Commentary on Romans 10:14-21

Text in red are my additions.

THE JEWS REFUSED TO BELIEVE IN THE GOSPEL
A Summary of Romans 10:14-21

In these verses St. Paul shows all that God has done to lead the Jews to the faith. He has shown already (verse 3) that they misunderstood the justice of God, although it was easily within their reach to grasp and understand, if only they would have had faith (verses 6-13). Now he goes on to prove that they could have made this act of faith, and that if they have not done so, it is manifestly their own fault. Faith should be supported by authorized preaching, and such preaching faith has had, as Isaias proves. But all have not believed. Yet they have heard and understood, and it is their own fault if they have not believed. Cf. St. Chrys., Lagr., h. 1. 

 

Rom 10:14. How then shall they call on him, in whom they have not believed? Or how shall they believe him, of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear, without a preacher?
Rom 10:15. And how shall they preach unless they be sent, as it is written: How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, of them that bring glad tidings of good things!

 

In the preceding verse it was said that invocation of the name of Christ was necessary for salvation. But to invoke a person, it is first necessary to believe in him; and to believe, one must first have learned. One learns through preaching, provided the preaching be duly authorized and reliable. These conditions being presupposed, there is no reason for not believing.

 

Preaching, therefore, is the ordinary means of learning the truths of faith; but it must be done by those who have the proper authority and the right to preach : there are many pseudo-apostles and pseudo-prophets (2 Cor. 11:13; Titus 1:11). God, of course, is free to make known the truths of salvation otherwise than through preaching, if He wishes, but that would be something out of His ordinary way of acting.

 

How shall they believe him, etc. The Vulgate querm non audierunt, corresponding to the Greek ου ουκ ηκουσαν (hou ouk ekousan = “whom they have not heard”), would seem to suggest that those who had not heard Christ could not believe in Him. But ηκουσαν (ekousan = “heard”) with the genitive sometimes means in classic Greek to hear of or about a person (Cornely). Our English translation, “of whom they have not heard,” is therefore correct, and the Vulgate should read, de quo non audierunt. At any rate, the fact that very few who were then living had seen Christ or heard Him was an argument for the necessity of duly authorized preachers, Apostles, envoys of Christ.

 

Unless they be sent, i.e., by God, either directly, as was St. Paul himself, or indirectly, through the authority constituted by God, as are all those who receive their commission from the Apostolic body and Church instituted and empowered by Christ. This Apostolate which, through its preaching, is to convert souls to Christ, had already been foretold by Isaias 52:7. The citation is more according to the Hebrew than the LXX. The Prophet’s words refer literally to the messengers who announced the fall of Babylon and the return of the Jews from captivity; but in their mystical sense, as here used by St. Paul, they have reference to the preachers of the Gospel. 

 

Of them that preach the gospel of peace is an addition to Isaias which is not found in the best Greek MSS. 

 

Glad tidings, etc., literally refers to the announcement made by the messengers of whom Isaias spoke, but figuratively, to the preachers of the Gospel of Christ. 

 

Rom 10:16. But all do not obey the gospel. For Isaias saith: Lord, who hath believed our report? 

 

Although the Gospel was preached, St. Paul here affirms that generally, especially by the Jews, it was not obeyed. He says all do not, etc.; better, “all have not,” etc., simply to soften, as much as possible, the sad truth of Jewish indifference and obduracy. This deplorable fact of disobedience to the Gospel and to the preaching of the Apostles was foretold by Isaias 53:1, whom St. Paul cites almost literally according to the LXX. The word Lord is added to the citation. Isaias was about to describe the passion and humiliation of the future Messiah, and he cried out full of anguish and fear, who will believe what I am going to announce? How few they were who afterwards did believe in the Messiah we are told by St. John 12:37, 38. 

 

Our report literally means “our hearing,” i.e., our preaching, what they heard from us.

 

To conform to the Greek the obediunt of the Vulgate ought to be obedierunt. 

 

Rom 10:17. Faith then cometh by hearing; and hearing by the word of Christ.

 

As said above (verse 14), faith cometh by hearing, i.e., by preaching, according to God’s ordinary Providence, and hearing, i.e., preaching, comes by the word of Christ, i.e., by the commission and mandate of Christ given to the Apostles and their successors (Cornely), or by the word revealed through Christ (Lagr.).

 

Rom 10:18. But I say: Have they not heard? Yes, verily, their sound hath gone forth into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the whole world.

 

St. Paul anticipates an objection or excuse on the part of the Jews. Will they, i.e., the Jews, say they have not heard the preaching of the Gospel? That they certainly have heard it, he proceeds to prove by a quotation from Psalm 19:4, cited according to the LXX. The Psalmist is speaking of the glory of God being declared by the heavens; and St. Paul, accommodating the text to his purpose (Cornely, Zahn, etc.), says that as the heavens declare everywhere the glory of the Creator, so has the preaching of the Gospel been heard everywhere in the world. Hence there is no excuse for the incredulity of the Jews. 

 

All the earth and the ends of the whole world are obviously hyperboles, used to express a great truth. The Apostle merely wishes to say that the Gospel was then widely known in the Roman world, and so could not be unknown to the Jews (cf. Acts 1:8).

 

Rom 10:19. But I say: Hath not Israel known? First, Moses saith: I will provoke you to jealousy by that which is not a nation; by a foolish nation I will anger you.

 

Another objection is forestalled and refuted by the Apostle. It having been proved that the Jews had heard the Gospel preaching, could it be that they would say that they did not understand it? That is impossible; for the Apostle adduces certain texts from the Old Testament (Deut. 32:21) in which it had been foretold that the Gentiles, far less prepared than the Jews, would understand and embrace the faith ; from which it follows that the Jews could not plead an obscurity in the preaching of the Gospel that would excuse their failure to understand.

 

Hath not Israel known? i.e., have not the Jews understood (ουκ εγνω = ouk egno)? There is question here of the Jews understanding that which they had heard, namely, the Gospel.

 

First, Moses, i.e., God through Moses first, in order of time among the inspired writers, threatened the Jews on account of their obstinacy in not understanding, that is, in rendering homage to “that which was no god” (Deut. 32:21), i.e., to an idol; and He told them that He would incite them “to jealousy and anger” by bestowing first temporal, and later spiritual blessings upon that which is not a nation, upon a foolish nation, i.e., the Gentiles. The pagans were called “not a nation,” i.e., an inferior nation, as compared with the religious and moral standard of the Jews. They were looked upon as “a foolish nation,” i.e., as almost incapable of understanding the things of God; and yet they understood the preaching of the Gospel which the Jews, with all their superior privileges and divine assistances, did not grasp and obey. The words of Moses found their entire fulfillment when the Jews were rejected and the spiritual blessings of the Messiah were conferred upon the Gentiles.

 

Rom 10:20. But Isaias is bold, and saith: I was found by them that did not seek me: I appeared openly to them that asked not after me.

 

St. Paul now cites Isaiah 65:1, whose words clarify the obscurity that might lurk in Moses’ words of the preceding verse. God is speaking through the Prophet.

 

Isaias is bold, i.e., outspoken, without regard for the sensibilities and prejudices of his fellow-Jews.

 

I was found, etc., i.e., I permitted myself to be discovered, through the preaching of the Gospel, by the Gentiles that did not seek me, i.e., that were wrapped in the darkness of idolatry, and that consequently neither knew Me nor adored Me.

 

I appeared openly, through the same preaching of the Gospel, to them, i.e., to the Gentiles, that cared not for Me, nor desired My revelation. How much more, therefore, should the Jews have known and understood the Gospel message! In their failure to do this how great was their culpability!

 

Rom 10:21. But to Israel he saith: All the day long have I spread my hands to a people that believeth not, and contradicteth me.

 

Isaiah 65:2 is here cited directly against the Jews. It was said in verses 19, 20 that if a people that did not know God have recognized Him in His manifestations, much more should Israel have known and understood His messages. And why has Israel not recognized and understood the revelation of God in the Gospel? Simply because it was incredulous and resisted God’s proffered gifts, because of its continual disobedience and opposition to God. On the part of God there were invitations the most tender; on the part of Israel, obstinate refusal. St. Paul is not retracting what he said in Romans 9 about the designs of God ; he is picturing here the problem under the aspect of the responsibility incurred by human wills deaf to the call of God (Lagrange).

 

To Israel. The preposition “to,” προς (= pros), according to modern interpreters should rather be concerning, with regard to. “To,” however, sufficiently renders the meaning of the Vulgate ad and of the Greek προς (pros), in the present instance.

 

All the day, etc., i.e., God at all times, like a loving father, stretched out His arms and desired to embrace Israel, but in vain.

 

To a people, etc., i.e., to Israel, incredulous and rebellious. Throughout its history Israel was unfaithful and rebellious to the law and will of God, but its obstinacy and disobedience became most manifest when it rejected the Messiah and His Gospel. To itself alone, therefore, is due Israel’s exclusion from the Messianic kingdom. Cf. Matt 23:37; Luke 11:15; John 8:48; 9:10, etc.