Thomas Aquinas

After the Apostle has shown that the fall of the Jews is not universal, here he begins to show that their fall is neither useless nor irreparable. And concerning this he does two things. First he shows that the fall of the Jews is useful and reparable; second he excludes the boasting of the Gentiles who insult the Jews, at the place, but if some of the branches, and so on. Concerning the first he does two things. First he proposes a question; second he resolves it, at the place, far be it, and so on. He says therefore first: it has been said and proved that the rest of the Jews besides the elect have been blinded. He says therefore, raising a question, have they so stumbled that they should fall? This can be understood in two ways. In one way thus: did God permit them to stumble only that they should fall, that is, for no other advantage following from it, but only willing them to fall? This indeed would be against the divine goodness, which is so great, as Augustine says in the Enchiridion, that it would never permit anything evil to happen except for the sake of the good which it draws out from the evil. Hence also it is said in Job 34: he will crush many and innumerable, and will make others to stand in their place. And it is said in Apocalypse 3:11: hold fast what you have, lest another take your crown, namely because God permits some to fall in such a way that the fall of some may be the occasion of salvation for others. In another way it can be understood thus: have they so stumbled that they should fall? That is, that they should remain perpetually in their fall? Psalm 40:9: shall not he who sleeps rise again? Then when he says far be it, etc., he resolves the question. And first according to the first understanding, showing that the fall of the Jews was useful; second he resolves the question as to the second understanding, showing that the fall of the Jews is reparable, at the place, but if their offense, and so on. He says therefore first, far be it, namely that they should fall uselessly. But, rather, by their offense, namely that of the Jews, salvation has come to the Gentiles occasionally. Hence also the Lord says in John 4:22: salvation is from the Jews. This indeed can be understood in three ways. In the first way, because through the offense which they committed in the killing of Christ, the salvation of the Gentiles followed by the redemption of the blood of Christ. 1 Peter 1:18: for you were not redeemed with corruptible things, gold or silver, from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers, but with the precious blood of the immaculate lamb. In the second way it can be understood of the offense by which they rejected the teaching of the apostles, from which it came about that the apostles preached to the Gentiles, according to that word of Acts 13:46: it was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first, but since you have rejected it, behold we turn to the Gentiles, and so on. In the third way it can be understood of this, that on account of their impenitence they have been dispersed among all the nations. And thus Christ and the Church everywhere had testimony to the Christian faith from the books of the Jews, for the converting of the Gentiles, who might have suspected that the prophecies concerning Christ, which the preachers of the faith brought forward, were fabricated, unless they were proved by the testimony of the Jews; hence in Psalm 58:12 it is said: he has shown me concerning my enemies, namely the Jews, slay them not, lest at any time my people forget: scatter them by your power. There follows, that they may be zealous of them. And because he does not say who or whom, since there is also a twofold zeal, namely of indignation and of imitation, this can be explained in four ways. In the first way, so that it is understood thus: that the Gentiles may be zealous of them, namely of the Jews, that is, may imitate them in the worship of the one God. Ephesians 2:12: at that time you were without Christ, alienated from the way of life of Israel, and afterward he adds: but now you, who once were far off, have become near in the blood of Christ. 1 Thessalonians 2:14: you have become imitators of the Churches of God, which are in Judea. Or that the Gentiles may be zealous of the Jews, that is, may be indignant against them on account of their unbelief. Psalm 118:158: I saw those who transgressed and I pined away, because they did not keep your words. In the third way it can be understood thus: that the Jews may be zealous, that is, may imitate the Gentiles, when here and there and now some of them are individually converted to the faith, imitating the faith of the Gentiles, and finally all Israel will be saved when the fullness of the Gentiles shall have entered in, and thus what is said in Deuteronomy 28:44 will be fulfilled: he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail. In the fourth way it can be explained thus: that the Jews may be zealous of the Gentiles, that is, may be stirred up against them out of envy when they see their glory transferred to them. Deuteronomy 32:21: I will provoke them by that which is not a people. Then when he says but if their offense, etc., he resolves the question as to the second understanding, showing that the fall of the Jews is reparable, which indeed he shows in three ways. First from its usefulness; second from the Apostle's intention, at the place, for I say to you, etc.; third from the condition of that people, at the place, but if the firstfruit is holy, and so on. Concerning the first he sets forth this argument: good is more powerful for conferring benefit than evil; but the evil of the Jews conferred a great benefit on the Gentiles, therefore their good confers a much greater benefit on the world. This, then, is what he says: it has been said that by their offense salvation has come to the Gentiles, and, in place of but, their offense, namely that of the Jews, is the riches of the world, that is, of the Gentiles, because namely the offense of the Jews redounded to the spiritual riches of the Gentiles, of which it is said in Isaiah 33:6: the riches of salvation are wisdom and knowledge, which indeed refers to their guilt. And their diminishing, by which namely they fell away from that height of glory which they had, which pertains to punishment. Daniel 3:37: we have been diminished more than all nations, and we are brought low in all the earth this day because of our sins. But these are the riches of the Gentiles by occasion, as has been said. Or their diminishing, that is, some of the least and most abject of the Jews spiritually enriched the Gentiles, namely the apostles, of whom 1 Corinthians 1:27: God has chosen the weak things of the world, to confound the strong. How much more will their fullness, that is, their spiritual abundance, or their multitude converted to God, redound to the riches of the Gentiles? Ecclesiasticus 24:16: in the fullness of the saints is my abode. And thus, if God for the benefit of the whole world permitted the Jews to offend and to be diminished, much more will he make good their ruins for the benefit of the whole world. Then when he says for I say to you Gentiles, etc., he shows the same thing from his own intention, which he first proposes; second he assigns the reason for it, at the place, for if the loss, and so on. Concerning the first it is to be considered that, whereas in the earlier parts of this epistle he had spoken to all the faithful existing at Rome, whether they were of the Gentiles or of the Jews, now he directs his discourse specially to the converted Gentiles. He says therefore: I have said that their fullness would be the riches of the world. As a sign of this, I say to you Gentiles, namely to the Gentiles converted to the faith. Isaiah 65:1: I said, behold I am to the nations, and so on. This, I say, I say to you as long as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, whose care specially rests upon me from the office enjoined on me. Galatians 2:9: they gave to me and to Barnabas the right hands of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcision. 1 Timothy 1:7: in which I have been appointed a preacher and an apostle, for I speak the truth in Christ Jesus, I do not lie, a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. I will honor my ministry, not indeed by those things which pertain to worldly honor, but first indeed by adorning it with good conduct. 2 Corinthians 6:4: in all things let us show ourselves as ministers of God in much patience. Second, by the supererogation of works, to which he was not bound. 1 Corinthians 9:18: what then is my reward, that in preaching the Gospel of Christ I make it without charge, and so on. Third, by extending his solicitude to the salvation of all. 2 Corinthians 11:28: besides those things which are from without, my daily pressing care, the solicitude of all the churches. Hence also here he adds, if by any means I may provoke to emulation my flesh, that is, the Jews, who are my kinsmen according to the flesh, as was said above in chapter 9:3. Isaiah 58:7: do not despise your own flesh. And this, to emulation by a good emulation, according to that word of 1 Corinthians 12:31: be zealous for the better gifts. And in this way, that I may save some of them, namely of the Jews. 1 Corinthians 10:33: not seeking what is profitable to myself, but to many, that they may be saved. But against this is what he himself says in 2 Corinthians 10:13: but we will not glory beyond measure, but according to the measure of the rule which God has measured out to us, a measure to reach even unto you. But he had not received the measure of his ministry except over the Gentiles. He ought not, therefore, to have concerned himself with the Jews. Some say, however, that the Jews dwelling in Judea did not belong to his apostolate, but to that of Peter, James, and John, as is said in Galatians 2:7; but the Jews dwelling among the Gentiles belonged to his apostolate, and he pressed on toward their salvation. But this seems to be against the intention of the text. For if those Jews belonged to his apostolate in that he was intent on their conversion, he would not have honored his ministry by this. And therefore it must be said that the preaching to the Gentiles was so committed to him that he was bound to it out of necessity, just as he himself says in 1 Corinthians 9:16: if I do not preach the gospel, woe to me; for necessity lies upon me; nor nevertheless was he forbidden to preach to the Jews, although he was not bound to this. And according to this, by pressing on toward their salvation, he honored his ministry; which indeed he would not do, if he reckoned their fall to be irreparable. Hence the Apostle's own zeal, which he applied to the conversion of the Jews, he brings forward as a sign that the fall of the Jews is reparable. Then when he says for if, etc., he assigns the reason for his intention, namely because he saw that the conversion of the Jews would result in the salvation of the Gentiles. Hence he says, for if the loss of them, that is, their unbelief and disobedience, just as a servant is said to be lost when he flees from being under the care and obedience of his master. Jeremiah 50:6: my people have become a lost flock. If, I say, this loss of the Jews is occasionally the reconciliation of the world, insofar as through the death of Christ we have been reconciled to God, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead? That is, that the Jews be received back by God, according to that word of Zechariah 11:7: I took to myself two rods. What, I say, will such a receiving bring about, except that it will make the Gentiles rise again to life? For the Gentiles are the faithful who will grow lukewarm. Matthew 24:12: because iniquity has abounded, the charity of many will grow cold. Or even those who will totally fall, deceived by Antichrist, will be restored to their former fervor by the conversion of the Jews. And also, just as the Gentiles, after enmities, were reconciled when the Jews fell, so after the conversion of the Jews, the end of the world now being imminent, there will be a general resurrection, through which men will return from the dead to immortal life. Then when he says, but if the firstfruit, etc., he shows the same thing from the condition of that nation of the Jews itself. And this indeed in two ways. First, on the part of the apostles, when he says, but if the firstfruit is holy, so also is the lump. Now the firstfruit is called that which is taken from the lump of dough, as it were for testing it. Now the apostles are taken up by God from the nation of the Jews, as the firstfruit from the lump. And therefore if the apostles are holy, it follows that the nation of the Jews is holy. 1 Peter 2:9: a holy nation, a people of acquisition, and so on. Second he proves the same thing on the part of the patriarchs, who are compared to the Jews as a root to branches, hence also it is said in Isaiah 11:1: there shall come forth a rod from the root of Jesse. If, therefore, the patriarchs, who are the root, are holy, then the Jews too, who proceeded from them as branches, are holy. Hosea 14:6: its root shall burst forth like Lebanon, its branches shall go forth, and so on. But against this is what is said in Ezekiel 18:5 ff.: if a man be just, he shall surely live. Thus, then, it does not follow that if the root is holy, the branches are too. There likewise it is also added that if a son, seeing the sins of his father, fears and does not do the like, he shall not die, but shall surely live; hence also it seems not to follow that if the firstfruit is holy, so also is the lump. But it must be said that the Apostle here is not speaking of actual holiness; for he does not intend to show that the unbelieving Jews are holy, but he speaks of potential holiness. For nothing prevents those from being restored to holiness whose fathers and whose sons are holy. Or it can be said that those are especially the branches of the patriarchs who imitate them, according to that word of John 8:39: if you are children of Abraham, do the works of Abraham.