Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans

Prologue

85 PROLOGUE LL OF DIVINE Scripture aims at either teaching or exhorting in the manner of a rhetorical speech;1 for it teaches while it proclaims what must be done or avoided, but it exhorts with its holy admonitions, either by dissuading when it turns our will from evil things or by persuading when it steers it toward good things, so that of course we may now desire to fulfill the things which we have learned must be fulfilled, or to avoid their opposites. Therefore, according to this scheme, the teaching of both the Old and the New Testament is threefold. Of course, the law of the Old Testament, which is contained in the five books of Moses, teaches the commandments of the Lord above all else. Next, the prophetic books and histories, along with the other scriptures, encourage us to complete actively those things which were commanded and arouse men’s hearts to obeying the commandments. For when the prophets and holy fathers saw that the people obeyed the divine commandments less, they offered admonitions, so that through promises or threats they might lead them to obedience . It was necessary that object lessons from the histories be added, in which both the reward for those who obey and the punishment of those who transgress are placed before [the people’s] eyes. But these are those old rags which were fastened into ropes to pull Jeremiah from the well,2 namely, the examples of the ancient fathers, which were used with the holy admonitions for pulling the sinner from the depth of vices. The teaching of the New Testament is likewise threefold, in that the Gospel, which teaches the form of true and perfect (41) 1. Cf. Ps-Cicero, Heren. 1.2. 2. Jer 38.11. 86 PETER ABELARD righteousness, takes the place of the law, and then the Epistles with the Apocalypse, which urge obedience to the Gospel, take the place of the prophets, [and the Acts of the Apostles and the many other Gospel narratives (42) contain the sacred histories].3 What the general intention of the Epistles or Gospels is From these things it is evident that, although it is the purpose of the Gospel to teach, the Epistles and the Acts of the Apostles maintain this purpose: to exhort us to obey the Gospel and confirm us in those things which the Gospel teaches us. Let no one, therefore, slander the Epistles as though they were written superfluously, after the Gospel, which is the perfect teaching, since we mentioned that they were written as admonitions , rather than as teaching, although there are some beneficial lessons or counsels contained in them which the Gospel does not have. Thus Paul, writing to the Corinthians, says: “For I, not the Lord, say to the others: If any brother has an unbelieving wife,” etc.,4 and also teaches that circumcision and the other carnal observances of the law now ought to cease, because they were not revealed in the Gospel. Also, when writing to Timothy, he teaches many things concerning the episcopal, priestly, or levitical office which the Gospel did not describe.5 Nevertheless we say that the perfect teaching of the Gospel was passed on as far as sufficed for the form of true righteousness and the salvation of souls, not for the ornamentation of the Church or enlargement of salvation itself. For, in respect to the property of the state, there are certain things that pertain to its safety, and certain things that pertain to its enlargement, just as Cicero recalls at the end of Book 2 of Rhetoric. The things which pertain to safety are those without which a state cannot endure safe and healthy, like fields, forests, and other things of this sort which are very necessary to the state. Other things are accordingly not necessary but rather exceptional, namely, as when one state acquires the things beyond what is necessary, that prove it more worthy than other states or make it more secure, such as beautiful buildings, an abundance of treasure, great mastery, and similar things.6 3. Addition of mO. 4. 1 Cor 7.12. 5. 1 Tm 3.1–15; 5.1; 17–25. 6. Cf. Cicero, inv. 2.56. PROLOGUE 87 But perhaps those things which the Gospel taught concerning faith and hope and charity or concerning the sacraments could have sufficed for salvation, even if apostolic regulations were not...