For if the firstfruit be holy, so is the lump also: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.

“And the Shepherd bade me call them as each one was placed. And they came, rank by rank, and gave their branches to the Shepherd. And the Shepherd received the branches, and planted them in rows; and after he had planted them he poured much water upon them, so that the branches could not be seen for the water; and after the branches had drunk it in, he said to me, "Let us go, and return after a few days, and inspect all the branches; for He who created this tree wishes all those to live who received branches from it. And I also hope that the greater part of these branches which received moisture and drank of the water will live."”

“And that the Saviour received first-fruits of those whom He was to save, Paul declared when he said, "And if the first-fruits be holy, the lump is also holy," teaching that the expression "first-fruits" denoted that which is spiritual, but that "the lump" meant us, that is, the animal Church, the lump of which they say He assumed, and blended it with Himself, inasmuch as He is "the leaven."”

“"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 it again...”

“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.”

“For if the firstfruit be holy,.... Some by "the firstfruit" and "root" understand Christ, who is sometimes called, "the firstfruits of them that slept", Co1 15:20, and "the root of Jesse and David", Isa 11:10, and indeed of all the righteous; and certain it is, that since he is holy, has all the holiness of his people in him, and is sanctification unto them, they shall be holy likewise; have it imparted to them in this life, and perfected in them in another: but this does not seem to agree with the apostle's argument. Others think that by them are meant the Jewish ancestors, and particularly Abraham, and dream of a holiness derived from him to his natural seed; but if no such holiness was derived from him to his immediate offspring, Ishmael, it can hardly be thought any should be communicated by him to his remote posterity; and to these here designed, at the distance of four or five thousand years from him: but by them are intended the first converts among the Jews, under the Gospel dispensation; it being usual with the apostle to call those persons, that were first converted in any place, the firstfruits of it; see Rom 16:5; These were they who received the firstfruits of the Spirit in Judea, and who first among the Jews hoped and believed in Christ; these were but few in number, as the "firstfruit" is but small in comparison of "the lump", and mean, abject, and despicable, as the "root" under, and in a dry ground is; but yet were pledges and presages of a larger number of souls among that people, to be converted in the latter day: now the apostle's argument is, "if the firstfruit be holy", the lump is also holy, and if the root be holy, so are the branches; that is, that whereas those persons who were converted among the Jews, however few in number, and despicable in appearance they might be, yet were truly sanctified by the Spirit of God; and as they were, so should the whole body of that people be in the last days, "when holiness shall be upon the horses' bells, and every pot in Judah and Jerusalem shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts", Zac 14:20, by which metaphorical expressions is meant, that holiness should be common to the whole nation, and all the inhabitants of it, of which the call of some few among them was a pledge and presage. The allusion in the former clause is to the holy offerings of firstfruits to the Lord, the two wave loaves, Lev 23:14, whereby the whole lump was sanctified, for after use throughout the year following; and that in the latter clause, to the holiness of trees; that is, to trees devoted to sacred use or that were planted in a field appropriated thereunto: hence we read (t), that the men of Jericho permitted, or as other exemplars read it, cut down , "branches of holiness", or "holy branches"; and eat fallen fruit on the sabbath day. (u) Bartenora explains these branches, of such that grow upon a tree devoted to holy uses; and Maimonides (w), observes, that they thought it lawful to eat what grew in a holy field. (t) Misn. Pesachim, c. 4. sect. 8. (u) In Misn. Pesachim. c. 4. sect. 8. (w) In ib.”

“For if the first fruit be holy - As the consecrating the first fruits to God was the means of drawing down his blessing upon the rest, so the conversion of Abraham to the true faith, and the several Jews who have now embraced Christianity, are pledges that God will, in process of time, admit the whole Jewish nation into his favor again, so that they shall constitute a part of the visible Church of Christ. If the root be holy, so are the branches - The word holy in this verse is to be taken in that sense which it has so frequently in the Old and New Testaments, viz. consecrated, set apart to sacred uses. It must not be forgotten that the first converts to Christ were from among the Jews; these formed the root of the Christian Church: these were holy, ἁγιοι, consecrated to God, and those who among the Gentiles were converted by their means were also ἁγιοι, consecrated; but the chief reference is to the ancestors of the Jewish people, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and, as these were devoted to God and received into his covenant, all their posterity, the branches which proceeded from this root, became entitled to the same privileges: and as the root still remains, and the branches also, the descendants from that root still remain: they still have a certain title to the blessings of the covenant; though, because of their obstinate unbelief, these blessings are suspended, as they cannot, even on the ground of the old covenant, enjoy these blessings but through faith: for it was when Abraham believed God that it was accounted to him for righteousness; and thus he became an heir of the righteousness which is by faith.”

“&c. If the first-fruit (see the Greek word) be holy, so also is the mass; so also the rest, the product that follows. He alludes to the offering made by the law of the first-fruit, which was to acknowledge that all good things were from God, and to bring a blessing upon the rest. — If the root be holy, so are the branches. By the root, says St. Chrysostom, he understands Abraham, and the patriarchs, from whom all the Jewish nation proceeded, as branches from that root: and these branches are to be esteemed holy, not only because of the root they proceeded from, but also because they worshipped the true God. And if some, or a great part of these branches, have been broken, they may, as it is said, (ver. 23.) be ingrafted again. And you, Gentiles, ought to remember that, you were of yourselves a wild olive-tree: and it is only by the merciful call of God, that you have the happiness to be ingrafted upon the same root of the patriarchs; and so, by imitating the faith of Abraham, are become his spiritual children, and heirs of the promises, and by that means have been made partakers of the root, and of the sap, and fatness of the sweet olive-tree. Remember that you bear not the root, nor were you the root that was holy; but the root beareth you; and that being branches of a wild olive, you ought naturally still to bear bad fruit, though ingrafted on the root of a sweet olive. It is only by the mercies of God, if you bring forth good fruit. Do not then be high-minded, nor boast, but fear, and endeavour to continue in goodness; lest God also spare not you, but cut you off, as unprofitable branches. And let me tell you, as to the Jews, if they abide not still in unbelief, God is able to ingraft them again into their own olive-tree; and it seems more easy, that they, who are naturally branches of the sweet olive-tree, should bring forth good fruit, when they shall be ingrafted in their own olive-tree, being of the race of Abraham, to whom the promises were made. (Witham) — We see here, that he who standeth by faith, may fall from it; and therefore must live in fear, and not in the vain presumption and security of modern sectaries. (Challoner) — The apostle here exhorts the converted Gentiles, to fear lest they fall, and bring upon themselves a punishment similar to that of the Jews. The Jews were his chosen people, the children of the alliance; they have now been stripped of all; the same may also happen to you. You may fall into presumption and incredulity; if you remain firm, it is not by your own merits or works, but by faith, the pure gift of God. Neither faith, nor vocation, nor grace, are inadmissible. You may lose all; and therefore ought always to fear and live in humility. If God has not spared the natural branches, fear, lest he should not spare you. (ver. 21.) (Calmet) — The Gentiles are here admonished not to be proud, nor to glory over the Jews; but to take occasion rather from their fall to fear and to be humble, lest they be cast off. Not that the whole Church of Christ can ever fall from him; having been secured by so many divine promises in holy writ; but that each one in particular may fall; and therefore all in general are to be admonished to beware of that, which may happen to any one in particular. (Challoner)”

“For--"But" if the first-fruit be holy, the lump is also holy; and if the root . . . so the branches--The Israelites were required to offer to God the first-fruits of the earth--both in their raw state, in a sheaf of newly reaped grain (Lev 23:10-11), and in their prepared state, made into cakes of dough (Num 15:19-21) --by which the whole produce of that season was regarded as hallowed. It is probable that the latter of these offerings is here intended, as to it the word "lump" best applies; and the argument of the apostle is, that as the separation unto God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, from the rest of mankind, as the parent stem of their race, was as real an offering of first-fruits as that which hallowed the produce of the earth, so, in the divine estimation, it was as real a separation of the mass or "lump" of that nation in all time to God. The figure of the "root" and its "branches" is of like import--the consecration of the one of them extending to the other.”