Argument

The blessed Paul, writing to the Romans, says, “Since, then, I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I make much of my ministry, in the hope that I may somehow stir to jealousy those who are my own flesh.” And again, in another place: “For he who worked effectively in Peter for the apostleship to the circumcised was mighty in me also toward the Gentiles.” If, then, he was the apostle of the Gentiles — for in Acts too God said to him, “Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles” — what did he have to do with the Hebrews? Why did he write a letter to them as well? Especially since, besides all this, they were badly disposed toward him, as can be seen from many places. Listen to what James says to him: “You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are who believe… and they have all been told about you that you teach people to abandon the law.” And he often had a great many disputes over this. [a]

Why, then, someone might ask, since he was so learned in the law — for he was instructed in the law at the feet of Gamaliel, and he had great zeal for it, and he was especially able to refute them on that ground — why did God not send him to the Jews? Because for that very reason they were all the more fierce in their hostility toward him. “For they will not put up with you,” God says to him, “but go far away from here to the Gentiles, for they will not accept your testimony about me.” To which he replies, “Yes, Lord, they know that in every synagogue I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you; and when the blood of your witness Stephen was shed, I too was standing by and approving his death, and I kept the clothes of those who killed him.”

And this, he says, is the sign and proof that they will not believe him. For that is how it is. When a man leaves any people, if he is one of the least of them and of no account, he does not greatly upset those he has left. But if he is one of the distinguished men, one of their zealous partisans who cares about these things, he grieves them and upsets them beyond all measure, because more than anyone he overturns their whole system in the eyes of the crowd.

And besides this, there was something else. What was it? Those who were with Peter had also been with Christ, and had seen signs and wonders. But Paul had the benefit of none of these things. He was among the Jews, and suddenly he deserted them and became one of the believers. This, more than anything, advanced our cause. For the others might seem to bear witness even out of gratitude, and someone could have said that they testified to those things out of love for their Teacher. But this man, who testifies to the resurrection, was one who had heard only a voice. That is why you see them waging war on him so passionately, doing everything they could to kill him, and stirring up riots.

The unbelievers, then, were hostile to him for this reason. But why were the believers? Because in preaching to the Gentiles he was compelled to preach Christianity in its purity; and even if he was found doing so in Judea, he did not care. For Peter and those with him, since they preached in Jerusalem at a time of great fierceness, had to require the keeping of the law. But this man had complete freedom. The converts from the Gentiles, too, outnumbered the Jews, because they were outside. And this weakened the law, and they did not hold it in such great reverence, though he preached everything in its purity. That, no doubt, is why they try to shame him in this matter with numbers, saying, “You see, brother, how many tens of thousands of Jews there are who have come together.” This is why they hated him and turned away from him: because, he says, “they have been told about you that you teach people to abandon the law.”

Why, then, does he send a letter to the Jews, when he was not their teacher? And where were the people he sent it to? It seems to me they were in Jerusalem and Palestine. How, then, does he send them a letter? In the same way that he baptized, though he had not been commissioned to baptize. For he says, “I was not sent to baptize” — not that he was forbidden, but he does it as a secondary matter. And how could he fail to write to those for whom he was willing even to become accursed? So he says, “You should know that our brother Timothy has been set free. If he comes soon, I will see you together with him.” [f]

For he had not yet been arrested. He spent two years in chains in Rome; then he was set free; then he went to Spain and saw the Jews there too in the same way; and then he returned to Rome, where he was put to death by Nero. So the letter to Timothy was later than this letter. For there he says, “I am now ready to be offered”; and there he also says, “At my first defense no one stood with me.”

In many places the Hebrew believers had to struggle with persecution. As he says, writing to the Thessalonians, “You became imitators of the churches of Judea”; and writing to these very people, he says, “You joyfully accepted the plundering of your property.” Do you see them in the fight? And if people treated the apostles this way, not only in Judea but wherever they were among the Gentiles too, what would they not have done to the believers? That, you see, is why he took such great care for them. When he says, “I am going to Jerusalem to serve the saints”; and again, when he urges the Corinthians to generosity and tells them that the Macedonians had already made their contribution, and says, “If it is fitting that I go too” — this is what he means. And when he says, “Only that we should remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do” — he is showing this. And when he says, “They gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised” — he is showing this.

But this was not for the sake of the poor who were there, but so that by it we might have a share in the good work. For we did not divide up the care of the poor between us the way we divided the preaching — we to the Gentiles, they to the circumcised. And everywhere you see him taking great care for them, as was only reasonable.

Among the other nations, where there were both Jews and Greeks, it was not like this. But there, at that time, the Jews still seemed to have authority and independence, and to manage many things by their own laws, since the government was not yet settled nor brought fully under the Romans; and so, naturally, they exercised a great tyranny. In other cities — at Corinth, for instance — they beat the ruler of the synagogue before the proconsul’s judgment seat, and Gallio “paid no attention to any of these things.” But it was not like that in Judea. You see that in other cities they bring them before the magistrates and need help from them and from the Gentiles. But here they paid no attention to any of that: they convene a Sanhedrin themselves and kill whomever they please. That is how they put Stephen to death; that is how they beat the apostles, without bringing them before the rulers; that is how they were about to put Paul to death, if the commander had not thrown himself upon them. For this was while the priests, while the temple, while the worship and the sacrifices were still standing. Look at Paul himself on trial before the high priest, saying, “I did not know that he was the high priest” — and this in the presence of the ruler. For at that time they had great power. Think, then, what those who lived in Jerusalem and Judea were likely to suffer.

Here, then, is a man who prays to become accursed for those who were not yet believers; who serves the faithful so devotedly that he travels himself, if need be; who everywhere took great care of them. Let us not be surprised if he encourages and comforts them by letter too, and sets them on their feet when they were tottering and had fallen. For, in a word, they were worn down and in despair because of their many afflictions. He shows this near the end, when he says, “Therefore lift up the hands that hang down, and the weak knees”; and again, “Yet a little while, and he who is coming will come and will not delay”; and again, “If you are without discipline… then you are illegitimate children and not sons.” [m]

They were Jews, and they had learned from their fathers to expect both their good things and their bad things here and now, and to live accordingly. But then, when the good news came, the opposite was taught: their good things lay in hope, and after death, while their troubles were close at hand. So, though they had already patiently endured a great deal, it was likely that many would lose heart. This is what he speaks to.

But we will unfold these things at the proper time. For now: he had to write to those he cared for so greatly. While the reason he was not sent to them is plain, he was not forbidden to write. And he shows that they were losing heart when he says, “Lift up the hands that hang down, and the weak knees, and make straight paths”; and again, “God is not unjust, so as to forget your work and love.” For the soul caught in many trials was turned aside even from the faith. That is why he urges them “to pay attention to the things they have heard,” and that there should not be “an evil heart of unbelief.” For this reason too, in this letter especially, he argues at length about faith, and after much reasoning he shows at the end that God promised the people of old good things in hand as well, and yet gave them nothing.

And besides these things, he establishes two points, so that they would not think themselves abandoned: first, that they should bear nobly whatever happens to them; second, that they should confidently look for their reward. For truly God will not overlook those who stand with Abel and the long line of righteous people after him who went unrewarded.

He draws comfort from three sources. First, from what Christ suffered, as Christ himself says: “The servant is not greater than his master.” Next, from the good things stored up for the believers. Third, from the evils; and he presses this point not only from what is still to come, which would be less persuasive, but also from the past, and from what had happened to their fathers. Christ too does the same: at one time he says, “The servant is not greater than his master”; again, “There are many rooms with the Father”; and he pronounces countless woes on the unbelievers.

He also speaks a great deal of both the New and the Old Covenant, for this was useful to him in proving the resurrection. So that they would not refuse to believe that Christ rose because of what he had suffered, he confirms it from the prophets, and shows that the holy things belong not to the Jews but to us. For the temple was still standing, and the sacrifices; that is why he says, “So let us go outside, bearing his disgrace.” But this too was turned into an argument against him:

“If these things are a shadow, if these things are an image, how is it that they have not passed away or given way now that the truth has been revealed? Why are they still flourishing?”

This too he quietly hints will happen, and at a time close at hand.

Moreover, he makes it plain that they had been in the faith and in afflictions for a long time, when he says, “By this time you ought to be teachers,” and, “so that there will not be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief,” and, “you became imitators of those who through patience inherit the promises.”