TRV
Augustine of Hippo
Nicene & Post-Nicene · AD 325–500 · 7,530 passages across 62 books
Commentary
Revelation 21:1
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
Having concluded his prophecy of the judgment awaiting bad people, John has to speak of what is to befall the good.… [The new heaven and earth] will happen in the order which he indicated, by anticipation, in the earlier verse where he said he saw sitting on a throne one from whose face heaven and earth fled away. First, to be sure, will come the judgment of those uninscribed in the Book of Life and their consignment to eternal fire.… Afterwards, this world as we see it will pass away, burned away by terrestrial fires, just as the flood was caused by the overflowing of terrestrial waters. This conflagration will utterly burn away the corruptible characteristics proper to corruptible bodies, as such; whereupon our substance will possess only those qualities that are consistent with bodies immortalized in this marvelous transformation—to this end, that the world, remade into something better, will become fit for people now remade, even in their bodies, into something better.
Revelation 21:2
And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
This city is said to come down out of heaven in the sense that God created it by means of heavenly grace, as he told it through Isaiah: “I am the Lord creating thee.” Indeed, its descent from heaven began with the beginning of time, since it is by God’s grace coming down from above through the “laver of regeneration” in the Holy Spirit sent from heaven that its citizenship has continuously grown up on earth. Yet only after God’s last judgment, the one he has deputed to Jesus Christ his Son, will his tremendous gift of grace be revealed so brightly in [Jerusalem] that in this new brightness there will remain no traces of its earthly blemishes. For then its members’ bodies will pass over from mortal corruptibility to the new immortality of incorruption.
Revelation 22:11
He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.
“Let the wickedness of sinners be consummated.” In this context, “consummated” means “brought to completion,” in tune with what is said in the Apocalypse, “Let the righteous become more righteous yet, and the filthy still wallow in their filth.” The wickedness of those who crucified the Son of God seems to be complete, but greater still is the wickedness of those who do not wish to live uprightly and hate the commandments of truth for which the Son of God was crucified. The psalmist said, therefore, “Let the wickedness of sinners be consummated,” that is, let it come to the pinnacle of wickedness, so that the righteous judgment can come immediately.
Revelation 22:13
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
As you know, all of you who know the holy Scriptures, among the disciples whom the Lord chose while present in the flesh, Peter was the first to be chosen. Paul … was not chosen among them nor with them, but a long time afterward, though not for all that unequal to them. So Peter is the first of the apostles, Paul the last; while God, whose servants these two are, whose heralds, whose preachers these two are, is “the first and the last.” Peter first among the apostles, Paul last among the apostles; God both first and last, before whom nothing and after whom nothing. So God who has presented himself as eternally the first and the last, himself joined together the first and the last apostles in martyrdom.
Romans 1:1
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God,
By these two words, called and set apart, Paul distinguishes between the church, which is acceptable to God, and the synagogue, whose glory has faded away. The church (i.e., ecclesia) is so called because it “calls forth”: the synagogue, because it “gathers together.”
Romans 1:2
(Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,)
The prophets arose from the Jewish people, and Paul testifies that the gospel, in which believers are justified by faith, had been promised earlier through them.… For there are Gentile prophets as well, in whom also are found some things which they heard of Christ and prophesied. This sort of thing is even said about the Sibyl [Virgil, Eclogues 4.4] … but the writings of the Gentiles, so very full of superstitious idolatry, ought not to be considered holy just because they say something about Christ.
Romans 1:4
· 4 passages
And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:
With respect to this predestination Christ was glorified before the foundation of the world, so that as a result of his resurrection from the dead he might have glory at the Father’s right hand, where he now sits. Thus, when he saw that his predestined glorification had come, in order that what had already been done by predestination might now also take place in fact, he prayed: “Father, glorify thou me in thy own presence with the glory which I had with thee before the world was made.”
Jesus was predestined, so that he who was to be the Son of David according to the flesh should nonetheless be in power the Son of God, according to the Spirit of sanctification, for he was born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary. This is that unique act, performed in an ineffable manner, the assumption of a man by the Word of God, so that he might truly and properly be called at once the Son of God and the Son of Man—the Son of Man because of the man who was assumed, the Son of God because of the only begotten God who assumed him.
Christ is the son of David in weakness according to the flesh but Son of God in power according to the Spirit of sanctification.… Weakness relates to David but life eternal to the power of God.
Paul had to oppose the unbelief of those who accept our Lord Jesus Christ only according to the man whom he put on but do not understand his divinity, which sets him apart from every other creature.
Romans 1:5
By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name:
Paul preserves the main point of his case very well, so that no one would dare say that he has been led to the gospel because of the merits of his previous life. How could one claim this, when even the apostles themselves … could not have received their own apostleship unless they had first … received grace, which cleanses and justifies sinners?
Romans 1:6
Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ:
Paul teaches here that this salvation had come not only to the Jews, as some Jewish Christians thought.
Romans 1:7
· 2 passages
To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Instead of saying “greetings,” Paul says “Grace to you and peace.” Grace then is from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, by which our sins, which had turned us from God, are forgiven; and from them also is this peace, whereby we are reconciled to God. Since through grace hostilities dissolve once sins are remitted, now we may cling in peace to him from whom our sins alone had torn us.… But when these sins have been forgiven through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall have peace with no separation between us and God.
Here again Paul has emphasized God’s grace rather than the saints’ merit, for he does not say “to those loving God” but rather “to God’s beloved.”
Romans 1:17
· 3 passages
For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
He who claims to be just without faith is a liar. Sermons for the Feast of the Nativity, Homily
What is now the church, prior to the appearance of what will be, lives in toils and afflictions, and in her the just live by faith.
This righteousness is the grace of the New Testament, by which the faithful are just as long as they live by faith, until by the perfection of righteousness they are brought to the face-to-face vision, as they are also brought to the immortality of the body itself, by the perfection of salvation.
Romans 1:18
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
Those whom the apostle reproved knew but did not give thanks and, claiming to be wise, actually became fools and fell into idolatry. For when the apostle spoke to the Athenians, he showed plainly that the wise among the Gentiles had discovered the Creator.… He condemned the unbelief of the Gentiles first, in order to show that they could obtain grace if they converted. For it would be unjust for them to suffer a penalty for unbelief but not obtain the reward of faith.
Romans 1:20
· 2 passages
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
How does Paul mean that they are without excuse, except by reference to a kind of excuse that usually prompts human pride to voice such protestations as: “If only I had known, I would not have done it.” … This kind of excuse is taken away from them when a precept is given or when the knowledge of how to avoid sin is made clear to them.
Notice that Paul does not call them ignorant of the truth but says that they held the truth in iniquity, and he does not fail to answer the obvious question: How could those to whom God had not given the law have a knowledge of the truth? For he says that through the visible things of the creation they reached an understanding of the invisible things of the Creator.