Letter 1097: Scripture speaks with precision to those who read carefully.
On the Epistle to the Romans. On the verse: "God gave them over to a reprobate mind." Since you have written asking for what reason God gave them over to a reprobate mind, I shall say that if you read what follows, you will both understand and be freed from all perplexity. For he says, "Filled with all unrighteousness." Having named all wickedness in general, he then goes through it species by species in what follows. If, therefore, he gave them over not as those about to be filled, but as those already filled, what absurdity has he committed? And if you think the matter obscure — though it is in fact clear — I shall attempt to explain it more plainly. He did not say: Because they were given over, they were filled; nor did he say: They were given over in order to be filled. Rather, he said "he gave over those already filled" — that is, he let them go, stripping them of his own help. Just as a general abandons soldiers who do not obey his commands and who, so far as they are concerned, have already been defeated — leaving them stripped of his own strategic wisdom — so God, when those who were already filled with every wickedness from their own choice, justly gave them over by abandoning them. He did not push them into the reprobate mind, but when they rushed headlong toward it of their own accord, he simply let them go.
To Theologius the Deacon. On the verse: "Not only do they do these things." Since you have again prompted us to search the apostolic treasures — for you said: What does it mean, "Not only do they do these things, but they also approve of those who practice them," and you added: If approving is worse than doing, for what reason did Paul arrange it in this way? — gather your mind a little so as to hunt down the apostolic meaning as it flees, and listen. Some, not understanding what was said, but being perplexed just as you are, and supposing that the apostolic words had been corrupted, interpreted them thus: "Not only those who do these things, but also those who approve of those who practice them." For this is how the old copy read, they said, so that doing would be greater than approving. But I, neither saying that the apostolic books have erred in this, nor attacking those who failed to understand — for perhaps even if they are surpassed in this point, they surpass in others, and they grasped some things of which I myself never even conceived — shall state what I have understood, and leave the judgment to the discerning.
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
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