Romans 9:6Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Rather, he prayed this for the Jews, who had received the promise, and for the rest who were near to him.

Do you notice that, if he had prayed for the Gentiles, it would not have been so clear that he did this for Christ's glory?

But because he wished to be separated for the Jews, he showed with special clarity that he wished this for Christ.

Therefore he also said: "to whom belong the adoption, and the glory, and the service, and the promise" (Rom 9:4).

They have, the Apostle says, the Law that bears witness to Christ. With them all the covenants were made. From them Christ Himself came forth.

From them were all the fathers who received the promises. Nevertheless, the opposite happened, and they were deprived of all good things.

For this reason, he says, I am torn. If it were possible to be excluded from the company of Christ, I would accept it.

I mean alienated not from the love of Christ, which must never be. For he did this precisely out of love for Christ.

I mean alienated from blessedness and glory. I would agree to this, on the condition that my Master not be subjected to blasphemy.

Then I would not hear from anyone that His deeds were a shadow, or that God promised to some but gave to others.

I would not hear that Christ was born from some, but saved others. He gave promises to the ancestors of the Jews.

Yet, leaving their descendants aside, He brought into possession of their blessings those who had never known Him.

The Jews labored, learning the Law and reading the Prophets. But the Gentiles, who had lately turned away from altars and idols, became higher than the Jews.

Where, then, is God's providence? Therefore, the Apostle says, although this opinion is unjust, I would gladly be deprived of the Kingdom and that ineffable glory.

I would endure every calamity, so that this might not be said of my Master. I would count it the greatest consolation in all my sorrows to hear no more blasphemy against my Beloved.

If you still have not understood what was said, consider that many fathers have often resolved on something similar for their children.

They preferred to be separated from them, if only they might see them prosper. They counted their children's happiness higher than the pleasure of living together with them.

But since we are far from such love, we cannot understand what is said.

Some are unworthy even to hear Paul's teaching. They stand so far from that greatest love that they think Paul is speaking here about temporal death.

Of such men I can say that they know Paul no more than the blind know a sunbeam, and indeed much less.

He died every day and endured clouds of dangers. He said: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or famine, or persecution?" (Rom 8:35).

He did not stop with what had been said. He passed through heaven and the heaven of heavens, and outran angels, archangels, and everything above.

He comprehended together things present and future, things visible and intelligible, things sorrowful, things useful, and what is contained in both.

In short, he left nothing without attention. Even with this he did not stop, but imagined another similar creation, not yet existing.

After all this, how could he mention temporal death as though it were something important? It is not so, no.

Such an opinion belongs to worms nesting in dung. If the Apostle had spoken of this, how could he wish to be separated from Christ?

Such death would join him more closely to the company of Christ and would help bring him future glory.

Yet there are some who dare to assert another thing, still more worthy of laughter. They say that Paul did not desire death, but desired to be Christ's treasure and gift.

And who among the lowest and most unworthy of men would not desire this? But how could Paul desire this for his kinsmen?

Therefore, leaving fables and empty words, which are not worth refuting because they are like childish babbling, let us return again to the Apostle's own saying.

As we delight in the sea of his love, let us sail safely and meditate upon the ineffable flame.

Whoever speaks of it will say nothing worthy. Paul's love was wider than every sea and stronger than every fire.

No word can portray it worthily. Paul alone understood it, because he possessed it perfectly.

Therefore let us repeat his words again: "I could wish that I myself were separated" (Rom 9:3).

What does "I myself" mean? I, who became the common teacher, rendered countless services, and expect countless crowns for myself.

I, who loved Christ so much that I prefer His love to everything in the world. I burn daily for Him and place everything below love for Him.

Paul cared not only to be loved by Christ, but also to love Him firmly, and especially for this latter thing.

Therefore he had only this in mind and bore everything easily. In all matters he looked to one thing, to satisfy this beautiful love.

He wished to be separated. But since this could not happen, he tries to defend himself against accusations.

Having presented what everyone was noisily saying, he tries to refute it. Before beginning his explicit defense, he already casts some seeds of it.

For when he says, "to whom belong the adoption, and the glory, and the giving of the Law, and the service, and the promises" (Rom 9:4), he means nothing other than this.

God wished them also to be saved. He proved this by what He had done before, by Christ's coming from them, and by giving promises to their fathers.

But through their own ingratitude the Jews rejected the benefit. Therefore the Apostle presents what bears witness only to the gift of God, and does not serve for their praise.

For adoption, glory, promises, and the Law were precisely the work of God's grace.

Having presented and considered all this, and how much care God and His Son showed for the salvation of the Jews, the Apostle cried aloud and said: "He who is over all, blessed forever. Amen" (Rom 9:5).

He offers such thanksgiving for all to the Only-begotten Son of God. What is it to us, he says, if others blaspheme?

Knowing His mysteries, His ineffable Wisdom, and His all-embracing providence, we know well that He is worthy not of blasphemy, but of glorification.

Yet he is not satisfied with his own awareness. He tries to present and examine an argument, uses the strongest expressions against the Jews, and does not leave them until he destroys their suspicion.

So that he not seem to speak as with enemies, he also says later: "Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is for salvation" (Rom 10:1).

Here too, besides the other things he has said, he tries to show that he is not speaking from hostility when he must speak against them.

Therefore he does not refuse to call them kinsmen and brethren. Although everything he said was said for Christ, he also draws their good will to himself.

He first prepares a path for his word and turns aside every suspicion concerning what he intends to say against them.

Only then does he approach the examination of what occupied many minds. Many, as I noted above, asked why those who received the promise perished.

And why were those who had never heard of it saved before the former? Therefore, removing this perplexity, he offers his answer before the objection.

Someone might say: What, then? Do you care for God's glory more than God Himself does?

Does He need your help so that His word not perish? Answering this, the Apostle says: I did not say this as though the word of God had not come to pass.

I said it to prove my love for Christ. Although matters have been fulfilled in this way, the Apostle continues, we do not doubt God's words.

We affirm that the promise is unchangeable. God said to Abraham: "To you and to your seed I will give the land, and in your seed all the nations shall be blessed" (Gen 26:3-4).

Therefore let us see, he says, what seed this is. For not all who came from Abraham are his seed.

Therefore it is also said: "For not all who are of Israel are Israel."

Let us then see what this seed is. Not everything that came from Abraham is simply his seed. Not everyone who came from Israel is an Israelite. Rather, those born according to the pattern of Isaac are the seed, and those renowned for the virtue of Israel, through which he saw God. For he did not say, "those from Jacob," but "those from Israel," mentioning the more honorable name. Therefore, if you understand who is born according to the pattern of Isaac, you will find that the promise is not false. The promises were given to such as these. Therefore God in no way deserves blasphemy. What He said, He fulfilled, though some do not understand it.

For there was not only one people that came from him, but myriads throughout the earth who are appointed as children to Abraham. This is true if they are indeed children according to promise and walk in the steps of the faith that he had while uncircumcised (Rom. 4:12), as it is written. For as blessed Paul himself writes somewhere: "The promise to Abraham or to his seed, that he should be heir of the world, was not through the law but through the righteousness of faith. For if those who are of the law are heirs," he says, "faith is made void and the promise is made of no effect" (Rom. 4:13-14). Therefore, when the seed from Abraham is recognized as being in Isaac, that is, according to promise, the word of promise is this: "At this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son." Then it can be entirely evident that "the children of the flesh" are not necessarily and in every respect to be counted children of God. Rather, the children according to promise, that is, the children according to faith, will have such glory in themselves.

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).

Those who were not such could not expect the fulfillment of the promises. Thus in their rejection there is no sufficient ground for seeing the promise as unfulfilled. For "such is the promise," says St. John Chrysostom: "Isaac was formed and born by the word of God. Although the woman's womb and body contributed to the birth, it was not the power of the womb, but the power of the promise, that produced the child. So also we are born by the word of God. For that which begets and forms us in the font of water is the word of God, because when we are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, we are born. Such a birth is not according to nature, but according to the promise of God." Then, turning attention to the second example of exclusion from the inheritance of promise, shown in Esau, he says: "Why is Isaac alone called Abraham's seed, although Abraham was the father of Ishmael and many others? Was it because Ishmael's mother was a slave? But how does this fall upon the son? Yet I will not dispute it. But what shall be said of the children of Keturah? Were they not free, and were they not born of a free woman? Why then were they not counted worthy of the privileges given to Isaac? And what need is there to speak of Keturah's children? Rebecca was Isaac's only wife, and she bore two sons, both from Isaac. Yet those who were born of one father and one mother, of the same blood and the same womb, and moreover were twins, received unequal rights." "Why, then. Should it be wondered at if some of the Jews were saved and others were not?" "If we understand who is called the seed of Abraham, we shall see to what seed the promise was given, and we shall know that the word of God did not remain unfulfilled."

To this the Apostle answers: I did not say this in the sense that God's word had become ineffective. I said it in order to prove love for Christ, and in Christ for them, as Oecumenius says.

As to your question, the Apostle continues, despite the present state of affairs we do not hesitate to justify God and affirm that the promise is immutable. St. Chrysostom says this.

"Though they contradict and do not wish, after believing, to reap the fruits of salvation, the promises given to the fathers remain true," says blessed Theodoret.

"I am inflamed," he says, "because they blaspheme God, as though He had not fulfilled the promise. Therefore I expressed the wish that all might be saved. But if not all are saved, it does not follow that God lied in the promises given to the fathers, or that His word failed. He fulfilled what He promised, though the blasphemers say that He promised to one group and gave to another." This is from blessed Theodoret.

As proof that this is truly so, the Apostle sets forth: "For not all who are of Israel are Israel." This is a general proposition, continued in the following verses: "Nor because they are Abraham's seed are they all children."

You objectors, he says, as it were, do not rightly understand the force of the promise. In your view, it is enough merely to be born from Israel and Abraham, and one has already become a participant in the promise. In reality it is not so.

Bodily descent from the fathers who received the promise does not make one a participant in it. Something else does, something higher than this. The Apostle does not state directly what this higher thing is. Yet he clearly lets it be understood in the name Israel and in "children of the promise" (verse 8).

Israel means one who beholds God. The vision of God is the highest spiritual perfection. It is given, comes, and is received after the mortification of the loins, as with Jacob in his wrestling with the spiritual man. This signifies the mortification of the passions.

The children of the promise are those born according to the pattern of Isaac's birth. Isaac was fashioned and born by the word of God: "At this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son."

"Although the woman's womb and body cooperated in the birth, the power of the womb did not produce the child," says St. Chrysostom. A power from above descended into nature through the word. The fruit was conceived, and Isaac was born.

Such must be those to whom the promise belongs: to be born by power from above through the word, and then to ascend to the vision of God. Consider now in whom this is fulfilled. In none but true Christians, who are born from above in the font by the word, and then have their life hidden with Christ in God.

Therefore, in what you now see taking place before your eyes, there is an exact fulfillment of the force of the promise. No sound-minded person should think that the word of God has failed.

Our interpreters, beginning with this verse and continuing further, present this thought. But it is seen only by the mind. The Apostle did not express it aloud. Dealing with minds that thought carnally, he sought to lead them to this thought by bodily and tangible examples.

Having said, "Not all who are of Israel are Israel," he thereby gave those with purified understanding to grasp that kinship with him is determined not by natural birth, but by virtue that raises one to the vision of God. See blessed Theodoret and Photius in Oecumenius.

For those who lack such understanding, it would have been necessary to show an example of the visible separation of someone among Israel's bodily descendants from the common mass of the people who came from him.

Yet history did not present such an example. All the sons and daughters of the twelve sons of Israel were called Israel without visible exclusion of any among them, and without an explicit indication of exclusion according to the spirit.

Although invisibly this always took place and was known to God alone, St. Paul finds a tangible example of this exclusion earlier, namely among those born of Abraham and Isaac.

He speaks as though saying: From Abraham not Isaac alone was born, yet he alone is the child of the promise. The others were excluded from this rank. Likewise, among those born of Isaac, Esau was excluded, and Jacob alone was recognized as heir of the promise.

Thus, just as in these cases those not recognized as worthy of the promise were tangibly and visibly excluded, so afterward a similar exclusion took place among Israel's descendants. But it took place invisibly and without public proclamation.

Now it has been made visible through the word of the gospel. Those who did not receive the gospel were excluded, while those who believed were accepted.

On the threshing floor, when the threshed grain is winnowed with a shovel, the chaff is blown aside, while the grain remains in place and is gathered into the granary. So it happens now.

The unbelieving are blown aside, soon to be scattered over the face of the earth. The believers have remained in God's place, within the enclosure of the Church, so that they may enter God's granary.

Therefore let no one think that the word of God has failed. Not all who are of Israel according to the flesh are also Israel according to the spirit.

The Apostle's thought, set forth in this order, also illumines his whole subsequent discourse up to verse 13 and makes it understandable. Let us nevertheless review it with the mind and the words of our God-wise interpreters.