Homilies on Romans

Rom. XI. 7

“What then? Israel has not obtained that, which he seeks for; but the election has obtained it and the rest were blinded.”

He had said that God did not cast off His people; and to show in what sense He had not cast them off, he takes refuge in the Prophets again. And having shown by them that the more part of the Jews were lost, that he might not seem to be again bringing forward an accusation of his own, and to make his discourse offensive, and to be attacking them as enemies, he takes refuge in David and Isaiah, and says,

Ver. 8. “According as it is written, God has given them the spirit of slumber.”

Or rather we should go back to the beginning of his argument. Having then mentioned the state of things in Elijah's time, and shown what grace is, he proceeds, “What then? Israel has not obtained that which he seeks for.” Now this is as much what an accuser would say, as what one who was putting a question. For the Jew, he means, is inconsistent with himself when he seeks for righteousness, which he will not accept. Then to leave them with no excuse, he shows, from those who have accepted it, their unfeeling spirit, as he says, “But the election has obtained it,” and they are the condemnation of the others. And this is what Christ says, “But if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? Wherefore they shall be your judges.” For to prevent any one from accusing the nature of the thing, and not their own temper, he points out those who had obtained it. Hence he uses the word with great propriety, to show at once the grace from above and the zeal of these. For it is not to deny free-will that he speaks of their having “obtained” (as by chance, Gr. ἐ πέτυχε) it, but to show the greatness of the good things, and that the greater part was of grace, though not the whole. For we too are in the habit of saying, “so and so chanced to get” (same word), “so and so met with,” when the gain has been a great one. Because it is not by man's labors, but by God's gift, that the greater part was brought about.

“And the rest was blinded.”

See how he has been bold enough to tell with his own voice the casting off of the rest. For he had indeed spoken of it already, but it was by bringing the prophets in as accusers. But from this point he declares it in his own person. Still even here he is not content with his own declaration, but brings Isaiah the prophet in again. For after saying, “were blinded,” he proceeds; “according as it is written, God has given them the spirit of slumber.” Now whence came this blinding? He had indeed mentioned the causes of it before, and turned it all upon their own heads, to show that it was from their unseasonable obstinacy that they had to bear this. And now he speaks of it too. For when he says, “Eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear,” he is but finding fault with their contentious spirit. For when they had “eyes to see” the miracles, and were possessed of “ears to hear” that marvellous Teaching, they never used these as were fitting. And the “He gave,” do not imagine to mean here an agency, but a permission only. But “slumber” (καταάνυξις lit. piercing) is a name he here gives to the habit of soul inclinable to the worse, when incurably and unchangeably so. For in another passage David says, “that my glory may sing unto You, and I may not be put to slumber”: that is, I may not alter, may not be changed. For as a man who is hushed to slumber in a state of pious fear would not easily be made to change his side; so too he that is slumbering in wickedness would not change with facility. For to be hushed to slumber here is nothing else but to be fixed and riveted to a thing. In pointing then to the incurable and unchangeable character of their spirit, he calls it “a spirit of slumber.” Then to show that for this unbelief they will be most severely punished, he brings the Prophet forward again, threatening the very things which in the event came to pass.

Ver. 9. “Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling-block.”

That is, let their comforts and all their good things change and perish, and let them be open to attack from any one. And to show that this is in punishment for sins that they suffer this, he adds, “and a recompense unto them.”

Ver. 10. “Let their eyes be darkened that they may not see, and bow down their back always.”

Do these things then still require any interpreting? Are they not plain even to those ever so senseless? And before our words, the very issue of facts has anticipated us in bearing witness to what was said. For at what time have they ever been so open to attacks? At what time such an easy prey? At what time has He so “bowed down their backs?” At what time have they been set under such bondage? And what is more, there is not to be any unloosing from these terrors. And this the prophet has also hinted. For he does not say only, “bow Thou down their back,” but, “forever bow Thou down.” But if you are disposed to dispute, O Jew, about the issue, from what has gone before learn also the present case. Thou went down to Egypt; and two hundred years passed, and God freed you speedily from that bondage, and that though thou were irreligious, and went whoring with the most baneful whoredom. You were freed from Egypt, and you worshipped the calf, you sacrificed your sons to Baalpeor, you defiled the temple, you went after every sort of vice, you grew not to know nature itself. The mountains, the groves, the hills, the springs, the rivers, the gardens did you fill with accursed sacrifices, you slew the prophets, overthrew the altars, exhibited every excess of wickedness and irreligion. Still, after giving you up for seventy years to the Babylonians, He brought you back again to your former freedom, and gave you back the temple, and your country, and your old form of polity and there were prophets again, and the gift of the Spirit. Or rather, even in the season of your captivity you were not deserted, but even there were Daniel, and Ezekiel, and in Egypt Jeremiah, and in the desert Moses. After this you reverted to your former vice again, and wast a reveller ἐ ξεβακχεύθης, therein, and changed your manner of life πολιτείαν to the Grecian in the time of Antiochus the impious Daniel 8:14;. But even then for a three years and a little over only were ye given up to Antiochus, and then by the Maccabees ye raised those bright trophies again. But now there is nothing of the sort, for the reverse has happened throughout. And this is ground for the greatest surprise, as the vices have ceased, and the punishment has been increased, and is without any hope of a change. For it is not seventy years only that have passed away, nor a hundred, nor yet twice as many but three hundred, and a good deal over, and there is no finding even a shadow of a hope of the kind. And this though ye neither are idolaters, nor do the other audacious acts ye did before. What then is the cause? The reality has succeeded to the type, and grace has shut out the Law. And this the prophet foretelling from of old said, “And ever bow Thou down their back.” See the minuteness of prophecy, how it foretells their unbelief, and also points out their disputatiousness, and shows the judgment which should follow, and sets forth the endlessness of the punishment. For as many of the duller sort, through unbelief in what was to come to pass, wished to see things to come by the light of things present, from this point of time God gave proof of His power on either part, by lifting those of the Gentiles who believed, above the heaven, but bringing down such of the Jews as believed not to the lowest estate of desolation, and giving them up to evils not to be ended. Having then urged them severely both about their not believing, and about what they had suffered and were yet to suffer, he again allays what he had said by writing as follows:

Ver. 11. “I say then, Have they stumbled, that they should fall? God forbid.”