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.