In his
translation of Rom 9:22-23, Patrick Boylan rendered the text thusly:
Now if God,
wishing to show His anger,
and display His power,
has endured with much forbearance
vessels of wrath ripe for destruction,
so as to make known the wealth of His glory
in vessels of mercy
which He prefashioned for glory,
[What can be objected to this?]
On the topic
of the meaning of the “vessels of wrath” being ripe for “destruction,” he
offered the following commentary (contra
those who hold to a supralapsarian view of predestination [i.e., God being
active in both election and reprobation):
The Jews who refused to accept Christ were “vessels
of wrath” (though not necessarily “vessels of hate”), for God’s anger is
against all injustice and iniquity (i. 18).
The “vessels of wrath” are described as κατηρτισμενα
εις απωλειαν. The
Vulgate has rendered this, apta in
interitum. It is possible, as far as the form goes, to take κατηρτισμενα as meaning “prepared,” or “who
have prepared themselves,” or “fully disposed.” Probably it is best to
understand it in this last sense, for Paul does not say how they have been
prepared or fitted, or made fully ripe, for doom. The difference in
construction between α προητοιμασεν εις δοξαν, and κατηρτισμενα εις απωλειαν seems to suggest that Paul
wishes to speak definitely of a preparation to glory made by God, while leaving
obscure the factors of the ripeness for destruction.
The nature of the “destruction” is disputed.
It need not be understood necessarily as eternal punishment, for the immediate
theme of discussion is the incredulous Jews, and Paul can hardly wish to say
that the unbelieving Jews of his time are about to be cast into eternal “destruction.”
The “destruction” may be the various woes and miseries, political and moral,
which would come upon the Jewish nation. They had become ready for these by
their sins, and, above all, by their rejection of Christ. If this view of απωλεια is correct, there is no question
in this context of predetermination to eternal reprobation. His judgment on the
unbelieving Jewish nation will display the might of God, and the fury of His
just wrath (i.e., His vindicative
justice). (Patrick Boylan, St. Paul’s
Epistle to the Romans: Translation and Commentary [Dublin: M.H. Gill and
Son, Ltd., 1934, 1947], 161)
Further Reading
