Chapter 3: Israel and the Church in Aquinas’s Pauline Commentaries
3
Israel and the Church in Aquinas’s Pauline Commentaries
The question of supersessionism in Aquinas’s theology turns on whether Aquinas teaches that such observances are “fulfilled and expired.” Although scholars such as Wyschogrod have commented upon texts in the Summa theologiae in relation to this question, the Pauline commentaries have largely been overlooked. This chapter sets the stage for an examination of Aquinas’s view of the observance of the ceremonial law in “some of his greatest theological works,” the commentaries on Paul’s letters.157 Aquinas viewed Paul’s letters as a distinct unit of the New Testament that treated how the power of grace exists in the Church, and he considered the Apostle Paul to be first and foremost among theologians.158 However, the Pauline commentaries also contain some of Aquinas’s most extended theological reflections on the subject of Israel in general and the observance of the ceremonial law after Christ in particular.
1. Master of the Sacred Page
For the majority of his academic career, Thomas Aquinas was magister in sacra pagina, or “Master of the Sacred Page.”159 Of the functions of the master, reading and commenting upon Scripture verse by verse was the primary duty.160 Jean-Pierre Torrell remarks that although Aquinas’s teaching on Scripture has been long overlooked in favor of the Sentences or the Summa, this kind of biblical teaching was nevertheless “Thomas’s ordinary labor.” “[I]t was in this way,” writes Torrell, “that he commented on a little more than half of the New Testament and several books of the Old.”161 Aquinas wrote commentaries on five Old Testament books: Psalms, Job, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Lamentations. He wrote two on the Gospels: Matthew and John. And he wrote fourteen commentaries on all the Pauline letters: Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, and Hebrews.162
In order to grasp the advanced level from which Aquinas engaged the Pauline letters it is necessary to briefly survey the stages in Aquinas’s teaching career that led up to his inauguration as master of the sacred page. The first stage of his academic career consisted of his discipleship under the Aristotelian master Albertus Magnus, which lasted from 1245 to 1252, in Cologne.163 During these years, Aquinas produced the first of his biblical commentaries—known as “cursory lectures”—on Scripture. A cursory lecture runs lightly over the text by reading and paraphrasing difficult passages as well as rendering superficial glosses on the text.164 In a cursory lecture, a biblical bachelor did not “enter into the details of all the different interpretations.”165 Rather, the aim of the cursory lecture is to “make the literal sense of the text understood.” The cursory lectures, often referred to as “literal expositions” include commentaries on Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Lamentations.166 Although scholars are certain Aquinas commented upon these books during his time in Cologne, determining the dating of the other biblical commentaries becomes increasingly difficult as one moves away from the commentaries on Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Lamentations.
The second stage of his academic career came in September of 1252, when Aquinas was appointed to the university of Paris at the recommendation of Albert, and tasked with commenting upon the Sentences of Peter Lombard.167 Although it is clear that Aquinas’s time in this period was devoted to teaching as bachelor of the Sentences, it is not clear whether he would continue to lecture upon Scripture.168 As Torrell observes, “scholars find themselves in difficulties when they try to identify the biblical books that relate to this first period of teaching in Paris.”169
Aquinas’s duties as bachelor of Sentences were transitional, and in 1256, he was ordered to prepare his inaugural lecture for the ceremony in which he would become magister in sacra pagina.170 A master was “allowed . . . to give a much more searching commentary” than the cursory style exemplified in the exposition on Isaiah. The master of the sacred page was required to not only offer a detailed exposition of the biblical text, but also to engage the various problems and questions that emerge from the text, especially as these problems are identified by “the mediating exegetical and scholarly traditions.”171 These inaugural lectures therefore mark milestones in Aquinas’s teaching of Scripture, and especially for his teaching of Paul’s letters. Most scholars believe Aquinas lectured on Paul after his installation as master. Aquinas is thought to have taught twice on Paul sometime after 1256. From the seventeen-year period beginning with these inaugural lectures of 1256, to his regencies in Orvieto, Rome, Paris, and then to Naples in 1273, it is certain that Aquinas’s ordinary labor is to teach Scripture at the advanced level of the magister. Aquinas’s biblical commentaries are products of his classroom lectures.172 And it is in this advanced stage of his academic career that scholars situate both the composition of the Summa theologiae and the production of his lectures on Paul’s letters.
However, identifying the precise dates within this stage of his career that Aquinas commented upon the Pauline letters will remain difficult “for a long time until the critical edition of the texts will have allowed us to replace hypotheses, if not always with certitude, then at least with more certain data.”173 Although the exact dating of the commentaries on the letters is inconclusive, it is clear that the commentaries are authentic works produced during the most mature period of Aquinas’s academic career.174
2. The Theme of Grace and the Prerogatives of Israel in the Pauline Commentaries
Aquinas’s comments upon the ceremonial law in the Pauline commentaries do not take place apart from the overarching theme of grace. Aquinas views Paul as the exemplary teacher of grace, and he organizes each commentary in relation to the theme of grace. Aquinas’s view of the connection between the theme of grace in the New Testament and the theme of grace in Paul’s letters becomes clear only when one reads Aquinas’s inaugural lecture, Hic est liber, alongside the preface he attaches to his commentaries on Paul’s letters.
Aquinas’s View of Grace as the Primary Theme of Paul’s Letters
In 1912, two previously lost lectures of Aquinas were discovered at the Santa Maria Novella, in Florence.175 Aquinas presented these lectures at his installation ceremony at the university of Paris. The first lecture, “Commendation and Division of Sacred Scripture,” also referred to as Hic est liber, is of particular interest because it contains Aquinas’s view of the theological theme of grace in the New Testament and the relationship of this theme to the Pauline letters.
For Aquinas, Scripture leads humankind to life and away from death in two ways, which correspond to the function of the Old Law and the New Law. The Old Law brings to life by “commanding through the mandates which it proposes.”176 And, the New Law brings to life by “helping, through the gift of grace which the lawgiver dispenses.”177 Aquinas understands John 1:17 to summarize these two important functions: “Both of these,” writes Aquinas, “are touched on in John 1:17: ‘For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.’”178
For Aquinas, the twofold origin (Moses and Christ) and function (“commanding” in the Old Testament, and “helping” in the New) represents the primary distinction for understanding the whole order of sacred Scripture. This division does not remain as a static principle mentioned in the inaugural sermon and then forgotten. Aquinas consistently relies upon this division throughout his commentaries on Paul’s letters.
Aquinas says the New Law, which is given in the New Testament, is organized according to three parts of grace: In the first the origin of grace is treated, in the Gospels. In the second the power of grace, and this in the letters of Paul. In the third, the execution of the aforesaid virtues is treated, and this in the rest of the books of the New Testament.179
Paul’s letters concern the “power of grace” and represents the second part of the New Testament.180 Hic est liber makes clear that Aquinas sees the Pauline letters as a distinct unit embedded in a teaching on grace and distinguished from all the other books of the New Testament by its content.181
However, the part of Hic est liber that deals with how the power of grace functions in the individual Pauline letters is actually missing. Therefore, the particular relationship between the individual Pauline letters and the primary theme of grace is unclear solely from a reading of the sermon. Another text of Aquinas is required: the prologue that Aquinas attaches to the beginning of the commentaries on the Pauline letters serves to fill in the rest of the picture.182
Aquinas uses Acts 9:15 to structure the Pauline corpus: “This man is to me a chosen vessel to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel.”183 It was necessary for God to use Paul to carry “precious liquid”—the divine name of Christ because God’s name was far from men due to sin and the darkness of human understanding.184 For this reason, Aquinas understands Paul to bring the name of Christ to the Gentiles in “disclosing Christ’s grace and mercy.”185 Yet this is not the only group to whom Aquinas understands Paul to deliver the teaching on the grace of Christ.
Aquinas views Paul as one who carried Christ’s teaching to the “sons of Israel.”
Hence the usefulness or fruit of this vessel is expressed by the words, before the Gentiles, whose teacher he was: “A teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth” (1 Tim 2:7), and kings, to whom he preached the faith of Christ, for example, to Agrippa (Acts 16) and even to Nero and his princes. . . . And the sons of Israel, against whom he argued about Christ: “But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ” (Acts 9:22).186
This is the second mention of Israel in the prologue and signals that Aquinas may return to the theme in the individual commentaries.187
After listing these three groups (Gentiles, kings, sons of Israel), Aquinas presents the threefold division of the Pauline corpus. It becomes immediately clear that the division of the fourteen letters corresponds rather directly to the three groups just mentioned:
The Apostle wrote fourteen letters: nine of them instruct the Church of the Gentiles; four the prelates and princes of the Church, as well as kings; the last is addressed to the Hebrews, the sons of Israel. The teaching bears entirely on Christ’s grace, which we can consider under a triple modality.188
Paul’s instruction on the grace of Christ to each group provides the ordering principle for all three divisions of the fourteen letters.
Each letter corresponds to one of three ways Christ’s grace is present in the Mystical Body. The first way in which the grace of Christ is present is 1) the existence of grace in “the Head himself, Christ, and it is thus that we find it in the Letter to the Hebrews.”189
The second way in which the grace of Christ is present, explains Aquinas, is 2) the existence of grace in the “principle members of the mystical body, and it is thus that we find it in the letters addressed to the prelates and kings.”190 Letters to the prelates include 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy, Titus, and Philemon.
The third way in which the grace of Christ is present is 3) the existence of grace “according as it is in the mystical body itself, which is the Church, and it is thus that we find it in the letters addressed to the Gentiles.”191 Aquinas devotes the largest amount of material to this third group, the Gentile ecclesia, which includes nine letters: Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and 1 and 2 Thessalonians.
The division of the letters in the prologue indicates that Israel and Church are major themes in the commentaries on Paul’s letters. The two sections of the Pauline corpus to which Aquinas devotes the most material are the first and third divisions: the sons of Israel and the Gentile ecclesia. Therefore, based on Aquinas’s own division of the corpus and the amount of material he devotes to the first and third divisions, the commentaries on Paul’s letters provide some of the largest amounts of material on Aquinas’s view of grace as it relates to Israel and Church. Next, I outline which of the individual commentaries of the Pauline corpus directly treat of the observance of the Mosaic Law.
The Prerogatives of Israel in Aquinas’s Commentaries on Paul’s Letters
The structure of the prologue indicates that relevant texts on Israel and the Church may be found in the first and third divisions of the Pauline corpus. The actual content of the individual letters in these divisions confirms this view. Both divisions, including the division devoted to the Gentile ecclesia, contains crucial material on Aquinas’s view of the prerogatives of Israel.
In the prologue to the Pauline commentaries Aquinas explicitly states the letter to the Hebrews is a teaching directed to the sons of Israel. Moreover, in the prologue to the Hebrews commentary, Aquinas explains that the letter concerns Christ’s grace as it is “in the Head, namely, Christ.” It is as priest that Christ is head of the Mystical Body. This letter deals with Christ’s priesthood, which is explained to be higher than the angels and the Mosaic priesthood. Paul’s purpose in writing the letter, as Aquinas understands it, is also relevant to this study: “The Apostle wrote this letter against the errors of some who, having converted from Judaism to the faith of Christ, wanted to keep the legal observances along with the Gospel, as if the grace of Christ did not suffice unto salvation.”192 Hebrews is divided into two parts, with the first treating this error of “converts” from Judaism. I investigate Aquinas’s view of the ceremonial law in the Hebrews commentary in chapter 4 of this study.
It might seem that Aquinas’s comments upon Israel are limited only to the commentary on Hebrews. However, the topic of Israel recurs throughout the third division on the Gentile ecclesia. As I show below, Paul’s argument against the sons of Israel is a theme that runs throughout the commentaries in this third division. In particular, Aquinas comments at length upon Israel, the Old Law, and the ceremonial law, in the following three commentaries in the third division on the Gentile ecclesia: Romans, Galatians, Ephesians.
As stated above, Aquinas understands this third division of the Pauline corpus to possess a threefold structure. The third division of the Pauline corpus (addressed to the Gentile ecclesia) includes nine letters total, each of which treat how the grace of Christ exists in the Mystical Body itself. Aquinas writes that these nine letters “are distinguished from one another according to the three ways the grace of Christ can be considered.”193
The first way that the grace of Christ can be considered is “in itself,” and this way is set out in the letter to the Romans. The prerogatives of Israel are treated in detail in chapters 2 through 4 of the Romans commentary and Aquinas also discusses the prerogatives of Israel in chapter 9. The commentary on the Romans mentions the Jews more than any other commentary in the Pauline corpus.
The second way the grace of Christ can be considered is in the nature of the sacraments, and this way is set out in the letters to the Corinthians and Galatians.194 The material in 1 and 2 Corinthians is relatively sparse. However, in the letter to the Galatians, Aquinas addresses what he refers to as “superfluous sacraments,” by which he seems to mean the ceremonial law. In this letter, writes Aquinas, the “Apostle reproves the Galatians who had been so deceived by false teachers as to observe at once the rites of the Law and those of the Gospel.”195 Here, Aquinas understands Paul to once again address the error of certain believers in Christ observing the ceremonial law along with the gospel, as he did in Hebrews. Aquinas also comments on divine providence as it relates to the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD; the Antioch incident between Paul and Peter; and the controversy between Jerome and Augustine on the Jewish apostles’ observance of the ceremonial law in Acts. The number of references to the Jews in the Galatians commentary is second only to the commentary on Romans.
The third and final way Christ’s grace can be considered is in regard to the unity it produces in the Gentile ecclesia. In Aquinas’s view, Paul addresses the third way that Christ’s grace can be considered in the letters to the Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and 1 and 2 Thessalonians.196 I do not examine Philippians, Colossians, and the letters to the Thessalonians because these texts do not treat the ceremonial law or the Jewish people. Ephesians, however, contains some of the most profound comments of Aquinas on ceremonial law, including the joining of both Jews and Gentiles into unity. Aquinas comments at length on the unity shared between these two peoples and how they are now “incorporated” and built together like living stones by Christ.197 The third division, addressed to the Gentile ecclesia, clearly contains a considerable amount of relevant material on Israel and the Law.
This study of Aquinas on Israel and the Church will therefore focus on the following commentaries in this order: Hebrews, Romans, Galatians, and Ephesians. My aim in each treatment of the commentaries is to uncover Aquinas’s view of the ceremonial law with attention to what Soulen refers to as the “heart of supersessionism.”
What theological status does Aquinas attribute to the observance of the ceremonial law after the passion of Christ in his commentaries on Paul’s letters? Are Jewish observances interpreted as fulfilled and cancelled for all? Or do the rites retain a theological value after the passion?
157. Pius XII, “An Address to the Faculty and Students of the Roman Athenaeum Angelicum,” cited in Baglow, Modus Et Forma.
158. Prologus 6. As Torrell has pointed out, “Despite the heterogeneity of these [fourteen letters], it is nonetheless certain that Thomas thought of his [Pauline] commentary as a whole. The proof of this is given in the Prologue that he placed at the head of this whole.”
159. The office of the magister in sacra pagina in the twelfth century consisted of a threefold function: legere (to read Scripture and comment on it verse by verse); disputare (to teach through objections and responses on a given theme); and praedicare (to preach). These three tasks correspond directly to three qualities Aquinas says doctors in sacred Scripture must possess in order to carry out the triple function of the office. Aquinas lists these qualities in his principium, or first inaugural lecture, which he presented as part of the ceremony for his installment as magister in sacra pagina at the university of Paris. The title of the lecture is Rigans montes de superioribus, taken from the verse which Aquinas puts at the beginning of the lecture: “Thou waterest the hills from thy upper rooms,” a quotation of Psalm 103:13. For Rigans montes see S. Thomae Aquinatis, Opuscula theologica, 441–43. Torrell, Saint Thomas Aquinas, 54.
160. Ibid., 55.
161. Ibid.
162. Eleonore Stump observes that the early catalogues of Aquinas’s works also list a commentary on the Song of Songs, but no such commentary has been found. As I explain below, my study will focus only on the commentaries on Paul’s letters that treat the theme of the ceremonial law. This will include sections from: Romans, Galatians, Ephesians, and Hebrews. Aquinas, of course, thinks Paul wrote Hebrews. See Stump, “Biblical Commentary and Philosophy.” Critical editions of two of the commentaries have been published: Expositio super Iob ad litteram in 1965, and Expositio super Isaiam ad litteram in 1974. See Thomas Aquinas, Expositio super Iob ad litteram, vol. 26. Aside from Isaiah and Job, the rest of the biblical commentaries are, unfortunately, among the last works to receive critical revision by the Leonine commission. Nevertheless, the lack of critical editions for most of the commentaries has not prevented a number of scholars from beginning to mine the commentaries for insights into what are increasingly viewed as some of Aquinas’s greatest theological works. Until the Leonine edition of all the biblical commentaries is published, however, the best complete resource of Aquinas’s works is Roberto Busa’s edition designed as a supplement to his computer-generated lexical analysis and concordance, the Index Thomisticus. See Busa, ed., Busa Opera Omnia. For the Latin texts of the Pauline commentaries I rely upon the Marietti edition, which Busa lists as the best edition of the text published thus far. The Marietti edition adds a system of helpful paragraph numbers, known as “Marietti numbers.” This study mostly relies upon the updated and corrected text of English translations of the Marietti version of the Pauline commentaries published by the Aquinas Institute for the Study of Sacred Doctrine. I indicate my changes to the Aquinas Institute translations with [emended]. Following the Aquinas Institute, I cite the Marietti chapter number, lectio number in that chapter, and the Marietti paragraph number (for example, Ad Ephesios 1.1.3). Aquinas, Commentaries on the Letters of Saint Paul. Vol. 37–4.
163. In Cologne, Aquinas served as an assistant to Albert, and was tasked with ordering his notes from courses taught by Albert on Dionysius’s Divine Names and Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics. Torrell, Saint Thomas Aquinas 27.
164. “The basic purpose of the cursor,” writes Weisheipl, “was to familiarize himself and the students with the text of Scripture.” James A. Weisheipl, Friar Thomas D’Aquino, 45.
165. Torrell, Saint Thomas Aquinas, 27.
166. The most well-known and best example of Aquinas’s cursory lectures is the Expositio super Isaiam ad litteram. Ibid., 337.
167. Ibid., 96.
168. Tugwell, Albert and Thomas, 247.
169. Torrell, Saint Thomas Aquinas, 55.
170. I will return to the content of the first inaugural lecture below since it serves as a resource for understanding how Aquinas views the structure of the commentaries on Paul’s letters. According to Torrell, there were, up until recently, two texts claiming to be Thomas’s inaugural lecture. One is the Rigans montes de superioribus suis and the other is transmitted under the title Hic est liber. See Marietti, Opuscula theologica, vol. 1, 435–43. Weisheipl suggests, however, that the second is not the inaugural lecture but the text of Thomas’s presentation on the day of his resumptio or reprise. The resumptio was a session that took place on the second day of the installation ceremony. Torrell, Saint Thomas Aquinas, 50–53. Therefore, the inaugural lecture was actually followed by a second lecture on the second day of a two-day installation ceremony for the new master. Both of these presentations treated the subject of Scripture and demonstrate Aquinas’s abilities as an exegete. Torrell, Saint Thomas Aquinas, 53. For the inaugural sermons see McInerny’s notes in Thomas Aquinas: Selected Writings.
171. Wawrykow, “Aquinas on Isaiah,” in Aquinas on Scripture, 44.
172. Most of Aquinas’s “commentaries” on Paul’s letters are recorded lectures, usually referred to as reportationes. These classroom lectures come to us in two forms: lectura in the form of expositio, and lectura in the form of reportationes. All of Aquinas’s lectures on the books of the Old and New Testaments fall into either of these two categories. An expositio refers to a lecture written by Aquinas or dictated directly to a scribe. See Torrell, Saint Thomas Aquinas, 337. 1 Corinthians 1–7:14 and the first eight chapters of the lecture on Romans are considered expositio since it is in these texts that Aquinas’s hand is, as Torrell remarks, “rather directly perceptible.” Ibid., 340; Keating, “1 and 2 Corinthians: The Sacraments and their Ministers,” in Aquinas on Scripture, 128. A lectura in the form of a reportatio, on the other hand, is a report of the live lecture taken down by a student or scribe. Reportationes are notes taken down by persons in the audience and later filled out from memory or other sources to look more like the actual transcript of a letter.” Jeremy Holmes, “Aquinas’ Lectura in Matthaeum,” in Aquinas on Scripture, 74. Weisheipl and Torrell identify the following lectures of Aquinas as reportationes: the lectures on Matthew and John; the lectures on 1 Corinthians 11 to 2 Corinthians; Galatians; Ephesians; Philippians; Colossians 1 and 2 Thessalonians; 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus and Philemon; and Hebrews. The text of 1 Corinthians 7:15–10:33 is missing. See Keating, “1 and 2 Corinthians,” 127. A reportatio does not, according to Weisheipl, purport to be an official redaction. However, this should not impugn the reliability of these texts as accurate copies of Aquinas’s lectures. Indeed, as Baglow has observed, “if this were the criterion for reliability, many if not most of Thomas’ works would have to be set aside. . . .” This includes the commentary on John, which is also a reporatio and considered among contemporary scholars as reliable record of Aquinas’s actual lectura. See Baglow, Modus et Forma, 120. A reportatio is, according to Torrell, a “carefully corrected clean copy of a course of lectures heard by a student, or taken in shorthand by a secretary.” See Torrell, Saint Thomas Aquinas 29. The productions of Aquinas’s works were well supported by secretaries. “In order to cope with his prodigious output,” observes Baglow, “an entire team of secretaries was at his disposal from the first Parisian regency through the end of his life. . . .” Aquinas’s lectures were not simply taken down by any willing secretary or student. The reportationes would be taken down only by a cleric who Aquinas thought would be capable of the work. The secretary during Aquinas’s first stay in Paris was the cleric Peter of Andria, a Dominican, and a secular cleric whose name is unknown. See Baglow, Modus et Forma, 120. From 1259 until his death, which is the range of dates proposed by most scholars for the lectures on Paul’s letters, Aquinas’s secretary was Reginald of Piperno. Based on the best available scholarly dates for the Pauline commentaries, it seems Reginald of Piperno recorded all of Aquinas’s lectures on Paul’s letters. Yocum and Keating, Aquinas On Scripture, 21.
173. Torrell, Saint Thomas Aquinas, 340.
174. In order to avoid a rather imbalanced picture of Aquinas as mostly producing works on Scripture it is necessary to briefly address one more genre of text. Although the lecture was the primary form of university teaching, it could not satisfactorily meet an essential requirement of theological education: the concise presentation of the whole of sacred wisdom that made clear the relationships of the objects under consideration. Only the disputed question could enable the magister to accomplish this task. It was out of insufficiency that Aquinas set out to write a summa or summary of the teaching of theology, conformed to the study of its object, which is God, and adapted to the questioning of the beginner. Chenu has observed that Aquinas’s speculative theology is the fruit of submitting the Word of God to rational investigation not for the reason’s sake alone, but for growth in one’s knowledge and love of God. Such rational investigation of the sacred page was conducted “in a way that makes its questioning a profound homage to faith and its awareness of its divine object.” Chenu, Aquinas and His Role in Theology, 133. See also Per Erik Persson, Sacra Doctrina; Reason and Revelation in Aquinas, 8. Scripture was “very much the basis and ongoing centre of Thomas’s work as a university theologian.”
175. The Latin titles are 1) Hic est liber mandatorum Dei and 2) Rigans montes de superioribus. These two works were discovered among the writings of Remigio dei Girolami, a student of Aquinas. The title Hic est liber mandatorum Dei is taken from the verse which Aquinas puts at the beginning of his lecture: “This is the book of the commandments of God,” Baruch 4:1. It is sometimes referred to in English as Commendation of and Division of Sacred Scripture. Following Torrell, I refer to it as Hic est Liber. The Latin text can be found in the Marietti edition of the opuscula: S. Thomae Aquinatis, Opuscula theologica, t. 1, 435–39. The title of the second lecture, Rigans montes de superioribus is taken from the verse from Psalm 103:13, which Aquinas puts at the beginning of the lecture: “Thou waterest the hills from thy upper rooms. . . .” It is sometimes referred to as On the Commendation of Sacred Scripture. For the Latin text of Rigans montes see the same volume, pp. 441–43. Below, I rely on Ralph McInerny’s translation and commentary. I cite Marietti numbers to facilitate ease of reference.
176. Hic est liber 2.
177. Hic est liber 2.
178. Specifically, Aquinas sees both the Old Law and the New Law directing humankind toward its proper end, which is beatitude. Hic est liber 2.
179. Hic est liber 2.
180. Aquinas says that the first part of the New Testament, which concerns the origin of grace, is constituted by the Gospels. The Gospels are then divided again according to Christ’s twofold nature, where John concerns the divine nature, and Matthew, Mark, and Luke concern the human nature. These latter three are then further divided according to the “threefold dignity that belongs to the man Christ:” Matthew speaks of Christ’s royal honor; Mark speaks of Christ’s prophetic honor; and Luke speaks of Christ’s priestly dignity. See Hic est liber. The third section of the New Testament treats the execution or progress of the origin and power of grace in the Church. This “progress” of grace then receives a threefold division: 1) the beginning of the Church in the Acts of the apostles; 2) the progress of the Church in the canonical letters (James, 1 and 2 Peter, the letters of John, and Jude); and 3) the end of the Church in the Apocalypse, in which the whole content of Scripture concludes.
181. The letters are also distinguished because of their authorship, which is attributed to “the Apostle,” whom Aquinas views as “first and foremost of all theologians.” Aquinas sees Paul as a systematic theologian who above all is the teacher of the grace and mercy of Christ to the Gentile Church as well as to the sons of Israel. More will be said in the next section about Aquinas’s view of Paul’s identity and mission to preach the mercy of the gospel to these two groups. Valkenberg has identified how Aquinas sees Paul as the teacher of systematic theological insights. Aquinas uses the Pauline letters not as sources of testimonial data but, rather, as purely systematic theological insights. For example, Valkenberg argues that “Paul is the main source for Aquinas when considering the soteriological value of the resurrection of Christ. He considers Paul as the first and foremost of all theologians, someone who indicates the significance of the salvation Christ brought to us. . . .” Valkenberg, Words of the Living God, 41.
182. The prologue to the Pauline commentaries is placed first, before the commentary on Romans. Additionally, each commentary contains its own prologue. Hereafter cited as Prologus. The section numbers follow the Marietti edition.
183. Prologus 1. [emphasis added]
184. Prologus 4. Aquinas also explains that because of this human darkness, the angels bestowed God’s light, the apostles brought the gospel teaching from Christ, and Moses and the prophets were read to instruct people in the teaching of the Law. There is a clear unity in function of the old and New Law as a remedy to the darkness of human understanding that mirrors the treatise on law in the Summa Theologiae. Hic est liber. Cf. Ia-IIae q. 99.
185. Prologus 6.
186. Fabian Larcher’s translation of Prologus 9. See Aquinas, Commentary on Romans, trans. Fabian Larcher.
187. The first mention of Israel is from the Acts 9:15 text Aquinas attaches to the beginning of the prologue.
188. Torrell’s translation of the Prologue 11. The translation can be found in Torrell, Aquinas: The Person and His Work, 255. [Emphasis added].
189. Prologus 11.
190. Prologus 11.
191. Prologus 11.
192. Ad Hebraeos 1.1.6.
193. Prologus 11.
194. In 1 Corinthians, Aquinas briefly mentions the sacraments of the “old people” and the “new people,” and the paschal lamb as a figure of Christ. In 2 Corinthians Aquinas comments upon another figure of Christ, which he states is the veil over the face of Moses. Nevertheless, for Aquinas, Galatians is the letter that deals particularly with the “old” sacraments.
195. Ad Galatas, Prologus 1.
196. There is a reference to the duration of the ceremonial law after the passion of Christ. In Thess. 2.2. I treat this concept in my discussion of the Galatians commentary. The relevant material on the ceremonial law in Philippians and Colossians is sparse, and will also be considered but only as it relates to the larger theme of unity between Jew and Gentile treated at length in Ephesians. Therefore, the brief material from these commentaries will be incorporated into the chapter on Ephesians.
197. Ad Ephesios 2.5.111.