Romans 9:2Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

In this way we shall understand this inexpressible and extraordinary love. What, then, is separation? Listen to what Paul himself says: "If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed" (1 Cor 16:22).

That is, let him be separated from all and become a stranger to all. No one dares simply to touch with his hands, or to approach, a gift that has been dedicated to God.

In the opposite sense, the Apostle also gives this name to one separated from the Church. He cuts him off from all and removes him as far as possible.

He commands everyone to withdraw from such a man with great fear and to flee far away. No one dared approach the gift out of reverence.

From the excommunicated man all withdrew for another and opposite reason. Thus separation is one, and in both cases it makes one a stranger to men.

Yet the manner of separation is not the same, but the one is opposite to the other. From the one men withdraw because it is dedicated to God.

From the other they withdraw because he is alienated from God and separated from the Church. In this latter sense Paul also said, "I could wish... to be accursed from Christ."

He did not simply say, "I wished," but intensifies his speech and says, "I could wish." But if the words disturb you because they seem very weak, consider the act itself.

Consider not only that Paul wished to be separated, but also the very reason for which he wished it. Then you will see the whole exceeding measure of his love.

For example, he also performed circumcision. But if we attend not to the action, but to the intention and the reason for the action, we shall admire him still more for this.

He not only performed circumcision, but also cut his hair and offered sacrifice. Of course, we do not therefore count him a Jew.

On the contrary, we say that by this he became especially free and pure from Judaism, and became a true servant of Christ. Therefore, when you see Paul circumcising and offering sacrifices, you do not condemn him as devoted to Judaism.

Rather, you praise him especially for this as one alien to Judaism. So also, when you see that he wishes to be separated, do not be troubled.

Understand the reason for which he wishes this, and glorify him all the more for it. If we do not investigate the reasons, we shall have to call Elijah a murderer.

We shall call Abraham not merely a murderer, but even a child-slayer. We shall also accuse Phinehas and Peter of murder.

If we do not keep this rule, we shall draw absurd conclusions not only about the saints, but also about the God of all. To prevent this in all such cases, let us examine the circumstances.

Let us attend to the reason, the intention, the time, and everything that may serve to justify what happened. So we must also act now with this blessed soul.

What, then, is the reason? Again, it is beloved Jesus Himself. Certainly the Apostle does not name Him as the reason, since he says, "I could wish to be separated from Him for my brethren."

But this only shows his humble-mindedness. He does not wish even to seem to be speaking of a great deed, or to be bringing it as a gift to Christ.

For this reason he said, "my kinsmen," in order to hide the greatness of the deed. But hear what follows, and you will see that he desired everything for Christ.

After saying, "my kinsmen," he added: "to whom belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the Law, the service, and the promises; of whom are the fathers, and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen." See also Rom 9:6.

Blessed Paul was appointed a minister of the divine Gospel (cf. Rom 1:1), and he proclaimed Christ to the Gentiles. Everywhere he said that those who came from the blood of Israel had fallen away.

He also affirmed that those once in demonic darkness had become servants called according to God's preordination and foreknowledge. Therefore he spoke a necessary word in his defense.

He did this lest any untaught person think that he was almost trampling on the fallen of Israel's race and mocking those who had stumbled. He says, "I speak the truth in Christ, I do not lie," and what follows.

Yet one may grieve over those who reached such folly that they departed from love for God, and then suffered punishments for it. It would not be without reason to shed tears for them out of kindred love.

Rather, in this lies the fullness of love. But for a man to desire that he himself be separated from Christ for them is already beyond love.

No one, if he is of sound mind, would dare to oppose God for the salvation of others. Nor would he count his own life as nothing, while preferring that it should belong to others.

What, then, does he mean by offering his own salvation as a ransom for the salvation of the Jews? Clearly, this speech is hyperbolic and contains a declaration of the most perfect love.

"I could wish," he says, "that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh." It is as though he were saying this.

"If Israel were to be saved again through my opposition to Christ, I myself would choose to take upon myself so terrible an evil. I would go alone to destruction for all."

"I am the one who said to those justified by faith, 'For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified' (1 Cor 2:2)."

"I am the one who proclaims to all, 'Who shall separate us from the love of God? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?' (Rom 8:35)."

By this he was catching the Jews into obedience, and he was repelling the slander of the senseless. For some of the Jews thought that the divine Paul had lost his mind and opposed the laws given through Moses.

For this reason, writing to those who believed, he said, "For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are of sound mind, it is for you" (2 Cor 5:13).

Thus, he says, I would most gladly prefer to be separated from Christ, if only I might again save those who came from the blood of Israel.

Nor does he stop here. He shows, as it were, that the cause of his grief for them is by no means slight. It could produce in him such a disposition that this statement would not seem burdensome or absurd to him.

He could say that he offers his own life as the ransom for the life of others. For first of all, he says, they are Israelites. To them belong adoption, glory, and the covenants.

From them, according to the flesh, is Christ Himself. If they had been among those who only recently came to know Him who is God by nature and in truth, his grief might have been more moderate.

So too, if they had not possessed the Law given through Moses, which crowned them with nearness to Him, his grief might have been less. If they had not sprung from the root of the holy fathers, it might have been less.

If they had not been appointed heirs of their glory, and if they had not first been instructed in the ways of serving God, sorrow over them could have become more restrained.

But if these are their fathers, and the other things are theirs as well, then their calamity is truly dreadful. For when their affairs were almost carried by a favorable wind, they swerved toward an unexpected end.

They did not attain what they hoped for. Is not what happened to these wretched ones truly terrible?

When it is said that the saints grieve, they grieve in imitation of their Master. For sorrow and joy are also spoken of with regard to God in relation to providence: sorrow over those who perish, and joy over those who are saved. Yet the single word “sorrow” admits many modes of consideration. What is called sorrow in the saints is mercy, compassion, and the abundance of the joy of Godlike perfection, preserved within and dispensed outwardly by providence.

9:1-4), and even despite the fact that "from them is Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen" (Rom. 9:5), the Apostle adds this remark: "But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are of Israel are Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his seed." That is, "it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are reckoned as the true seed" of Abraham (Rom. 9:6-8). Only one son of Sarah was born by the power of promise (Rom. 9:9). This means that Abraham's other children, for example by Hagar and Keturah, were only his children according to the flesh. Concerning them God had promised absolutely nothing. From this it follows, though the Apostle does not state it literally, that the Jews, though descended from Abraham, may still not be reckoned by God's judgment as true descendants of Abraham, the forefather of the Jews. The Apostle explains this vividly by the example of Rebecca's sons. Although both were born of her from one father, Isaac, and were even conceived at the same time (Rom. 9:10), God chose only one, and indeed the younger, even before they were born. "So that," the Apostle adds, "the purpose of God according to election might stand, not from works, but from Him who calls," whether to one destiny or another. "As it is written: Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated" (Rom. 9:11-13; cf. Mal. 1:2).

He also gives them such counsels as are possible, and through them consolations as well (chs. 9-10). Earlier, by many different arguments, the Apostle had proved the necessity of the Hebrews' conversion to Christ.

Here, so to speak, he places Judaism before the face of Christianity. Having presented its former meaning and its present futility, he points to Christianity as its most natural and necessary outcome.

Entering wisely and from the heart into judgment on this important and difficult matter, the conversion to Christ of his stubborn countrymen, the Apostle declares that the conversion of the Hebrews is so desired by him that it constantly troubles him.

This is because salvation is possible only through Christ. Presenting the whole greatness of the divine works accomplished among the Hebrews, his own people, the Apostle so grieves over their error in turning away from their salvation that he would be ready to sacrifice himself entirely.

He would even sacrifice his eternal life, if only he could somehow draw them to Christ and so save them. Here the Apostle expressed his great spirit of devotion to his countrymen.

At the same time he showed a special zeal for the faith of Christ, equal to the zeal of Moses. Moses too was ready to perish himself, if only the Hebrews might be saved (Ex 32:32).

What especially pained the Apostle's heart was that the Messiah had been born among the Hebrews, and they did not wish to receive Him. Yet both before and now the Hebrews passionately and impatiently awaited the coming of the Messiah.

They did not always understand Him as "He Who Is," that is, consubstantial with God the Father. Therefore they did not always understand Him as worthy of the same eternal glorification, as Creator and Provider.

Why this rejection of the Messiah by the Hebrews occurred, and what will come of it, the Apostle explains further. Pausing over the words, "For I could wish that I myself were accursed," and so on, St. John Chrysostom says this.

"The Apostle did not say these words without cause. He said them because, accusing God, they said that those who were deemed worthy to be called sons of God were being expelled and deprived of honor."

"They had received the Law, known God before other nations, enjoyed special glory, and served God when no one else served Him. They had received the promises and, most importantly, had become the forefathers of Christ Himself."

"They said that in their place people from the Gentiles were being brought in, people who had never known God. Since those who spoke this way blasphemed God, Paul, hearing this, was torn and grieved for the glory of God."

"He desired to be accursed, if it were possible, if only the Jews might be saved and the blasphemy cease... Paul desired to be accursed so that you might know how deeply he was crushed by the thought that could lodge in many minds."

"That thought was that God's promise had supposedly remained unfulfilled... Moses seemed to intercede for the Jews, but he did everything for the glory of God."

"He said, 'Turn from Your wrath, lest they say that You could not save them, and brought them out to destroy them in the wilderness' (Deut 9:28). So Paul also says, 'I could wish to be accursed.'"

"He says this only so that they should not say God's promise had remained unfulfilled... Let us delight in the sea of the Apostle's love. Let us set before our thoughts this ineffable flame."

"Whatever one says of it, one will not say anything worthy. For Paul's love was wider than the sea and stronger than any fire." Blessed Theodoret, noting the Apostle Paul's portrayal of the Jews' advantages, writes this.

"The Apostle is like women who weep. In their lamentations over the dead whom they mourn, they describe the beauty of the body, the bloom of age, the renown of ancestors, wealth, and power."

“The Apostle suffers so in soul over his kinsmen according to the flesh because, by their unbelief, they deprived themselves of eternal salvation in Christ Jesus,” says Ambrosiaster. “Great sorrow” already expresses much. But when he added “anguish,” odyne, a word used especially to signify the pain of a woman giving birth, how greatly did he strengthen the expression? By calling this pain unceasing, and saying that it tormented his heart, he pointed to something in himself that a rare soul can bear and endure.

St. Paul also suffered over the salvation of all men. “Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn?” (cf. 2 Cor 11:29), he said, and this amid countless needs, deprivations, troubles, and afflictions. But surely he could not help suffering more over his own people, because here nature was added to grace.

At the end of the interpretation of chapter 8, St. Chrysostom depicted St. Paul’s love in general. At the beginning of the present homily, interpreting chapter 9, he begins as follows: “Did what I said in the preceding homily about Paul’s love not seem great and beyond nature to you? Truly, all this is great in itself and above every word. Yet what is now said at the beginning of chapter 9 surpasses the former as much as the former surpasses all that we can say of ourselves. I myself did not imagine that anything could be higher than what was said in the previous homily. Yet what was read to us today proves far more splendid than all that came before. Paul himself felt and declared at the very beginning that he was about to touch on something still greater, which many would not believe.”