Fragmenta in epistulam ad Romanos

Set apart and consecrated for the proclamation of the gospel, just as the law calls "setting apart" and "removal" that which is separated from the sacrifices for God and the priests. Having therefore become in the flesh a son of man in the likeness of our own birth, in the spirit and power he is shown to be a son of God in the second birth, the one from the dead, so that we too, being made like him, might become sons of God, having received adoption as sons in the redemption of the body, as the apostle himself said. And to show that the Romans also, being of all the nations that inhabit the world, rightly receive the preaching of his apostleship. Those who especially and beyond others belong to him call him God—formerly the prophets, now the apostles; and he makes clear that it is not possible to give thanks to God without Christ. And he rejoices, employing an angelic disposition, at the victory of the faith of Christ in Rome; for there is joy in heaven even over one sinner who repents, and he rejoices together with his fellow apostle Peter, who was so mighty through grace.

He teaches by enlightening those who do not yet know, and he exhorts by gladdening with the word of wisdom those who have already been enlightened, as he himself says when he distinguishes: whether the one who teaches, in teaching, or the one who exhorts, in exhortation. And since the Romans are being exhorted, he himself says that he too will be exhorted together with them, sharing in their exhortation because of love, and at the same time as not being himself above the need of benefit from the word; for the word is also an exhortation to the one who speaks. Through this he instructs teachers not to think highly of themselves if they teach, but to know that they do not give their own things even if they teach, and to be persuaded that they not only benefit others but are also benefited; for the progress of the gospel is also the strengthening of those who proclaim it. And the fruit of those who have been entrusted with the word is the benefit of those who hear; and the Lord says that he has appointed the apostles to bear much fruit. At any rate, a few men bore fruit for the whole church. Even if, therefore, he says, in the greatest of cities one must be mocked by the foolish while proclaiming the saving cross, I will not shrink back; for if the Son of God bore the shame of the cross in our place, how is it not absurd that we should be ashamed of the Lord's suffering for our sake? And instead of the righteousness that comes through works, which is neither pure nor life-giving, he was granting the life that comes through faith. And the prophet has said: from faith to faith. For if you believed Moses, he says, you would believe me.

He teaches of how many evils the gospel and the faith through it release one, and having gone through both the evils among the Gentiles and among the Jews, thereafter proceeding he brings forward the account concerning faith, teaching that the coming of Christ was necessary. And so he discourses concerning the fall of the Jews, and finally he adds the exhortations; and he begins from the account concerning the Gentiles and says that they fearlessly transgressed the law written in nature by the Creator. As those who transferred the name and reverence of God to the created works of God. Then he also explains how. For if the visible creation is sufficient to show the invisible one, but humans abandoned this and deified the created works, they held down the truth of God in unrighteousness, having gone astray from the things by which one ought to know God. Not his essence is what is at work, as he says elsewhere: to the incorruptible, invisible, only wise God, but the activities of this essence, being invisible by nature and never becoming manifest to anyone, but being shown through creation. Vain, therefore, is the imagination of what is not as though it were, since there is no likeness of God in the things worshiped among them. From their own foolish mind, then, they also brought darkness upon their own souls. Here again is the blamelessness of God and the culpability of man, and the justice of the judgment that is brought. For they do these things, not ignorant that such things are worthy of punishment before God the judge; for they are clearly not ignorant of such a thing whenever they judge, and they pursue with death those who do such things.

When, then, even the base appear to have knowledge of the good, and indeed to use it, whenever they are not diverted by pleasures, they bear witness to God's creation, that it is good; which the Ecclesiastist also, having observed, says: that God made man upright; and they themselves sought out many reasonings. Of men, some are leaders toward evil, others followers of evil, and both are wicked—both the one who begins and the one who runs along with it. But he places consenting to do as worse than doing, according to what is said: if you saw a thief, you ran along with him. For the one who does it, being drunk with the passion, is defeated by the act; but the one who consents, being outside the passion and employing wickedness, runs along with the evil. Therefore the "not only" but also "consenting with" is a matter of intensification; yet he blames these as doing both. When he is discoursing concerning God, he will repay, he says, according to his works, according to what was said by the psalmist; but the Savior says this concerning himself, declaring: then he will repay each one according to his deed. When, therefore, what is confessed to be God's is seen to be the Son's, a communion of nature is demonstrated and true sonship. And well again here he says, to the Jew first, and secondly to the Greek; for those nearer to the Master are honored above others both in reproofs and in honors, and they enjoy honors above others. But justification here is not the perfect justification according to Christ; for concerning that he says, when he states: by works of the law no flesh shall be justified.

Even if, he says, the nations have been left without the hearing of the law, yet if by the natural mind they fulfill the wishes of the law, they have nature as their law. For men sit as judges of manifest things only, but he makes judgment of hidden things as God; for man, he says, looks on the face, but God on the heart; so that when Christ judges, the judge is God. Let it be confessed, he says, that what belongs to God is firm and true everywhere, but let men be shown to be unreliable and false, so that God may prevail by his benefactions, granting what is his own beyond the worth of men. And when he is judged against all flesh, according to what is written, beyond dispute, ** either that he himself has provided all things according to his own goodness and beyond the worth of men, but that men have not provided him with what does not belong to him. Not in opposition to the law, but in addition of good and as a gift of God, so that we may no longer be judged in human righteousness, which is altogether exposed, but may be perfected in the righteousness that is from God; and this is the righteousness through the

Resting in the faith of Christ, which passes through all who believe and shows the faith to all in the type of Abraham—not given for justification to those in the law and circumcision only, but also to those in uncircumcision. For Abraham too was justified, not from works—for his boast was not splendid, being incomplete and unable to appear before God, with whom a lame righteousness cannot have a boast—but the justification of our father Abraham was from faith. And he calls him father according to the flesh of the Israelites who became sons of God according to the spirit; Christ, made like them in his generation according to the flesh, made them like himself through the generation in the spirit according to grace. God did not give the promise to Abraham and to his seed by defining a law, but justified him by faith. And the promise given to Abraham was, as we have learned from Moses, the one saying: To you and to your seed I will give all this land. Therefore the apostle also says that the promise is an inheritance of the world, though it was a promise of land. And in the letter to the Corinthians, referring it to us, the successors of Abraham according to the spirit, he says: All things are yours, whether the world or things present or things to come. And it is clear to those who read the writings of Moses that Abraham, having received no commandments of law, had such a promise on these grounds. And Paul, in the preceding passages, also gives the reason why God gave the promise not on the basis of law but on the basis of faith. The Lord raises up his own temple.

But the Father raised him from the dead, just as all things are through the Son, so also he accomplished this. The Son, inseparable from the Father, having drawn us to himself and having bestowed upon us through faith the grace that sanctifies, has become the cause of our being brought near to God, becoming the cause of union for those who were separated through his own mediation—united to the Father in divinity, and joined to us in humanity; so that as many as he brings near according to the human, these he brings near to God according to the divine. And having said that we stand upon the grace that leads us to God, he adds to faith the things concerning hope, showing that faith, as it is written in the letter to the Hebrews, is the substance of things hoped for. And he says that we boast in hope of the glory of God, expecting to be clothed with the divine glory, of which there is a type in Moses, the truth in Christ, and a forming into us. And the cause of such glory that will be given to us is the present grace. For just as some craftsman, dwelling in us, the Holy Spirit, now stamps and forms us into the likeness of Christ through hidden workings, until that which is formed and perfected shines forth at the manifestation of the Savior, of which John says: Brethren, now we are children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. We know that if he is revealed, we shall be like him. And great is the certainty of hope for those who already boast as though the future things were present; for boasting arises over a good that is firmly present.

And this was the blessed boasting that the prophet Jeremiah introduces, saying, "Let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, to understand and to know the Lord," and the rest. And it is not because labors, he says, and afflictions are present that we dull the boasting in the good things that are to come, but we boast in this all the more, knowing that endurance of labors is a joint cause of the enjoyment of good things; for through affliction endurance is established, and the one who has endured is approved, and the one who has become approved before God hopes to have the things that come from God. And the one who has hoped in God will not be put to shame; for he is well pleased in those who hope in his mercy. Therefore affliction becomes a joint cause of the hoped-for good things, being established as a guide to hope. And he shows that the hope is secure, coming to be upon the God who has loved us, and the proof of love is the gift of the Spirit; for he who poured out the Spirit poured out love upon us. And he poured it out beforehand upon the hearts, since the Spirit also beforehand took up residence in the hearts, as the Savior himself also says, that he remains with you and will be with you. That ancient voice of Moses is confirmed in you: "This is your boast, and this is your God." For how would anyone not rejoice and boast, even if he is harassed by countless enemies, being honored by friendship with God, on account of which—and not least for this reason—being envied by adversaries, we are subjected to abuse.

Let no one, on hearing these things, bandy words with the apostle, saying that if this is what the law is—namely, to declare the things that put to death and to make known the base things of affairs and the good—then no less would the Lord too, in distinguishing both the base and the good in his own words, seem to work out a path equal to sin against those who do not obey. For the difference is great, and the distance between them is wide: the law lies in words alone and imparts no power for righteousness, but leaves the whole to the practice of those who hear; whereas our Lord Jesus Christ accomplishes the salvation of those under him wholly in the giving of the Spirit, and as it were fashions us from the beginning and remolds and shapes us, in that believers receive the divine inspiration and are made akin to it, and he uses words for exhortation, through which he prepares us to be fit for the Spirit that forms and disposes us—not entrusting the things that concern us to ourselves. For in that case we would again be condemned, being unable to obey, and the knowledge of sin would come about against us rather than from us. But he prepares us as vessels for the Spirit, as we relax, day by day, our sympathy with the world and loosen the bonds of the flesh, and intensify our kinship with the Spirit. Therefore the law is sharp for punishment, but the Spirit is forbearing, the one seeking the upright conduct of men for righteousness, the other supplying it from itself.

For it follows from this that the law, when the goal set before it is not achieved, brings punishment in addition to its command—for this was closely connected with that—while the Spirit has power for the correction of those who have believed, even if at first I should be too weak to receive the creation that comes from him, he neither gives up on a person nor punishes him immediately, but preserves the man who is being trained by the salvation that comes from himself, just as Paul said he would hand a man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that the spirit might be saved; for the Spirit of the Lord endures until the coming of Christ, until the time of the creation now being accomplished has run its course, when judgment comes, by which he will thrust away the incorrigible for the rest, as those found unfit for eternal life. For this reason the apostle also says elsewhere that it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure, not cutting off our free will, but explaining the power that comes from God for virtue. And the Savior, when he had risen, breathed on them the Holy Spirit, and for this reason, bringing us near to himself, he even commanded us not to be anxious about what we shall say, saying, For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you. Indeed, the prophetic word also, defining the new covenant in the giving of the Spirit, says, explaining the divine discourse to Israel: And this is the covenant from me to them, he said, and my Spirit is upon you, and the words that I have given into your mouth shall not fail from your mouth or from the mouth of your seed, says the Lord, from now on and

For ever. And these things were spoken through Isaiah. But through Jeremiah God promises the new covenant: This, he says, is the covenant which I will make with them in those days, giving my laws in their hearts, and I will inscribe them on their mind, and they shall not teach each one his neighbor, saying, Know the Lord, because all shall know me, from the small to the great among them, because I will be merciful to their sins—promising in these words the working of the Spirit into hearts, through which also propitiation from God comes to pass, the reckonings of sin according to the law being released, while spiritual forbearance grants the propitiation. And indeed also through Ezekiel he promises a new heart and a new spirit for the fulfillment of his own wills in us. So that rightly also in the preceding words the apostle, defining the life according to Christ, says that what is strong against us in sin is also dissolved, not in the letter, inasmuch as the Spirit does not come for the knowledge of it and the condemnation that comes through it, but for the destruction of sin and the working of righteousness, not human but divine, as also in the beginning he said that the righteousness of God is revealed through the gospel.

To those who have not heard the law, the knowledge of it comes naturally, just as he also said earlier: "Gentiles who do not have the law by nature do the things of the law, showing the work of the law written in their own hearts." But to those under the law, the letter of the law and natural understanding stirs them up, being instructed by the teacher so that they are able from themselves to understand both the good and the base. Consider, then, he says, that the law was not first given, as now it is not present to those still infants and unable to understand—here there is no rebuke; for ignorance is not subject to blameless punishment. After these things, observe the commandment entering in; here sin rises up against us, since knowledge has been added and ignorance no longer turns away the wrath that is upon what is done. And so sin lives, receiving power and strength, but the man dies, being condemned by knowledge, and the life-giving good, the precept of the law, turns out to be an occasion of death. For that without which sin cannot be sin, nor condemn man to death—through this, surely, both the charge of wickedness and the penalty of punishment are established. All creation, he says, awaits us and longs for the time when we shall be seen in the glory that is proper to us, so that nothing is brighter than the good repute that will be ours. And it is fitting that creation follow the sons of God, being God's possession; for the slave follows the free man, and the possession is subject to the son because of his nobility. And the intimacy with the Father subjects the slave to the sons.

It is clear that, having sonship of God by grace through participation in the Spirit, as he said earlier, we have our ruling faculty in creation by grace, having received the glory of the true Son; so that it is not contrary to expectation that so great and such a creation has been subjected to humans, who appear small in creation. He has dissolved, he says, the accusations by the election, and justification has beforehand abolished the condemnation; so that neither the law condemning, nor the rulers of this age who held man under sin and through sin dragged him down to slavery of death, will any longer be strong against us. But the fearsome thing of the law is stopped, conquered by the grace of Christ, and the wickedness of the rulers of this age grows weak before the goodness of the one who was slaughtered for our sake and willingly gave himself up by the good pleasure of God and the Father, even if resurrection came upon death, hiding it, and we no longer see Christ as dead, but as living and seated with the Father, and interceding for humans according to the human nature by which he was also joined to humans, uniting the things that were separated.

From the hoped-for good things he has advanced to both: to the assertion concerning love and to the lamentation concerning those who have fallen away. For those who are benefited love, and those who fail of benefits are naturally mourned. And he speaks with intensity, with divine testimony, that he says it not in word only but also in disposition and truth, that he has the greatest grief for his kinsmen, always present with him. For let no one disbelieve, he says, if I lament concerning those who are opposed and persecuting, nor let him consider it strange if I wished even to suffer the greatest things for them, being delivered to death by Christ. For how is their condition not pitiable, and especially among their own and kindred peoples—those called sons of God from the beginning, and glorified with the glory that is from God in the world, and who received the former covenant based on bodily ordinances, and hold in their hands the second that came based on spiritual things, and were chosen for the service of God and for the promises of future good things, the kinsmen of the holy and God-beloved fathers, of the same race as the Lord's incarnation—that these have been cast out and overlooked and have now fallen into the greatest shame and humiliation. But even if the things that have befallen them are worthy of grief, it is fitting to bless God who so judged, the Master over all, to whom all blessing is justly sent up and upon all things.

And indeed also in his judgments, which are most holy, neither will he set aside anything of the justice owed because of the conspicuousness of those who are condemned, nor do they honor those who have been alienated from him by their choice because of the familiarity they previously had with God. What then shall we say? Is there injustice with God? May it not be. For he says to Moses: I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then it is not of the one who runs nor of the one who wills, but of God who shows mercy. Let no one think, he says, that these things, which are arranged according to the economy of mercy, have any injustice of God, since they are in no way consistent with the account of righteousness; for God is faithful and there is no injustice in him, nor is it unjust to have mercy on whom the one showing mercy may decide, and not on others, whom he himself may not wish to show mercy. For he has spoken, he says, through Moses and has made clear the manner of mercy, not proceeding according to the counter-measure of human measures, but according to the wisdom of God, so that being shown mercy is not of our works, but of God, who has the showing of mercy according to his authority. For showing mercy has been distinguished from judging, and each one who owes an answer becomes responsible for himself, reaping this very thing which he may have sown, according to the apostle. But of things given from mercy God is the cause, knowing in wisdom and arranging for whom it is fitting and for whom not. And this not in vain; for nothing with God is in vain or irrational, but each thing has been foreordained by wonderful reasons, just as indeed he has also made clear concerning Pharaoh; for the scripture says to Pharaoh, that for this very purpose I raised you up, in order that I might show in you my power, and in order that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.

Behold, the not being shown mercy of Pharaoh. It has been demonstrated that this comes about for the benefit of the whole world, so that all, perceiving the judgment against the impious one to be possible, may be held by fear and wonder toward the one who judged and made these things. So that even God, having foreknown Pharaoh's impiety, for this reason also made him and entrusted the kingdom to him, so that the just and powerful judgment against him might contribute to the common benefit of the world, being merciless toward the one judged, since also, he says, judgment is merciless to the one who has not shown mercy. But Pharaoh displayed no mercy but all cruelty against the Israelites. He has therefore taken away mercy from the one who did not provide it to others, just as, from the opposite, the Savior says to those who forgive that they are also to be forgiven, acting justly according to the equality of judgment and the requital of righteousness, but no longer preserving that same equality in not showing mercy to the sinner, which he does in the case of other sinners who have been shown mercy. Therefore the apostle again adds: So then, he shows mercy to whom he wills, and whom he wills he hardens, and the rest. For the one, he says, who does not obtain equal treatment with other sinners, but instead of being shown mercy and called to the removal of wickedness suffers the opposite and is handed over to be hardened—how could he reasonably still bring a charge from God, that he does not obtain equal treatment with those who are shown mercy? For neither is Pharaoh hardened, nor any other of those who fall into condemnation—it is not possible to contradict this, nor that the one being hardened is himself the cause of the hardness. For surely this also is clear, but where does he say:

O man, it is beyond you to search out the mystical reason of this inequality that lies with God. For that it is without injustice has been stated already, since the not showing mercy to the sinner belongs to a wisdom that provides, not to a justice that repays. Next after these things the apostle carries the argument forward on both sides: both to show that it is not fitting for humans to busy themselves curiously with the depths of God, and to preserve the most correct account of the saving plan, according to which there are some who are not shown mercy and some who obtain mercy. For the vessel, he says, will not say to the one who formed it, and the rest. This checks the rash curiosity of the many, who contentious-ly strive to scrutinize the counsels of God with subtlety, though they are unsearchable by humans to the finest degree. For who are you, he says, who cross-examines God and inquires into the things he has ordained? It is impossible for you to know the mind of the craftsman, just as it is for the vessel to know the mind of the one who formed it; for you differ in no way from a lifeless thing in your ability to grasp the will of God. It is also absurd to attempt to cut short the authority of God, as though he ought not to have it in his authority to place each one of the things he makes in whatever order he wishes and knows to be beneficial, even if the nature of all is one and all are receptive of mercy. For just as it is in the potter's authority, when one and the same material of clay lies before him, to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor, so too with the craftsman of all things, who foreknows the future as though it were present: he brings forth the one to be shown mercy, and the other he sets forth beforehand.

Having reverently and divinely foretold these things to the bold and to those lifted up beyond human nature, he also reveals the purpose of God's counsel and says: "But if God, willing." The present phrase lies scattered in the prophecies of Isaiah, not as it is now spoken by the apostle in a gathered form. For at the beginning of the book it is written concerning the Lord according to the edition of Aquila, with which the apostolic text also agrees: "He himself shall be your fear, and he himself your dread, and he shall be for a sanctuary and for a stone of stumbling, a solid rock of offense." And after many things there is: "Behold, I lay in the foundations of Zion a precious stone, elect, a cornerstone, honored, and the one who believes shall not be put to shame." And it is possible, by looking closely at each part of the phrase, to understand clearly that in the one the stone is spoken of simply, while in the other the Lord is interpreted with divine dignity. For "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness." For, he says, a man is not justified in the law, but having believed in Christ he is justified, as also in Pisidian Antioch it was proclaimed, saying: "Let it be known to you, brothers, that through this one forgiveness of sins is announced to you, and from all things from which you could not be saved in the law, in this one everyone who believes is justified." If, therefore, that which was earnestly pursued by the law, but through human weakness was not brought to completion, this Christ

He provides to those who believe, imparting holy righteousness; Christ is the end of the law, and the law was preparing them for Christ, showing that he is both its fulfillment and the salvation of men. The salvation that comes through invocation of the Lord, he says, is common to all men; but the aforementioned contentiousness deprived the Jews of the universal grace, since they had their own unfitness for the common good, because of which the apostleship and the preaching and the hearing and the faith and the invocation came not to them but to the Gentiles. Just as the light, being by nature common to all, becomes alien to those who are blind, and the sun does not shine for the blind nor rise for them, nor does the one who cries out speak to the deaf, so neither do those who are sent and preach have anything for the Jews; for it is presupposed that they are unable to hear, as having fallen into deafness toward the divine proclamations. Therefore they have been deprived of salvation because they do not call upon him, just as it was also made clear in the prophet: For there is not, he says, one who calls upon your name, or one who remembers to take hold of you, because you have turned your face away from us. And this testimony is sufficient also against the Jews; for it is clear that the Christ whom they do not call upon is the one whom they do not hold to. He turned his face away from them, from which indeed he also said: You shall not see my face from now until you say, Blessed is he who comes, he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Since, as I said, he did not set out in the present passage to refute the Jews, but to demonstrate the mystery of the economy concerning them as the reason they do not call upon the Lord—namely, that the apostles were sent not to them but to the Gentiles, just as the Lord's own word has it: "Go, make disciples of all the nations." And the apostles were not transgressing the command when they first rushed to the Jews and later went on to the Gentiles, whenever they were driven out by them; rather, the one who gave the command knew to whom the preaching would ultimately come, since the former were not receptive. Nor does the apostle now say anything contrary to what he did, speaking primarily to Jews, while declaring that he was not sent to them but, according to God's decree and foreknowledge, that the apostleship is given to the Gentiles—with the aim that the apostles, going rather to Israel, be driven out, as also in the case of Moses before Pharaoh. For God knew that he would not be persuaded, and foretold it: "But I know that Pharaoh will not let you go." And there the end of Pharaoh's opposition was the display of signs for the benefit of the world; here, the end of the Jews' unbelief was the apostles' journey to the Gentiles, according to that saying of Paul: "It was necessary that the word of the Lord be spoken to you first; but since you reject it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us." This, then, was the command, and the apostleship was also to the Gentiles. Hence Israel was brought round to the former rank of the Gentiles, so as not to call upon the Lord.

It is not possible, then, for them to call upon him, he says, since they did not believe. But they were not able to believe, being unfit to hear, just as the Lord also conversed with them in a hidden manner, and showed that the one able to hear among them was rare, saying: "Let the one who has ears to hear, hear." And being present with them, he had as his aim their transition away from them, saying: "O wicked generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I endure you?" And because they were unable to hear him and believe, he said: "You do not believe, because you are not of my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." And he spoke to them more as to strangers than as to those of his own household, not so that they might believe—for he knew that they would not believe—but so that they might become without excuse for not having believed. For if I had not come, he says, and spoken to them, they would not have had sin; for he did not overlook even the slight inclination they still had toward being able to be persuaded, through which the apostles, having believed, become a reproof of their unbelief, judging the twelve tribes of Israel upon twelve thrones. Looking, then, to the aim and the end, neither the Lord has been sent to the Jews—for he would not have failed in coming for this—and likewise neither have the apostles. And for this reason, Paul says, as though no one had been sent to them nor had preached: "But how will they hear without one who preaches? And how will they preach unless they are sent?

But the fact that they do not call upon the Lord he has connected to the fact that no judgment of God had been sent to them, showing—or rather, he himself has made mention of no judgment, but of the economy alone—"just as it is written," he says, "how beautiful are the feet of those who proclaim good news of peace, of those who proclaim good news of good things." For it is clear, he says, even from the prophecy, that it is not possible to believe without those who proclaim good news, who send forth a certain beautiful and clearly audible voice as if from a mountain, who proclaim the peace of God and the good things, delighting by their beauty and reaching the hearing by their greatness. For "as a season," he says, "upon the mountains are the feet of those who proclaim good news of a hearing of peace, as of those who proclaim good news of good things." For such is the translation of the Seventy. So great, he says, is their derangement and their turning away from God, that truly, according to the divine utterance, seeing they do not see, and they hear—for the divine proclamation has been cried out over the whole inhabited world, the apostles revealing the Lord no less than creation has cried out to its Maker according to the oracle of the psalm—yet they have been able to hear and understand nothing more.

But they think, he says, somehow irrationally and without understanding that the gospel among the nations is alien to God; for it is not possible to say that this had been passed over in silence before them and not foretold. At any rate, Moses the lawgiver said at once that God will repay them equally for the preference of the foolish nations, which they themselves began toward God by the worship of vain idols, and just as they themselves considered the non-god to be God instead of the truly existing God, so God, in return for the nation that was formerly with him, will honor the non-nation as a nation, calling the things that are not as things that are, in order that he might bring to nothing the things that are. And to the zeal to which they were brought by being joined to demons, to this he will bring them forward, joining his own power to the nations. The cited passage of Isaiah the prophet was taken over by the apostle according to his own knowledge from the Hebrew; for the edition of the Seventy has: the Lord has given you to drink a spirit of compunction; which the version of Aquila has more clearly as a casting down, and that of Symmachus as a stupefaction. Then it is added: and he will shut their eyes, those who see the hidden things, and so on concerning the ignorance of the prophetic words, which will be to them as a sealed book and as writings of the illiterate that they cannot read.

For the obscurity, as it were, sealing the prophetic book and making the reading of it useless for those who read, so that one could not even read it, those who followed Christ had their mind opened to understand the scriptures, as the gospel says, and those who heard the followers were led to full knowledge, as the eunuch by Philip, while the others, in not obtaining the opening, are like the blind and the deaf. For the apostle also joined the matter of the deafness of the ears, taking from another part of the prophecy the words "You will hear with hearing and you will certainly not understand," since not understanding is equal to not hearing according to "Let the one who has ears to hear hear," and it has also been said, "They heard heavily with their ears." But the absence of the spirit that opens has given room to the spirit of derangement and insensibility, which continually intensifies the ignorances and the darkenings; for God does not work evil, because evil and good will not come out of the mouth of the Lord, but the house bereft of divine power is left open to evil spirits for habitation, as the Savior has said. And thus the one who did not give a spirit of opening gave a spirit of compunction. From the scriptures he is compelled to seek the abandonment that has occurred, lest they have suffered this to the end, so that it might not seem to anyone that the promises made to Israel are turning out to be a lie. But he now calls "trespass" the wholly unforgivable wrongdoing and "fall" the utterly incurable overthrow, after which there is nothing good left to hope for. "Are we then," he says, "to say that they have trespassed in ways worthy of an incurable fall? May it not be!

For they endured the suffering not for their own destruction, so that what happened might be both a fall and a ruin, but for the salvation of the Gentiles, so that by their jealousy those others might be called. So the fall that occurred was from ignorance, which has forgiveness. But let us not be greatly concerned about any difference of names, but about the declaration of realities; and having grasped what Paul presents through the words, let us not prevent the words from signifying something else as well. For instance, this: "Does not the one who falls rise again?" It makes clear the notion of falling as not incurable, and "Do not let my enemy rejoice over me, because I have fallen and shall rise again," but to fall at some time is indicative of a temporary misfortune. Rather, it is worth inquiring about the matter itself, lest Paul should seem to disagree with the prophet Amos, who says: "The house of Israel has fallen, it shall no longer add to rise again." For in this way the prophet himself would seem to disagree with himself in what follows, saying both other good things and at the end: "And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no longer be plucked out from their land which I gave to them, says the Lord." But the prophet Isaiah clearly solves the question, saying that the remnant of the people that will be saved, and Israel altogether, will be called by another name; for he says that those who are left will be taken away as a gleaning in a cluster of grapes, and that they will be filled with the good things that come from God, distinguishing them in contrast to the people: "Behold, those who serve me shall eat, but you shall hunger," and the rest. And after much such contrast he says: "For you shall leave your name as an oath to my chosen ones, but the Lord will take you away.

But to those who serve me a different name shall be called, as the blessed one in the land shall be blessed in God faithfully, and he who swears in the land shall swear in God faithfully. These words are strange according to the edition of Aquila, to which the Jews attend. Hence it is necessary that they themselves also confess that there will be a change of those who are saved from among them to another mind and manner of life, so that it is true to say concerning them either that they are not Israel, or that these are truly Israel of the Israel according to the flesh which is perishing. The prophet, then, has spoken of the one perishing, and the apostle of the one being saved, having separated him from the Israel according to the flesh. But if, as he says, what I was just saying, those who have been saved are from Israel and have obtained the sanctification that leads to salvation, of whom I am evidently one, God, having taken these as the firstfruits of the nation, has also sanctified all the rest through the one taken in addition, according to the gift given to the whole world—for we know that the lump is sanctified through the firstfruits—and this is indeed a proof that the nation has not fallen entirely, as, for instance, the nations of the Canaanites that were handed over to destruction, for whom to save even one was impious because of God's universal verdict upon them, and as Sodom that was delivered to fire, from which not even the race of the righteous stranger was deemed worthy of salvation except by the grace shown toward him; but of Israel we see many who are being saved. Let us not, then, number them with the Canaanites and Sodomites, nor number among the unclean those whose firstfruits is holy.

But the fact that they were placed in the place of those who were removed, he says, should be a cause of fear to no one, not of arrogance; for let him consider that it was by grace, through faith, that they were placed in. But those who were by nature shoots of the root were nevertheless removed because of unbelief. And great is the difference between what is by grace and what is by nature. But if nature did not benefit the disobedient unto firmness, surely being added will benefit those who are added, unless they should appear unworthy of the grace given. And again, in the case of these things, let those who revile the flesh consider how great the inclination the generation according to the flesh has, even if it has been overlooked because of unbelief. When even the natural branches of the olive tree remain in destruction because of unbelief, and those from the wild olive tree, contrary to nature, are grafted into the good olive tree and are saved, how are those who introduce both salvation and destruction from nature not ashamed? For do not be ignorant, he says, of the secret in the providence of God, unknown because of the present unbelief of Israel, that until the entry of all the nations foreknown, insensibility holds Israel, and after this the remnant of the nation, the one who truly followed Israel, shall be saved. The proclamation of good news to you, he says, brothers, had to come about through their alienation, and for this reason they were alienated. But Israel was also to be preserved after these things in the remnants, as belonging to the God who chose their fathers, and it shall be preserved by the unrepentant grace that was promised, which from the time he called the fathers, he consented to.

He marvels at the manifold and, to humans, unsearchable nature of the wisdom that judges and orders our affairs. He calls it a "depth," in accordance with the ancient Scripture that says, "Your judgments are a great abyss"—and this because of its inaccessibility, as the things of the deep are incomprehensible. And he calls "ways" the activities of his governance, which a human cannot comprehend, just as neither can one trace the footprints of the one who walks through the sea, as the psalmist also says: "Your way was in the sea, and your paths in many waters, and your footprints will not be known." That the human mind falls short of comprehending the divine judgments because of their manifold, multitudinous, and in no way uniform character—divine wisdom applying itself to each thing in a manner fitting and appropriate to it—he himself teaches when he calls the wisdom of God "manifold." And the thirty-ninth psalm, according to the edition of Aquila, also said: "And your thoughts concerning us cannot be set forth." Therefore it is no wonder that humans go astray in their accounts of providence; for indeed, according to Isaiah, the mind of God is unknown to all: "For who has shared in his thought?" But this is said concerning humans; it extends also to the rest of creation, insofar as he is Creator.

For this is what he means by "to test you"—the things that differ: what is the will of God, the good and acceptable and perfect. This is the lawgiving in the heart, according to the prophet; for in leisure devoted to God, the heart, placed in a Godlike way, becomes knowledgeable of the things that differ and of the good things and of the wills of God, being pleased with these alone with which God is pleased, and being filled with goodness, it wills the will of the good Father and hastens to do good to all, as he who prepares us for likeness to his own Father, the Son. "Love," he says, "your enemies and do good, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked." This is truly also the perfect will of God and acceptable. For it was indeed said also, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy," even if God was not pleased with this, but he tolerated it while those being trained were still capable of only this; for such a thing did not yet have the character of a good deed, but of a hindrance of evil, and abstinence from evil becomes an advance toward the good. However, what is acceptable to God is the good, the perfect—to make humans like himself; for "you shall be perfect," he says, "as your Father in heaven is perfect." It is evil to envy a friend and to hate one who does no wrong; but to hate an enemy is not evil. Those who were not perfect abstained from evil only; for us, the good must also be practiced for perfection—to love all humans. And the Lord, leading us forward into such a disposition, removes all causes of hostility, so that he may implant the divine love toward all humans.

He knew the zeal for wealth that provokes people against those who do wrong, that stirs up envy toward wealth, and that produces mutual hatreds among men because of these things; and he forbade the acquisition of wealth: "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth." For in this way, he says, you will not become angry when you suffer loss, you will not envy, and you will not be at enmity with those who envy; you will keep your mind simple and guileless and loving toward all. Punishing arrogance as a derangement of the mind, he set self-control in opposition to it, because no one would be elated if, being self-controlled, he perceived himself. If anyone, he says, has a prophecy among you—a gift most honored after the apostolate; for God, he says, set in the church first apostles, second prophets—let him think thus according to the prophecy, knowing the primacy of the apostles; and indeed also the deacon, knowing this canon of service, is in a lower rank, as it were the hands under the head. Again, let the teacher remain under the prophet in the measures of teaching—for second prophets, third teachers—for teachers are expounders of the words that come from prophecy, as it were ears hearing and understanding the things seen and made clear to the eyes that see; for while the prophets see, let someone be appointed to encourage those already taught in the service of teachers. And these are the spiritual matters. He then joins to these also the matters concerning the body: generous sharing, zealous patronage, humane mercy; for he who shows mercy, he added, does so with cheerfulness.

Having spoken of spiritual things, he also joins to them the things concerning the body, defining distribution in simplicity and placing simplicity as the same thing as distribution. For in simplicity, he says, let the one who distributes—as if he were saying, the one who distributes in the distribution, just as also concerning service, the one who serves in the service. And simplicity is what the apostles call abundance, from the open hand, as in the second letter to the Corinthians: their poverty according to depth abounded into the wealth of their simplicity. In the same way he also defines oversight as zeal, and mercy as cheerfulness, having distinguished it from distribution. For the one is for the sake of fellowship with the saints; for in the simplicity, he says, of fellowship toward them, speaking of the saints. Therefore the gift is also abundant, as an offering to God and a service to Christ and a friendship-making fellowship; for make for yourselves, he says, friends from the mammon of unrighteousness, and so on. But mercy is toward the wretched for the sake of their need, whatever sort they may be; for give, he says, to everyone who asks you, for the sake of love for humanity. And mercy needs cheerfulness, since it is directed toward lesser people, so that by giving we might not grieve them out of contempt, but might gladden them out of love for humanity. But even if distributions and acts of oversight and almsgivings bring rest concerning bodily things, nevertheless they are gifts accomplished in the power of the Spirit, joining those who minister such things to the holy body in the rank of feet. For not only, if anyone speaks, as the oracles of God, says Peter, but also if anyone serves, as from the strength which God supplies; and service of the ministry which fills up the

Paul calls the deficiencies of the saints, service being spoken of in many ways, both bodily and spiritually. Judas the Galilean, in the days of the enrollment, as Gamaliel says in the Acts, drew away a great multitude of people after him, preventing them from obeying the decree of the Romans and from enrolling their properties, for which purpose Cyrenius had been sent to Syria. And for this reason those who obeyed Judas were withdrawing from the Romans, on the pretext of not serving men but God alone. And they submitted to all punishments eagerly, under the notion of piety, for the sake of calling no man master, and they were in dissension against those who did not think the same things nor join in the uprising with them. But the Pharisees were those who held the opposite of these things, and the Sadducees. Since, therefore, the heresy of Judas became a cause of civil murders and of resistance against the rulers to the harm of the nation, it seems to me that the apostle now sets aside the imitation of this, as though some considered it piety toward God not to listen to rulers. Therefore he also makes a long discourse about this, refuting the error of their opinion.

He is discussing matters indifferent, which make no difference whether they are done or not done, advising that they be treated as indifferent in themselves, but that what among them pertains to love of neighbor should no longer be regarded as indifferent. Every food is indifferent with respect to purity, being sanctified by the power of Christ. But not all are so strong in faith as to have no fear of defilement in such things. So then, disturbing such a person or not disturbing him must no longer be considered indifferent; rather, care must be taken that he not be thrown into confusion when compelled to eat without believing, seeing the food as evil while partaking of it as good. There is one who is firmly established in the faith of Christ, which sanctifies all meat and does not allow anything to be idol-sacrificed, as the apostle himself declares, believing this in the letter to the Corinthians; but another, because he is weak in faith, still declines to eat meat, lest he encounter something sacrificed to idols. Let both be commended for their mutual disputation on this matter, each guarding against compelling the other contrary to his own conviction. And neither let the one who eats from a more noble faith despise the one who is weak regarding food as of little faith, nor let the one who abstains judge the one who is indifferent about it as unclean. He began, then, with the argument addressed to the strong, claiming that the conflict over foods as indifferent should be relaxed in favor of the weaker, and proceeding further he set down the same principle for the others, advising that the strife over abstinence be dismissed; for in this way the argument became more conducive to harmony and less painful, being directed toward both.

Concerning the aforementioned matters and those like them, he forbids judging one another—things that can in no way separate one from God—just as the Lord also says, "Why do you see the speck in your brother's eye?" having first said, "Do not judge, so that you may not be judged." For to condemn those who accomplish the greatest things on account of small deficiencies that resemble specks troubling eyes makes them liable to the judgment that they themselves bring against others. At once, then, their own rising up against their brothers is far greater than the charge they bring forward, as if a beam were being compared to a speck. That these judgments which the Savior and the apostle forbade concern small matters and things that do no great harm is made clear also from the very name: for those whom we are forbidden to judge are called our brothers; and if they are our brothers, they are also sons of God. But the shortcomings of sons are small and not yet sins, since the one born of God does not sin, according to John, so that the one who sins is not of God nor ours.

Even if he is called a brother. If anyone called a brother, he says, is a fornicator or an idolater or a covetous person or a reviler or a drunkard or a swindler, do not even eat with such a one. We will therefore judge such a person as no longer a brother, even if he is among us according to the body; we will separate him, since he has been separated in spirit. For what is it to me, he says, to judge those outside? Do you not judge those inside? But God judges those outside. And you shall remove the evil person from among yourselves. And running along peaceably with the one who judges concerning foods, he has spoken thus, as if even if the brother were at fault in this matter, he ought not to be judged. And equally, to the one who despises the brother who does not eat, on account of his little faith, he forbade despising. For to despise the one acting wickedly is the part of a man who will be saved, according to the psalm; but the one who does something out of excessive scrupulousness is not to be despised, so that we may not, like those who have trusted in themselves that they are righteous and despise others, be despised by God. Then the reasoning that we ought not to rise up against one another, because, he says, we are all under the judgment of God, and we shall stand before God as a judge; for it is not for the one standing before a judge to judge the one standing alongside him, for he must take thought for himself, since each will give an account. And we must not consider how we will judge our neighbor, but how we ourselves will not be condemned. It is clear that he calls the judgment seat of Christ God's; for the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, having given him, as to a human judge of humans, according to the authority he gave him, to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.

He did not banish judgment to human nature, since the Son is not man by nature, but by economy he is also man. Thus the judgment and the tribunal will remain God's even so, because it belongs to his wisdom and power, which was incarnate for holy man. I know, he says, having believed in the sanctification of Christ, that through Christ all things are clean and nothing of what enters defiles, but what proceeds out of the heart. Such also is the supposition concerning the unclean thing: the thought of it as unclean comes from the heart to harm, immediately making common what was thought to be common. We must guard, he says, against casting the brother into the defilement of a weak conscience. For this he also said in the letter to the Corinthians, that the weak consciences are defiled of those who eat as though of idol-sacrifice. Let us not, he says, make the eating of such things as though with zeal; for if we do this, not having credibility as a pretext for the brother's grief—the eating—we will prefer it to the more necessary love. So for the sake of cheap food let not a possession of Christ be destroyed, he who by death purchased life. But he will be destroyed by being separated from union and left behind by love, or even being compelled to eat faithlessly. Let us not stir up blasphemies against the faith, as impious people choosing foods because of it. It is enough to think rightly about foods, as is proper. If we do not eat, then God reigns in us; for the kingdom of God is not defined by food and drink. For how is the kingdom in spirit, according to "Behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

The phrase "Christ did not please himself" has been spoken with reference to human pleasing, and what follows makes this clear; for he exhorts us not to choose a manner of life for ourselves, eating things that are not burdensome to us, but to abstain for the benefit of the brothers, which comes about through not causing grief. But this good according to God he did not grant, then, by removing the pleasant thing from human nature, making those who trouble him get out of the way—which is exactly what the disciples sought when they wished to ask for fire from heaven against those who did not receive the Lord—but he was accomplishing the divine good, sparing those worthy of punishment. For if he is God, he does not bear anything that does not please himself—for nothing would be strong enough to fasten upon God and grieve God, so that we should even say that he did not please himself. For he bore these things that did not please him—"Shall they provoke me to anger themselves? says the Lord"—but insofar as he shared in the human nature that is also capable of being disposed disagreeably toward something. In this respect he did not please himself by pursuing or driving away those who troubled him, but he endured, saying: "O unbelieving and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you?" Moreover, since the Lord also bore the unforgivable and the alien who reproached him, much more must we bear those worthy of forgiveness and brothers. And having exhorted us to please the neighbor, he necessarily added "for the good"; for this is no longer man-pleasing, because "God scattered the bones of man-pleasers," and "if I were still pleasing men, I would not be a servant of Christ"; for man-pleasing is doing something according to the pleasure of men. He says that his own presence will appear to them, through the apostolic grace, full of good things from Christ.

In the part of greeting and salutation he makes a fitting remembrance of each of those known to him, and doing this as proper to his own love and to the Spirit who speaks in him, showing us his love for humanity and that each one is remembered before him according to worth, just as also in the ancient writings there are catalogues of the generations and a remembrance according to the worth of each, the Spirit making clear that in the invisible books each one has been written down before him according to worth. These books Daniel also saw being opened at the judgment seat that was set, at the Ancient of Days, that is, at the eternal God. And the angel, foretelling about the end, said to him: In that time all your people shall be saved, whoever is found written in the book. But concerning those who are not worthy, the Lord said through the prophet: Let them be blotted out; and concerning these Paul also, after mentioning the saints, says what follows by way of contrast.