The hearing of the Gospel

He saw a slight opportunity to be persuaded, through which the apostles, having believed, become a rebuke of their unbelief, judging the twelve tribes of Israel upon twelve thrones. Regarding the purpose and the end, the Lord was not sent to the Jews; for he would not have failed by coming for this, and likewise neither did the apostles.

And because of this, Paul says, as if no one had been sent to them nor preached; how shall they hear without preaching? and how shall they preach if they are not sent? And the fact that they do not call upon the Lord fixed the matter from not having been sent to them as God's judgment, showing rather nothing of the judgment, but only himself remembering the economy; as it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those preaching peace', those preaching good things (Rom 10:15).

For it is evident, he says, also from the prophecy, that it is not without those preaching, who indeed release a voice like something beautiful and extraordinary as from a mountain, who preach the peace of God and the good things, pleasing the ear with beauty and quieting the hearing with greatness; for as he says, how beautiful are the feet of those preaching the sound of peace upon the mountains, as preaching good things. Thus is the interpretation of the Romans.

It is so much, he says, the extent of their foolishness and their turning away from God, that looking truly according to the divine word, they neither see nor hear; for the divine proclamation has been proclaimed throughout the whole world, nothing less than the Lord of the apostles as the creation has cried out to the Maker according to the saying of the Psalm, and they were not able to hear or understand anything more. But they suppose, he says, irrationally, as if the Gospel in the Gentiles were something foreign and without agreement (Rom 10:19); for it is not to say that this was kept silent from them or not foretold.

Immediately, indeed, the Lawgiver Moses says that God will repay the foolish nations with equality to those who preferred them, because they themselves, by worshipping foolish idols, have treated God as a non-God; and just as they considered the non-God to be God instead of the true God, so God will honor the non-nation as a nation instead of the nation that was previously with Him, calling the non-existent things as if they existed, in order to nullify the existing things. And the zeal which was stirred up in them through their association with demons will bring them forward to the nations through His own power which He has joined to them.

The continued word of Isaiah the prophet was understood by the Apostle through private knowledge; for the version of the seventy has a spirit of stupor, whereas the version of Aquila has a clearer transmission, but the version of Symmachus has strength. Then it proceeds: and it blinds their eyes, so that those seeing the hidden things and remaining beyond the ignorance of the prophetic words, appear to them as if they were a sealed book and as if they were unreadable writings. For the ambiguity, as if sealing the prophetic book and making reading unnecessary for those reading, makes it as if anyone were unable even to read. The ones having followed Christ had their minds opened to the understanding of the Scriptures, as the Gospel says, and the ones of those having followed, having heard, were led into knowledge, just as the eunuch was by Philip; but the others, in not happening to receive enlightenment, seem to be blind and deaf. For the Apostle also joined the matter of the deafness of the ears, having understood from another part of the prophecy 'they will hear with their ears and not understand'; for not understanding is equal to not hearing, according to what is written: 'let him who has ears hear.' And it is also said regarding those who heard heavily.

The absence of the enlightening Spirit gives place to a spirit of stupor and insensibility, constantly increasing ignorances and darkening them; for God does not work evil, because 'out of the mouth of the Lord neither evil things nor good things shall come forth,' but the house desolate of divine power allows evil spirits to dwell within, as the Savior has said. And thus, he who did not give the spirit of enlightenment gave a spirit of stupor.

From the Scriptures, the abandonment that has occurred must be sought, not until the end that this might be thought to surround the promises toward Israel in falsehood. But now the unpardonable transgression and fall speaks of a total, unyielding overthrow, with which nothing good is still to be expected. Shall we then, he asks, say that they have stumbled in a way worthy...