Romans 9:33Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

"For they stumbled at the stone of stumbling, as it is written: Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense; and everyone who believes in Him shall not be put to shame."

Do you see again how boldness and the universal gift come from faith? For this was said not only of the Jews, but of the whole human race. Everyone, says the Apostle, whether Jew, Greek, Scythian, Thracian, or whoever he may be, if he believes, will enjoy great freedom.

The prophet's word is remarkable not only because it speaks of those who will believe, but also of those who will not believe. For to stumble means not to believe.

Above, when speaking of the lost and the saved, the Apostle said, "Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant shall be saved." Again, "Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom." And again, "He called... not only from the Jews, but also from the Gentiles" (Rom 9:24, 27, 29).

So here also he says that some will believe, while others will stumble. Stumbling comes from inattention and from gazing at something else. The Jews, fixing all their attention on the law, stumbled against the stone.

The Apostle also called the stone of stumbling a rock of offense with reference to the disposition and end of unbelievers.

Is what has been said now clear to you, or does it require further explanation? I think it is clear to those who are attentive. But if it remains unintelligible to some, they may ask and learn when they meet me.

For this reason I have given a very extended interpretation. I did not want to interrupt the sequence of the discourse and so be forced to harm its clarity.

For the same reason I end the discourse here without adding a moral exhortation, as I usually do. I do not wish to obscure in your memory the many matters that have been discussed.

Now it is time to conclude the discourse in the proper way, that is, with doxology to the God of all. So, giving rest both to myself, who have spoken, and to you, who have listened, let us render glory to Him. For His is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, unto the ages. Amen.

That is, the Jew, who in this way failed to be justified.

This rock was a threat to the Jews. By the rock, without doubt, the flesh of the Savior is meant. It was cut without hands, because it was formed by the Holy Spirit from the Virgin without the aid of a man.

Yet the law had long since proved impossible for fallen human nature to fulfill in all its breadth. Thus, instead of finding their salvation and justification in Christ, the Hebrews merely stumbled against Him as against a stone of stumbling, according to the prophetic word of Isaiah: "Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense; but everyone who believes in Him shall not be put to shame" (Rom 9:30-33).

He proved to be the stone that poured forth the water of life for all. “We preach Christ crucified,” says the Apostle Paul in another epistle, “to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness. But to those who are called, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”

According to Blessed Theophylact, “one stumbles when he gazes at something to the side and pays no attention to what lies under his feet. So also the Jews, gazing at the Law, stumbled over Christ, that is, they did not believe.”

Showing what the Jews were gazing at, the Most Reverend Theophan writes: “Why did the Jews, meaning the mass of the people, not attain to the law of righteousness? The Apostle answers: because they had only the works of the Law, while all the rest, the spirit and disposition required with them, was wrong and not in accord with the law of righteousness. This deficiency the Apostle gathered into the phrase, ‘because it was not of faith.’ ‘Without faith it is impossible to please God’ (Heb 11:6). This is the natural righteousness mentioned above. It is the spirit that must penetrate all works and give birth to all good dispositions, the virtues, which are realized in works. This was lacking in the people under discussion. Therefore they did not attain to the law of righteousness. But this was also lacking among the Gentiles. How then is it said that they attained it? They attained it because, when the preaching of the Gospel revealed to them the essence of the matter, they at once supplied what was lacking. The Jews also heard of this deficiency, but they were falsely convinced that they possessed it because they had works of the Law. They relied on the works of the Law. Thinking that nothing more would be required of them, they rested upon these works. Their spirit, however, was altogether different, a spirit of selfhood and love of the world. God was on their tongue, but He was not in their heart. Of course, not all Jews were like this. Among them there were many in whom the faith indicated by the Apostle was alive, the faith that constitutes the essence of the natural law of righteousness. They too performed all the works of the Law along with the others, but they did not rely on them. They did them not for their own sake, but for God’s sake, for His glory and for pleasing Him. Therefore, when they heard the preaching of the Gospel, they immediately received it, just as the Gentiles did. The only difference was that they, as Jews, met in it what they had awaited, while the Gentiles received what they had not awaited. The apostolic preaching was a test of who had the true spirit and who did not. It was revealed that the mass of the people were Israel and the seed of Abraham only by the appearance of works. Therefore they did not receive Him who came according to the promise to the fathers. They stumbled over Him. What was foretold has been fulfilled and is still being fulfilled” (Lk 2:34).

Both prophetic passages were referred by all Jews to the Coming One, the Promised One. Therefore they used them when reasoning about the Coming One, as seemed best to each person, sometimes separately and sometimes together.

The holy Apostle joined both passages. He omitted the quality given to the stone in chapter 28, that it is a cornerstone and precious. In its place he put the quality given in chapter 8, that it is a stone of stumbling.

The Promised One is called a stone because by Him and upon Him the Kingdom of God was to be founded. This is the Kingdom of righteousness and holiness, the Kingdom of the sons of God.

He is called a stone of stumbling and offense not because He was intentionally laid down for stumbling and offense. In Himself He is a stone of refuge and strength.

He is so called because many were not to understand who He is. They would be offended at Him, not believe, and through this stumble over Him.

As it was foretold, so it was fulfilled in Christ the Savior. The Evangelists note more than once that many were offended at Him.

He says of Himself that He came down from heaven and is the Son of God. Yet in appearance He was very simple and had nowhere to lay His head (see Mt 8:20).

Only His gaze, His speech, and His works showed that He was not earthly. But not all could understand and feel this. The majority did not understand it and turned away from Him.

As it was during His dwelling among men, so it was afterward, during the preaching of the Gospel. He was numbered with the lawless and crucified.

People said: how can one believe that He is something great and divine? And they were offended.

Yet just as, during His dwelling on earth, many clearly saw the divine in Him beneath His humble appearance, so also during the preaching many understood the truth and submitted to the faith.

This happened even though the preachers openly proposed for faith only Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.

What holy Symeon the God-receiver foretold concerning the Lord and Savior has always been fulfilled in Him, and is fulfilled to this day. He is “for the fall and rising of many” (cf. Lk 2:34).

The object of faith is hidden. Those to whom it is given understand, as the Lord said concerning His hidden parables. Or, better, those whom the Father draws to the Son understand (see Jn 6:44).

Such people were not put to shame, as the Prophet foretold: “he who believes in Him shall not be put to shame.” This means that he “will truly be deemed worthy of the greatest blessings, which he hoped through faith to receive from Him” (Blessed Theodoret).

How much strength is needed to believe when unbelief surrounds one and mocks faith, while the object of faith is hidden. Yet they believed, showing in faith the most manly struggle.

They believed and were not put to shame, because from the first movement of faith they already began to receive invisibly in spirit what they had hoped for.

Nothing and no one in the world could give this to them, neither their own efforts nor the assistance of all powerful men.

When they had passed through the whole course of believing and ascended to the perfection of faith, no word could describe what they received and began to bear in spirit.

Therefore shame could not produce even the slightest movement in them. Not even its shadow could appear, though shaming words came to their ears from every side.

Rather, it seemed incomprehensible to them how anyone could shame them when they possessed such a priceless treasure.

By citing such a prophecy, the Apostle finally dispersed the perplexity over how many Jews were not received into the inheritance. He also set forth the decisive cause of this.

After this, those raising objections had nothing left to object, and the one refuting objections had nothing further to explain. The matter is clear.

But having finished this, the Apostle now takes the Jew by the tenderest chord of his heart, his zeal for the Law. Among them, this zeal was colored as zeal for God.

From it he wishes to build a path to faith. He himself had gone by this path. He himself had been zealous, no less than all the Jews.

Yet he had learned by experience that zeal alone does not necessarily lead by the straight road. No, it must be enlightened, so that by its impulse it may not rush where it should not go.