Romans 10:20Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Who are these who did not seek and did not ask? Clearly, not the Jews, but the Gentiles, who never knew God. As Moses expressed their distinctive mark by the words, "not a nation" and "a foolish nation," so Isaiah depicts the same quality in them.

He depicts ignorance in the extreme. This was the gravest accusation against the Jews: those who did not seek found, while those who sought lost.

"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.

"He says, 'I was found by those who did not seek Me. I appeared to those who did not ask for Me.' Who are these who did not seek and did not ask? Clearly, not the Jews, but the Gentiles, who until then did not know God.

"As Moses expressed their distinctive mark with the words, 'those who are not a nation' and 'a foolish nation,' so Isaiah here depicts the same quality in them: ignorance in the extreme.

"The gravest accusation against the Jews was this: those who did not seek found, while those who sought lost."

This was both an accusation and a provocation. How could the Gentiles, so insignificant and unclean in their eyes, be counted worthy of such mercy before them? For to find God, and to be granted His manifestation, is a great mercy.

The Jews considered no one else worthy of it. Now they see that it has been given to the Gentiles, and moreover to their own loss. How could they not be provoked? They were indeed provoked.

If they were provoked, then, to repeat the point, they understood the matter that had taken place before their eyes.

St. Paul cites the words of the prophet Isaiah to explain what God had threatened, namely that He would provoke the Jews through the Gentiles. By them he only strengthens the answer already given to the question, "Did Israel not understand?"

"Do you see," writes Oecumenius, "how many reasons and occasions they had to understand? Seeing what favor God shows to the Gentiles through faith, they ought to have come to themselves and cast off their blindness."

And even directly considered, one cannot think that the Gentiles, who found God through accepting the Gospel preaching, understood, while Israel did not understand. Israel understood, but through stubbornness did not submit to the truth.

Isaiah also speaks of this immediately after the words cited concerning the Gentiles.