Commentary on Romans 9:6-13

Text in red are my additions.

IN SPITE OF JEWISH INCREDULITY GOD IS FAITHFUL TO HIS PROMISES; FOR EVEN IN THE OLD TESTAMENT ELECTION DEPENDED ON THE FREE CHOICE OF GOD
A Summary of Romans 9:6-13 

Up to these verses in the present chapter the condition of Israel has been only indirectly stated in Paul’s wish that he might be anathema from Christ for his fellow-Jews, if that was possible. Strange as it may seem, in spite of all their privileges, in spite of the promise made to them, in spite of the fact that Christ took His human nature from among them, it is they who are anathema from Christ. And yet the designs of God cannot be frustrated, neither have they been; for, on the one hand, the designs of God are not restricted to a carnal descent, and on the other hand, some of the Jews have accepted the Gospel. If all the Jews have not embraced the faith, it is because they did not all receive an efficacious call. God, who even in the beginning of Jewish history, drew distinctions within the seed of Abraham, as in the case of Isaac’s children, Jacob and Esau, was not obliged to call all the Jews to the faith, nor of those called, to treat all in the same manner. God chooses men in accordance with His purposes, and this is the first explanation of Israel’s condition.

Rom 9:6. Not as though the word of God hath miscarried. For all are not Israelites that are of Israel:

While St. Paul found no difficulty in that the Law had been abrogated, he could in nowise admit that the word of God to Israel, i.e., the unconditional promise that Israel should be saved by the Messiah, could fail of its fulfillment. In this promise the veracity and fidelity of God were involved. Those who think the incredulity of the Jews has rendered vain the promise of God make the mistake, says the Apostle, of thinking that that promise was made to the carnal descendants of Abraham; they fail to distinguish between those who are Israelites according to the flesh (1 Cor 10:18) and those who are Israelites according to the spirit, the spiritual children of Abraham (Gal 6:16).

Israel, in place of Israelitae of the Vulgate, is more in conformity with the Greek. Hence also, “Israelites” would better be “Israel” in English.

Rom 9:7. Neither are all they that are the seed of Abraham, children; but in Isaac shall thy seed be called:

The thought of the preceding verse is more clearly developed. The Apostle says that not all who are carnally descended from Abraham shall be the inheritors of the promise, but only those who are descendants through Isaac, as Gen 21:12 clearly testifies.

Seed (σπερμα = sperma) in the first part of this verse means carnal descendants; in the second part it indicates the descendants that inherit the blessings of the promise. Ishmael was a type of the first; Isaac of the second.

Children (τεκνα = tekna), an endearing term, are those descendants of Abraham who are recognized by God as the legitimate heirs of the promises made to the Patriarchs.

Rom 9:8. That is to say, not they that are the children of the flesh, are the children of God; but they, that are the children of the promise, are accounted for the seed.
That is to say.  The point of the preceding verse is explained here.

Not . . . the children of the flesh, etc., i.e., they are not the children of God, and the consequent heirs of the promise, that are descended carnally from Abraham, as Ishmael was; but those are the heirs that, like Isaac, are the children of the promise; those, namely, who, being united to Christ through faith, have imitated the virtues of Abraham, and have thereby become his true descendants and the heirs of the promise (Gal 3:26). People do not become the children of God because of their natural origin, but only by God’s free choice in advance, as in the case of the election of Isaac. Isaac was called the child of promise (Gal 4:23, 29), because he was born of Abraham and Sara in their old age by virtue of the promise God made to them.

It is to be noted that the words of Genesis regarding Isaac in the preceding verse, as well as the quotations about Jacob and Esau in the verses that follow, have direct reference to temporal blessings; but the Apostle is here making use of them in their typical meaning. He wishes to say that just as God, of His own free choice, bestowed temporal blessings on Isaac in consequence of Isaac’s being the child of promise, rather than on Ishmael, who was descended from Abraham only in a carnal and natural way; so will He likewise bestow His spiritual blessings of grace and justification on those who are the children of Abraham by reason of their faith, rather than by reason of mere carnal descent. Faith, and not carnal descent, establishes the true relationship between Abraham and his children.

Rom 9:9. For this is the word of promise : According to this time will I come; and Sara shall have a son.

This verse explains how Isaac was the child of promise. When Abraham and Sara were old and could not naturally expect to have a child, God promised them through His angel (Gen 18:10-14) that in about a year’s time they would have a son. Isaac was therefore the result of a miracle, rather than a child of the flesh.
According to this time, i.e., in about one year.

Rom 9:10. And not only she. But when Rebecca also had conceived at once, of Isaac our father.

The Apostle gives a second example (Rom 9:10-13) which proves still more clearly the liberty of God’s elections, since there is question now of the same mother and her twins by the same father. She is not in the Greek, which reads: “Not only (this), but also Rebecca,” etc. The Apostle wishes to point out from the case of Rebecca (Gen 25:23) that God, in giving privileges and blessings to men, has no regard either for the conditions of their birth or for their personal merits. Thus we see that, of two sons, twins, conceived at once, i.e., at the same time by the same father and of the same mother, one was chosen, the other rejected by God before they saw the light of day (Rom 9:11). Hence it follows that the promise of God was not made to all the carnal descendants of Abraham, and so it is not to be wondered at that many Jews remain in their incredulity and do not have part in the promised blessings.

The ilia of the Vulgate should be omitted, according to the Greek.

Rom 9:11. For when the children were not yet born, nor had done any good or evil (that the purpose of God, according to election, might stand),
Rom 9:12. Not of works, but of him that calleth, it was said to her: The elder shall serve the younger.

In these verses the Apostle shows that God, guided solely by His gratuitous election, freely chooses people to do His will; and that, consequently, just as, irrespective of the personal merits of Jacob and Esau, He chose the former on whom to bestow all kinds of temporal blessings, and rejected the latter; so has He gratuitously decreed to bestow on the Gentiles, typified by Jacob, the spiritual blessings of justification and of the Gospel, and exclude the Jews, as a race, typified by Esau, from a participation in those blessings.

When the children were not yet born (11). The subject of γεννηθεντων (gennethenton) is evidently Jacob and Esau in the womb of their mother.

Nor had done any good, etc., i.e., before any chance of merit or demerit on their part, God preferred Jacob and made him the object of future blessings, in spite of the fact that Esau was the first-born, and as such would seem to enjoy some special rights to those blessings. But Esau, as a matter of fact, as if in fulfillment of the divine decree, sold his rights as firstborn to Jacob, and this latter obtained the blessing of his father Isaac and was made heir in place of his brother. The Edomites, the descendants of Esau, were consequently made subject to and were dominated by the Israelites, who were descended from Jacob (2 Sam 8:13). These words of the Apostle are a refutation of the Pelagian heresy which said that grace is given by God in view of antecedent merits.

That the purpose, etc., i.e., the eternal decree of God to reject Esau and call Jacob to the inheritance of temporal blessings.

According to election. This eternal decree of God has its reason not in the present or future merits of those who are called, but only in the free and gratuitous choice of God.

Not of works, etc., i.e., not out of regard for anyone’s works or merits, but solely of him that calleth, i.e., through the grace of God who calls.

The elder shall serve (12), etc. This reference is to Gen 25:23. When Rebecca felt the infants struggling in her womb, she sought an explanation of the incident from the Lord, and she was told that she “had two nations in her womb,” and that the elder, i.e., the descendants of the elder (the Edomites) would be subject to those of the younger, namely, the Israelites. This divine prediction was literally verified in the time of David (2 Sam 8:13). The mystical application of these words by St. Paul is evident.

Nearly all modern exegetes omit the parentheses of verse 11. This refers to the actual parentheses, not the words encompassed by them.

Rom 9:13. As it is written: Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.

Jacob I have loved, etc. Here St. Paul cites the Prophet Malach1:2 to show the reason why God chose Jacob rather than Esau. He freely loved the former and hated the latter, and this is the sole reason why He forechose and predestined the one for future blessings, and rejected the other. The words of Malachi, like those of Gen 25:23, refer both to the persons of Jacob and Esau and to the peoples that descended from them, i.e., to the Israelites who descended from Jacob, and to the Edomites who descended from Esau; and by quoting the Prophet’s words St. Paul shows that the actual course of history verified the statement made to Rebecca. Therefore, concludes the Apostle, just as the choice of Jacob was due solely to the love and freedom of God, so also is the call to the faith a free gift of God’s love, not dependent on conditions of birth or personal merits. This same freedom on the part of God explains why many of the Jews, although descendants of Jacob, are excluded from a participation in the blessings of the Messianic Kingdom. God chooses whom He will to carry out His purposes, and His plans do not fail because of the failure of individuals.

Esau I have hated. God loves all things that He makes, and consequently He loves all human beings, inasmuch as He confers on all some benefits of nature and of grace, but not in the sense that He confers on all the same measure of blessings. Accordingly God, in His eternal wisdom and justice, does not give to all the efficacious call to the faith and the reward of eternal life; He is thus said to hate those whom He excludes from the prize of eternal life, and to love in a special manner those on whom He confers it. These latter God predestines to glory, the former He reprobates. There is this vast difference, however, between predestination and reprobation that, while both are eternal and unchangeable in God, predestination implies on God’s part the preparation of merits in virtue of which glory is afterwards conferred; whereas reprobation does not suppose that God prearranged sins on account of which one is condemned to eternal punishment. Hence it follows that God’s foreknowledge of merits cannot be the cause of predestination, since merits are rather the consequence of predestination. But positive reprobation, on the contrary, which implies not only exclusion from glory, but the infliction of eternal pain, does not take place until after the permission and prevision of sins. God will punish the wicked for the sins which they themselves commit, in which He has no part; and He will reward the just on account of the merits which they possess, not alone of themselves, but through the help of His grace: “Destruction is thy own, O Israel: thy help is only in me” (Hosea 13:9) (Sales, Martini).

God, therefore, far from regulating His choice by the dispositions of persons, is guided rather by His own hidden purposes, and by His consequent personal sentiments of love or of hate; before the birth of the twins, He loved one and hated the other of His own free choice. This hatred of God, anterior to all foreseen demerits, has something awful about it, which Cornely feels forced to mitigate by softening the sense of εμισησα (emisesa “hated”) so as to mean “to love less” or “to neglect.” But whatever may be said of the texts cited (Gen 29:30-31; Luke 14:26; Deut. 21:15-17; Judges 14:16; Prov 14:20), the text of Malachi says plainly that God detested Esau, representing the Edomites, as His subsequent conduct toward that people proved. It would be necessary, therefore, in Cornely’s view, to suppose that St. Paul set aside the sense of the text of Malachi, either by eliminating all allusion to the history of the peoples represented by Esau and Jacob, or by distinguishing between the sentiments which God entertained toward these peoples, on the one hand, and their unborn ancestors, on the other—suppositions which cannot be sustained (cf. Lagrange, h. 1.).

Whichever view we take of εμισησα (emisesa “hated”) here, whether we say that God really hated Esau before he was born, or only that He neglected him, or loved him less than Jacob, we must remember that St. Paul is quoting Old Testament language,—language natural and familiar to the Jews, but essentially severe in its tone, and oftentimes shocking to ears attuned to the mildness and mercy of Christian words. Furthermore, in trying to understand the mysteries of divine election and reprobation it makes little difference in fact whether we say that God hates, or merely neglects or loves less the reprobate, since the final outcome is the same, whatever be the words used to unfold the mystery to our human and limited intelligences. In negative reprobation God simply does not choose the person or persons in question, and this for His own hidden reasons, although in time He gives them graces and means sufficient for their salvation.