Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts

Romans 9:13

There are 12 footnotes for this reference.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 493, footnote 2 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Irenæus (HTML)

Against Heresies: Book IV (HTML)

Chapter XXI.—Abraham’s faith was identical with ours; this faith was prefigured by the words and actions of the old patriarchs. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4116 (In-Text, Margin)

... history of Isaac, too, is not without a symbolical character. For in the Epistle to the Romans, the apostle declares: “Moreover, when Rebecca had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac,” she received answer from the Word, “that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him that calleth, it was said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people are in thy body; and the one people shall overcome the other, and the elder shall serve the younger.”[Romans 9:10-13] From which it is evident, that not only [were there] prophecies of the patriarchs, but also that the children brought forth by Rebecca were a prediction of the two nations; and that the one should be indeed the greater, but the other the less; that ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, page 493, footnote 3 (Image)

Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus

Irenæus (HTML)

Against Heresies: Book IV (HTML)

Chapter XXI.—Abraham’s faith was identical with ours; this faith was prefigured by the words and actions of the old patriarchs. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4117 (In-Text, Margin)

... prophecies of the patriarchs, but also that the children brought forth by Rebecca were a prediction of the two nations; and that the one should be indeed the greater, but the other the less; that the one also should be under bondage, but the other free; but [that both should be] of one and the same father. Our God, one and the same, is also their God, who knows hidden things, who knoweth all things before they can come to pass; and for this reason has He said, “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.”[Romans 9:13]

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 151, footnote 7 (Image)

Tertullian (I, II, III)

Apologetic. (HTML)

An Answer to the Jews. (HTML)

Occasion of Writing. Relative Position of Jews and Gentiles Illustrated. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1133 (In-Text, Margin)

... ordained “two peoples and two nations” as about to proceed out of the womb of one woman: nor did grace make distinction in the nuncupative appellation, but in the order of birth; to the effect that, which ever was to be prior in proceeding from the womb, should be subjected to “the less,” that is, the posterior. For thus unto Rebecca did God speak: “Two nations are in thy womb, and two peoples shall be divided from thy bowels; and people shall overcome people, and the greater shall serve the less.”[Romans 9:10-13] Accordingly, since the people or nation of the Jews is anterior in time, and “greater” through the grace of primary favour in the Law, whereas ours is understood to be “less” in the age of times, as having in the last era of the world ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 4, page 82, footnote 8 (Image)

Tertullian (IV), Minucius Felix, Commodian, Origen

Tertullian: Part Fourth. (HTML)

On Modesty. (HTML)

Of the Prodigal Son. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 797 (In-Text, Margin)

... the Jew at the present day, no less than the younger son, having squandered God’s substance, is a beggar in alien territory, serving even until now its princes, that is, the princes of this world. Seek, therefore, the Christians some other as their brother; for the Jew the parable does not admit. Much more aptly would they have matched the Christian with the elder, and the Jew with the younger son, “according to the analogy of faith,” if the order of each people as intimated from Rebecca’s womb[Romans 9:10-13] permitted the inversion: only that (in that case) the concluding paragraph would oppose them; for it will be fitting for the Christian to rejoice, and not to grieve, at the restoration of Israel, if it be true, (as it is), that the whole of our hope ...

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 9, page 341, footnote 1 (Image)

Gospel of Peter, Diatessaron, Apocalypses, Visio Pauli, Testament of Abraham, Acts of X/P, Zosimus, Aristides, Clement, Origen

Epistle to Gregory and Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John. (HTML)

Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John. (HTML)

Book II. (HTML)
Argument from the Prayer of Joseph, to Show that the Baptist May Have Been an Angel Who Became a Man. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4757 (In-Text, Margin)

... not thou Uriel my eighth, and I am Israel and archangel of the power of the Lord and a chief captain among the sons of God? Am not I Israel, the first minister in the sight of God, and I invoked my God by the inextinguishable name?” It is likely that this was really said by Jacob, and was therefore written down, and that there is also a deeper meaning in what we are told, “He supplanted his brother in the womb.” Consider whether the celebrated question about Jacob and Esau has a solution. We read,[Romans 9:11-14] “The children being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of him that calleth, it was said, “The elder shall serve the younger.” Even as it is written: ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 2, page 331, footnote 2 (Image)

Augustine: The City of God, Christian Doctrine

City of God (HTML)

The history of the city of God from Noah to the time of the kings of Israel. (HTML)

What Was Indicated by the Divine Answer About the Twins Still Shut Up in the Womb of Rebecca Their Mother. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 954 (In-Text, Margin)

... his wife, who was barren, might bear, and the Lord granted what he sought, and she conceived, the twins leapt while still enclosed in her womb. And when she was troubled by this struggle, and inquired of the Lord, she received this answer: “Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall overcome the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger.” The Apostle Paul would have us understand this as a great instance of grace;[Romans 9:10-13] for the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, the younger is chosen without any good desert and the elder is rejected, when beyond doubt, as regards original sin, both were alike, and as regards actual sin, neither had ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 3, page 268, footnote 4 (Image)

Augustine: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises

Doctrinal Treatises of St. Augustin (HTML)

The Enchiridion. (HTML)

Predestination to Eternal Life is Wholly of God’s Free Grace. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1281 (In-Text, Margin)

... He hardeneth.” And when the apostle said this, he was illustrating the grace of God, in connection with which he had just spoken of the twins in the womb of Rebecca, “who being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him that calleth, it was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.” And in reference to this matter he quotes another prophetic testimony: “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.”[Romans 9:13] But perceiving how what he had said might affect those who could not penetrate by their understanding the depth of this grace: “What shall we say then?” he says: “Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.” For it seems unjust that, in the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 78, footnote 4 (Image)

Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies

Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John. (HTML)

Chapter II. 23–25; III. 1–5. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 278 (In-Text, Margin)

... the evil, and the free women among the good. Free women bear the good; Sarah bare Isaac: bond women bear the evil; Hagar bare Ishmael. We have in the case of Abraham alone the two sorts, both when the good are of the good, and also when the evil are of the evil. But where have we evil of good figured? Rebecca, Isaac’s wife, was a free woman: read, She bare twins; one was good, the other evil. Thou hast the Scripture openly declaring by the voice of God, “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.”[Romans 9:13] Rebecca bare those two, Jacob and Esau: one of them is chosen, the other is reprobated; one succeeds to the inheritance, the other is disinherited. God does not make His people of Esau, but makes it of Jacob. The seed is one, those conceived are ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 231, footnote 6 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm LVIII (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 2176 (In-Text, Margin)

... because deceitful is iniquity: and when justice they speak, false things they speak; because one thing with mouth they profess, another thing in heart they conceal. “Alienated are sinners from the womb.” What is this? Let us search more diligently: for perhaps he is saying this, because God hath foreknown men that are to be sinners even in the wombs of their mothers. For whence when Rebecca was yet pregnant, and in womb was bearing twins, was it said, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated”?[Romans 9:13] For it was said, “The elder shall serve the younger.” Hidden at that time was the judgment of God: but yet from the womb, that is, from the very origin, alienated are sinners. Whence alienated? From truth. Whence alienated? From the blessed country, ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 583, footnote 6 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm CXIX (HTML)

Tadze. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 5334 (In-Text, Margin)

... forget”? save this, Those older than me have forgotten. For the Greek word is νεώτερος, the same as that used in the words above, “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way?” This is a comparative, and is therefore well understood in its relation to some one older. Let us therefore here recognize the two nations, who were striving even in Rebecca’s womb; when it was said to her, not from works, but of Him that calleth, “The elder shall serve the younger.”[Romans 9:12-13] But the younger saith here that he is of no reputation: for this reason he hath become greater: since “behold, they that were first are last, and they that were last first.”

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 631, footnote 1 (Image)

Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms

Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)

Psalm CXXXVII (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 5697 (In-Text, Margin)

10. Then he turneth to God in prayer against the enemies of that city. “Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom” (ver. 7). Edom is the same who is also called Esau: for ye heard just now the words of the Apostle read, “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.”[Romans 9:13] …Esau then signifieth all the carnal, Jacob all the spiritual.…All carnal persons are enemies to spiritual persons, for all such, desiring present things, persecute those whom they see to long for things eternal. Against these the Psalmist, looking back to Jerusalem, and beseeching God that he may be delivered from captivity, saith—what? “Remember, O Lord, the ...

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 278, footnote 3 (Image)

Jerome: Letters and Select Works

The Letters of St. Jerome. (HTML)

To Ctesiphon. (HTML)

CCEL Footnote 3859 (In-Text, Margin)

... must he do not what he wishes but what he dislikes and does not wish? He will answer you thus: “nay, but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say unto him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour and another unto dishonour?” Bring a yet graver charge against God and ask Him why, when Esau and Jacob were still in the womb, He said: “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.”[Romans 9:13] Accuse Him of injustice because, when Achan the son of Carmi stole part of the spoil of Jericho, He butchered so many thousands for the fault of one. Ask Him why for the sin of the sons of Eli the people were well-nigh annihilated and the ark ...

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