ACC ~ Romans 1 v19

WHAT CAN BE KNOWN ABOUT GOD. ORIGEN: Paul says that what can be known about God is plain to them, thereby revealing that there is something about God which can be known, and something about him which is unknown. Therefore he says that the wrath of God is revealed on those who suppress the truth by their wickedness. If something is revealed it must be brought to our notice from something we have not yet noticed. It appears here that the wrath of God is revealed not to those who are ignorant of the truth but to those who already know the truth, however imperfectly.

The apostle also shows that those things which have come to the wise of this world concerning the knowledge of the truth, have come to them by divine revelation. But when they chase after vain glory, or are praised for ancient errors, or are silenced by fear of rulers, they become judges of their own damnation. The truth, which they had learned by divine revelation, is either hidden from them by their loss of freedom or else is denied by their wicked behavior.

So also the wrath of God may sometimes appear in the form of that power which is given to the ministers of justice and which applies punishments to sinners, which is what I think is meant in the passage where it is recorded that the wrath of God moved David to order Joab to number the people.

The invisible things of God may be contemplated by the things which have been made. What is unknown about God is the essence of his very nature, which is in my opinion concealed, not only from humanity but even from the angelic creatures. For only God knows whether there has ever been anyone so perfect in his grasp of things that he has been able to attain to a pure knowledge of God’s very essence. Nonetheless, we may hope that such may in due time be revealed, for this appears in the words of the Savior: “No one knows the Son, except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” And he would not have added this last phrase if he had not known that there were some to whom God wanted to become revealed. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

PLAIN FROM THE STRUCTURE OF THE WORLD. AMBROSIASTER: The knowledge of God is plain from the structure of the world. For God, who by nature is invisible, may be known even from things which are visible. For his work is made in such a way that it reveals its Maker by its very visibility, so that what is concealed may be known by looking at what is revealed.This is revealed so that everyone might believe that he is God, who made this cosmos, which is impossible for anyone else to do. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

KNOWN THROUGH CREATION. APOLLINARIS OF LAODICEA: The energies of the divine being have always been invisible by nature, and they are never revealed to anybody directly, but they are made known through the creation. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

THE VOICE OF TRUTH AND BEAUTY. CHRYSOSTOM: God has placed the knowledge of himself in human hearts from the beginning. But this knowledge they unwisely invested in wood and stone and thus contaminated the truth, at least as far as they were able. Meanwhile the truth abides unchanged, having its own unchanging glory. … How did God reveal himself? By a voice from heaven? Not at all! God made a panoply which was able to draw them more than by a voice. He put before them the immense creation, so that both the wise and the unlearned, the Scythian and the barbarian, might ascend to God, having learned through sight the beauty of the things which they had seen. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 3.

THE INVISIBLE MANIFESTED IN THE VISIBLE. [PSEUDO-]CONSTANTIUS: Paul shows that every person who has a normal intellect recognizes in himself some invisible substance which produces different talents and disciplines in human beings. By this means the invisible God is manifested to them in the works which he has done and is still doing. THE HOLY LETTER OF ST. PAUL TO THE ROMANS.

GOD’S EXISTENCE AND JUSTICE PLAIN. PELAGIUS: What can be known about God, i.e., that God exists and that God is just, is plain to their consciences. For every creature knows that it is not God and that it was made by another. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

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