Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Hitherto Paul has taught that we are justified not by the Law, but by faith in Christ: now he shows the great excellence and loftiness, as well as the utility, of this righteousness which Christ has brought to us.
First, then, he reviews the six fruits of this righteousness, which I shall enumerate at verse 2, by which it comes about that we glory not only in the hope of blessedness, but even in tribulations, because the love of God and of Christ has been poured forth into our hearts.
Secondly, at verse 12, he sets the grace of Christ over against the sin of Adam and gives it precedence, teaching that, just as through the disobedience of one man, Adam, we were made sinners and subject to death, so through the obedience of Christ we obtain righteousness and eternal life.
Thirdly, at verse 20, he teaches that the Law entered in between Adam and Christ, so that the offense might abound, and this for the purpose that where the offense has abounded, there also the grace of Christ might abound.
Vulgate Text: Romans 5:1-21
1. Being justified therefore by faith, let us have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 2. through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we glory in the hope of the glory of the sons of God. 3. And not only so, but we glory also in tribulations, knowing that tribulation works patience; 4. and patience, trial; and trial, hope. 5. And hope does not confound, because the love of God has been poured forth into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. 6. For why did Christ, while we were yet weak, in due time die for the ungodly? 7. For scarcely will anyone die for a righteous man: yet for a good man perhaps someone might dare to die. 8. But God commends His charity toward us: because, while we were yet sinners, in due time, 9. Christ died for us: much more, therefore, being now justified in His blood, shall we be saved from wrath through Him. 10. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son: much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved in His life. 11. And not only so, but we even glory in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. 12. Therefore as by one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death, and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned. 13. For until the Law sin was in the world: but sin was not imputed when there was no Law. 14. But death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned after the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a figure of Him who was to come. 15. But not as the offense, so also the gift: for if by the offense of one many died, much more the grace of God and the gift, by the grace of one man Jesus Christ, has abounded unto many. 16. And not as it was through one sin, so also is the gift: for the judgment indeed was of one unto condemnation, but the grace is of many offenses unto justification. 17. For if, by the offense of one, death reigned through one; much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift and of righteousness shall reign in life through the one Jesus Christ. 18. Therefore as by the offense of one upon all men unto condemnation; so also by the righteousness of one upon all men unto justification of life. 19. For as by the disobedience of one man many were made sinners; so also by the obedience of one many shall be made righteous. 20. Now the Law entered in that the offense might abound. But where the offense abounded, grace did much more abound; 21. that as sin reigned unto death, so also grace might reign through righteousness unto eternal life: through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Verse 1: Being Justified Therefore by Faith, Let Us Have Peace with God
1. BEING JUSTIFIED THEREFORE BY FAITH, LET US HAVE PEACE WITH GOD THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. — "Let us have peace": so read the Roman Bibles, Origen, Chrysostom, Theodoret, Ambrose, Theophylact; but the Syriac and Greek have the indicative, that is, "we have peace." For thus the Apostle aptly infers from the preceding, as if to say: As Ambrose and Toletus explain, we have peace, that is, reconciliation and friendship with God, from the fact that we have already been justified by faith in Christ. But, reading with the Roman editions and others, not "we have" but "let us have" peace, first Oecumenius and Anselm give this sense, as if Paul said: Since we are now justified through Christ, it is fitting that we all preserve peace in Christ, and that the Jews not continue to contend with the Gentiles about righteousness and precedence. But against this sense stands the word "with God," which signifies that the Apostle is speaking of the peace which we have not with men, but with God.
Whence secondly, St. Chrysostom and Theodoret thus explain it, as if to say: Let us have, that is, preserve, the peace, namely the friendship with God received in justification. This seems very literal.
Thirdly, and most genuinely, according to Paul's mind we will expound it thus, as if He said: Since we are now justified by faith and the grace of Christ, as I have so far demonstrated, let us have peace, that is, let us be of peaceful and tranquil mind, henceforth fearing no vengeance or condemnation from God; let us be of mind free, joyful, and serene from the terrors which an evil conscience is wont to bring, as being now reconciled with God and friends and sons of God. This peace, then, is the moral tranquility, serenity, and confidence of a just and good conscience, arising not from the certitude of divine faith by which one would most certainly believe his sins to have been remitted to him through Christ, as the Novatians would have it; but from conjectures and signs which give a certain moral certainty that we are righteous; when the conscience, having received the remission and pardon of crimes in baptism, or in the sacrament of Penance, in which it trusts, conscious now of no sin, neither anguishes nor gnaws at the mind; but, placid and peaceful, devotes itself to purity and holiness, fixing hope and love upon God and heavenly things, and tending straight to blessedness and eternal glory. This peace of conscience is a great good, as St. Tiburtius the martyr rightly said: "Every punishment is contemptible to us, when a pure conscience is our companion." On which see more at 1 Tim. 1:5.
Again, this peace is an impenetrable shield by which we receive and dash to pieces all the weapons of our enemies. Hear St. Leo, sermon 6 On the Nativity of Christ: "The whole world lies in evil; and, by the snares of the devil and his angels, it is harassed by innumerable temptations, that they may either terrify with adversity the man striving toward heavenly things, or corrupt him with prosperity; but greater is He who is in us than he who is against us; and for those who have peace with God and who say always to the Father with their whole heart, 'Thy will be done,' no contests can prevail, no conflicts can harm." He adds "just": because, denying assent of mind to the desires of the flesh, we indeed stir up the enmity against us of him who is the author of sin, but by serving His grace we establish unconquerable peace with God, so that we are not only subjected by obedience to our King, but also joined to Him in judgment. Wherefore, "He Himself will now finish all the wars for us: He who gave the willing will also give the doing, that we may be cooperators of His works, and may say with exultation of faith that prophetic word: The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defender of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?"
Verse 2: Through Whom Also We Have Access by Faith into This Grace
2. THROUGH WHOM ALSO WE HAVE ACCESS BY FAITH INTO THIS GRACE — namely of justification and the remission of sins, from which this peace follows.
Note: "and" here is not so much copulative as explicative and causal, and means the same as "inasmuch as," as if to say: Being justified, let us have peace through Jesus Christ, inasmuch as through Him we have access to this grace. So St. Chrysostom.
IN WHICH WE STAND, — that is, we persevere constantly; in Greek hestēkamen, that is, we stand erect, we remain firm.
WE GLORY IN HOPE. — ep' elpidi, that is, under hope, or on account of hope, or because we hope for the glory prepared for the sons of God: in Greek the word "of the sons" is lacking.
Note: The first fruit and excellence of righteousness is peace, verse 1. The second is the hope of glory, verse 2. The third is greatness of soul and gladness in adversities on account of the hope of glory. "To do and to suffer brave deeds is not the mark of a Roman, as Scaevola used to say, but of a Christian." The fourth is that through it we are made friends and beloved of God by charity, verse 5. The fifth is that through it we are adopted by God as sons, and we glory in Him as Father, verse 11. The sixth is the reward of eternal life, in the last verse.
Verse 3: And Not Only So, But We Glory Also in Tribulations
3. And not only so (namely, we glory in this hope, says Theophylact), BUT WE EVEN GLORY IN TRIBULATIONS, — which we suffer on account of Christ, or for Christ and the Christian life, reckoning that they are the distinguished gifts and benefits of God by which He bestows them upon us, perfects us, and promotes us to patience and every virtue, and especially to certain hope of future glory. For the Apostle himself gives this reason, when he adds: "Knowing that tribulation works patience." St. Bernard gives the same reason, sermon 17 on Psalm 90: "For," he says, "in tribulation the hope of glory is contained, indeed glory itself in tribulation, just as the hope of fruit is in the seed, so also the fruit itself is in the seed." He adds a second: because God promises and says, "I am with him in tribulation." This is what St. Martin replied to the devil who was lying that he was Christ and appearing in glory: "Christ does not appear to His own in this life except on the cross": so Sulpicius in his Life. Now who would not desire, who would not rejoice to be where Christ is, where God is? "It is good for me, O Lord," says St. Bernard in the same place, "rather to be in tribulation, provided You are with me, than to reign without You, to feast without You, to glory without You. It is good in tribulation rather to embrace You, to have You with me in the furnace, than to be without You even in heaven. For what have I in heaven, and what have I desired upon earth besides You?" Magnificently St. Augustine in the Sentences, no. 226: "In the present life," he says, "both temporal delights are sweet, and temporal tribulations are bitter. But who would not drink the cup of tribulation, fearing the fire of Gehenna? And who would not despise the sweetness of the world, longing for the goods of eternal life?"
KNOWING THAT TRIBULATION WORKS PATIENCE. — "Works," as a cause not efficient, but material, namely as the occasion, object, and stimulus of patience: on which see Chrysostom in moral homily 9. In like manner and sense it is commonly said that tormentors of martyrs, and the impious of the pious whom they harass, fashion a crown in heaven. For Paul speaks of the just who are constant and stout-hearted, who from tribulation come out stronger and more perfect, not of the timid and frivolous who yield and succumb to tribulation. St. Chrysostom adds and notes here that God, in this fallen state in which we overflow with concupiscence, has necessarily sent us tribulations to chastise and restrain it. For just as wild birds are tamed by the cage, untamed horses by the bridle, dogs by the leash: so through tribulations man, otherwise disordered and untamed, becomes mild, patient, pliable, obedient to God. Whence Hugh the Cardinal notes that the Apostle here suggests that patience is, as it were, a fruitful land, which tribulation works, that is, plows, cultivates, that it may bear the fruit of merits, in that sense in which Genesis 2 says Adam was placed in paradise to work it. Hence it is plain with what alacrity of spirit any tribulation should be received, as that which, like a diligent farmer, exercises our patience as though it were soil, that it may bring forth a rich crop of merits.
Verse 4: And Patience Trial, and Trial Hope
4. AND PATIENCE (works) TRIAL, — namely because it tests us and our virtue, as the furnace tests gold. Secondly and better, by patience is "worked" "trial," that is, the term of trial, namely the experiment (for this is what the Greek dokimē signifies, which is taken not actively but only passively), so that the mind of the one suffering may be proved and tested, and so that it may appear how much he esteems God and heavenly things (as being those for which he so generously suffers so much), and consequently how praiseworthy and exalted he is. So Cajetan and Toletus. St. James, in chapter 1, takes "trial" otherwise, when he says on the contrary that the trial of faith works patience, namely the very tribulation and persecution, which exercises and tests man: for these things bring about and stir up patience in that sense which I gave a little earlier. Wherefore St. Augustine, in the Sentences (which St. Prosper excerpted from him and which are had at the end of volume III of St. Augustine), no. 186: "Let not a man complain," he says, "when in those things which he justly possesses he suffers some adversities. For through the bitterness of inferior things he is taught to love better things, lest the wayfarer hastening to his fatherland love the inn beyond measure."
AND TRIAL (works) HOPE, — that is, the strength and vigor of hope. So St. Chrysostom and Anselm: for otherwise simply hope precedes and works patience and trial. Hence note against the Novatians: Although hope primarily rests upon the help and grace of God, secondarily it also rests upon the good works of patience and other things done from grace. Three things strengthen hope, says Bernard in the Sentences: First, is humility joined to wisdom; second, the firmness of constant patience; third, the truth of hidden inspiration.
Verse 5: And Hope Does Not Confound
5. And hope does not confound. — ou kataischynei, that is, it is not wont to put to shame, namely because it does not frustrate or deceive the one hoping, but certainly leads him to the attainment of the thing hoped for from God. It is otherwise with deceptive hope, which we place in men, which often deceives and therefore brings shame: so Theophylact and Anselm. For what are the hopes of mortals, except (as Plato used to say) the dreams of the waking, or rather of those who desire? "Hope," says St. Bernard, sermon 37 on the Canticles, "does not confound, because it infuses certitude; for through it the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are sons of God." Truly St. Augustine on that verse of Psalm 30, "You have hated those who observe vanities to no purpose: but I have hoped in the Lord": "I," he says, "who do not observe vanity, have hoped in the Lord. You hope in money, you observe vanity; you hope in honor and some loftiness of human power, you observe vanity; you hope in some powerful friend, you observe vanity. In all these things when you hope, either you expire and leave them here; or while you live, all things perish, and you fail in your hope. Isaiah recalls this vanity, saying: All flesh is grass, and all its glory as the flower of grass. The grass has withered, and its flower has fallen: but the word of the Lord remains forever. I, however, not as those who hope in vanities and observe them, but I have hoped in the Lord, who is not vanity," but truth itself and stability.
The same on that verse of Psalm 9, "Let them hope in You who know Your name": "Let them not hope," he says, "in those things which slip past in the changeableness of time, having nothing but Will Be and Was. Because what in them is future, when it comes, immediately becomes past, and what is awaited with desire is lost with sorrow. But in the nature of God there will not be anything as if it were not yet, or were as if it now is not; but there is only that which is, and that itself is eternity. Let them therefore cease to hope in and love temporal things, and let them transfer themselves to eternal hope, who know the name of Him who said: I am who I am."
But excellently, from this foundation of the Apostle, namely that hope does not confound, St. Bernard rouses all to hope in God, sermon 9 on the Psalm "He who dwells": "Because," he says, "You are, O Lord, my hope, You have made the Most High my refuge. Whatever must be done, whatever must be avoided, whatever must be borne, whatever must be performed, You, O Lord, are my hope. This one thing is for me the cause of all the promises, this is the whole reason of my expectation. Let another claim merit, let him boast that he bears the burden of the day and the heat, let him say that he fasts twice on the Sabbath, finally let him glory that he is not as the rest of men: but for me to cling to God is good, to place my hope in the Lord God. Let him hope who will in the uncertainty of riches. I, however, do not hope even for the necessities of life except from You, trusting indeed in Your word, in which I have cast away all things. For to You the poor man is left, You will be the helper of the orphan."
Then in any particular case we must hope: "and I shall hope through You to obtain. If wars rise against me, if the world rages, if the malign one roars, if the flesh lusts against the spirit, I will hope in You. Let him who says: 'Because You, Lord, are my hope,' cast his thought upon the Lord, knowing that he is to be nourished by Him, as it is written: Casting all your care upon Him, for He has care of you. For why, if we are wise in these things, why do we hesitate to cast away utterly the wretched, vain, useless, seductive hopes, and to cling with the entire devotion of soul to this one hope so solid, so blessed?" And assigning the cause of this solidity of hope, he adds: "If anything is impossible to Him, if anything is even difficult, seek another in whom you may hope: but by His word He is able to do all things. What is easier to say? Or do you not now doubt His ability, but is His very will suspect to you? When does that majesty which so earnestly counsels us to hope in itself, fail one who hopes in it? It plainly does not forsake those who hope in it. He will help them, it says, and rescue them from sinners. Ask, by what merits? Because they hoped in Him. A sweet cause, yet efficacious and irrefutable. Who has hoped in Him and been confounded?"
And this is a sharp stimulus which stirred up the holy heroes, and even now stirs them up to dare great things, to undertake bravely for God or to bear heroic and arduous matters. For they knew that they would not be confounded, because hope does not confound. Of these St. Bernard, sermon 32 on the Canticles: "Now indeed," he says, "I think the figure of a great paterfamilias, or of royal majesty, appears to those who, approaching to the deep heart, having been made more magnanimous from greater liberty of spirit and purity of conscience, are accustomed to dare greater things." He gives examples: "Such was Moses, who dared to say to God: If I have found grace in Your sight, show me Yourself. Such was Philip, who urged that the Father be shown to himself and his fellow-disciples. Such also was Thomas, who refused to believe unless he might touch with his own hand the wound and the pierced side. Small faith, but in a wonderful way descending from greatness of soul. Such too was David, who himself said to God: My heart has said to You, my face has sought You: Your face, O Lord, I will seek. Such, then, dare great things, because they are great; and what they dare they obtain, according to the word of promise to them, which is of this sort: Whatever place the sole of your foot shall tread upon shall be yours. For great faith deserves great things; and to the extent that you stretch forth the foot of confidence in the goods of the Lord, to that extent you shall possess." And a little later: "Therefore the great Bridegroom comes to meet such great spirits, and will magnify Himself in dealing with them, so that he who is such may say: For He who is mighty has done great things to me. His eyes shall see the King in His beauty going before him to the lovely places of the desert, to the flowers of roses, and lilies of the valleys, to the pleasant gardens and the watered fountains, to the delights of storerooms, and to the fragrances of aromatic spices, finally to the very secrets of the chamber. Blessed is he who has fulfilled his desire from these."
BECAUSE THE LOVE OF GOD HAS BEEN POURED FORTH INTO OUR HEARTS BY THE HOLY SPIRIT WHO HAS BEEN GIVEN TO US. — You will ask, what charity of God is here understood?
First, St. Chrysostom, Theophylact, Ambrose, Cajetan, and Toletus reply that the charity of God is the charity which is in God Himself, by which God loves us: this is poured forth, or, as the Greek has it, ekkechytai, that is, has been poured out "into our hearts." Because in them it effects charity, grace, and all the gifts and virtues of the Holy Spirit. To this sense the following words greatly favor, especially verse 8. In a similar way it is commonly said: The liberality of the king has been poured out upon this prince; as if Paul said: Hope does not confound, because the charity and liberality of God, in whom we hope, has been poured out and lavished upon us, namely because, no longer by the righteousness of the Law, but by that of faith, we have received from the charity of God the Holy Spirit, by whom we have been made partakers of the divine nature, friends, dear ones, beloved of God, and endowed and enriched by Him with all graces and virtues. But if before we were such, God gave His Son for us unto death; much more now, after we have been made such, will He give to us, as friends and sons of His, as a most loving father, those things which we hope for and ask from Him, and which He Himself has promised to His sons.
Secondly, St. Augustine, On the Spirit and the Letter, XXXII; St. Bernard, epistle 107, Anselm, and the Scholastic Doctors generally, indeed even the Council of Trent, session VI, chapter VII, here understand by "the charity of God" not that which is in God Himself, uncreated and eternal, but that which is in us, created by God and given in time, namely that which God pours into us, that we may love Him: for that is properly said to be diffused or poured forth, as if Paul said: The hope of eternal things does not confound us, because the charity we have, by which we love God and are God's friends: now God will not confound His friends who hope in Him; nay rather, He has prepared for those same who love Him these hoped-for eternal goods: for the little word "for" gives the cause of the preceding, namely why hope does not confound.
Note: By the word "to be poured out," Paul suggests that charity extends itself to perfecting all motions and acts of the soul: so St. Thomas.
Thirdly, the sense will be most full if you take both charities of God, namely the created and the uncreated; and Origen, Theodoret, Oecumenius, and St. Thomas explain this passage of both, as if Paul said: The uncreated charity of God has poured itself out through the created charity diffused and poured forth from itself into our hearts; and therefore the hope which we have in God will not confound or shame us, in that sense which I have already given.
Note what Paul says: "Through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us." Hence it is plain that in justification not only the grace of the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit Himself, is given to us as it were as the first gift of God; for not only does the Holy Spirit communicate to us charity and His gifts, but through them the Holy Spirit Himself dwells in us: for though He was previously in the soul by essence, power, and presence; yet He is given again to the soul when it is justified, that He may be in it in a new way, namely as it were in His own temple, and may sanctify it through charity and make it a partaker of His love. For He Himself is the first and uncreated love.
Hence the error of the Master of the Sentences is refuted, Book I of the Sentences, dist. 16 and 17, who teaches that the charity which is in us is not a created and infused quality, but is the Holy Spirit Himself, who by Himself alone, without an infused habit of charity, works in us and with us the act of love; for the Apostle here asserts that charity is poured forth into our hearts: but the Holy Spirit cannot be poured forth except through charity and other created and infused gifts.
Secondly, because the Apostle here distinguishes charity from the Holy Spirit, as an effect from its cause, for he says: "The charity of God has been poured forth through the Holy Spirit;" therefore charity is something other and distinct from the Holy Spirit. Just as the light poured out in this house through a lamp is something other than the lamp diffusing the light.
You will say: St. Augustine, in his book On the Trinity, chapters 7 and 8, and elsewhere, says that charity, than which nothing is better, is God, and that we love God by the charity which is God. This opinion gave the Master of the Sentences occasion for erring.
I reply that Augustine speaks in the manner of the Platonists: for he himself was a Platonist before his conversion. Now the Platonists used this phrase to say that we are good by the goodness of God, loving by the love of God, wise by the wisdom of God, that we know the truth by the unchangeable truth which is God; by which phrase they wished only to signify that the goodness, love, wisdom, and truth by which we are formally good, loving, wise, true, are a certain participation of the uncreated goodness, love, wisdom, and truth which is in God; not, however, that by the love, wisdom, and goodness which is in God, we are formally loving, wise, good: for this is impossible. There is therefore a metonymy in this phrase; for when it is said: Our charity is God, the sense is: Our created charity flows from the uncreated charity, which is God Himself; and thus our charity is not formally, but originally, causally, and participatively, God Himself.
Again, from this passage of the Apostle it can be proved that righteousness is a quality and a gift inhering in us. For this is suggested by the word "is poured forth into our hearts," and the phrase "by the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us." So the Council of Trent, in the passage already cited. Whence St. Augustine, Book III On Christian Doctrine, ch. 10: "By charity," he says, "I mean the motion of the soul to the enjoyment of God for His own sake, and of oneself and one's neighbor for the sake of God." And in his book On the Morals of the Church: "That virtue," he says, "(charity or love) which is the most upright affection of our soul itself, if it is in another, helps that we be joined to God; if it is in us, it itself joins us." Moreover, St. Augustine, Sentence 348, teaches from this passage that many Christians become one through one Holy Spirit and one charity by the unity of love: "Of many men," he says, "there are many souls and many hearts: but where, through love and faith, they cleave to God, they become one soul and one heart. If, then, the charity of God poured forth into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us, makes such great unity of many souls and many hearts; how much more in the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit does the eternal and unchangeable unity remain, as one undivided Trinity, one God, one light and one principle."
HAS BEEN POURED FORTH, — both in baptism, and in the works of penitence, charity, and other virtues, by which we are first justified or further justified; and also properly and especially in the imposition of hands, says St. Augustine, Book VI Against Julian, chapter 11, namely in the sacrament of Confirmation: for in it the strength and fullness of the Holy Spirit are given and poured forth. Note this passage of Augustine: for from it, against the Novatians, it is plain that Confirmation confers grace, indeed the fullness of grace, and consequently is a Sacrament of the new Law. For this imposition of hands is not Ordination, but Confirmation: because this diffusion of charity which is wrought through it pertains not to clerics alone, but to all Christians. For the Apostle here speaks to all Christians, who formerly soon after baptism received the sacrament of Confirmation, while clerics alone received Ordination.
Furthermore, the Holy Spirit pours this charity into us, in order that through it He may render the Law and yoke of Christ easy and sweet. Hear St. Augustine in the Sentences, no. 222: "Every command of God is light to one who loves. Nor is the saying 'My burden is light' to be understood for any other reason, except because through the Holy Spirit charity is poured forth in our hearts, that loving we may act freely: because what one does through fear, he does slavishly. Nor is the mind upright when it would prefer, if it could be, that what is right not be commanded."
Verse 6: For Why Did Christ, While We Were Yet Weak, in Due Time Die for the Ungodly?
6. FOR WHY DID CHRIST, WHILE WE WERE YET WEAK, IN DUE TIME DIE FOR THE UNGODLY? — This is an anticipation. For someone will say: How does it follow that the friendship and charity of God has been poured forth into our hearts: therefore hope does not confound? The Apostle here proves this consequence in that manner which I have stated from Chrysostom a little earlier on the preceding verse.
Note: The Apostle here calls sinners "weak": for they are weak from the disease of sin and consequently impotent to the works of salvation and to procuring their own salvation. So Theodoret.
IN DUE TIME. — In Greek kata kairon, that is, opportunely, at an opportune time; namely when, as St. Jerome says to Algasia, epist. 151, question 2 and 7: "All things were full of unbelief and sin, and most needed redemption and a physician." Or, as Theodoret: "When the time prescribed by the Father had been completed." So also Theophylact. Or, as Sedulius: "When it was the last age of the world." For thus the Hebrews say ka'eth, that is, "according to time," for what we say, "At this time, in this age."
Ambrose and St. Anselm explain it differently: "According to the time," they say, that is, for a time, namely a short time, Christ died, because on the third day He rose again.
Chrysostom also takes it otherwise, joining these words with "weak"; as if to say: When we were weak according to the time, that is, for that time in which we were weak; namely when it was the time of weakness and of the Law, not of grace, then Christ died: but the first sense is more genuine and agrees better with the Greek phrase and with Paul's mind.
Verse 7: For Scarcely Will Anyone Die for a Righteous Man
7. FOR SCARCELY WILL ANYONE DIE FOR A RIGHTEOUS MAN: YET FOR A GOOD MAN PERHAPS SOMEONE MIGHT DARE TO DIE. — St. Jerome, to Algasia, epist. 151, question 7, brings forward five senses of this passage.
The first is that of Marcion, who, making two gods, one of the Old Testament, the other of the New, said that the former was here called "just" and severe, for whom none or few have undergone death; but this latter, "good" and kind, for whom very many martyrs have died.
The second is that of Arius, asserting that Christ is "just," while the Father is "good."
The third is that of others, whom Eucherius afterwards followed, in his Questions on the New Testament, who say that the "just" is the Old Law; for it was the law of righteousness. And the "good" is Christ and the Law of the Gospel: for this is the law of goodness and clemency, whence also it has very many saints and martyrs.
The fourth is of those who think that the same one is here called "just" and "good," namely Christ.
The fifth, which pleases St. Jerome, is: "for the just and good," that is, for justice and a good cause, e.g., for defending truth, scarcely and rarely does anyone expose himself to death.
The sixth is that of the Ambrosian Commentary: the "just" is the perfect man, the "good" is the simple and innocent man, out of compassion for whom one would more easily die for him.
The seventh is that of Cajetan: the "just" is one endowed with virtue, the "good" is one excelling in sanctity and religion.
The eighth is that of St. Thomas: the same one is "just" and "good," in this sense, as if to say: Scarcely does anyone die for a just man. I said "scarcely," because it can happen that someone may die for a good man, that is, a just man, as if to say: There are scarcely any; there are nevertheless some, who expose themselves to death for a good and just man.
The ninth is of others, who explain it thus: for the just, that is, for justice, scarcely anyone; for a good man, that is, for one's own benefit, some dare to die.
Tenth, best and most genuinely, Catharinus and Vatablus think that the "just" is here called the holy man, but the "good" is he who is beneficent, and who by his beneficence wins the love of many for himself; so that to agathou is set for agathopoiou, or agathopoiountos, for thus it is used and taken in 1 Kings 25:15; Psalm 72:1; Galatians 5:22 (where goodness, which is a fruit of the Holy Spirit, is the same as beneficence); 1 Kings 29:6; Proverbs 22:9, in the Hebrew, where it says thus, tob ayin, that is, "good of eye," that is, as our translator renders, "prone to mercy, shall be blessed." Thus Codrus, the Decii, Samson, and others met death for their fatherland which was good, that is, beneficent, to them. So also Leonidas, king of the Lacedaemonians, about to break into the camp of Xerxes with three hundred men, when asked by the Ephors whether he wanted anything: "I," he said, "go in name as if to fight for the Greeks, but in reality to die for my fatherland." And to his men: "Dine, comrades, as though about to dine in the underworld;" and so, breaking in upon the enemy and fighting most bravely, he fell.
Note: For "audeat" (would dare), in Greek it is tolmai, that is, would endure.
Verse 8: But God Commends His Charity Toward Us
8. BUT GOD COMMENDS HIS CHARITY — so that without any weariness or trouble to Himself, by a single word and nod, He could accomplish the same thing: thus Oecumenius. The whole of the Apostle's discourse here tends to prove that among men there is none of such great charity that he would willingly die for a just man, and few and rare are those who would undergo death for their benefactors: yet Christ from His own charity and that of His Father toward us, willed to die for us, and us being unjust and malefactors and sinners: therefore Christ far surpasses and transcends all the charity of all men. Behold here and stand astonished at the immensity of the love of God and Christ. The object of love is the good: nor do men love anything except because it is beautiful, wise, rich, delicate, noble, and in sum good. What good have You found in us, O Lord, what beauty that You should love it? We were foul, foolish, beggars, putrid, base, wretched and miserable. "I loved the foul," He says, "that I might make them beautiful; I loved enemies, that I might make them friends; I loved the foolish, that I might render them wise; I loved beggars, that I might make them rich; the base, that I might make them noble; the wretched, that I might make them blessed and glorious." This is the sublimity and nobility of divine love, by which it transcends all created loves, so that it does not find its object, but creates it by loving. For the reason for loving in God is sought and founded not in the object loved, but in God Himself the lover. For He loves in order that He may communicate His goods to the wicked, that He may pour His love into His enemies, and from enemies make them friends, indeed sons and heirs, as St. Dionysius teaches in his book On the Divine Names. Furthermore, this love of God He makes admirable and stupendous, in that He gave not an angel, not a Seraph, but Himself for us, the basest little worms of the earth: and He gave Himself not in any way whatever, but unto death and the cross. He could have redeemed and saved us in a thousand ways, but in order to show His divine and immense love toward us, He willed to give Himself as a ransom for us, and to pour out all His blood, spirit, and life for us. O love, how greatly You have loved us! O love! O wonder!
Verse 9: We Shall Be Saved from Wrath Through Him
9. WE SHALL BE SAVED FROM WRATH THROUGH HIM. — "From wrath," that is, from the just vengeance by which God punishes and will punish sinners, especially on the Day of Judgment. So St. Augustine, in book III On the Trinity, ch. 16. Clear is this reasoning of the Apostle.
Verse 10: For If, When We Were Enemies, We Were Reconciled to God
10. FOR IF, WHEN WE WERE ENEMIES, WE WERE RECONCILED TO GOD BY THE DEATH OF HIS SON: MUCH MORE, BEING RECONCILED, SHALL WE BE SAVED BY HIS LIFE. — "By His life," namely by which Christ Himself, after He rose from the dead, now lives a blessed and glorious life. This is the argumentation of the Apostle: If Christ deigned to die for us, and dying, through His death reconciled us to God the Father; much more He, now living in glory, will complete the work which He began, and will save us, now reconciled to Himself and to the Father, and as a mediator will effect the resurrection of our soul and body: for now there is no labor of death or suffering for Him, and He is in the highest glory, power, and love of us, so that without any toil He may save us. Behold, this is the charity of God and Christ toward us, of which He treated in verse 5 and following, as if to say: Among men there is none of such great charity: for to prove this He introduces and exaggerates the charity of God toward us. See St. Augustine, book XIII On the Trinity, ch. 10.
Verse 11: And Not Only So, But We Even Glory in God
11. And not only so, as if to say: Not only do we glory in the hope of glory, nor only in tribulations, as I said in verse 3; for to that he returns after a long parenthesis. See Canon 38. BUT WE ALSO GLORY IN GOD (that is, we glory and proclaim that God is to us Father, friend, intimate, guardian, protector, and above measure our Lover, as St. Chrysostom says, and that through the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ), THROUGH WHOM WE HAVE NOW RECEIVED RECONCILIATION. — Otherwise Anselm: "We glory," he says, "in God," in this, that we consider that we shall be with Him in glory. Finally, Theodoret refers these words to what immediately precedes, as if to say with Paul: Not only do we hope for salvation in the future, but also in the present we glory in the Lord. But the first exposition of Chrysostom is more in line with the mind and spirit of the Apostle.
Verse 12: Therefore as by One Man Sin Entered into This World
12. THEREFORE, AS BY ONE MAN SIN ENTERED INTO THIS WORLD. — "Therefore," namely because Christ loved us with such great charity, as I have already shown, that by His death He reconciled us to the Father. For the Apostle here proceeds to show the magnitude of Christ's charity toward men, as if to say: "Therefore," that is, now in order to declare more fully the charity of Christ toward men, therefore I say that He is the second Adam, and that on account of the charity and benefits conferred upon men, He is more our parent than Adam was, since the latter is the author of death, but Christ is the author of life to all His sons.
AS BY ONE MAN SIN ENTERED INTO THIS WORLD. — It is an anantapodoton. For the other part of the simile or comparison is missing, and it must be supplied in this way: So through one man, namely Christ, justice entered into the world, and through justice life, and so life passed unto all: in whom all are justified and vivified, whoever have been reborn from Christ through baptism and grace: that this must be supplied is clear from verse 15 and following; indeed, as Origen and Cajetan rightly noted, the Apostle himself, after a long hyperbaton — by which he is carried away elsewhere in his usual manner — supplies and completes the same thought in verse 18. Similarly he does in Ephesians III, where, after a long digression, he finally fills out and completes in verse 14 the sentence begun in verse 1. See canon 38. Salmeron adapts this differently, namely, that these things depend on what precedes, as if Paul were saying: "Therefore" (namely, that we may glory in Christ and through Christ) we have received reconciliation through Christ: just as on the contrary we have received and incurred sin, death, and damnation through one man, namely Adam. But this recalling and underlying sense of what precedes is more difficult and complex. "Through one," Erasmus translates as "on account of one." But wrongly, and against all interpreters: for the Greek dia with the genitive means "through," not "on account of."
You will ask, who is this one man? Ambrose answers it is Eve. But it is clear from what follows that it is not Eve but Adam: for Paul opposes him to Christ. For although Eve sinned first, nevertheless Adam was the primary cause, both of generation and of original sin and its propagation: because in him, as in a head, our innocence and original justice were established. Hence the opinion of those who maintain that, if Adam had not sinned, although Eve sinned, original sin would not have been transmitted, is very probable. So in I II, Quaest. 81, art. 5, many think along with St. Thomas: although some hold the contrary as probable, saying that under Adam Eve is also included. For Adam and Eve were one flesh, and as it were one person: whence it seems to follow that whether Eve alone had sinned or Adam alone had sinned, all his descendants would have contracted original sin from her.
Thirdly, to omit the Indians and other pagans, who cannot truly be said to have imitated the sin of Adam, of which they have heard nothing: the Apostle teaches that all men have sinned in Adam; therefore even infants sinned in Adam: but infants can have no actual sin: therefore it is necessary that they have original sin propagated from Adam.
Fourthly, because the Council of Mileve, canon 2, teaches that this passage of the Apostle must be understood of original sin, which is transmitted by generation. Erasmus replies that the Council of Mileve was a particular council, and therefore he is not bound by its decrees. But he errs: for this Council was approved by Innocent I, as is evident from his letter to that Council; and the Council of Trent (which was ecumenical) renewed the same decree in the same words, session V, canon 4.
You will say: St. Chrysostom on this verse and on verse 19 says that we are born and are sinners and disobedient from Adam, not properly, but improperly, namely sinners, that is, subject to punishment and guilty of death, that is, mortal, passible, miserable. I respond: St. Chrysostom means to say that we are born sinners from Adam, not properly, that is, not by our own act, but by another's, namely Adam's, from which we contract the guilt of original sin, by which we are guilty and subject to death. For that St. Chrysostom believed and taught original sin to be inherent in each man is clear both from other places of his and most especially from his homily 40 on 1 Corinthians.
SIN ENTERED. — The Pelagians, denying original sin, as also the Anabaptists, Faber and Zwingli (to whom Erasmus has paved the way here), teach that "sin" here is to be taken metonymically, for the punishment of sin, that is, death, which alone they say passed unto all; or secondly, they say that sin itself passed not by propagation, but by imitation, because all those sinning afterward following Adam, even unaware, in fact imitated him. Hence the Commentary ascribed to St. Jerome, which is not by Jerome but by Pelagius: "Sin," he says, "entered into the world," through Adam; it entered, I say, by example or form, because Adam gave to all the example and form of sin. But these expositions, or rather evasions and shifts, cannot stand with the words of Paul; for, as St. Augustine rightly noted in his book On the Merits of Sins, ch. 8, 9 and 10, the Apostle says that sin entered, and through sin death: therefore by sin he does not understand death, but sin properly so called, which is the cause of death.
Secondly, because the Apostle says that sin entered through Adam, just as justice entered through Christ; but justice entered the world through Christ not by imitation, nor only in its effect, but properly through itself, and through the propagation and communication of Christ: therefore in like manner sin entered the world through Adam.
A second exposition of this passage, not unlike the first, is that of Theodoret, who asserts that the sin of Adam passed to his descendants not by propagation, but by occasion and incitement; because, namely, from Adam's sin we are all born mortal, miserable, lustful, and from this it comes about that we fall into many sins. Whence it is clear that Theodoret does not take "sin" here properly, but metonymically, so that of course "sin" is the same as a propensity and proclivity to sinning, namely so that "sin" is the same as concupiscence. But this exposition is refuted by the same arguments as the first. Furthermore, Theodoret's argument is this: Because, he says, the Apostle in verse 19 says that this sin passed unto many, not unto all, as he would have said if he had understood original sin itself: therefore by "sin" he understands the proneness to sinning; for not all, but many, are prone to sin. But this reasoning is weak and worthless: for "many" here, as also elsewhere, is the same as "all." For so the Apostle himself explains in verses 12 and 18. Note however that Theodoret did believe in original sin, as is clear from chapter 12 in the Epitome of Divine Decrees, where he confesses and establishes it.
Thirdly, Cajetan teaches that here the Apostle only means to say that all the descendants of Adam incur the debt, or necessity, of contracting original sin and death: but not that in fact all incur sin itself; for it is probable, he says, that the Blessed Virgin did not incur original sin: again, it is probable that not all the descendants of Adam incurred death: for Korah, Dathan and Abiram descended alive into hell.
But it is certain that this passage of the Apostle must be understood not only of the necessity of contracting original sin, but also of original sin itself, which in fact all contract. For he means to say that in fact all the descendants of Adam draw and incur this sin from Adam. For so the Church has always understood and understands this passage, which in the Council of Orange, of Mileve, of Trent, sess. V, can. 2, 3, 4, from this passage of the Apostle proves and defines that all men, even little ones, contract original sin. And this is clear from the very words of the Apostle: for he himself says, not the necessity of sinning, but sin itself entered the world, and through sin death, and he adds: "And so death passed unto all men," namely as sin passed unto all men: but not only the necessity of dying, but also actual death itself passes unto all: therefore in like manner not only the necessity of sinning, but sin itself in act passes unto all.
To Cajetan's argument I respond that the privilege and exception of the one Blessed Virgin, or of a few others, of whom we must speak elsewhere, does not weaken the general law. For there is no law so general that it does not suffer an exception.
AND BY SIN DEATH, AND SO DEATH PASSED UPON ALL MEN. — Therefore Seneca errs, and with him the philosophers, whose common opinion is this: "Death is to man natural, not a penalty;" rather indeed "death is to man a penalty, not natural," as the Apostle teaches here, and Wisdom ch. 2: "God," it says, "created man inextinguishable," that is, immortal and incorruptible, in Greek ep' aphtharsia, that is, for immortality, or unto immortality, namely so that he might be immortal, if he were willing to obey God and persist in his innocence. "But by the envy of the devil" sin entered, and through sin "death entered into the world." Cicero therefore wrongly accused nature of being cruel to men, and of consigning them to diseases and death. Wrongly again Pythagoras, and after him Origen, judged the sins which the soul before being joined to the body had committed in heaven to be the cause of death and the miseries of man.
Beautifully concerning these things St. Augustine, in book V Against Julian, ch. 14 and 15, speaks thus: "In the third book On the Republic, Tully (Cicero) says that man is brought forth into life by nature not as by a mother, but as by a stepmother, with a body naked, fragile and weak; with a mind anxious for troubles, low for fears, soft for labors, prone to lusts, in which however there is, as it were, buried some fire of genius and mind," thus Cicero. After this Augustine adds: "Neither did this author say this badly, but he accused nature rather than the morals of the living, as the cause. He saw the matter, he did not know the cause: for it was hidden from him why there is a heavy yoke upon the sons of Adam from the day of their coming forth from their mother's womb, even unto the day of burial; for since he was not learned in the sacred Scriptures, he did not know original sin." And immediately concerning Hortensius and others rising a little higher, he adds: "Those who said that we were born for the sake of paying penalties on account of some crimes committed in a former life seem to have seen something; so that what is in Aristotle is true: that we are afflicted with a similar punishment as those, who once, when they had fallen into the hands of the Etruscan robbers, were killed by ingenious cruelty — whose living bodies were most aptly bound to the dead, opposites fitted to opposites: so our souls are coupled to bodies, as living to dead joined together." But here and elsewhere the Scriptures teach that the sin of our first parent Adam is the cause of his own death and of all his descendants', and consequently also of all the miseries of this life.
Note here first: At the same time as sin, death entered into man, so that, just as lictors are sent into the houses and goods of the guilty as soon as they have sinned, so death is sent into guilty men, and gradually gnaws upon them and consumes them. Therefore, while we live, we bear death (namely the principles and causes of death) in our entrails, which does not cease to procreate diseases and miseries for us, until it utterly mortifies and consumes us. Hence the Apostle says: "The body is dead because of sin:" dead, that is, so subject to the necessity of death and to miseries, that it seems to be not so much a living thing as a dead corpse. A great punishment of the soul therefore is that it is bound to this corpse, and with it must as it were waste away and die, as Hortensius said in St. Augustine.
Note secondly: The effect and as it were the daughter of sin is death: for sin procreates its own lictor, and guilt brings forth punishment, crime is the parent and cause of death. Hence St. James, ch. 1:15: "Concupiscence," he says, "when it has conceived, brings forth sin; and sin, when it has been consummated, generates death." Note here: the mother of sin is habitual concupiscence itself, the father is free will itself; the seed of the mother is the titillation and delight which concupiscence brings; the seed of the father is the very consent of the will to its being done; the offspring is sin existing in the very deed; this offspring either is imperfect, like an embryo and incomplete fetus — such is venial sin committed without deliberation; or it is offspring fully formed — such is mortal sin, deliberate and consummated by the consent of the will; but the grandchild of this father and mother is death, both present and future and the eternal of Gehenna. Hence in Job 18:13 it is said: "Let the firstborn death consume his (the wicked man's) arms." You will ask, what is here called "the firstborn death"? St. Gregory understands pride, because it is the beginning of sin; for it was the first death of the angel and of man's soul. Secondly, Philip the presbyter and Bede on Job ch. 18 take it to mean the devil, because he brought death into the world, and he is the inventor of his own death. So death is taken in Apocalypse 20:14. Thirdly, Lyranus understands premature and untimely death. Fourthly, the Hebrews understand the disease which will first seize the wicked man. Vatablus and Titelmannus understand a most grave and lethal disease. Fifthly, Pineda and Mercerus subtly take it as a death not common, but exceedingly bitter, mournful and violent, such as the death of the young and the rich: just as in Isaiah 14:30, "the firstborn of the poor" are called the most poor.
But the more apt, more reverent, and more genuine sense seems to be that which the Chaldean gives: that death properly so called, the daughter of the sinner himself and of sin, is called the firstborn, that is, the primeval daughter, princess and queen: because it, as if by right of primogeniture, has succeeded and dominates in the kingdom of sin, as the heir of its own father: for "firstborn" refers to "his," namely the impious one's, and to the impiety enclosed in the impious one, whose firstborn daughter Bildad in Job calls death, and he wishes that, just as impiety has dominated the impious one, so death, which is the daughter and heir of impiety, may dominate him likewise, and that completely, so that as widely as the kingdom of impiety extends, so widely also the kingdom of death may extend, as if to say: Death, which was first introduced into the world through sin, and so as it were the firstborn daughter of sin, has succeeded and reigns in the kingdom of sin as princess; that death, I say, may devour him, namely the impious one, and as a viper devours its own mother, that is, may consume sin and the sinner. Hence in the following verse explaining this he adds: "Let the king of destruction tread upon him." So "firstborn" is taken in Psalm 88:23: "And I," says God, "will make him (Solomon, and his antitype Christ) my firstborn, exalted above the kings of the earth," as if God were saying: Solomon and Christ shall succeed in Israel and in my kingdom, and shall reign most widely, as my firstborn sons, since I am King of kings and Lord of lords. Truly that one said: "Three things are powerful, the male, Mars, death; but death is the most powerful. For just as Mars subdues the male, so death subdues Mars."
Finally, morally, see here how great an evil sin is, which generates so many diseases, and death itself, both present and eternal. Do you wish to know what sin is? Look only at the one sin of Adam, and consider how many millions of men's diseases, famines, miseries, deaths this one sin has brought forth; how many both little ones and adults are damned because of it; that the Son of God had to die to expiate it; and you will see how great an evil one mortal sin is, and you will say, when pleasure entices you to sin: I will not buy death and eternal repentance at so trifling a price.
IN WHOM ALL HAVE SINNED. — "In whom," supply: not in sin, but in the one man. For the Greek hō is masculine, but hamartia (sin) is feminine. Thus St. Augustine, book On the Merits of Sins, ch. 10, who also adds the reason: "Because," he says, "all men were that one man, namely Adam;" which understand not formally, but originally, radically, seminally and representatively, because all men were contained, reckoned and comprehended in that first man, as in their root, parent and principle, and what Adam did, all his descendants are reckoned to have done. For Adam as father and chief represented all his descendants, just as a king represents the kingdom, and a magistrate represents the city. So Origen, Chrysostom, Theophylact, Oecumenius and the Greek and Latin Fathers everywhere.
Wherefore wrongly Erasmus, Theodoret and the Pelagians render to eph' hō as "insofar as," "to the extent that," namely because in Adam all sinned. Which exposition St. Augustine, book VI Against Julian, ch. 15, says is new and false. Nor is it strange that epi with the dative means in; for in Hebrews 9:17, en versois, it means the same, by Erasmus's own testimony, as "in the dead." Similar is here in verse 14. So the Greeks say eph' hippō, eph' hymin, on a horse, in you. And it is clear to one reading Paul and Luke that they use epi indifferently for in, just like en. Indeed epi with the dative also signifies cause, condition and pact. So Xenophon: "these things," he says, "to do epi tō kerdei," that is, to do these things for the sake of gain. So the Greeks commonly say epi tō misthō, that is, for a wage, by agreement of wages. So similarly here to eph' hō can be taken, as if Paul were saying: By whose, namely Adam's, cause and pact, which he himself had entered into with God, all have sinned. And although you should translate and read "insofar as all sinned," still original sin can be sufficiently inferred from this; for how have all men, even infants, sinned, except through one man and their father, namely Adam?
Note first: Just as in actual sin the act of sin passes, but leaves behind it habitual sin, namely a stain on the soul, which is not something physical, but a certain moral foulness and as it were a mark and infamy left from the sin committed — namely it is a moral aversion from God, and an offense against God, from which a man is morally judged turned away from God, and God's enemy, and God hostile to him, and from which he is named a sinner, and is guilty before God, and subject to God's wrath and worthy of punishment; just as one who offends a king by some act of rebellion is, after the act, still considered a rebel, an enemy, guilty, and subject to the wrath and vengeance of the king, until the king pardons him: so original sin is partly actual, namely it is the act of disobedience of Adam, by which he ate the forbidden fruit; but it is partly habitual, namely it is a stain proper to each man, which everyone contracts at birth from that first sin of Adam. Hence Albert Pighius and Catharinus err, when they wished original sin to be not inherent in each, but to be only the first sin of Adam itself imputed to each for guilt and punishment. For this error is sufficiently refuted from what was said on verse 12.
Note here that, according to this opinion of Pighius about Adam's sin imputed to us, the heretics teach in like manner that Christ's justice likewise is not inherent in us, but is only imputed. But from the very opinion of Luther, Calvin and others of the innovators everywhere, we rather gather and conclude the contrary in this way: Adam truly transmitted into us concupiscence and sin, as the innovators themselves think and teach; therefore in like manner, Christ truly and properly transmits into us inherent justice.
Note secondly: That act of Adam's disobedience just mentioned was partly personal and proper, and inherent in Adam himself, and this was forgiven him through penance, as is said in Wisdom 10:2; and partly it was general and common to the whole human nature, and to all the descendants of Adam. For these, when Adam was actually sinning by that act, being contained as in their head, fountain and seed-bed, and as it were enclosed in him, originally committed the same sin: for what Adam did and ate, we are reckoned to have done and eaten; because our will was placed by God, the supreme Lord of all, in the will of Adam, as common parent of all: so therefore Adam, in sinning, infected us all with the same sin. And so original sin is voluntary to us by another's will: nevertheless it is also called our own, both because Adam's will was reckoned ours and our own, and because the habitual stain of it, which the act of Adam left behind and transmitted, properly inheres in each one.
Note thirdly: This act of Adam, not as personal, but as common to the whole human race and nature, namely insofar as by the same act we originally, when we did not yet exist, sinned in Adam and through Adam, is the cause why, when we are born from Adam, we are born turned away from God and stained, and as sinners. For that figment is frivolous which the Master of the Sentences invents in book II, dist. 31, namely that there was a certain morbid quality inherent in the flesh and seed of Adam, which then infected and continues to infect successively day by day the souls of his offspring and descendants with original sin. For a bodily quality cannot bring forth a spiritual sin in the soul.
Much greater is the error of Tertullian, who thinks that the soul of the son is from traduction, that is, is transmitted and produced from the soul of the parent, and so along with it draws original sin from her; for, to omit that this is contrary to philosophy and condemned in the Lateran Council under Leo X, sess. VIII, where it is defined that individual souls are created and infused into individual men by God, this opinion of Tertullian is also opposed by the fact that the soul of the son draws this sin from the parent, even when the parent is justified from original sin and every other sin: how then can this sin be transmitted from the soul of the parent, in which it no longer is, to the soul of the son?
Hence note fourthly: It is one thing to sin in Adam, another thing for Adam's sin to pass to all, or for all to contract sin from Adam: for the former was actual, but the latter is habitual, and original sin proper to and inherent in each, as I said. When therefore Paul says, in whom, namely Adam, all have sinned, the sense is that that act of Adam, by which he himself sinned, is imputed to all and judged to have been the own act of all, and from this it comes about that every son of Adam draws from Adam, along with his nature, the necessity of this sin, and necessarily, when he is born, is born a sinner, unless he is forestalled by the grace and mercy of God. Thus the Blessed Virgin sinned in Adam and incurred this necessity of contracting original sin: but in fact she did not contract original sin itself in herself, nor did she have it: because she was forestalled by the grace of God in the first instant of her conception, which excluded all sin from her.
Verse 13: For Until the Law Sin Was in the World
13. FOR UNTIL THE LAW SIN WAS IN THE WORLD. — Note, sin here he calls any sin whatever, namely the first original sin and any actual sin which followed from it, which is the kingdom of sin. Here the Apostle proves what he said, namely that all men sinned in Adam, and so he proves original sin itself. He proves this by this argument: before the law was given, sin and the guilt and corruption of sin was in the world: for although sin then was not imputed, that is, was scarcely reckoned, scarcely esteemed by men, who followed only their nature and concupiscence, nor had the law which would show the foulness of sin, nevertheless that sin was in the world at that time, the very death of all men clearly demonstrates: for the effect, punishment and inseparable companion of sin is death. Since therefore death even before the law reigned and extended itself unto all men, it follows that sin also, which is the cause of death, reigned in all men and spread itself.
You will object and reply that before the law there was indeed sin in the world, but not original, but actual, which each one had done and committed. The Apostle scatters and crushes this objection, saying:
Verse 14: But Death Reigned from Adam to Moses
14. BUT DEATH REIGNED FROM ADAM TO MOSES, EVEN IN THOSE WHO HAD NOT SINNED AFTER THE SIMILITUDE OF ADAM'S TRANSGRESSION. — As if to say: Before Moses and the law, just as death, so also this sin was common even to those who had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, that is, to those who had not sinned by act, as Adam sinned by transgressing the law, namely infants. So Theophylact, Theodoret, Anselm, Chrysostom and St. Augustine, book I On the Merits of Sins, ch. 11; it remains then that original sin was in infants, and in the world even before the law. For why did infants then equally as now die, except on account of sin — not actual, which they cannot commit, but original, which they contracted from Adam?
Toletus explains this differently, as if Paul said: There was indeed actual sin in the world before the law, but it was not imputed unto a certain punishment, for example of death. For this is wont to be established only by law, not natural, but positive, divine or human, which then did not yet exist: therefore since we see that before the law a certain punishment, namely of death, was established by God for sin — for all even before the law died on account of sin — hence it follows, and indeed death itself indicates, that before the law there was in the world some sin, not actual, as I have already proved, therefore original, for which a certain punishment of death was justly decreed and inflicted by God. But this sense seems more than sufficiently remote, obscure and complex.
Note = "who have not sinned": for so it must be read with the Greeks and Latins. For wrongly Origen and Ambrose remove the negation "not," and read it affirmatively as "who have sinned."
AFTER THE SIMILITUDE OF ADAM'S TRANSGRESSION. — St. Chrysostom refers this to "death reigned," as if to say: "Death reigned after the similitude of Adam's transgression," that is, death reigned over us, because we are born like Adam transgressing, namely as sinners. Secondly, others explain thus, as if: Death reigned even in those who had not sinned against any positive law given to them by God, as Adam sinned, but had only sinned against the law of nature. Thirdly, more plainly, as I said, this similitude of Adam's transgression is placed in the act and actual sin by which Adam sinned, by transgressing the law given to him by God. The sense therefore is, death reigned over those "who had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression," that is, death reigned even over those who had not sinned in act, as Adam did, namely over infants; for from the death of infants the Apostle rightly infers their sin, which since it cannot be actual, must be original contracted from Adam.
OF ADAM, WHO IS A FIGURE OF HIM TO COME. — As if to say: Such as Adam was, such did he generate sons after him, namely sinners, mortals, wretches, says St. Augustine, book I On the Merits of Sins, ch. 11.
Secondly, and more genuinely, expound thus: Adam was the form, type, and figure of Christ to come, as if to say: Each, namely both Christ and Adam, was our father, but in opposite ways, as St. Augustine rightly shows in book II On Marriage and Concupiscence, ch. 27. For first, just as Adam alone without the union of male and female was formed from earth not cursed, but pure and untouched; so Christ was born from a most pure Virgin alone. Secondly, just as Adam alone destroyed the whole posterity by sinning, so Christ alone repaired it by dying.
Hence certain learned and wise men have rightly noted that the cause why God placed our will, merit and demerit in the will of Adam — besides the supreme dominion and freedom of God, by which He can do and ordain whatever He wishes — was this: namely, that Adam in this way might be a type of Christ, in whose hand and will God willed to place our salvation, that He might merit grace and glory for us, just as Adam merited guilt and punishment for us. For before Adam sinned or was created, God from eternity through conditioned foreknowledge foreknew and foresaw all future things, and according to it absolutely willed and decreed that Adam and all of Adam's affairs should be on account of Christ, and should be the type of Christ and of the things to be done by Christ. For God willed to show forth in Christ all His wisdom and glory, and therefore established and decreed that Christ should be the principle, exemplar and end not only of all the elect, but also of His works, as in Colossians 1:15 and following.
There was therefore not only in the very execution, but also in the very divine decree itself a mutual interdependence of Adam and Christ. For Adam would not have been the father of all men in such a way that he could transmit either his justice or his sin to them, unless by this very fact he had at the same time been the type and figure of Christ, who was to be the parent of all the sons of God: nor on the other hand would Christ have been incarnated and born in the world if Adam had not sinned and lost us, as the truer and more common opinion of the Theologians holds.
Note here that Sacred Scripture sometimes uses allegories in a contrary sense. Thus Hosea, ch. 1 and 3, was commanded by God to take a fornicatress as wife, in order to signify the sons of Israel about to fornicate, that is, leaving God, the husband of the Synagogue, and adhering to idols and adoring them: where the pious deed of Hosea, and his lawful marriage with a fornicatress, signifies the impious idolatry of the Jews.
In like manner, many Fathers explain the allegory of David's adultery through the chaste love of Christ, namely that David was permitted by God to commit adultery with Bathsheba, in order to signify that Christ would burn with love for the Church to be gathered from the Gentiles and idolaters. St. Augustine assigns the cause of the likeness and unlikeness in Book XXII Against Faustus, chap. 27, and St. Ambrose in Apology of David, chap. 3. Angelomus, Eucherius, and Rupert offer a similar account in Book II of Kings, chap. 11. Thus then here too Adam is said to be a form or type of Christ in genus, not in species, because Christ and Adam stood in contrary modes: the latter was the parent of death, but Christ of life and salvation. Yet within this very contrariety there is a certain likeness of proportion and propagation, as I showed a little earlier.
Others explain it thus, as if Paul were saying: Much more, that is, with much greater power, strength, and might, has Christ conferred His gifts upon us than Adam took the same away, because it is more difficult to build than to destroy. Hence the Doctors rightly infer with St. Leo (Sermon 12, On the Passion) that the value of Christ's merits and satisfaction far exceeds Adam's demerits; and this not by divine acceptance, but from the rigid justice and value of the works themselves, which they had of themselves, from the dignity of the person acting and suffering. For thus Adam's sin, by its own unworthiness and gravity, by the highest equity and justice deserved the wrath of God and present and eternal punishments.
Note: Instead of "upon many," the Greek has εἰς τοὺς πολλούς, "upon the many," that is, upon all those already mentioned, as if to say: As Adam harmed all, so Christ profited all, but more than the former harmed. So Theophylact.
Verse 15: But Not as the Offence, So Also the Gift
15. BUT NOT AS THE OFFENCE, SO ALSO THE GIFT. — "Offence," in Greek παράπτωμα. So Paul calls Adam's very fall, ruin, and offence; from which, as from a cause, the effect flows, namely ἁμαρτία, that is, original sin, which is a stain and guilt inhering in each one born of Adam. To this offence and transgression he opposes χάριν, δωρεάν, χάρισμα, that is, the grace, gift, and gratuitous benefit of Christ, namely His redemption, satisfaction, merit of grace and remission of sins; from which, as from a cause, the effect flows, τὸ δικαίωμα and δικαίωσις, that is, the gift of grace and justice inhering in us.
Secondly, Adam's offence is called παράπτωμα, as if to say: Not a fall, but as it were a fall; not a ruin, but almost a ruin; not a lapse, but an offence. For the preposition παρά diminishes the thing to which it is joined in composition, as if to say: Small and slight was Adam's fall and ruin compared with Christ's reparation and grace, because the goods and benefits of Christ are far more powerful and efficacious than Adam's sin, just as the poverty of Irus, compared with the riches of Croesus who is preparing to relieve and enrich him, is small or nothing.
FOR IF BY THE OFFENCE OF ONE MANY DIED: MUCH MORE THE GRACE OF GOD AND THE GIFT BY THE GRACE (through the grace) OF ONE MAN JESUS CHRIST HATH ABOUNDED UNTO MANY. — "Many," that is, all; yet he says "many" rather than "all" to signify the multitude of posterity, because, as St. Augustine says, all may be few, as if Paul were saying: If through the offence of one Adam all his posterity incurred guilt and the penalty of death, both present and eternal, know that the benefit which Christ has bestowed upon us was far greater; for the grace of Christ has conferred upon us far greater goods and gifts than Adam took away, namely so many graces and gifts of the Holy Spirit which Christ conferred upon the Apostles, Martyrs, Doctors, Hermits, Bishops, Virgins, and other sons of the New Testament, of which Adam was deprived, and finally glory and immortality itself with its greatest, most numerous, and most diverse endowments. See St. Chrysostom here, on the treasury of Christ's graces.
Verse 16: And Not as by One Sin, So Also the Gift
16. AND NOT AS BY ONE SIN (supply, Adam infected all), SO ALSO THE GIFT, — supply, Christ's gift frees not from one sin only, but from many sins which Adam's posterity have added and will add to Adam's sin. So Theophylact. This is the second dissimilitude between Adam and Christ. The Greek has ὡς δι' ἑνὸς ἁμαρτήσαντος, "as through one who sinned", supply, death came into the world; and so Augustine reads in Book I On the Merits of Sins; but the meaning is the same.
FOR JUDGMENT INDEED WAS BY ONE UNTO CONDEMNATION; BUT GRACE IS OF MANY OFFENCES UNTO JUSTIFICATION. — Judgment, in Greek κρίμα, that is, guilt, namely flowed from the one sin of Adam, into κατάκριμα, that is, into condemnation: so that all, even infants, were liable to condemnation, that is, to the penalty of loss, although not of sense, as most of the Scholastics teach. On the contrary, the benefit and grace of Christ proceeded from many offences unto justification, namely that He might justify us not from one, but from many, indeed from all sins. Paul opposes χάρισμα and κρίμα, that is, grace and guilt; again δικαίωμα and κατάκριμα, that is, justification and condemnation. Hence St. Augustine, Book II On Marriage and Concupiscence, chap. 27, teaches that original sin suffices for condemnation.
Verse 17: They Who Receive Abundance of Grace Shall Reign in Life
17. MUCH MORE THEY WHO RECEIVE ABUNDANCE OF GRACE, AND OF THE GIFT, AND OF JUSTICE, SHALL REIGN IN LIFE THROUGH ONE, JESUS CHRIST. — "They shall reign in life," as if to say: Adam introduced the reign of death, but Christ more eminently, and with grace, justice, and all goods more abundantly, introduced the reign of life, in which He made us kings, so that we may attain here the divine life of grace, and hereafter the eternal and glorious life without death in heaven. So Theophylact.
Note: Paul does not say "life reigned," as he said "death reigned," because it sounds sweeter and more glorious that the justified shall reign in life through Christ, than if he had said: Life shall reign in the justified through Christ. Excellently does St. Bernard say, in epistle 190 to Pope Innocent against the errors of Peter Abelard, who taught that Christ is our teacher, not our redeemer: "If by grace," he says, "I have been sold, am I not redeemed gratis? But if he should say: Your father has consigned you, I will reply: But my brother has redeemed me. Why should justice not come from elsewhere, since the guilt comes from elsewhere? One is he who makes the sinner, another is he who justifies from sin. The one in the seed, the other in the blood. But let justice, he will say, belong to whom it belongs: what is that to you? Be it so. But let the fault also belong to whom it belongs: what is that to me?"
Verse 18: As by the Offence of One Unto All Men, So by the Justice of One
18. AS BY THE OFFENCE OF ONE UNTO ALL MEN (supply, guilt passed) UNTO CONDEMNATION: SO ALSO BY THE JUSTICE OF ONE (Christ's) (in Greek δικαίωμα, that is, merit, which is the cause of our justification and justice) UNTO ALL MEN, — supply, the gift and benefit of Christ passed, namely upon all who descend spiritually from Christ and are reborn in Him by baptism. For that Paul is speaking properly of justifying, not prevenient, grace is clear both from the following verse, and because he opposes Christ to Adam, who is for all born of him the efficacious cause of damnation, just as Christ is for all reborn of Him the efficacious cause of justification and immortality.
Note: δικαίωμα, that is, the merit of Christ, the Apostle here distinguishes from δικαίωσις, that is, justification, and from δικαίωμα, that is, justice. For this third is in us, the first is in Christ, but the second is effectively in Christ, as the agent, but subjectively in us, as those receiving it. That this is so is clear from the opposition between τὸ δικαίωμα and τὸ παράπτωμα. For the Apostle calls the offence and transgression of Adam transmitted to his posterity παράπτωμα; therefore the δικαίωμα opposed to it he calls the obedience and justice of Christ transfused into His posterity, namely into believers. Hence what in this passage he calls δικαίωμα, in verse 13 he calls ὑπακοή, that is, obedience. Read verse 19, which explains this one.
UNTO JUSTIFICATION OF LIFE, — by which we are recalled from the death of sin to the life of grace and glory. This is clear in verse 16: so St. Augustine, Book On the Merits of Sins, chap. 15. Toletus explains this differently. For he thinks that "justification of life" is here called the action and operation by which God, from the justice and merit of Christ, will raise all men, even the reprobate, from death to a life that endures forever, not by their own merit and justice, but by Christ's, as I said; but "justification of life" is nowhere taken in this sense.
Verse 19: As by the Disobedience of One Man Many Were Made Sinners
19. AS BY THE DISOBEDIENCE OF ONE MAN (Adam) MANY WERE MADE SINNERS (all the posterity of Adam), SO ALSO BY THE OBEDIENCE OF ONE (Christ) MANY SHALL BE MADE JUST, — namely all who are reborn of Christ through faith and grace. Notice here who and how great was the fruit of one obedience, and of one disobedience. From this passage the Doctors rightly infer and conclude in this way: In Adam there was true disobedience, therefore in Christ also there was true and properly so-called obedience, which subjects and conforms itself to the precept of a Superior, and consequently a precept was given to Christ by the Father to die, and thus to redeem us. For this was the object of Christ's obedience, to which Christ obeyed.
Note: The Apostle here brings forward a threefold antithesis and dissimilitude between Adam and Christ. First, Adam destroyed all, Christ repaired all. Secondly, Adam transmitted one sin to his posterity, Christ frees the same from all actual sins. Thirdly, Adam propagated one evil which can in no way be intended, namely original sin; Christ poured forth an abundance of graces. Add to this, that the grace of Christ is more abundant and more powerful than was Adam's sin. Fourthly, because Adam's sin only brought upon us the penalty of loss; but Christ frees us both from the penalty of loss and from the penalty of sense, which is due to actual sins. Again, from Adam we draw concupiscence, but through Christ this has been made the matter of as great a struggle as of victory and triumph: and Christ shall uproot it through glory in heaven. Fifthly, through Adam was lost the grace by which man could persevere; through Christ is given a more frequent and abundant grace, that in such great weakness, among so many enemies, he may stand more firmly and actually persevere. So St. Augustine, throughout the book On the Good of Perseverance. Sixthly, through Adam we all die temporally; through Christ we shall rise again to the immortal and glorious life of both soul and body. Seventhly, not Adam's sin, but Christ's grace extends to the Blessed Virgin, who is a sea of graces, and has more grace than all men together. Pererius, Suarez, and others add that Christ's grace extended also to the angels and that they were justified through Christ's merits, to whom Adam's sin could not reach. Eighthly, although Adam actually infects more than are reborn from Christ, yet Christ's grace, as to sufficiency and offering, extends to all, not only to those begotten from Adam, but to whatever may be produced in any way, e.g. if God should create them anew. Ninthly, through Adam we have been reduced as it were to the state of pure nature; through Christ we have been elevated to a more spiritual and sublime state than that in which Adam was created, and to a wholly heavenly life. Tenthly, through Adam we have been made like beasts, through Christ like angels; indeed, our nature in Christ and the Blessed Virgin has been exalted above all the choirs of angels. Eleventhly, Adam deprived us of the tree of life; Christ gives the bread which came down from heaven, and gives eternal life, namely Himself wholly, that is God and man, He gives us as food in the Eucharist. Twelfthly, Adam deprived us of the grace of original justice; Christ gives an abundance of graces and virtues: first, because He gives virtues which would not have existed in the state of innocence, namely patience, penance, martyrdom, virginity, the apostolate, and the religious virtues. Secondly, of these and of all others He gives a greater abundance, intensity, and continual increase than there would have been in the state of innocence.
Note secondly: As in Adam we all sinned, so in Christ we have all been justified, that is, we have justly satisfied for sins and merited justice; but just as to contract original sin it is necessary to be born naturally from Adam, so to participate in the justice of Christ, it is necessary to be born from Him spiritually through baptism.
Note thirdly, that hence it follows against the heretics that, just as the disobedience and sin of Adam really inheres in us, and is not merely imputed to us, so also, indeed even more, the grace of Christ inheres in us, and is not merely imputed to us; otherwise the sin of Adam would be far more efficacious than the grace of Christ, which would not be able to remove sin, but only to hide it.
Verse 20: Now the Law Entered In, That Sin Might Abound
20. NOW THE LAW ENTERED IN, THAT SIN MIGHT ABOUND. — Note the word "subintravit" (entered in alongside), as if to say: incidentally, and as it were stealthily for a brief time, namely until the coming of the Gospel, the law entered into the world, to be as it were a tutor of the Jews unto Christ. The Greek παρεισῆλθεν, says Budaeus, signifies to creep in and to deceive by entering and insinuating itself. Thus here the law as it were stealthily insinuated itself, and, as our translator renders it, "entered in alongside," directly indeed for this end, that it might restrain the dissolute morals of men and lead them to Christ who would heal them; but indirectly for that which follows, namely, "that sin might abound," as if to say: Whence it came about that sin abounded. For the particle "that" signifies a consequence, not a cause. "For we always strive after what is forbidden, and desire what is denied." See chap. 24. "The law," says St. Augustine on Psalm 102, "was therefore given, that as sin grew, the proud might be humbled, the humbled might confess, and the confessing might be healed." The same, in tract 3 on John: "The law," he says, "threatened, it did not help; it commanded, it did not heal; it showed sickness, it did not take it away." Wherefore less genuinely St. Ambrose, in epistle 71 to Irenaeus, says: "The law entered in alongside," because it entered as if by chance, to succeed the natural law, which had been obscured in the minds of men. For neither does the Apostle here make mention of the natural law, nor was the Mosaic law given for the sole purpose of restoring it.
You will say: The law was publicly proposed and received with such great pomp on Sinai, therefore it did not enter stealthily. I reply: I deny the consequence, because God led the Hebrews out of Egypt in the middle of the night, as it were stealthily, into the desert of Sinai, and there promulgated the law to those expecting nothing of the sort.
Others translate, "the law moreover entered," as if to say: Besides the disease contracted from Adam, the law was added, which increased the disease. The Apostle here meets an objection. For someone will say: You said, Paul, in verse 13: "Until the law sin was in the world": therefore after the law, and through the Mosaic law, sin was taken away; for to what other purpose was the law given? Paul replies that so far was sin not taken away by the law, that rather it was increased by it, by the fault indeed of men, but by occasion taken from the law, which multiplied the precepts, and yet gave no strength to weak men to fulfill them.
The Apostle here notes three states of the world: the first was from Adam to Moses; the second from Moses to Christ; the third from Christ to the end of the world: in the first reigned sin and death; in the second the law, which increased sin; in the third grace, which took away sin and death.
Whence the Apostle here as it were sets up a comedy distinguished into three scenes, and by prosopopoeia assigns to each scene its own person, as choragus, who as a king dominates and reigns: the three kings here, therefore, who fight among themselves, are sin, law, and grace, or Adam, Moses, and Christ; each of whom had his own reign and time and space of reigning.
St. Augustine beautifully compares the four states of man among themselves, in Book LXXXIII Questions, Question 69: "The first action is before the law," he says, "the second under the law, the third under grace, the fourth in peace. Before the law there is action when we are ignorant of sin and follow carnal concupiscences. Under the law there is action when we are now forbidden from sin, and yet, overcome by its habit, we sin. The third action is when we are not overcome by the delight of evil habit, but resist it through grace. The fourth action is when there is altogether nothing in man that resists the spirit. In the first action therefore, which is before the law, there is no struggle with pleasure. In the second, which is under the law, we fight, but we are conquered. In the third, we fight and we conquer. In the fourth, we do not fight, but rest in perfect and eternal peace."
Here is to be noted the opinion of St. Thomas, on the threefold end of the law, with respect to the three classes of men. "Concerning the end of the law," he says, "it must be known that in the people of the Jews there were three kinds of men, just as in any other people: namely the hardened, that is, sinners and rebels, the proficient, and the perfect. As regards the hardened, therefore, the law was given as a scourge, both as to the moral precepts, to whose observance they were compelled through the threat of punishment, as is clear from Leviticus 20, and as regards to the ceremonial precepts, which were multiplied for this reason, that it might not be lawful for them to add any worship to strange gods, Ezekiel 20: 'With a strong hand and a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out, will I rule over you.' But for the proficient, who are called the middling, the law was a tutor, according to that of Galatians 3: 'The law was our schoolmaster in Christ.' And this as regards the ceremonial precepts, by which they were advanced to justice. But for the perfect it was, as regards the ceremonial precepts indeed, a sign, according to that of Ezekiel 20: 'I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me, etc.' As regards the moral precepts, however, it was a comfort, according to what Paul says in chap. 7: 'I am delighted with the law of God, according to the inward man.'"
BUT WHERE SIN ABOUNDED, GRACE DID MORE ABOUND. — "Where," that is, after sin in the world had grown strong on the occasion of the law; after the world had come to the height of evils and sins in the state of the law, then Christ soon came, as it were the most powerful and most clement physician, who showed the abundance and efficacy of His grace in curing and abolishing sin and the kingdom of sin.
Verse 21: That as Sin Hath Reigned Unto Death, So Also Grace Might Reign
21. THAT AS SIN HATH REIGNED UNTO DEATH (drawing the sinner namely into bodily and eternal death), SO ALSO GRACE MIGHT REIGN BY JUSTICE UNTO LIFE EVERLASTING, — namely, that through justice we may attain eternal life, to which justice gives the right, as if to say: The grace of Christ superabounded for this purpose, that, the kingdom of death and sin being destroyed, the kingdom of justice and eternal life might be established, and propagated far and wide through Christ. See here two kingdoms, one of death, in which Adam and Adam's sin reigned; the other of life, in which Christ and Christ's grace reign, which first overthrew the kingdom of death. Between these two the law entered in alongside, to make as it were an interregnum, but in vain; for the law rather increased the kingdom of sin than suspended it. Hence it was necessary that Christ should come, who by His grace might cut off the kingdom of sin and death. St. Augustine excellently says, in the Sentences, number 194: "The rational soul is mistress of its body, which will not rule well over the inferior unless it serves the superior God with the total subjection of charity."