Origen – The commentary on our epistle belongs to the latter part of Origen’s life, when he was settled at Caesarea…This work of Origen is unique among commentators. The reader is astonished not only at the command of Scripture but at the range and subtlety of thought which it displays. The questions raised are, often, remarkably modern. If he had been as successful in answering as he is in propounding them, Origen would have left little for those who followed him. As it is, he is hampered by defects of method and, especially, by the fatal facility of allegory. The discursiveness and prolixity of treatment are also a deterrent to the average reader.
Chrysostom – The homilies were delivered at Antioch, probably between 387 and 397. They show the preacher at his best and are full of moral enthusiasm and of sympathetic human insight into the personality of the apostle. They are also the work of an accomplished scholar and orator, but do not always sound the depths of the great problems with which the apostle is wrestling. They have, at once, the merits and the limitations of Antiochene exegesis.
Pelagius – The commentary was probably written about 410. It consists of brief but well-written scholia rather dexterously turned so as not to clash with his peculiar views. But, it has not come down to us as Pelagius left it. Cassiodorus and, perhaps, others made excisions in the interests of orthodoxy.
Peter Abelard (1079-1142) – The commentary is described as being “literal, theological, and moral. The author follows the text exactly, explains each phrase, often each part of a phrase separately, and attempts (not always successfully) to show the connexion of thought. Occasionally, he discusses theological or moral questions, often with great originality, often showing indications of the opinions for which he was condemned” (Migne). So far as we have consulted it, we have found it based partly on Origen, partly on Augustine, and rather weak and indecisive in its character.
Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) – His commentary works out, in great detail, the method of exegesis started by St. Augustine. No modern reader who turns to it can fail to be struck by the immense intellectual power displayed, and by the precision and completeness of the logical analysis. Its value is chiefly as a complete and methodical exposition from a definite point of view. That, in attempting to fit every argument of St. Paul into the form of a scholastic syllogism, and in making every thought harmonize with the Augustinian doctrine of grace, there should be a tendency to make St. Paul’s words fit a preconceived system, is not unnatural.
From: A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans by William Sanday and Arthur C. Headlam; The International Critical Commentary series (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1895), pp. xcix-cii.
William Sanday (1843-1920) was Dean Ireland’s Professor of Exegesis of Holy Scripture (1883-1895) and Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity (1895-1919) at Oxford University and Canon of Christ Church in Oxford, England. He was also one of the original Fellows of the British Academy (1903).
Arthur C. Headlam (1862-1947) was Professor of Dogmatic Theology at King’s College, London (1903-1916) and Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford University (1918-1923). He was also Fellow of All Souls College at Oxford University.
