. 'Through whom we have received grace and apostleship unto the obedience of faith among all the nations.' Grace, that we might believe and be baptized, and because he himself was already justified freely by no merits of his own. But apostleship he received when he was sent to preach to the nations. 'For his name.' We discharge the office in place of his name, as he himself says: 'As the Father sent me, so I send you'; and, 'We act as ambassadors for Christ.' 'Among whom are you also, called of Jesus Christ.' And among you Romans also we received apostleship, as among all the nations. 'To all who are at Rome, beloved of God.'

'To all the faithful of God who are at Rome, called to be saints.' Sanctified by the calling of God and by grace, not by the merits of their own works. 'Grace to you.' Such is his greeting everywhere, that he both recalls the benefits of God and desires that they remain whole in us, because our sins have been forgiven us freely, not by our merits. 'And peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.' As he says to the Colossians: 'He has made peace over all things which are in heaven and which are on earth, through his blood,' and those whom he has redeemed he wills to live peaceably. 'First indeed I give thanks to my God through Jesus Christ.' Because by nature he is the God of all, but by desert and will the God of few, therefore he said 'my God.' 'For you all.' Not for the Jews only.

'Because your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world.' He praises subtly, so as to spur them to progress. And truly the faith of the Romans is everywhere renowned. He says 'your faith,' calling the faith theirs, which without doubt is God's and was infused into them by God; but the custom of Scripture holds this, as in the Gospel the Lord says: 'Is it not written in your law, I said, You are gods?' Or that: 'As it is written in their law, They hated me without cause'; and elsewhere: 'Does our law judge any man without a hearing?' So then their faith is spoken of, just as their law, though no one is ignorant that the law is from God, as is faith also. 'For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit, in the Gospel of his Son.'

That is, whom I serve with my whole heart in ready devotion and full sincerity. 'That without ceasing I make mention of you, always in my prayers beseeching.' Here he shows that he will say everything with love, so that he may be heard by them the more gladly, and he gives an example of praying without ceasing. 'If by any means at length I may have a prosperous journey, by the will of God, to come to you. For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual grace.'

Otherwise too I have no prosperous journey, unless the will of God—which knows all things, and goes before us and precedes and cherishes us in all good things—should direct me thither where I may have some fruit; as we read of the apostles, that when they wished to go to one place they were destined for another, and did not go where they wished, but where God had sent them, knowing when and to whom they ought to go. 'To confirm you.' Here he shows in what manner he praised them above—those who still need spiritual grace for their confirming. 'That is, that I may be comforted together in you through that faith which is mutually yours and mine.' That through the common faith we may be mutually comforted, and may mutually rejoice at the illumination of the Holy Spirit.

'For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that I have often purposed to come to you.' For through the brethren coming and going you could have heard of my intention. 'And have been hindered until now.' That is, occupied while I preach in other provinces, or hindered by revelation, or perhaps, as he says elsewhere: 'Satan hindered us.' 'That I might have some fruit among you also.' He calls the reward of his labor 'fruit.' 'As also among the other nations, both Greeks and barbarians.' Understand 'I have.' 'I am debtor to the wise and to the foolish.' By 'wise' he means the Greeks, among whom is all philosophy; by 'foolish' he calls the barbarians. 'So, as much as is in me, ready.' It is prepared in me. 'To preach the Gospel to you also who are at Rome.' Equally as to the wise Greeks.

'For I am not ashamed of the Gospel.' This subtly pertains to the censure of the pagans, who deservedly ought to be ashamed of their incestuous gods, yet are not ashamed to believe their god Jupiter, and think it a thing to be ashamed of to believe the Lord crucified for the salvation of his own image—whereas in the one is disgrace, in the other is the mark of virtue. And it is against those who deny Christ in the flesh, and are ashamed of the nativity and the cross of the Lord, who think these things unworthy of God, not understanding that nothing is more worthy of God than what avails for human salvation. For if to unbelievers it is folly, yet to believers it is the power of God and the wisdom of God. 'For it is the power of God unto salvation.'

There is no greater power than, death being overcome, to restore to man the life he had lost—although the weakness, that is the humanity, in the power, that is in the divinity, may seem incredible to unbelievers. 'To everyone who believes, to the Jew first and to the Greek; for the righteousness of God is revealed in it.' That, just as Abraham believing was saved from among the nations through faith, so also the rest who believe may be saved. 'From faith unto faith, as it is written: But the just shall live by my faith.' By the faith of the Old Testament the Jew is justified, by that of the New the Gentile, since the Jew believes that the prophecies foretold this beforehand. Again, otherwise: from present faith unto future, because faith pertains to things invisible, which was infused as a gift of God both under the Old Testament and in the New. And therefore he says:

'But the just shall live by my faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven.' He speaks against the party of the Gentiles, and says that God's wrath is revealed through the Gospel. For men had known to expect both benefits and plagues from the heavens. 'Against all impiety and injustice of men.' The first impiety is against God, to sin either by blasphemy or by contempt. Another is against parents, either by injury or by scorn. A third is against the stranger, since everything contrary to piety is impiety. A fourth is against one's own self, as Wisdom says: 'But those who sin against me do impiously against their own souls.' Or 'all impiety,' because the cults of idols are diverse—so that impiety refers to injury against God, injustice to all sins.

'Of those who hold the truth in injustice.' Who hold the truth of God's name in the injustice of the unworthy matter of idols. 'Because that which is known of God is manifest in them.' Every creature shows itself not to be God, but that there is another who made it, whom it is necessary to obey in service; for it can naturally know of God that he exists, and that he is just, and that the creature itself is not from itself, because there is none greater through all things than all, since all mutually surpass one another—some in magnitude, as the heaven; others in brightness, as the sun and the moon or the resplendent stars. 'For God has manifested it to them.' His hidden powers are made manifest from those things which are plain.

'For his invisible things, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood through the things that are made.' For if the things which are seen are so resplendent, made by him that some thought them gods, how much more could they have understood the eternal Maker? 'His eternal power also and divinity, so that they are inexcusable.' Therefore Christ is eternal, since he is the power of God and the wisdom of God. 'Because, when they had known God.' How did they know him? Either from conscience through the reason implanted in them, or from the fashioning of the world, because all things are mutable, God alone unchangeable. 'They did not glorify him as God.' They did not venerate him through his own greatness, but worshiped idols in place of God. 'Or give thanks.'

Because they were made rational by him. 'But they became vain in their thoughts.' Thinking that they could comprehend God's greatness. 'And their foolish heart was darkened.' Departing indeed from the threshold of truth, by venerating the creature in place of the Creator, they lost the true light, that is, the wisdom of God. 'For, saying that they were wise.' As though they had found out how the invisible God might be worshiped in a visible image. 'They became fools.' Not understanding that he whom man had made is not God. 'And they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and of serpents.'

Here he names the worshipers of Jupiter, whom, on account of his most foul love affairs, they so often assert to have been transformed, as into a swan and a bull. 'Wherefore God gave them up.' 'God, in the desire of their heart.' God is said to give up while he does not restrain the delinquents, by just judgment, on account of the liberty of the will most prone to evil. And he forsakes those who forsake him, as he says through the Prophet: 'But if you forsake him, he also will forsake you.' And that: 'I let them go according to the desires of their heart, and they shall walk in their own inclinations.' 'Unto uncleanness.' Which is in the shameful mysteries of idols. 'That they should afflict their own bodies with insults.' While in the consecrations of idols they inflict on themselves brandings and burnings. 'In themselves.'

Life, which though they love, they do not spare themselves, so that in this too they carry through the feast of their error. 'Who changed the truth of God into a lie.' They transferred the worship of the true God into the lie of idols, which are falsely held for gods; for they deceive, since they lyingly claim to be that which they are not. 'And worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator.' They not only said it, but even served; and whoever is overcome by desire of any creature serves it—for by whatever a man is overcome, of this he is also the slave, so much so that even the belly becomes a god. 'Who is blessed forever.' Had they served him, they too could have become blessed forever. Cursed therefore and made temporal are they who forsook him who is blessed forever.

For concerning such it is said: 'Alike hateful to God are the impious man and his impiety.' 'Amen.' Truly, or faithfully. 'For this cause God gave them up to passions of dishonor.' On account of the causes mentioned above, they were given over even into these disgraceful deeds, so that the passion of the vice is already the punishment of the sin. 'For their women.' He therefore expressly stated these very crimes, that you might recognize that they had lost the reason of nature—they who nonetheless were made senseless, so as to pervert all things, being perverted against God; for those cannot keep the order of nature who have forsaken the Author of nature. 'They changed the natural use into that use which is against nature.' They perverted all things, as it is written. For the worship of unspeakable idols is the head of all evil, and its beginning, and its end.

'Likewise also the males, leaving the natural use of the woman.' For how could they keep the order of nature, having forsaken the Author of nature? 'Burned in their lusts one toward another, males working shame with males.' Unbridled lust knows not how to keep measure. 'And receiving in themselves the recompense which was fitting for their error.' So runs the order, that those who had forgotten the Lord should not even know themselves. 'And as they did not approve to have the Lord.' They were not ignorant, but they by no means approved him. For he approves that he has the Lord in his knowledge who always fears him as though present, and dares not to sin. 'God gave them over to a reprobate mind.' That is, they were left to a reprobate mind. 'To do those things which are not fitting.'

'Things which are not fitting for a man to do.' 'Filled with all iniquity and malice.' He shows that iniquity and malice are the chief causes of the vices. 'With fornication, avarice.' He joined fornication and avarice together, because both passions are likened to idolatry, just as he said in Exodus: 'They committed fornication against their God because of the filth of the idol.' For fornication, for a Christian, is to cleave to any thing other than to God, and to be corrupted by many desires. Whence Paul says that he has espoused us as a chaste virgin to one husband. 'Wickedness.' Avarice is insatiable for this reason, that after the riches of God, however much a man may have, it is too little. 'Full of envy, of murder.'

Fittingly did he associate murder with envy, because envy is the very first matter of this crime, for the first murder, both of the devil and of Cain, was born of envy. 'Strife.' Strife is where something is defended not by reason but by obstinacy of mind, and where truth is not sought but animosity is worn out. The first cause of a brother's death arose from strife. 'Deceit, malignity.' Deceit is hidden malice adorned with flattering words. 'Whisperers.' Murmurers, who speak not to the face but into the ear; or of whom it is said, 'Neither murmur ye.' Detractors hateful to God.

'Detractors hateful to God,' because nothing is so hateful to God as idolatry, to which detraction is compared, since both the idolater and the detractor are said by Scripture to be rooted out. 'Insolent.' Those who are swift in verbal injuries. 'Proud.' He who wishes to surpass what he is, is called proud, like the devil, who forfeited that which he was. And he who wishes to be above others, shall be made lower than himself. 'Haughty, inventors of evils.' The haughty man is one who is lifted up beyond his measure. 'Disobedient to parents.' In this place teachers too can be understood, the parents of souls. 'Foolish.' Because they have withdrawn from the very fount of wisdom. 'Undisciplined.' Every fool is disordered. 'Without natural affection, without honour.' Affection is the fulfilment of charity.

'Without mercy.' How could they have mercy on others, who refused to be merciful to themselves? 'Who, when they had known the justice of God.' Through this, that evil naturally displeases them, they knew the justice of God. 'They did not understand.' For if they had understood, they would have feared; if they had feared, they would never have committed such things. 'That they who do such things are worthy of death.' Of the judgment of God; even if not at present, yet they shall not escape the punishment to come. 'Not only they who do them, but they also who consent to those who do them.' They consent by receiving the doctrine, or by conniving (in another reading, by keeping company). CHAPTER II. 'Wherefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest. For wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou doest the same things which thou judgest.'

All who used to judge in this manner, but especially those who have the power of examining—not only judges but also lords—are here addressed. For by natural judgment each one pronounces a just sentence upon deeds. And all men know that innocence deserves reward, and wickedness deserves punishment; and therefore they are inexcusable, because they knew the justice of God. 'For we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against them that do such things.' Assuredly the judgment by which such men shall be judged is according to truth—men who knew how to condemn others for things which they themselves did not fear to commit. For if thou, a sinner, judgest a sinner like thyself, how much more shall the just God judge thee, unjust as thou art?

And therefore the judgment of God is according to truth, seeing that we read He spared neither His own friends nor the sinning angels, without respect of persons. But human judgment is corrupted in many ways. For it is depraved by love, or hatred, and also by avarice and fear, and sometimes even by mercy. 'And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them who do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?' Dost thou therefore flatter thyself with impunity, because God does not repay in the present, and dost thou despise His patience? 'The Lord,' he says, 'delayeth not His promise, but dealeth patiently for your sake, not willing that any should perish, but that all should return to penance;' for He is good in awaiting, He is just in punishing.

'Or despisest thou the riches of His goodness'—the abundance—'and patience and long-suffering, being ignorant that the benignity of God leadeth thee to penance?' Men greatly deceive themselves through the patience of God, because He does not choose to punish sinners at once. For they suppose either that He does not care for human affairs, or that He forgives what He defers. Very many even bring the charge, Why does He not repay in the present? Wretched too are they, ungrateful in this as in all the benefits of God, who impute it to Him that their destruction is passed over—not understanding that, if He repaid at once, no one of the lights would now remain, nor would the just be made out of the unjust. What more? The Church would not even have Paul himself.

For this reason God seems to men to wait a long time upon sinners: because we are of little time, and reckon a hundred years for an infinity. But He, with whom a thousand years are as one day, reckons a hundred years for an hour. And therefore this is but little before the Lord, since men too are wont to wait some days for sinners. It is human to fall short; it is human to repent for one's fault. No one sins more perilously than he who defends his sins. 'But according to thy hardness and impenitent heart thou treasurest up to thyself.' Thou, however, imprudent sick man, dost abuse the very remedy toward greater wounds, as Job says: 'God gave him a place of penance, and he abuses it unto pride.'

For piety unacknowledged prepares a greater judgment, so that he who scorned to feel mercy may feel vengeance. 'Wrath in the day of wrath.' Thou storest up wrath upon wrath for thyself with the Lord, which shall appear on days appointed and at fixed times, not before the day for which thou art awaited. 'And of the revelation of the just judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his works.' Because it is hidden, even though it is now seen through a glass in an enigma, or seen through a veil. 'To them indeed who, according to patience in good work.' The reward of good work is awaited through patience, because in the present life it is not repaid. For we walk by faith and not by sight, and then the work shall be perfect, if it endures unto the end. 'Glory.'

...let him say, wherewith the saints shall shine as the sun, and let them honour 'the honour of the sons of God.' For what is more honoured than the sons of God, who shall even judge the angels? 'And incorruption.' By incorruption he means the glory of immortality. 'To them that seek eternal life.' He who seeks eternal life shall obtain all these things, and he who has this hope in Him sanctifies himself, as it is said: 'Be ye holy, as He is holy.' 'But to them that are of strife.' Those who do not believe the evangelical truth, and consent to iniquity, who having forsaken the Creator serve the creature, who defend what is contrary to what they know, are contentious. Fear strife, lest ye suffer what follows. 'And who obey not the truth'—the evangelical truth. 'But believe iniquity.'

They knew these things who chose to believe iniquity; for it is not equitable, having forsaken the Creator of all, to serve the creature. 'Wrath and indignation.' All these things are prepared for sinners in the judgment; then there will be great and fruitless penance. 'Tribulation and anguish.' Of conscience and of vain penance, as it is written: 'Then shall the penitents say among themselves, and, groaning for anguish of spirit.' 'Upon every soul of man that worketh evil.' Because the soul sins first, therefore it chiefly feels the punishment; or the soul is put for the whole man, as it says that Jacob went down into Egypt in seventy souls. 'Of the Jew first, and of the Greek.' First, because they first knew the Lord, and were the first to transgress the law more gravely.

Or he puts 'first' for 'indeed,' for he himself also says: 'There is no respect of persons with God'—thus 'first' in time, not in honour. 'But glory, and honour, and peace to every one that worketh good.' Glory against wrath, honour against indignation, peace against tribulation and anguish; and what above he called incorruption, here he named peace. 'To the Jew first, and to the Greek.' What there he said in the soul of the Jew and the Greek, here he set down the man himself. And, as has been said, here he puts 'first' for 'indeed,' or 'first' in time of belief, not in honour. 'For there is no respect of persons with God.'

Lest the Gentiles excuse themselves on the ground of ignorance, since they are endowed with the law of nature; nor let the Jews flatter themselves concerning the law and circumcision, because not only profession but also conduct is required. 'For whosoever have sinned without the law, shall perish without the law; and whosoever have sinned in the law, shall be judged by the law.' By the law of the letter and the law of nature, that is, of mind and conscience. For to perish seems worse than to be judged. But since he speaks both of the Gentiles and of the Jews, who would dare to say that the Jews who sin in the law shall not perish, since they have not believed in Christ? seeing that without faith in Christ no one can be delivered, and for this cause they shall be so judged. They shall be borne away from the kingdom, yet they shall not perish from punishment.

But who doubts that both Gentiles and Jews, if they have not believed in Christ, shall perish? 'For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.' He gives the reason why they are not better than the Gentiles, whence we too ought to fear, lest hearing the law and not doing it, we perish together with the Gentiles. Nor let the Jew say, 'I have lived under the law, I am better than the Gentile.' The law therefore makes hearers, grace makes doers. For who would say that those were not justified who were obedient to the law out of faith? since, unless they were justified, they could not be obedient. But we say that it comes about by the law that men hear what God wills to be done; and it comes about by grace that the law is obeyed, because not the hearers but the doers of the law shall be justified.

'For when the Gentiles, who have not the law.' Lest, if it were said, they who have not the law of the letter—how shall they be able to be judged? 'Do by nature those things that are of the law, having not the law.' Either he speaks of those who keep the law of nature, who do not to others what they would not have done to themselves; or because even the Gentiles naturally praise the good and condemn the wicked, which is a work of the law; or of those who even now, while they do something good, profess that they have received from God the power whereby they may be able to please God, by punishing vices. 'These are a law to themselves,' who show the work of the law. He shows that they were not without law, both to make the Gentiles inexcusable, and to take from the Jews the glory concerning the peculiarity of the law.

For every man blushes in conscience for sin, and rejoices for a good deed done. 'Written in their hearts, their conscience bearing them witness.' The law of nature, therefore, in their hearts through the witness of conscience; or conscience testifies that it has the law while it sins, and that it rejoices when it overcomes sins. 'And their thoughts among themselves accusing or also defending one another, in the day when God shall judge the hidden things of men.'

He says there are disputes of thoughts, when, long deliberating whether something is to be done or not to be done, we judge; and that according to this we are to be judged in the day of the Lord, because it is proved that we were not ignorant of good and evil; or the thoughts of our conscience will be before our eyes in the day of judgment like histories to be recognised, and these will either accuse us or also excuse us. 'According to my Gospel through Jesus Christ.' According to what I announce through Jesus Christ; or through Jesus Christ God will judge the hidden things of men. 'But if thou art called a Jew.' After he has addressed the parts pertaining to the Gentiles, now he turns to the Jews, saying that he is proved a true Jew whose good things are more hidden than public. 'Art surnamed.'

In name, not in deed. 'And restest in the law.' Thou trustest, or art secure. 'And gloriest in God.' Thou gloriest that God is known in Judea only, that thou alone hast known God, or alone understandest His will. 'And knowest His will.' God's is understood; whence we are blessed, if the things that please God are known to us, and we do what He commands. 'And approvest the more useful things, being instructed by the law.' By reading or examining, because through nature, though weak, many useful things are approved; through the law, more useful; because through grace, more perfect. Again he recapitulates the exposition: Thou who restest in the law, how dost thou transgress the law? Thou who gloriest in God, why dost thou dishonour God? Thou who knowest His will, why dost thou not do it?

Thou who approvest useful things, why dost thou pursue useless and vain things? Blind guide, how dost thou not see the straight way? For if thou didst see it, thou wouldst surely walk by it. Light of others, how dost thou not cast off the works of darkness? Instructor of the unwise, why hast thou forsaken even the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom? Master of infants, thou art a child in sense, who hast the form of knowledge and of truth in the law, yet neither dost thou thyself follow it, nor by thy bad example dost thou permit others to follow it. 'Thou art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind.' Of those, assuredly, who have lost the way without His light. 'A light of them that are in darkness.' In the darkness of ignorance. 'An instructor of the foolish.' Who have not the wisdom of God. 'A teacher of infants.' Whether little in age or in understanding.

'Having the form of knowledge and of truth in the law.' An example, so that those who without the law could not live rightly, thou hast a form, ever looking to which thou canst not err. 'Thou therefore that teachest another.' What he said to the Gentile: 'Wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself.' 'Teachest not thyself.' Why does thy life not agree with thy doctrine, and thy work destroy thy faith, and so it comes about that the law, not kept, not only profits thee nothing, but even holds thee guilty of a greater crime, as its despiser? 'Thou that preachest that men should not steal, stealest.' Some say: Thou stealest Christ, that is, thou hidest Him from men; or the sacred Scriptures, if thou couldst, thou wouldst wish to withdraw. 'Thou that sayest men should not commit adultery, committest adultery.'

There is not one kind of adultery only; for everything which thou owest wholly to God, if thou renderest it to any other than God, thou committest adultery—whether love, or fear, or service, or obedience, or hope; and therefore it is more grievously sinned by him from whom perfection is preached. 'Thou that abhorrest idols, committest sacrilege.' Sacrilege is that which is properly committed against God, as it were a violation of the sacred, or a transgression of the commandments. 'Thou that gloriest in the law.' Saying that thou art blessed because thou hast known the will of God. 'Through the transgression of the law thou dishonourest God.' He has expounded the sacrilege. 'For the name of God through you is blasphemed among the Gentiles, as it is written.' Woe to those by whose evil works the name of the Lord shall have been blasphemed, as it is written:

'They have polluted My holy name among the Gentiles,' while they who are called the people of God tarry as captives among the Gentiles, brought about by their own sins, so that the Gentiles would say that the Lord could not defend His own people, and that they had proved victors through their idols—not understanding that Israel, if it had held to the Lord, would always have ruled over them, and thereby been their defender. 'Circumcision indeed profiteth, if thou keep the law; but if thou be a transgressor of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision.' It profits in its time, either because it makes the Jew live and not be exterminated. It can also be understood thus: Circumcision profits, because it makes one understood to be; because, when examined, the true circumcision of the heart is found to be coming when the circumcision of the flesh ceases.

He is a transgressor of the law while he does not follow what was there foretold. A sign profits, if the reality is present; otherwise a sign without the reality will be superfluous. For even the sign which Cain received signified this, that circumcision distinguished the Jews from the rest. And as he, a wanderer and a fugitive, endured with that very sign unto death, so the Jews unto the end, with the now empty sign of circumcision, scattered throughout the world, run about full of zeal and dread, and no one takes their circumcision from them; whether under pagan or under Christian princes, they bear that very sign, the murderers of Christ, as Cain the fratricide bore it. 'If therefore the uncircumcision keep the justices of the law.'

Visible things need invisible things; invisible things do not need visible things, in that visible things are images of invisible things. The circumcision of the flesh needs the circumcision of the heart; but the circumcision of the heart does not need the circumcision of the flesh, because the truth needs not the image, but the image needs the truth. Why then was circumcision given, if by itself it does not profit? First, that the people of God might be recognised among the Gentiles or in war. And that we are marked in such a member—first this is the cause, lest another member should be disfigured, which would be horrid to look upon;

then because of the promise of grace, in which one was to please through chastity; or that Christ might be signified as about to come from the circumcision, up to whom the carnal circumcision was to endure, whose type Jesus the son of Nave (Nun) bore, being commanded to circumcise the sons of Israel a second time. But this was a figure, so much so that it was said: 'In the last days God will circumcise thy heart.' And: 'Circumcise the foreskins of your heart.' And that original sin might be punished, even in the time of the law, in that member wherein it had been implanted. 'Shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision? and shall judge that which by nature is.' Because it has the justice whose sign is circumcision. 'The uncircumcision fulfilling the law.' Fulfilling.

'Thee who by the letter and circumcision art a transgressor of the law?' While thou followest the circumcision of the letter, thou dost not deserve to receive the spirit. 'For it is not he that is a Jew in the manifest.' All things which formerly were done concerning the outer man bore the figure of the outer man. 'Neither is that circumcision which is in the manifest, in the flesh; but he that is a Jew in secret.' He is the true Jew. 'And the circumcision of the heart in the spirit.' Of which it is written in the law: 'In the last days God will circumcise thy heart, and the heart of thy seed.' 'In the spirit,' he says, that is, according to the new testament, which seeks the inner things, which God alone may see; and this is the true circumcision. 'Not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God.'

The letter killeth, but the spirit quickeneth. The law of the letter was not given for the just, but for the unjust, and therefore it deserved the praise of men. But the law of Christ no longer threatens the sword to sinners, but promises a reward to those who serve freely, and therefore it has praise from God, who alone sees the heart, because it prays out of faith. CHAPTER III. 'What advantage then hath the Jew? or what is the profit of circumcision?' He gives the reason that the law was not empty, but that the prerogative of carnal circumcision is vain, being supported by no works. He asks, What advantage the Jew has. He answers, whether of himself or in the person of the Jews: 'Much every way.' For if it is his own sense, 'Much every way';

and, 'Every man a liar'—how does it afterward agree when he says: 'But if our iniquity,' and the rest? Finally, how does he deny that the Jews excel much every way? Great will be that profit, if they be zealous to keep the oracles which they merited to receive. 'First indeed, because the oracles of God were committed to them.' Which to the Gentiles were none. 'For what if some of them have not believed? Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid.' For the unbelief of transgressors does not prejudice believers, and the promise of God which was made to Abraham, if it is made void concerning the transgressors, is fulfilled concerning the obedient, because truth knows not how to lie, as it is written: 'But God is true, and every man a liar.'

Because no one is without sin, except Him alone who neither had it by being born, nor contracted it by living. Therefore He alone is true, fulfilling what He promised, because in His seed the Gentiles were to be blessed, and they are blessed in Christ and through Christ, because in Him, through His grace, they believed; for even if it was made void in the unbelieving Jews, in those of that very people who by the gift of the Lord believed, it was both fulfilled, and unto the end is daily fulfilled more fully, because He who promised is true, and can in no way deceive. 'But God is true, and every man a liar: as it is written.' 'That thou mayest be justified when thou avengest upon sinners: That thou mayest be justified in thy words, and mayest overcome when thou art judged.'

'Thou overcomest when Thou art judged,' when Thou remittest me my sins, I confessing and condemning them. 'That Thou mayest be justified,' he says, 'in Thy words,' for God is true; for even if the blessing of the apostolate was made void in Judas the traitor, yet in Peter, who kept the faith, it was fulfilled. The promise was made void in the people who perished in the desert because of transgressions; it was fulfilled in those who by the gift of the Lord, faith cooperating, were led into the holy land. He also adds a testimony from Psalm 50 (51): 'That Thou mayest be justified,' he says, 'in Thy words, and mayest overcome when Thou art judged.' In the order of the psalm the utterance of the prophet stands thus:

'O Lord, Thou hast indeed declared, without respect of persons, that Thou wouldst take vengeance upon sinners; and indeed now, while Thou remittest to me, they judge Thy patience to be a lie; but Thou overcomest when Thou art judged, while Thou remittest me my sins, I confessing and condemning them, because Thou dost not judge twice for the same thing.' That is, while the man himself, his own judge, prosecutes his fault in himself with lamentation and contrition, the indulgence of Thy piety is not proved to be unjust. While Thou provest me guilty of a monstrous deed through the prophet, Thou provest that Thou hast care for our works, and Thou overcomest those who judged Thee careless of human deeds.

Therefore concerning this sense of the Apostle I have set down the whole exposition of a certain holy man, that the reader's attention might be more fully imbued; and wherever thou findest full pages thus, I have set this down for instruction. 'That Thou mayest be justified,' he says, 'in Thy words, and mayest overcome when Thou art judged.' Let us see how in this place the Apostle's discourse agrees with the testimony which he took up from the prophet, in order to confirm his own discourse. The Apostle evidently sets down this sentence in that sense in which David of old had uttered it under the voice of penance, saying: 'O Lord, Thou hast promised that the Saviour of the human race should come from my seed:'

'now, while Thy people sees me wounded by a twofold crime, I have caused the sons of Israel to blaspheme, so that, while they behold my guilt in adultery and murder, they may think Thee to have lied; and therefore acknowledge the prayer of satisfaction, and do Thou remit what I myself condemn, so that when Thou hast restored me by granting propitiation, and hast made me worthy of Thy promise, Thou mayest appear just in Thy words, and mayest overcome when Thou art judged by reproachers.' And so now the Apostle follows this line, saying: 'Although the transgressing Jews have caused the name of the Lord to be blasphemed, so that it is said: This was that holy nation and chosen people, who now involves itself in transgression and inexpiable sacrilege and the crime of impiety;'

behold, through the wickedness of the transgressors the promises of God have been made void. But it is not so; for if the transgressors have fallen from grace, the obedience of the faithful obtains the Lord's truthful pledge; and thus, those being confounded who boasted that the divine oracles had been brought to nought, the Lord is justified in His words, and overcomes when He is judged, while He confers upon believers the grace repudiated by unbelievers. But as to what he says: 'God is true, and every man a liar,' and again: 'But if our iniquity commend the justice of God,' let the unbelievers receive both this testimony in a reasonable sense. 'But if our iniquity commend the justice of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust, who executeth wrath?'

'But if our iniquity commend the justice of God,' it is unjust, he says, if He takes vengeance upon those who sinned for this very end, that He might appear more just; for by what justice will He condemn injustice, if, according to thee, He is made more just by human iniquity? In this place, while the teacher of the Gentiles discourses, the case of two persons is turned about, that is, under the ignorance of one interpreting badly, and under the teaching of the Apostle refuting him; and as if to the Apostle a contrary party, imprudently believing, were thus to say:

'O Apostle, thou hast conferred great solace upon our sins, by saying that God is justified in the pardon of our transgressions, and that our lies commend the truth of God, and our sins furnish God with matter for mercy, so that through our iniquities His goodness is exercised and His glory enlarged—unjustly are our sins punished, which avail to manifest the patience and benevolence of God.' At once he brings it forward. Thus far the adverse objection; here the Apostle answers their sense: God is unjust, he says, if He takes vengeance upon those through whose sins He appears benign, and I ought not to be judged, who lie, because by my lie the truth of God, gathered together, is found the more worthy to be preached.

'And therefore the greater the evils we shall have done, the greater the goods we shall receive from Him for whose praise we have sinned.' Perhaps the imprudent thought that it ought to be understood thus, because we read: 'Where sin abounded, grace did more abound,' as though the thing that gives the merit of sin, while it furnishes the increase of God's clemency. But this sentence is to be understood far otherwise. And that the abundance of sins was so consumed by satisfaction and amendment, that the amended deserved not only pardon but even rewards: 'that Thou mayest be justified,' he says, 'in Thy words.' This testimony the adverse party propounded as though David had said: 'For this reason I sinned, that while Thou judgest me, Thou mightest appear just, or merciful while Thou remittest;'

'and therefore Thou oughtest to spare me, because my iniquity commends either Thy mercy or Thy justice.' Hence the Apostle rebuts their error, and by interposed sentences he destroys it, saying: 'If, as some report that we say, our iniquity commend the justice of God, then God is unjust, who executeth wrath'—since our iniquity proclaims His mercy. 'I speak according to man. God forbid.' That is, according to thy carnal sense, or according to thee, who from the sentence above judgest so unskilfully and understandest so imprudently. For by what justice will He condemn injustice, if, according to thy opinion, He is made more just by human iniquity? But it is not so.

For not so much our sins as the deeds of good works glorify our God, and therefore in punishing sins He is acknowledged just, He who delights in holy works. Otherwise how shall God now judge the world, if He does not repay good things to the good and evil things to the evil, so as to render to the just the reward for justice, and to sinners what they deserve? 'For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto His glory'—what? That is, why am I also judged as a doer of evil? and not, as some report that we say, that the greater the evils we shall have done, the more ample the goods we shall receive. 'Yet.' Moreover. 'And I as a sinner'—a man who lies. 'Am judged'—by God in the day of judgment. This is the sense, as though he should say:

'O unbeliever, from my words thou assertest a defence of thy sins, by saying that our iniquity commends the justice of God, and that His truth grows out of our lies, and, compared to our weakness, appears greater and greater. But while thou thus flatterest thy evils with a hostile severity, thou art to be punished with just condemnation by Him who will judge the world according to the works of each and every one.' Whence this passage seems the more difficult, because it is obscured by the questions of the unskilled of the adverse party; just as in another place the Apostle propounds irrational objections and rejects them: 'For what shall we say? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid.' And a little after: 'What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace?'

By no means. Finally, the Apostle, doing away with the objection by the perception of the truth, speaks thus: 'And not, as we are slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say, Let us do evil that good may come.' And this is a foolish objection, which, appending it, he demolishes, saying: 'Whose condemnation is just.' For what is more just than that a man should feel the punishment of his own sin? — which they lyingly said we deny, we who preach nothing more than the just judgment of God. 'What then? are we better than they?' We Jews, that is: I find no cause whereby either side should be superior, since we judge all to be under sin; for reason itself perceives this, that both Jews and Gentiles are under sin, as is also proved by the testimony of the psalm. 'No, in no wise.' He answered his own question.

'For we have charged.' We have reasoned. 'Both Jews and Greeks' — all to be under sin. 'And the Gentiles.' 'As it is written: There is none righteous.' The psalm from which he took this testimony speaks of the foolish man, and he shows that this was fulfilled at the coming of Christ, at which time no righteous one was found. 'No, not one.' Neither Jew nor Greek. 'There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.' Because he does not understand, he does not seek. And God is then sought, when His will is inquired into and fulfilled. 'They are all gone out of the way.' Necessarily he goes astray who has refused to seek the firm foundation. 'They are together become unprofitable.' For the work for which they had been created. 'There is none that doeth good.'

There was therefore none to do good, since the transgression of the commandments condemned the Jews, and the law of nature condemned the Gentiles. When therefore someone from either side has done good, let him know that he owes it to grace, not to nature, as the prophet says, referring to the Lord: 'In whose sight no one is innocent of himself.' And Isaiah says in his canticle: 'Lord our God, thou wilt give us peace: for thou hast wrought all our works in us.' 'There is none, even to one.' Some say, up to Christ. 'Their throat is an open sepulchre.' By the stench of their teaching they heap up the violence of their pestilent odour. Every odour of death proceeds from their mouth: that is, from pestilent and flattering words which slay the hearers.

For this reason sepulchres are closed, lest by the exhalation of their kind they breed a plague among the living. 'With their tongues they have dealt deceitfully.' Uttering one thing with the mouth, meditating another in the heart. 'The poison of asps.' The venom of these serpents is said to be more deadly than that of the rest. 'Is under their lips.' That is, in the heart. 'Whose mouth is full of cursing.' For whatever is spoken with evil intent is without doubt spoken ill. 'And bitterness.' The bitterness of Antichrist is contrary to the sweetness of the word of God. 'Their feet are swift to shed blood.' Not to free souls, but to destroy them, or rather to slay souls, not by announcing to them their sins, but by confirming them in those very sins through flattery. Whence Paul says: 'I am clean from the blood of all.'

'Destruction and unhappiness are in their ways.' Souls are worn down and made wretched in their ways, that is, in their teachings or in the examples of their conduct. 'And the way of peace they have not known.' The doctrine of the Father, whereby God might be reconciled to men, they have not known: for Christ is our peace. He has treated this from the beginning of the epistle, in order to show that all are in need of the mercy of God, and mercy lies in the power of the giver. For no one can say that he ought to have received more. 'There is no fear of God before their eyes.' He has concluded with the fear of God: for if they had always had the fear of God before their eyes, they would surely not have sinned; for neither does a servant dare to sin in the presence of his master.

'Now we know that whatsoever things the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law.' Lest the Jews should say that this was spoken of the Gentiles. — In what manner did the Jews say, 'There is no God'? Not indeed in word, but in deed. For they confess that they know the Lord, but in their works they deny Him. Therefore he does not here touch the Gentiles, but had already spoken of the Gentiles before, and no one doubted concerning their crimes. Lest they should say this was written of the Gentiles, he shows that everything which is said in the law concerning the Gentiles is said also of the Jews themselves, since theirs is the principal case. 'That every mouth may be stopped.' Not only of the Gentiles, but also of the Jews: since they have nothing whereof they can glory. 'And all the world may be made subject to God.' That each may know he cannot be saved without the grace of God;

or at least, in the confession of his sin, may hope for mercy, knowing himself to be in sins. 'Because by the works of the law.' This he does against the Pelagians, who say that the law justifies. And by the works of the law he means circumcision, and the sabbath, and the rest. 'No flesh shall be justified.' It shall not be justified, because the law brought nothing to perfection. Hence he begins to dispute against them, with a great and long conflict — against those who gloried in the law, and believed themselves to be justified by the law and not by grace; teaching in order that the law could not take away sin but rather increased it, which grace takes away; because the law knows how to command, to which infirmity succumbs, whereas grace knows how to help, by which charity is poured in.

We do not say that those were justified who were obedient to the law, but that unless they had been justified, they would not have been obedient. 'Flesh.' Man. 'In his sight.' Not every righteousness is justified in the Lord's sight, but that which proceeds from the pure will of God, not that whose precept merely soothes human infirmity: as was the case of those to whom the righteousness of God could not then be revealed, but to whom only the knowledge of sin was shown, because, seeking to establish their own, they were not subject to the righteousness of God. 'For by the law is the knowledge of sin.'

Not remission, not consumption, but knowledge — either because the law of nature was in oblivion, or because before the law of the letter the lighter offences were not known to be sins, such as concupiscence, and other things which harmed not another but the man himself. 'But now the righteousness of God without the law.' Which has been freely given to us by God, not obtained by our labour. 'Is made manifest.' Which was hidden. 'Being witnessed by the law and the prophets.' This righteousness was proclaimed by the oracles of the law as about to come in the last times. 'But the righteousness of God is by faith of Jesus Christ.'

This righteousness, which is conferred through faith — faith itself is poured in by the hidden inspiration of God as a gift of grace, not acquired by human labour nor by the work of the Old Testament; because, as has been said, it is His gift that we should believe. 'Unto all that believe.' Not upon the Jews alone. He shows that they received such a law for this reason, because they did not believe, and therefore in the present they referred either the merit of sin or of righteousness. 'For there is no distinction.' 'For all have sinned and need the glory of God.' That is, between Jew and Gentile, since both parties have been shut up in unbelief, and they need the glory of the Redeemer, which is extended unto the salvation of believers.

For the Jews, by transgressing the law of the letter, and the Gentiles by transgressing the law of nature, were alike found sinners, both through original sin and through actual sin. 'Being justified freely.' Without any preceding merits, justified through baptism. Since He freely forgave the sins of all who did not deserve it, hear 'freely,' and be silent about merits. 'By His grace.' Because He paid on our behalf what He did not owe, that He might save us who were freely redeemed. 'Through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.' We have been redeemed from the captivity of sin, not from nature, because by nature we were always His own; for he who redeems teaches that the one he redeems was his own, as the prophet teaches: 'You were sold for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money.' Christ therefore redeemed us, as Peter says:

'Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation,' and so forth; and Paul: 'For you are bought with a great price.' We have therefore been redeemed from the death to which we had been sold through sin, according to Isaiah who says: 'What is this bill of divorce? For you were sold for your sins.' This death Christ overcame, He who did no sin, because we were all debtors to death through sin. But He delivered Himself over to death, to which He owed nothing, that He might redeem us from death by His own blood. He did not buy us, because we were His by His own nature; but He redeemed us, because we were held captive. 'Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood.'

He has set it forth openly, because He gives freely, so that no one should despair, nor be exalted on account of his own merits; because propitiation and the remission of sins has been bestowed through the blood of Christ, in a figure of which, even in the Old Testament, the blood of victims was offered for the sins of the people. 'For the manifestation of His righteousness.' In this He says He manifested His righteousness, in that He held His forbearance unwavering in expectation of our amendment; thus mercy of remission comes to us, while He suffers who committed no sin, because God does all things justly. Justly therefore did the devil lose the debtor, because he unjustly slew the innocent. 'For the remission of former sins.' Why 'former'? — unless of the debts of original sin. 'Through the forbearance of God.'

The forbearance of God had advanced toward greater sins. 'For the manifestation of His righteousness.' That He might reveal the righteousness which is of faith, that is, Christ, in this last time. 'That He Himself might be just, and the justifier.' He who alone was found just, and who justifies those whom He Himself has justified; because He knew no sin, therefore He condemned sins. 'Of him who is of the faith of Jesus.' 'Of faith,' he says, 'of Jesus,' which Jesus Himself gave, and not of the works of the law or of nature. 'Where is then thy glorying? It is excluded.' He speaks to the Jews. Where is your pride, in which you gloried that you were better by carnal circumcision? Your glorying is excluded. 'By what law? of works?' No, but by the law of faith. There follows: 'Is it by works,' that is, by the works of the law?

And he answers: No, but by the law of faith. He calls the grace of faith 'the law of faith,' through which we come to Christ, through which we receive faith. 'For we account that a man is justified by faith.' We define, we are certain, this we judge. 'Without the works of the law.' By adding 'of the law,' he shows that there are also works of faith. How then does James say: 'Faith without works is dead'? But Paul speaks of the works of the law, whereas James speaks of the works which prove a man to be faithful, as he himself sets forth in what follows: 'Show me thy faith by thy works.' Works are those by which faith is recognized. 'Is He the God of the Jews only?' Did not God make all, and does He not equally care for all?

Not to you only, but also to the Gentiles came Christ, promised from the law — nay rather to them the more. 'Only.' As though the Jews should say: But the Gentiles forsook God; and it is answered them: And you too. They sinned, and you too. But we are converted, and they too. To us came the promised Christ, and to them too. Therefore He is not your God only, or as if you did not know that all are born of Adam, and that it was written that the Gentiles would believe in Christ, as He says: 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations.' And again: 'Hear the voice of the trumpet, and they said, We will not hear. For this the Gentiles shall hear.' 'Is He not also of the Gentiles?' Of the Gentiles who believe, since the prophets frequently spoke of their calling. 'Yea, of the Gentiles also.'

That is, much more also of the Gentiles, because before the law the saints pleased God. And he best preserved the manner in his words: he said 'nay rather,' to show the Gentiles the more, because there were holy uncircumcised men before there were circumcised, and Abraham believed and was justified before circumcision. 'Seeing it is one God who justifieth the circumcision by faith.' He announces that both peoples are to be saved through the faith of Christ, that is, by faith. For neither the uncircumcision nor the circumcision is justified without faith. 'And the uncircumcision through faith.' As Abel, Noah, and the rest. 'Do we then make void the law through faith?' By no means. Do we then make void the law through faith, which taught circumcision? By no means — so much so that he says Moses was nearly slain on account of his circumcised son.

Lest therefore they should say: You then destroy the law, in which all who believed were righteous, being circumcised — before the law they were uncircumcised, but nevertheless none was uncircumcised under the law. Not only, he says, do I not destroy it, but I confirm it, while I preach this circumcision which that one foretold: 'In the last days,' he says, 'the Lord God will circumcise thy heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love thy God.' This is faith. Then would I destroy the law, if I called it false — that is, saying it would not cease, when it promised of itself that it would cease, as Jeremiah says: 'I will give you a new covenant.' And Isaiah: 'Out of Sion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.' 'But we establish the law.'

We cause it to stand, while we prove to be true what it said concerning the ancient righteous ones and the Gentiles who would believe, and that a spiritual circumcision would come, while faith accomplishes what the law commands — which faith if it be not present, the law only commands, and holds guilty those who fulfil not its commands; for the law is not fulfilled except through charity, which the Holy Spirit pours in through His grace. CHAPTER IV. 'What then shall we say that Abraham our father hath found?' He recalls them to the head of circumcision, that what stood firm at the beginning may be held throughout. Circumcision is in the flesh, but faith consists in the mind. Abraham according to faith through the uncircumcision is the father of the Gentiles; according to the flesh he is the father of the circumcision.

But the faith by which he is the father of the Gentiles consists not in the flesh, but in the mind. 'According to the flesh.' That is, according to the circumcision of the flesh. 'For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath glory.' How by works, since he too came from among the Gentiles? 'But not before God.' But he has it before himself, because he fulfils the commands; otherwise, nothing. If God had given to him, yet he had glory from himself, from his own works. But since the faith given by God justifies him without the presumption of works, he gives glory not to himself but to the Lord, out of His gratuitous bounty.

He says therefore that blessed Abraham found righteousness not by works (because he lived before the law), but by faith (because he believed the promises of God); and because faith through the grace of God justifies not only the sinner but even the ungodly, on account of God's goodness, while he has confidence not from works, but understands himself in all things to be a debtor to God, because he found nothing which he could arrogate to himself from merits. 'For what saith the Scripture?' Let us question the Scripture. 'Abraham believed God.' He proved it, and therefore has glory before God. So great was Abraham's faith, by the gift of God, that both his former sins were forgiven him, and it alone was reckoned to him for all righteousness; and having received it, he burned with so great love that thenceforth he ever pleased God. 'And it was reputed to him unto righteousness.'

Faith alone was reckoned as recompense. 'Now to him that worketh, the reward is not reckoned according to grace, but according to debt.' He sets forth the example itself. And because the law requires works, whereby the Pharisee was exalted; when therefore the divine compassion justifies the ungodly, presumption can have no place of merit. For he is a debtor before he obeys the precepts, and unless he obey, he is condemned. But if he do them, he has no glory, because he is an unprofitable servant, who does nothing more. 'But to him that worketh not.' He speaks of the circumcision, and of other things of this kind. 'But believeth in Him that justifieth the ungodly.' He justifies the ungodly by faith alone, not by works, which he did not have; for if according to works, he must be punished, not delivered.