Homilies on Romans

Again he endeavors much to get himself clear of untoward suspicion. And he seems to be blaming the Gentiles, and to be humbling their conceits, yet he gives a gentle provocation to the Jew also. And indeed he goes round about seeking to veil and allay this great ruin of theirs. But he finds no means of doing it, owing to the nature of the facts. For from what he had said, they deserved but the greater condemnation, when those who were far short of them had taken the good things prepared for them. This is why then he passes from the Jews to those of the Gentiles, and puts in between his discourse the part about them, as wishing to show that he is saying all these things in order to instruct them to be reasonable. For I praise you, he means, for these two reasons; one, because I am necessitated to do so as being your commissioned minister; the other, that through you I may save others. And he does not say, my brethren, my kinsmen; but, “my flesh.” And next, when pointing out their disputatious spirit, he does not say, “if by any means I may” persuade, but, “provoke to jealousy and save;” and here again not all, but, “some of them.” So hard were they! And even amid his rebuke he shows again the Gentiles honored, for they are causes of their salvation, and not in the same way. For they became purveyors of blessings to them through unbelief, but these to the Jews by faith. Hence the estate of the Gentiles seems to be at once equal and superior. For what will you say, O Jew? That if we had not been cast out, he would not have been called so soon? This the man of the Gentiles may say too, If I had not been saved, you would not have been moved to jealousy. But if you would know wherein we have the advantage, I save you by believing, but it is by stumbling that you have afforded us an access before yourself. Then perceiving again that he had touched them to the quick, resuming his former argument, he says,

Ver. 15. “For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead?”

Yet this again condemns them, since, while others gained by their sins, they did not profit by other men's well doings. But if he asserts that to be their doing which necessarily happened, be not surprised: since (as I have said several times) it is to humble these, and to exhort the other, that he throws his address into this form. For as I said before, if the Jews had been cast away a thousand times over, and the Gentiles had not shown faith, they would never have been saved. But he stands by the feeble party, and gives assistance to the distressed one. But see also even in his favors to them, how he solaces them in words only. “For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world,” (and what is this to the Jews?) “what shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead?” Yet even this was no boon to them, unless they had been received. But what he means is to this effect. If in anger with them He gave other men so great gifts, when He is reconciled to them what will He not give? But as the resurrection of the dead was not by the receiving of them, so neither now is our salvation through them. But they were cast out owing to their own folly, but it is by faith that we are saved, and by grace from above. But of all this nothing can be of service to them, unless they show the requisite faith. Yet doing as he is wont, he goes on to another encomium, which is not really one, but which only seems to be, so imitating the wisest physicians, who give their patients as much consolation as the nature of the sickness allows them. And what is it that he says?

Ver. 16. “For if the first-fruits be holy, the lump also is holy; and if the root be holy, so are the branches;”

So calling in this passage by the names of the first-fruit and root Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, the prophets, the patriarchs, all who were of note in the Old Testament; and the branches, those from them who believed. Then since the fact met him that many had disbelieved, observe how he undermines (ὑ ποτέμνεται, see p. 345) it again, and says,

Ver. 17. “And if some of the branches be broken off.”

And yet above you said that the more part perished, and a few were saved only. How came it then that speaking of those that perished, you have used a “some,” which is indicative of fewness? It is not, he replies, in opposition to myself, but out of a desire to court and recover those that are distressed. Observe how in the whole of the passage one finds him working at this object, the wish to solace them. And if you deny it, many contradictions will follow. But let me beg you to notice his wisdom, how while he seems to be speaking for them, and devising a solace for them, he aims a secret blow at them, and shows that they are devoid of all excuse, even from the “root,” from the “first-fruit.” For consider the badness of the branches, which, when they have a sweet root, still do not imitate it; and the faultiness of the lump, when it is not altered even by the first-fruit. “And if some of the branches were broken off.” However, the greater part were broken off. Yet, as I said, he wishes to comfort them. And this is why it is not in his own person, but in theirs, that he brings in the words used, and even in this gives a secret stroke at them, and shows them to have fallen from being Abraham's kinsmen. For what he was desirous of saying was, that they had nothing in common with them. For if the root be holy, and these be not holy, then these are far away from the root. Then under the appearance of solacing the Jews, he again by his accusation smites them of the Gentiles. For after saying, “And if some of the branches were broken off,” he proceeds.

“And thou being a wild olive were grafted in.”

For the less esteem the man of the Gentiles is of, the more the Jew is vexed at seeing him enjoy his goods. And to the other, the disgrace of the little esteem he was of, is nothing to the honor of the change. And consider his skilfulness. He does not say, “thou were” planted “in,” but “thou were grafted in,” by this again cutting the Jew to the heart, as showing that the Gentile man was standing in his own tree, and himself lying on the ground. Wherefore he does not stop even here, nor after he had spoken of grafting in does he leave off (and yet in this he declared the whole matter), but still he dwells over the prosperous state of the Gentile, and enlarges upon his fair fame in the words, “And with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree.” And he seems indeed to have viewed him in the light of an addition. But he shows that he was no whit the worse on that account, but in possession of everything, that the branch which had come up out of the root had. Lest then on hearing the words, “and thou were grafted in,” you should suppose him to be lacking when compared with the natural branch, see how he makes him equal to it by saying, that “with them you partake of the root and fatness of the olive:” that is, hast been put into the same noble rank, the same nature. Then in rebuking him, and saying,

Ver. 18. “Boast not against the branches.” He seems indeed to be comforting the Jew, but points out his vileness and extreme dishonor. And this is why he says not, “boast not,” but, “boast not against” do not boast against them so as to sunder them. For it is into their place that you have been set, and their goods that you enjoy. Do you observe how he seems to be rebuking the one, while he is sharp upon the other?

“But if you boast,” he says, “you bear not the root, but the root you.”