The following comes from:
Ali Bonner, The Myth of Pelagianism (British
Academy Monographs; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), 155-56
Predestination
In his Commentary on Ephesians of around AD 387, Jerome
discussed the issue of predestination and specifically interpreted it so as to
keep human free will intact:
Eph. 1:11: Of Him who brings all things to pass according to
the counsel of His will. We must give attention to the fact also that προορισμός
and πρόθεσις, that is predestination and purpose, are placed together,
according to which God works all things according to the counsel of His will.
It is not that all things that come about in this world are accomplished by the
will and counsel of God, otherwise evil things too could be imputed to God, but
that everything which He does He does by His counsel and will since, of course,
they are also full of the reason and power of the maker . … No one,
however, can resist Him [Ps. 75:8] but He does everything which He
wills. Moreoever He wills that all those things which are full of reason and
counsel: Be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth [1 Tim. 2:4].
But because no one is saved except by his own will, for we have free will, He
wants us to want what is good, so that when we have willed it, He himself may
also wish to fulfil His counsel in us.144
This passage suggests that Jerome was aware of difficulty
surrounding the interpretation of God’s omnipotence in relation to human free
will. Already he saw the potential for contradiction between predestination,
defined as the preordaining of decisions, and human free will; and the allied
potential for contradiction between God’s omnipotence and the principle of 1
Tim. 2:4: God who wants all men to be saved. But Jerome consistently
explained predestination as foreknowledge:
The fact that he has declared that we were chosen before the
creation of the world: That we should be holy and unstained before him,
that is, before God, pertains to God’s foreknowledge, for whom: All future
things have already been done [Eccles. 3:15] and: All things are known
before they come to pass [Dan. 13:42].145
Jerome composed Book 1 of his Commentary
on Ezekiel in AD 410, and in it he made a pointed denial of the
interpretation of predestination that limited effective free will. Instead he
propounded the explanation of predestination that it was divine foreknowledge
of autonomous human decisions:
But God says these things with a state of mind that is undecided,
so that these words should demonstrate man’s free will, lest foreknowledge of
good or bad in the future might make unchangeable what God knows will happen:
for it is not necessary that, because He knows what is going to happen, we must
do what he knows in advance; but what we are going to do by our own will, He
knows will happen, through His divine nature.146
In Jerome’s account, God’s ‘state of
mind’ (affectus) was described as ‘undecided’ (ambigens) and
waiting on man’s autonomous freely willed choices. It is noticeable that in
this passage he did not use the word ‘predestination’ and opted instead for
‘foreknowledge’.
Notes to the Above:
(144) Jerome, Commentarii ad Ephesios 1, on Eph. 1:11 (ed.
Migne, PL 26.455A–B), ‘Considerandum quod et hic προορισμός et πρόθεσις, id
est, praedestinatio et propositum, simul posita sint, iuxta quae
operatur omnia Deus secundum consilium uoluntatis suae. Non quo omnia quae in
mundo fiant, Dei uoluntate et consilio peragantur: alioquin et mala Deo
poterunt imputari; sed quo uniuersa quae facit, consilio faciat et uoluntate,
quod scilicet et ratione plena sint et potestate facientis. Nos homines
pleraque uolumus facere consilio: sed nequaquam uoluntatem sequitur effectus.
Illi autem nullus resistere potest, quin omnia quae uoluerit, faciat. Vult
autem ea quaecumque sunt plena rationis atque consilii, uult saluari omnes,
et in agnitionem ueritatis uenire [1 Tim. 2:4]. Sed, quia nullus absque propria
uoluntate saluatur (liberi enim arbitrii sumus), uult nos bonum uelle, ut cum
uoluerimus, uelit in nobis et ipse suum implere consilium.’
(145) Jerome, Commentarii ad Ephesios 1, on Eph. 1:4 (ed.
Migne, PL 26.446C), ‘Quod autem electos nos: Vt essemus sancti et immaculati
coram ipso, hoc est, Deo, ante fabricam mundi testatus est, ad
praescientiam Dei pertinet, cui: Omnia futura iam facta sunt [Eccles.
3:15], et: Antequam fiant uniuersa sunt nota [Dan. 13:42].’
(146) Jerome, In Hiezechielem 1,
on Ezek. 2:4–5 (ed. Glorie, CCSL 75, p. 28), ‘Loquitur autem haec Deus
ambigentis afectu, ut liberum hominis monstrent arbitrium, ne praescientia
futurorum mali uel boni immutabile faciat quod Deus futurum nouerit: non enim
quia ille uentura cognoscit, necesse est nos facere quod ille praesciuit, sed
quod nos propria sumus uoluntate facturi, ille nouit futurum quasi Deus.’
