Commentary on Romans, Biblical exegesis 1 · Chapter 11 · Section 3 · Subsection 13
Quest. 13. Of the ende of the stumbling of the Iewes, v. 11.
v. 11. HaueHave they stumbled that they should fall, &c. 1. Chrysostome here obserueth well the Apostles wisedome, that when he speaketh of the execation and reiection of the Iewes, he alleadgeth Scripture, least he might be thought to speake of euil will: consolationem à seipso ponit, but the consolation he bringeth in his owne name, that his louelove toward them might appeare; as here ye sheweth a double ende of their stumbling; one, that thereby saluation might come vntounto the Gentiles, the other, that by the calling of the Gentiles, the Iewes againe might be provoked and stirred vp to beleeue in Christ: the first end serueth to beat downe the pride and insolencie of the Gentiles, the other, to comfort the Iewes, that they should not thinke their fall to be irrecouerable.
2. HaueHave they stumbled, &c. 1. The Latine translator addeth, hauehave they so stumbled, that they should fall; which Tolet iustifieth and would hauehave the meaning to be this, nor that the ende of the falling of the Iewes should be the calling of the Gentiles, but that their fall was not without recouerie: and Origen hath the like obseruation, shewing here the diuerse kinds of falling: some fall and neuer rise againe, as Lucifer, who shall neuer, no not in the end of the world be restoared: the fall of others is recouerable, as here the Iewes did not so stumble, vt ab omni legis observantia declinarent, to decline from the whole obseruation of the law. 2. But Erasmus well obserueth, that here the Apostle speaketh not de magnitudine lapsus, sed de eventu, of the greatnes of their fal, but of the euent; for the Apostle throughout this whole epistle doth exaggerate the sinne of their incredulitie; neither is this particle (so) in the originall, neither doe the Greek expositors, Chrysost. Theoph. Oecumen. insert it. 3. yet this must be added further to Erasmus observation, that the calling of the Gentiles, was not onelyonly the euent, which followed the incredulitie of the Iewes, but it was the ende and scope, for the which God suffered the Iewes to fall: for this event must not be seuered from the providence of God. Beza, annot. 4. nor yet is this question so propounded, as though the Iewes did stumble and fall with any such intention to profit the Gentiles, as Gryneus seemeth to note, no man that is in his right minde will hurt himselfe; which the Iewes should hauehave done, if they of purpose had stumbled to fall: But Photius obserueth, that the Iewes, as much as in them lay, did so stumble, vt corruerent, to fall altogether: nec sic affecti sunt, &c. neither were they so affected, that any good should come thereby to themselues, or others: sed Deus illorum casu, &c. but God vsed their fall both for the saluation of the Gentiles, and their owne emendation. 5. Theophylact must here also be warily and aduisedly read: the Iewes are not so fallen, vt se nequeant, quando velint, attollere, that they can not raise vp themselues againe, when they will, &c. for this were, as though the Iewes of purpose had fallen, that the Gentiles might come in, and then they would returne againe: neither is it in any mans power to returne when he will: for ones conuersion, is as life from the dead, v. 13. as one can not raise himselfe from the dead, so neither can he conuert and turne vntounto God. 6. Haymo, and Augustine before him, put in the word solum, onelyonly; that is, they hauehave not stumble onelyonly to fall, as though no good should come thereby: but God did not suffer them to stumble at all to fall: God propounded not to himselfe their fall, as an end of their stumble for God delighteth not in the destruction of any, but God respected two singular good ends in the fall of the Iewes, the vocation of the Gentiles, and their owne conuersion. Pareus.