ACC ~ Romans 11 v11

THEY HAVE NOT STUMBLED SO AS TO FALL. ORIGEN: Note that Paul distinguishes between stumbling and sinning on the one hand and falling on the other. For he envisages a cure for stumbling and sinning but not for falling. … This is why he denies that Israel has fallen. … For the Israelites, although they rejected their redeemer and stoned and persecuted those who were sent to them, nevertheless still contain a remnant within them. For they have the witness of the law even if they do not believe or understand it. They also have the imitation of God even if it is not according to knowledge. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

THROUGH THEIR TRESPASSES. CHRYSOSTOM: After showing that the Jews were guilty of evils without number, Paul devises something in mitigation. Note that he accuses them on the basis of the prophets but modifies the condemnation by his own words. For nobody will deny that they have sinned greatly. But let us see if the fall is of such a kind as to be incurable. … No, it is not! HOMILIES ON ROMANS 19.

AMBROSIASTER: Paul says here what I have recorded above, that these people have not fallen into unbelief in such a way as to make their ultimate conversion impossible. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

SALVATION HAS COME TO THE GENTILES. AUGUSTINE: Paul says that the Jews have not fallen but rather that their fall was not pointless, since it led to the salvation of the Gentiles. The Jews did not sin only to fall as a punishment but so that their fall might serve the salvation of the Gentiles. Paul even begins to praise the Jewish people for this fall of unbelief, in order that the Gentiles should not become proud, seeing that the fall of the Jews was so important for their own salvation. On the contrary, the Gentiles ought to be all the more careful, lest they too should grow proud and fall also. AUGUSTINE ON ROMANS 70.

PELAGIUS: Once more, Paul explains the position of the Jews. They have not fallen away completely and beyond hope. God loved them so much that the Gentiles were called for their salvation, so that when the Jews saw that the Gentiles were being allowed into the kingdom of God, they might perhaps repent more easily. PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: I marvel at your kindness, Paul, and the way in which you so artfully craft the words of the divine dispensation. You assert that the Gentiles were called not because the Israelites had lost all hope of salvation after they had stumbled on Christ the stumbling stone but rather that they would imitate those who were so unexpectedly accepted by God, that they would recognize their wickedness, that they would want to understand better than before and that they would accept the redeemer. EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS.

Rom