ACC ~ Romans 8 v19

CREATION RESTORED. IRENAEUS: God is rich in all things, and everything is his. It is therefore fitting that the creation itself, having been restored to its primeval condition, should without restraint be under the dominion of the righteous. AGAINST HERESIES 5.32.1.

THE REVEALING. ORIGEN: Paul says this in order to indicate how great and wonderful is the glory which will be revealed both in him and in those who have shared his sufferings. COMMENTARY ON THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.

CREATION PERSONIFIED AS LIVING. DIODORE: The Scriptures often suggest that the visible creation is animate and that the universe has a rational sensibility.PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

CHRYSOSTOM: Here Paul’s discourse becomes more emphatic, and he personifies the creation in the way that the prophets do when they speak of the floods, clapping their hands and so on. HOMILIES ON ROMANS 14.

IN EAGER LONGING. [PSEUDO-]CONSTANTIUS: When Paul talks here about the creation waiting, he means the rational creation and not, as some think, the irrational or insensible creation which was made in order to serve man and which afterward will perish. … “Creation” refers to Adam and Eve, who are waiting to receive adoption by God. The “eager longing” was shared by Adam and Eve on the one hand and by the angels and the elements, i.e., the heavens, the earth, the sun, the moon and the stars, on the other. … Paul says that Adam and Eve were longing for the day of judgment. THE HOLY LETTER OF ST. PAUL TO THE ROMANS.

ALTERNATIVE READINGS. PELAGIUS: Different interpreters expound this passage in different ways. Some say that the whole creation awaits the time of the resurrection, because then it will be changed into something better. Others say that this refers only to the angelic, rational creation. Still others say that “creation” refers specifically to Adam and Eve, because they did not sin by themselves but at the temptation of the serpent, who long ago made them subject to corruption when they were exposed to deception in the hope of divine existence. These interpreters say that Adam and Eve will be set free so that they are no longer subject to corruption. But the “whole creation,” say these same interpreters, means all those who were righteous up to the coming of Christ, because they too have not yet received and are waiting until God provides something better for us. Not only they, however, but we also, in whom these things have been fulfilled, do not yet hold it in our grasp but endure in hope, although we have seen things which many righteous people have longed to see.PELAGIUS’S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS.

THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: Paul is referring here to the resurrection on the last day. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

SONS OF GOD TRANSFORMED. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: The creation is waiting for the revelation of the sons of God at some point in the future which is still unknown. Who can know when this will be? But by the secret plan of God, which orders all things for the best, it will come to this end. For when the sons of God, who have lived a righteous life, have been transformed into glory from dishonor and from what is corruptible into what is incorruptible, then the creation too will be transformed into something better. EXPLANATION OF THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS.

Rom