Romans 9:3Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

What are you saying, Paul? From beloved Christ, from whom neither the kingdom, nor Gehenna, nor what is visible, nor what is perceived by the mind, nor anything else like these could separate you, do you now wish to be separated?

What has happened? Have you changed? Have you destroyed your love? No, he says, do not be afraid. I have only strengthened this love within myself.

How, then, do you wish to be separated? How do you seek estrangement and such a rupture after which no other can be found? Because I love Him greatly, he says.

How, tell me, and in what manner? Your words seem like a riddle. But it seems better first to learn what separation is, and then to ask him about this.

First learn what anathema is. It is separation and estrangement. No one dares to touch a gift dedicated to God, and no one dares touch one under anathema, though for a different reason. No one dares approach the sacred gift out of reverence, because it is dedicated to God. But everyone breaks communion with the one under anathema as with one defiled and estranged from God. What, then, does Paul mean? He seems here to say the opposite of what was said above. There he said that no one will separate us from the love of God. Here he says that he could wish to be separated from Christ. He seems to contradict what he said before, but in reality he does not. Here also he expresses a wish to be separated from Christ out of love for God.

God from the beginning made Israel His chosen one and called him His firstborn. But the Jews became arrogant and insolent, and worse still, murderers of the Lord.

Therefore they perished, for they became exiles and outcasts. Having once lost closeness to God, they were placed after the Gentiles. They also became strangers to the hope of the fathers.

God honored Israel in ancient times as chosen, and even called him His firstborn (cf. Ex 4:22). But they became haughty and bold. What exceeds every limit, they even became murderers of the Lord.

For this reason they perished. They were driven out and cast away, and they wholly fell away from closeness to God. They were placed behind the Gentiles, and became strangers to the hope of the fathers.

"For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren. " the very ones "who are sons of Israel." He who previously said that no torment of the coming Antichrist would be able to separate him from Christ now says of his own will: I would wish to die for Christ, so that my brethren might live in Christ.

"To be anathema" (άυάθεµα είυαι). The word "anathema" has a double meaning. What is dedicated to God is called an anathema, and what is alien to this also has the same name. The divine Apostle taught us the second meaning in the Epistle to the Corinthians: "If anyone does not love our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema" (1 Cor. 16:22). The first meaning is taught both by common usage, for we call what is offered to God άυαθήµατα, and by the God of all. He commanded that Jericho become a city under anathema (Josh. 6:16). Here blessed Paul used the word in the second sense, making known what goodwill he has toward his fellow tribesmen.

What do the Apostle's words mean: to be accursed from Christ for my kinsmen? "I prayed," says the Apostle, "to be handed over from Christ to the devil, so as to be subjected to scourging and to bear punishments for the Israelites. Punishments they justly deserved for their unbelief in God, if only they might be saved." In the same way the Lord also gave Himself up (Eph 5:2) and became a curse for us (Gal 3:13). Thus St. Maximus interprets: "divine justice is defined as suffering on behalf of those who have sinned" (qu. dub. 1.11).

Let no one think that the Apostle Paul contradicts himself when he first says, "Who shall separate us from the love of God? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution?" and so on (Rom. 8:35), and then concludes, "I could wish that I myself were anathema from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh." The meaning of his words is this. He does not state that he now prefers to be separated from Christ. Rather, he means that he would have preferred this at the time when he persecuted Christ and His Church, obeying the will of his brethren and relatives. Therefore he now grieves that he himself has been counted worthy of the grace of apostleship, while they persist in impiety and are deprived of the promise of so many blessings.

"I could wish to be anathema from Christ," α̉νάθεμα είναι. Anathema properly means a curse, that is, estrangement from God's mercy and removal from common use. Inanimate objects and animals were then destroyed by fire or sword. When applied to persons in the Jewish Church, this anathema was accompanied by death and the destruction of one's property. In later times it meant only removal from communion in the prayers of the synagogue. God's wrath was invoked upon the excommunicated person, his works, and his possessions. Yet the possibility was not taken away of returning through repentance and being received again into the society from which the person had been removed. Anathema in this last sense was also received by the Christian Church, and the Apostle is, of course, speaking of it.

Section Seven. Explanation of the causes and meaning of the unbelief of the Jews (Rom. 9-11). In unfolding the general subject of the chapters named above, seven distinct points may be observed in the holy Apostle Paul, with the following basic and guiding thoughts. First point. The fact that the blessings of the new covenant promised to the descendants of the patriarch Jacob did not fall to them does not mean that the divine promises failed (Rom. 9:1-13). The course of thought in unfolding this subject is as follows. Having expressed his great sorrow and the continual anguish of his heart over the rejection of his kinsmen, despite the high privileges given to them (Rom.

From Christians faithful to God and devoted to Him, the Apostle turns his thought and word to the Hebrews, especially to those among them who had been rejected.

Gentiles being persuaded of the greatness of Christianity, and even those already chosen into the number of Christians, could naturally ask, or at least think: why did some Hebrews not accept Christianity?

Yet they should have received the blessings granted and promised in Christianity by virtue of the divine promise given to their fathers, and through them to the Hebrews themselves.

This is what moves the Apostle to pause once again over Judaism and to show his relation to it. He explains the meaning of the Old Testament promises and the reasons for the rejection of the Hebrews.

"What are you saying, Paul? From Christ, whom you love, from whom neither the Kingdom, nor Gehenna, nor the visible, nor what is conceived by the mind, nor anything like these could separate you, do you now wish to be separated?

What has happened to you? Have you changed? Have you fallen away from love? Not at all. Do not fear this. I have only strengthened this love within myself, Paul answers.

Why, then, do you wish to be separated? Why do you seek alienation and such a rupture that none greater can follow it? Because I love Him greatly, Paul answers.

How is this? In what way? Explain it to us, for your words resemble a riddle" (Chrysostom).

To be separated, anathema einai, means to be anathema. "The word anathema has a twofold meaning. What is dedicated to God is called anathema, and what is alien to this bears the same name.

Common usage teaches us the first meaning, for we call things offered to God anatheματα. The divine Apostle taught the second in the Epistle to the Corinthians: 'If anyone does not love our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed,' anathema (cf. 1 Cor 16:22)" (Blessed Theodoret).

"That is, let ties with him be broken, and let him become a stranger to all. No one dares needlessly to touch with his hands, or approach, a gift dedicated to God.

So also, when the Apostle cuts off from all one separated from the Church, and removes him as far as possible, he calls him by the name of a set-apart gift, anathema, but in the contrary sense.

By this he forewarns everyone to withdraw from such a man with fear, and to flee far away from him. No one dared approach a gift out of reverence.

With one separated from the Church, ties were broken from another and opposite feeling. In both cases ties are alike broken, and the object becomes alien to men.

Yet the manner of breaking ties is not the same. On the contrary, the one is opposite to the other.

Men keep away from the one because it is dedicated to God. They keep away from the other because it is alienated from God and separated from the Church.

In this latter sense Paul said, 'I could wish to be separated from Christ'" (Chrysostom).

One separated from Christ no longer has a portion with Christ. He is deprived of His inheritance, the Kingdom of Heaven, and his portion is with the condemned.

Therefore the Apostle is ready to offer for his brethren a sacrifice beyond which there is none greater. As the desire is great, so also is the sacrifice great.

Here is gathered everything that Saint Paul could offer from his own side. What love! The prophet Moses manifested a love like this when he implored God to forgive the Jews the sin of casting the calf.

He said, "I beseech Thee, O Lord: this people has sinned a great sin. And now, if Thou wilt forgive their sin, forgive it. But if not, blot me out of Thy book, which Thou hast written" (cf. Ex 32:31-32).

To be separated from Christ is equivalent to being blotted out of the book of life.

Chrysostom says: "Some think that Paul speaks here, in the words, 'I could wish to be separated from Christ,' about temporal death. Of such men I shall say that Paul is as unknown to them, or even much more unknown, than a sunbeam is to the blind.

The man who died every day, who endured clouds of troubles, and who said, 'Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or famine, or persecution?'

The man who, not satisfied with what he had listed, passed beyond heaven and the heaven of heavens, outran Angels, Archangels, and all things above.

The man who gathered together all things, present and future, visible and intelligible, painful and good, and whatever partakes of either, and left nothing without consideration.

The man who was not satisfied even with this, but supposed another similar creation not yet existing. Would such a man, after all this, mention temporal death as something important?

No, no. It is unseemly to think this of Paul. If he meant this, why would he wish to be separated from Christ?

Temporal death unites one more closely with the company of Christ, and grants one to taste the glory to come.

Therefore, leaving tales and empty speech, which, like infant babbling, are not worth refuting, let us return to the Apostle's own words and delight in the sea of his love.

Let us contemplate this ineffable flame. Whatever one says of it, one says nothing worthy. Paul's love was wider than the sea and stronger than any fire.

No word can depict it worthily. Paul alone understood it, for he possessed it completely". In Chrysostom this stands under verse 6.

But is the sacrifice proposed possible? And is what is desired by virtue of this sacrifice possible?

Can one who burned with such love for his brethren, out of love for the Lord, be separated from Him? Outwardly he might be removed.

But how can the living bond of love be torn apart, when love is the very life of the Apostle's soul?

And how can he be removed from the Omnipresent One, who cannot but show good pleasure toward those who love Him?

The loving good pleasure of the beloved Lord, and the love that breathes with the beloved Lord, are Paradise itself.

He who loves the Lord and is loved by Him will be in Paradise everywhere, even if he is placed in Hades.

Conversely, he who is not loved by the Lord and does not love Him will be in Hades everywhere, even if he is placed in Paradise.

For this reason Blessed Theophylact interprets that the Apostle wishes to be separated not from love, but from the glory of Christ.

"Do you see that, by his burning love for God, he wishes, if possible, to be separated from the choir of those who live eternally with Christ?

He does not wish to be separated from His love, but from His glory and the enjoyment of it. I, the Apostle reasons, who have completed innumerable struggles and love God without measure, wish, for God's glory, to be deprived of Christ's glory.

And this is not to be deprived, but rather to gain."

On the other hand, what does the Apostle desire for his brethren? That they too should become participants in Christ's Kingdom, both of grace and of glory.

But this is conditioned by faith and devotion to the Lord. How can these be implanted in the soul apart from free will?

An outward gift can be given apart from free will. But how can an inward change be produced without its participation?

The Lord does not wish to force free will. He does everything to call it forth, but He never forces it.

All this had already been done by Him for the Jews also. Yet they persist stubbornly, and do not wish to hear of Christ the Savior.

Thus the Apostle desired what could not be fulfilled. The Apostle himself knew that both things were unattainable.

Yet he spoke thus to express his exceedingly strong love for the Jewish race. If it were possible to arrange the salvation of my brethren by such a sacrifice, I am ready for it.

"He says, I could wish, optabam, not, I wish, opto. For he knows that it is impossible for so glorious a member, without any blemish, to be cut off from the body of Christ.

By this he shows only his great love and attachment to his race" (Ambrosiaster).

And yet these were not mere words, but a sincere desire proceeding from the depths of the soul, a desire without recall.

Had what he desired been possible, he was truly ready for the sacrifice he proposed.

"He does not simply say, I could wish. He expresses an intensified desire: 'I was praying,' euchomen, with prayer torn from the heart and embracing his whole being" (Chrysostom).

The words "I myself" must also be referred to the manifestation of strong love. That means: I, the very one who just testified that nothing can separate me from Christ, now myself desire separation from Him, if only my brethren might be saved.

Blessed Theodoret writes: "The Apostle very fittingly added this, 'I myself,' recalling what had already been said about love for Christ.

It is as though he were saying: I, whom neither life, nor death, nor things present, nor things to come, nor any other creature can separate from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

I would most gladly be separated from Christ for the salvation of the Jews."

But when he says that he is ready to be separated from Christ for his brethren and his kinsmen according to the flesh, does the Apostle suggest that he loves his race more than Christ?

Does he prefer it to the Lord? It is true that "by the words, 'for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh,' the Apostle indicates his most tender and ardent love for the Jews" (Blessed Theophylact).

But in what spirit does this very love exist, and by what power? In the spirit of Christ, by the power of love for Christ.

It exists in the desire to sacrifice everything for the glory of His name. "Therefore the cause of this again is the same beloved Jesus" (Chrysostom).

"It is clear, therefore, that the Apostle did not prefer the Jews to the Savior. Rather, in manifesting his love and attachment to them, he said this because he wished to see all submit and willingly receive the saving preaching" (Blessed Theodoret).

"Moses seemed to intercede for the Jews, yet he did everything for the glory of God. He said, 'Cease from Thy wrath, lest they say that Thou couldst not save, and didst bring them out to destroy them in the wilderness' (cf. Deut 9:28).

So also Paul says: I could wish to be separated, if only they would not say that God's promise remained unfulfilled, that God did not stand by His promise, and did not bring His word into effect" (Chrysostom).

Photius expounds this passage more fully in Oecumenius. We quote his words, not wishing to deprive readers of the pleasure of hearing this most wise teacher.

"He whom nothing can separate from the love of God, neither death, nor life, nor things there, nor things here, nor anything anyone could devise.

For this reason he mentioned Angels and Powers, depth and height. How, then, does he voluntarily withdraw, when nothing can separate him?

And this for kinsmen according to the flesh? And he does not merely withdraw by his will, but greatly desires, seeks, and prays to be separated from the love of Christ?

What is this? How can we reconcile what seems irreconcilable? First, let us say that what is said is not contrary to itself.

For it is not contrary to love Christ so much that one does not fall away from love for Him because of torments or because of offered goods.

Nor is it contrary to love one's neighbors so much that one counts their salvation equal to one's own salvation, and even greater than it.

These things are not opposed, but are very harmonious with one another. For he who loves his brother loves the Lord also, and conversely (cf. 1 Jn 4:20-21).

'By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love among yourselves' (Jn 13:35), says the Lord.

Paul himself writes elsewhere: 'Love is the fulfillment of the law' (cf. Rom 13:10).

Again the Lord says of love for God and neighbor: 'On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets' (Mt 22:40).

He shows that love is the head and source of all loving deeds, both toward God and toward neighbor, together.

This is so, someone will say. But here he prefers love for neighbor to love for God, and prays to be separated from Him in order to gain them.

Christ says: 'He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me' (cf. Mt 10:37).

But what the Apostle says does not mean that he loves his neighbors more than Christ. For what does his love for them desire?

It desires to make them Christ's own. Where, then, is there love for them more than love for Christ, when he is zealous to draw them also into love for Christ and obedience to Him?

No. Here he shows that he had surpassing love for Christ, because he was zealous to draw others also to Him.

You will say that this would be so if he did not separate himself from Christ. But he did not separate himself.

For this was not what he properly desired. Rather, burning with ardent love for Christ, he was zealous to graft all men onto Him, and especially the Jews.