Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans John Calvin
Commentary on Romans
tionem vero dilecti propter Patres:
29. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. 29. Sine poenitentia enim sunt dona et vocatio Dei. 30. For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
30. Quemadmodum enim vos quoque 366 increduli fuistis Deo, nunc autem misericordiam estis consequuti istorum incredulitate:
31. Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
31. Sic et ii nunc increduli facti sunt, eo quod adepti estis misericordiam, ut ipsi quoque misericordiam consequantur. 367
32. For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.
32. Concludit enim Deus omnes sub incredulitate, ut omnium misereatur. 28. With regard indeed to the gospel, etc. He shows that the worst thing in the Jews ought not to subject them to the contempt of the Gentiles. Their chief crime was unbelief: but Paul teaches us, that they were thus blinded for a time by God's providence, that a way to the gospel might be made for the Gentiles; 368 and that still they were not for ever excluded from the favor of God. He then admits, that they were for the present alienated from God on account of the gospel, that thus the salvation, which at first was deposited with them, might come to the Gentiles; and yet that God was not unmindful of the covenant which he had made with their fathers, and by which he testified that according to his eternal purpose he loved that nation: and this he confirms by this remarkable declaration, — that the grace of the divine calling cannot be made void; for this is the import of the words, —
29. The gifts and calling of God are without repentance. He has mentioned gifts and calling; which are to be understood, according to a figure in grammar, 369 as meaning the gift of calling: and this is not to be taken for any sort of calling but of that, by which God had adopted the posterity of Abraham into covenant; since this is especially the subject here, as he has previously, by the word, election, designated the secret purpose of God, by which he had formerly made a distinction between the Jews and the Gentiles. 370 For we must bear
366{Ποτε} — formerly, left out. 367Our common version departs here from the original by connecting "your mercy" with the last clause. Calvin keeps the proper order of the words, though he paraphrases them, {τῷ} {ὑμετέρῳ} {ἐλέει}, "eo quod adepti estis misericordiam." They might have been rendered, "through your mercy," that is, the mercy shown to you, or the mercy of which you are the objects. — Ed.
368They were "enemies" to Paul and the Church, say Grotius and Luther, — to the gospel, says Pareus, — to God, says Mede and Stuart. The parallel in the next clause, "beloved," favors the last sentiment. They were become God's enemies, and alienated through their rejection of the gospel; but they were still regarded as descendants of the Fathers and in some sense on their account "beloved," as those for whom God entertained love, inasmuch as his "gifts and calling" made in their behalf, were still in force and never to be changed. — Ed.
369Hypallage — transposition, a change in the arrangement of a sentence. 370It is not desirable to amalgamate words in this manner; nor is it necessary. The Apostle ascends; he mentions first the "gifts," the free promises which God made to the Jews; and