Romans 10:19Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Thus they should have recognized the preachers, not only because the Jews did not believe, and because the preachers proclaimed peace and announced blessings. They should have known also because the word was sown everywhere throughout the world.

They should have known because those lower than the Jews, namely the Gentiles, were granted greater honor. The Gentiles unexpectedly began to philosophize concerning things that neither they nor their fathers had ever heard.

This was a sign of high honor. It should have wounded the Jews, stirred them to emulation, and brought to mind Moses' prophecy: "I will provoke you to jealousy by those who are not a nation."

Not only was the greatness of the honor sufficient to move the Jews to emulation. The people who received it were so low that they were not worthy even of the name of a people.

"I will provoke you to jealousy by those who are not a nation," it says, "and I will anger you by a foolish nation." What was more foolish and lower than the Gentiles?

See how God gave the Jews beforehand the marks and clear signs of all these times, in order to open their blindness. Moreover, this did not happen in some narrow corner, but on land and sea, and everywhere throughout the world.

Those whom the Jews had formerly despised they saw possessing countless blessings. Therefore they ought to have understood that this was the very people of whom Moses says, "I will provoke you to jealousy by those who are not a nation. I will anger you by a foolish nation."

But did Moses alone say this? Not at all. After him Isaiah also confirmed the same thing. Therefore Paul said, "First Moses," showing that there is also a second witness, who speaks of the same matter more clearly and plainly.

Not only was the greatness of the honor sufficient to move the Jews to emulation. It was also the fact that a people so low were counted worthy of honor, though they were not even worthy to be called a people.

"I will anger you," it says, "by a foolish nation." What is more foolish than the Gentiles, who worshiped wood and stones?

"Again I ask: did Israel not know?" (Rom 10:19). He again answers in the prophetic words of Moses and Isaiah. The first foretold the faith of the Gentiles, and that this faith would arouse jealousy among the Jews. Such jealousy is plainly impossible without understanding.

The second, while proclaiming the faith of the Gentiles, speaks directly of the unbelief of the Jews. He does not say that they would fail to understand the preaching of the Gospel (Rom 10:19-21).

The Apostle gives these answers, in the very words of the prophets, to the questions set forth above. His purpose is to make the Hebrews feel more sharply the danger of their moral state, and of their God-opposing resistance to the Gospel preaching.

Rather, they shamefully fled from their heavenly Father and served false gods like slaves. Often they handed their children into the heated arms of the idols of these gods.

Already through the prophet Moses, God said that He had borne them out of Egypt on His wings like an eagle, and that they abandoned Him (Deut. 32:11).

According to the word of Jesus Christ, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, so God often wished to gather the Jews, but they would not (Matt. 23:37).

Exposing in the Jews this extreme stubbornness in resisting all the divine, good, and providential actions concerning them, the holy protomartyr Stephen said: "You stiff-necked people, you always resist the Holy Spirit, just as your fathers did" (Acts 7:51).

This whole series of arguments concerning the complete lack of excuse for the Jews in their inattention to the Gospel preaching is, of course, directed toward arousing them to conversion to Christianity.

Through them it is also directed toward the Gentiles, so that the paths of God's providence might come to their fullest possible completion. What depth and breadth of the preacher's vision and striving are revealed in all this.

At the same time, what grounding is disclosed here everywhere and in everything upon facts so well known and so authoritative for all.

One may say that even the most stubborn enemies of Christianity ought to have understood their hardness. "See what a clear solution the Apostle gave to all the difficulties proposed above.

"He proved that the Jews perish by their own will and in every respect deserve no indulgence. God not only gave them to hear and understand this.

"He also used stronger measures for urging and drawing the stubborn and resistant. He not only entreated them and stretched out His hands to them.

"He also stirred in them the passion of rivalry by bestowing blessings upon those who were far lower than they. This especially produces rivalry.

"Yet He did not bestow merely the same blessings that had been given to the Jews, but such blessings as the Jews had not imagined even in sleep. But even after all this they did not obey.

"What excuse, then, do those deserve who have shown their stubbornness in such abundance? None. Nevertheless, the Apostle does not say this himself, but leaves the conscience of his hearers to conclude it from what has been said."

For we add that one must let enemies understand their extreme injustice in due measure, so as not to provoke them to complete hardening.

This is what the Apostle does. Therefore, from accusations he passes in the next chapter to possible consolations. In them the beneficial meaning of the rejection of the Jews is indicated.

The thought is also suggested that their conversion is of greater importance. By this the most natural and best outcome is defined, both for the unbelieving and for the stubborn.

If they truly did not understand, then what they heard was the same for them as what they had not heard. In that case an excuse would be fitting. But is it true that Israel did not understand?

Can this be said of him? Looking from the outside, one could answer thus: even if he truly did not understand, this in no way excuses him.

For he had, and still has, every means of understanding. He had the duty to understand, so that afterward he might hand on his understanding to all nations.

It may be excusable for all others not to understand, but not for him. He is guilty precisely because he did not understand.

But the Apostle insists that he did understand, yet did not believe. Here no excuse is fitting at all. Here there is clearly only satanic stubbornness.

By what, then, does the Apostle prove that the Jews understood what the matter was? By the fulfillment of the prophecy in which it was foretold that there would be a time when God would provoke them by a non-nation.

This means by a people whom the Jews would consider unworthy even to be called a people. This is how the Jews thought of the Gentiles.

By what would He provoke them? By receiving the Gentiles into His mercy, and by transferring and handing over to them what ought to have belonged to the Jews.

This was fulfilled exactly when the Gentiles were instructed by the Gospel and called by faith to the inheritance of spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus. These blessings had been promised to the fathers of the Jews, and the Gentiles entered into possession of them.

Could the Jews fail to see and understand this? "This was taking place," says Saint Chrysostom, "not in a narrow corner, but on land and sea, in the whole inhabited world.

"Those whom the Jews had formerly despised they saw as possessors of countless blessings. Therefore they ought to have concluded that this is the very people of whom Moses says: 'I will provoke you by a nation that is not a nation. By a foolish nation I will anger you.'

"Do you see that God gave the Jews beforehand every mark and clear sign of these times, in order to open their blindness?"

And they in fact understood, as is evident from their irritation over the calling of the Gentiles. If they were irritated, it means they saw that the Gentiles were entering into the inheritance of their blessings.

The Savior Himself said this to their face: "The Kingdom shall be taken from you and given to a nation producing its fruits" (cf. Matt. 21:43).

And earlier He said: "Many shall come from east and west and recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven. But the sons of the kingdom shall be cast out" (cf. Matt. 8:11-12).

The prophetic word is taken from Deuteronomy (see Deut. 32:21). The prophet Moses utters it after recounting God's benefits to the people of Israel.

He speaks of their being led out of Egypt and protected during their forty-year wandering in the wilderness. Then he foresees that in time they will forget God and sacrifice to demons, and not to God.

He threatens them in God's name with various punishments, of which he sets forth chiefly the following: "They provoked Me with what is not God. They angered Me with their idols.

"I also will provoke them by a nation that is not a nation. By a foolish nation I will anger them." Both the sin of the Israelites and that with which God threatens them refer to the future.

God sees beforehand Israel's apostasy and threatens punishment for it in advance. But He does not define wherein it will consist or when it will be fulfilled.

Since the apostolic spirit indicated the fulfillment of this punishment in the calling of the Gentiles into Christ's inheritance in place of the Jews, there is no doubt that God had precisely this in view.

He spoke these words through the mouth of Moses. Even if, by application, one may suppose a fulfillment of this in something that happened earlier, this does not remove that meaning.

Saint Chrysostom passes to the next verse in this way: "But did Moses alone say this? No. On the contrary, after him Isaiah confirmed the same thing.

"Therefore Paul also said, 'Moses first,' thereby giving us to know that there is also a second who speaks of the same thing more clearly and openly. As above he said, 'Isaiah cries out,' so also here."