Neither are all they that are the seed of Abraham, children: but in Isaac shall thy seed be called.
ουδ οτι εισιν σπερμα αβρααμ παντες τεκνα αλλ εν ισαακ κληθησεται σοι σπερμα
10 Church Fathers comment on this verse
Therefore, if you learn who is called Abraham's seed, you will see that the promise was given to his seed, and you will understand that the word of God did not remain unfulfilled. Tell me, then: who is called the seed? The Apostle answers: I do not say this, but the Old Testament interprets itself, saying, "In Isaac shall your seed be called" (Gen 21:12). Explain what "in Isaac" means. See Rom 9:8.
It is not I, he says, who explain to you what the true seed of Abraham is, but the Old Testament, which says: "In Isaac shall your seed be called" (Gen 21:12). Therefore those who are born after the pattern of Isaac, that is, according to promise, are truly children of Abraham, and especially children of God. For everything was accomplished by the word of God. Isaac was born not by the law and power of nature, but by the power of promise.
This statement is exact, for he says that the word of God was in no way deceived, that is, it could not depart from the truth. It is commonly known that God proclaimed to Abraham from the beginning that he would be the father of many (cf. Gen. 17:5), and also, "Multiplying I will multiply your seed, as the stars of heaven in multitude" (Gen. 22:17). The addition "in multitude" (τω πλήθει) is not in the Greek text of Genesis, but it is in Heb. 11:12, which alludes to this passage. With the same addition, Gen. 22:17 is cited by blessed Theodoret of Cyrus, in Origen's homilies on Genesis in Rufinus' Latin translation, and in the Life of St. Pachomius in the Latin translation of Dionysius Exiguus. Therefore Abraham had to be proclaimed father not only of those who are from Israel.
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.
"For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, nor are all those who are Abraham's seed children." The sons of Keturah and Ishmael serve as witnesses (Gen 25:1-16). "But in Isaac," it is said, "shall your seed be called" (Gen 21:12).
Paul wants us to understand that not all are worthy merely because they are sons of Abraham. Those who are worthy are the sons of the promise, that is, those whom God foreknew would receive the promise, both Jews and Gentiles. Abraham believed and received Isaac because of faith, because he believed God (Gen. 21:2; Heb. 11:11). Thus the mystery of the future faith was revealed. Those who have the same faith in which Isaac was born will become Isaac's brethren, for Isaac was born according to promise as a type of the Savior. Therefore the one who believes that Christ Jesus was promised to Abraham is a son of Abraham and a brother of Isaac. It was said to Abraham that all nations would be blessed in his seed (Gen. 18:18; 22:18).
This did not happen in Isaac, but in Him who was promised to Abraham in Isaac, in Christ, in whom all nations are blessed if they believe. The rest of the Jews are sons of the flesh, for they are deprived of the promise and cannot lay claim to the merit of Abraham. They do not follow the faith for which Abraham was glorified.
"Nor because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children," that is, children of God. The Apostle shows this a little later. "But in Isaac shall your seed be called" (Gen. 21:12). Having cited this promise of God, he unfolds it and explains it by interpretation. See also Rom. 9:9. When nature had failed, Abraham became a father by God's generosity. Paul is saying this: Ishmael too was Abraham's son, and moreover his firstborn (Gen. 16:15-16; 17:18-22). Why then, O Jew, do you think highly of yourself, as though you alone are called Abraham's seed? If you think that Ishmael, as half-slave, was cast out from kinship, you are mistaken. Divine Scripture customarily traces genealogy by the father, not by the mother.
The divine Apostle could have brought forward the sons of Keturah and shown that they were born of a free woman, yet are not called Abraham's seed. It would have been easy for him also to show that Jacob's twelve sons were born of different mothers. Four of them were half-slaves, yet all are Israel and suffered no loss because of the servile condition of their mothers. Having cited the words spoken by God to Abraham, "In Isaac shall your seed be called," Paul shows that not even Abraham's whole race shared in this blessing. For of Isaac's sons one received the blessing, while the other did not.
Verses 6-7. "Not as though the word of God has failed." The speech is broken, and in it the Apostle answers an implied objection. If the Israelites, despite their privileges, do not enter the Kingdom of the Messiah, does this mean that God's promises were not fulfilled? No, says the Apostle, they were fulfilled, because many believed in Christ. Although not all who believed are descendants of Abraham, this does not alter the meaning of the promise. Not all descendants of Abraham are called Israelites, but only the chosen. For example, among Abraham's sons, only Isaac was chosen, and among Isaac's children, only Jacob. Of the twelve tribes of Israel, only two have now remained. So also, among those who remain, not all can yet be called true Israelites. Only the children of the promise can be called so, those born, like Isaac, not by physical possibility, but by faith, from the power of God's word.
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.
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).
The Apostle indicates their unworthiness as the first reason why the Hebrews did not receive the promised Messiah and were therefore rejected. Although they were sons of Abraham according to the flesh, they were not such according to the spirit of faith. Meanwhile Isaac himself was given by faith in the promise, and the inheritance was given to him not according to the flesh, but according to promise. According to the flesh, the descendants of Ishmael too could have been children and heirs of the promise. Yet it was said that the promised "Seed" would be called in Isaac (Gen. 21:12). Therefore only true Israelites, that is, children of Abraham and Israel, Jacob, according to the spirit, could expect the immutable fulfillment of the promise in themselves.
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."
A person is not a child of Abraham merely because he was born from him according to the flesh. Not all who were born from Abraham are thereby his children, that is, true children of Abraham, corresponding to God's intentions, or children of promise, children of God (verse 8). Ishmael was from Abraham, and later the children of Keturah were also Abraham's children according to the flesh (cf. Gen. 25:1, 4; 1 Chr. 1:32-33). Yet neither Ishmael nor they were received as heirs of the promise. Isaac alone was declared its heir: "In Isaac shall your seed be called," that is, a seed worthy of sharing in the blessings of the promise. St.
Chrysostom says: "If you understand who is called Abraham's seed, you will see to what seed the promise was given, and you will know that the word of God did not remain unfulfilled. Tell me, then, who is called the seed? It is not I who speak, the Apostle answers, but the Old Testament explains itself when it says, 'In Isaac shall your seed be called'" (Gen. 21:12). Here is the first example of exclusion from the inheritance of promise among those born in the flesh from the father who received the promise. For the Apostle's purpose, namely to indicate visible examples of exclusion from the inheritance, what has been said would have been sufficient. Yet he also had in mind to present these examples so that they would display the image of what was taking place before all eyes in Christ Jesus, in the preaching of the Gospel which he is now defending. Therefore he does not limit himself to the words already cited, but gives an interpretation of the whole event. In it one cannot fail to see an indication of what is taking place concerning Christ Jesus, and it cannot be understood without presupposing this indication. Therefore St. Chrysostom says that in his explanation the Apostle "joins what is present, what is taking place in Christ, with the Old Testament."
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 13 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS