Romans 4:14
For if they who are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, the promise is made of no effect.
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Si enim qui ex lege, hæredes sunt : exinanita est fides, abolita est promissio.
- Greek New Testament (SBLGNT)
- εἰ γὰρ οἱ ἐκ νόμου κληρονόμοι, κεκένωται ἡ πίστις καὶ κατήργηται ἡ ἐπαγγελία·
Haydock's commentary
For if they, who are of the law, be heirs: faith is made void, the promise is made of no effect. That is, if the Jews, who are under the law, are the only heirs of the blessings promised, it will follow that the faith which Abraham had before the circumcision, and before the law, was of no value, which I have shewn to be false. And, secondly, it will follow that the promise made to him, that in him all nations should be blessed, is also null. (Witham)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Augustine A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians, The New Testament is More Ancient Than the Old; But It Was Subsequently Revealed
Here, certainly, if we ask whether this testament, which, he says, being confirmed by God was not weakened by the law, which was made four hundred and thirty years after, is to be understood as the new or the old one, who can hesitate to answer “the new, but hidden in the prophetic shadows until the time should come wherein it should be revealed in Christ”? For if we should say the old, what will that be which genders from Mount Sinai to bondage? For there was made the law four hundred and thirty years after, by which law he asserts that this testament of the promise of Abraham could not be weakened; and he will have this which was made by Abraham to pertain rather to us, whom he will have to be children of the freewoman, not of the bondwoman, heirs by the promise, not by the law, when he says, “For if the inheritance be by the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by …
St Augustine A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians, Of the Praise of the Law
Once more, in the praise of the law, what advantage is it to them that, in opposition to the Manicheans, they say the truth when they wish to bring men from that view to this which they hold falsely against the catholics? For they say, “We confess that even the old law, according to the apostle, is holy and just and good, and that this could confer eternal life on those that kept its commandments, and lived righteously by faith, like the prophets and patriarchs, and all the saints.” By which words, very craftily expressed, they praise the law in opposition to grace; for certainly that law, although just and holy and good, could not confer eternal life on all those men of God, but the faith which is in Christ. …
St John Chrysostom The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans, Homily VIII on Rom. iv. 1, 2
Ver. 14 . “For if they which are of the Law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect.”
St John Chrysostom The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. John, John 7.37,38
Calling the Cross, “glory.” For since we were enemies, and had sinned, and fallen short of the gift of God, and were haters of God, and since grace was a proof of our reconciliation, and since a gift is not given to those who are hated, but to friends and those who have been well-pleasing; it was therefore necessary that the Sacrifice should first be offered for us, that the enmity (against God) which was in our flesh should be done away, that we should become friends of God, and so receive the Gift. For if this was done with respect to the promise made to Abraham, much more with respect to grace. And this Paul hath declared, saying, “If they which are of the Law be heirs, faith is made void, because the Law worketh wrath.” ( Rom. iv. …