The Patristic Fathers and the

Hope for National Israel

by Michael J. Vlach, Ph.D.

Most works that discuss the early church’s view of Israel stress that the church viewed itself as the new Israel that replaced national Israel as the people of God. But while the church certainly (an in our view erroneously) viewed itself as the ‘new Israel,’ the early church with near unanimity also affirmed that there was a future hope for the nation Israel, a hope based on Old Testament prophecies and Paul’s words in Romans 9–11.[1] In his research on the Patristic and Medieval eras, Denis Fahey points out that the view that “the Jews will be converted . . . towards the end of the world can be proved from the texts of the Fathers, century by century.”[2] This includes the testimony of those like Justin Martyr, Origen, Augustine, and many others.

The purpose of this article is to show, with primary source documentation, that the early theologians from A.D. 100–500 believed in a future for national Israel, a future that at the very least included a salvation of the Jews in the end times.

Justin Martyr

Justin Martyr held that the tribes of Israel would be gathered and restored in accord with what the prophet Zechariah predicted:

And what the people of the Jews shall say and do, when they see Him coming in glory, has been thus predicted by Zechariah the prophet: “I will command the four winds to gather the scattered children; I will command the north wind to bring them, and the south wind, that it keep not back. And then in Jerusalem there shall be great lamentation, not the lamentation of mouths or of lips, but the lamentation of the heart; and they shall rend not their garments, but their hearts. Tribe by tribe they shall mourn, and then they shall look on Him whom they have pierced; and they shall say, Why, O Lord, hast Thou made us to err from Thy way? The glory which our fathers blessed, has for us been turned into shame.”[3]

Significantly, Justin not only held to a future hope for the literal tribes of Israel, he did so on the basis of Old Testament promises to the nation—in this case Zechariah. For Justin, the hope for Israel presented in the Old Testament was alive and well.

Tertullian

Tertullian (c. 160–225) discussed the future blessings and salvation of Israel when he said: “He [God] will favour with His acceptance and blessing the circumcision also, even the race of Abraham, which by and by is to acknowledge Him.”[4] He also urged Christians to eagerly anticipate and rejoice over the coming restoration of Israel: “. . . for it will be fitting for the Christian to rejoice, and not to grieve, at the restoration of Israel, if it be true, (as it is), that the whole of our hope is intimately united with the remaining expectation of Israel.”[5]

Origen

Origen, too, believed in a future for the nation Israel. As Jeremy Cohen has observed, “He [Origen] affirms Paul’s commitment to—and confidence in—the ultimate salvation of the Jews.”[6] This belief was linked to “the glorious forecast of [Romans] 11:25–26.”[7]

Origen believed in “two callings of Israel.”[8] The first calling of Israel is past and refers to Israel’s calling before Christ that eventually led to their stumbling and falling. The second calling of Israel, however, is future and will take place after the period of the fullness of the Gentiles: “But when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, then will all Israel, having been called again, be saved.”[9] Significantly, in spite of Origen’s ‘church is Israel’ theology, he still viewed Israel as having a future after the “fullness of the Gentiles.” Commenting on Origen’s perspective, Cohen asserts, “Despite the Jews’ rejection of Jesus and his apostles, the potential for restoration and renewal remains inherent within them.”[10]

Cyril of Jerusalem    

Cyril of Jerusalem (c. 315–386), when discussing events regarding “the end of the world drawing near,” discussed the coming of the Antichrist and his temporary deception of the Jews. The Antichrist will deceive “the Jews by the lying signs and wonders of his magical deceit, until they believe he is the expected Christ. . .”[11] Thus, for Cyril, the coming Antichrist would deceive the Jews for a time until they believed in Jesus.

John Chrysostom

John Chrysostom (349–407), who often made harsh statements against the Jews, still believed in a future salvation of the Jews. He linked their coming salvation with the coming of Elijah:

To show therefore that [Elijah] the Tishbite comes before that other [second] advent . . . He said this. . . . And what is this reason? That when He is come, He may persuade the Jews to believe in Christ, and that they may not all utterly perish at His coming. Wherefore He too, guiding them on to that remembrance, saith, “And he shall restore all things;” that is, shall correct the unbelief of the Jews that are then in being.[12]

According to Chrysostom, the coming of Elijah means “the conversion of the Jews”[13] and a rejection of the unbelief that has characterized them so far.

For Chrysostom, Romans 11 holds future significance for the nation Israel. In reference to Romans 11:27 and the statement, “For this is my covenant with them, when I will take away their sins,” Chrysostom declared, “If then this hath been promised, but has never yet happened in their case, nor have they ever enjoyed the remission of sins by baptism, certainly it will come to pass.”[14]

Augustine

Some of the strongest statements concerning the salvation of Israel come from Augustine. As the father of amillennialism it may be natural to believe that Augustine rejected any idea of a future for Israel—but this is not the case. As Cohen points out, “Augustine speaks of the ultimate salvation of the Jewish people, ostensibly as a whole.”[15] Like Chrysostom, Augustine linked the salvation of the Jews with the coming of Elijah:

It is a familiar theme in the conversation and heart of the faithful, that in the last days before the judgment the Jews shall believe in the true Christ, that is, our Christ, by means of this great and admirable prophet Elias who shall expound the law to them. . . . When, therefore, he is come, he shall give a spiritual explanation of the law which the Jews at present understand carnally, and shall thus “turn the heart of the father to the son,” that is, the heart of the fathers to the children.[16]

Significantly, Augustine mentions that his view concerning the salvation of the Jews was “familiar” to believers of his day. Thus, his belief in the salvation of the Jews, according to his testimony, was quite common during his lifetime.

Augustine also adopted a literal approach to Zechariah 12:10 in regard to the salvation of Israel. In doing so he shows that at least some Old Testament prophecies still had continuing relevance in regard to the salvation of Israel:

“And they shall look upon me because they have insulted me, and they shall mourn for Him as if for one very dear (or beloved”, and shall be in bitterness for Him as for an only-begotten.” For in that day the Jews—those of them, at least, who shall receive the spirit of grace and mercy—when they see Him coming in His majesty, and recognize that it its He whom they, in the person of their parents, insulted when He came before in His humiliation, shall repent of insulting Him in His passion.[17]

Augustine also offered a chronology of end-times events. In connection with the coming of Elijah and other events, the nation of the Jews will be saved:

And at or in connection with that judgment the following events shall come to pass, as we have learned: Elias the Tishbite shall come; the Jews shall believe; Antichrist shall persecute; Christ shall judge; the dead shall rise; the good and the wicked shall be separated; the world shall be burned and renewed.[18]

Augustine also took a literal view of the prophecy of Hosea 3:5: “But let us hear what he [Hosea] adds: ‘And afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and shall be amazed at the Lord and at His goodness in the latter days.” Nothing is clearer than this prophecy . . .’”[19]

Augustine also believed that the people of Israel would be saved in accord with what Paul taught in Romans 11: “That, forasmuch as in that humble coming [first advent] ‘blindness hat happened in part unto Israel, that the fullness of the Gentiles might enter in’ [Rom. 11:25], in that other should happen what follows, ‘and so all Israel should be saved’ [Rom. 11:26].”[20]

This salvation of Israel is linked with the removal of Israel’s captivity: “for the Jews, as it is here, ‘Who shall give salvation to Israel out of Sion?’ ‘When the Lord shall turn away the captivity of His people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.’”[21]

Augustine also argued that the church had not permanently supplanted the Jews:

What! have we supplanted the Jews? No, but we are said to be their supplanters, for that for our sakes they were supplanted. If they had not been blinded, Christ would not have been crucified; His precious Blood would not be shed; if that Blood had not been shed, the world would not have been redeemed. Because then their blindness hath profited us, therefore hath the elder brother been supplanted by the younger, and the younger is called the Supplanter. But how long shall this be?[22]

Augustine then answers this question of “But how long shall this be?” Israel has been supplanted to bring blessings to the church, but this time of being supplanted will come to an end: “The time will come, the end of the world will come, and all Israel shall believe; not they who now are, but their children who shall then be.”[23]

Jerome

Jerome (347–420), too, believed in a future salvation of the Jews. He said, “[W]hen the Jews receive the faith at the end of the world, they will find themselves in dazzling light, as if Our Lord were returning to them from Egypt.”[24]

St. Prosper of Aquitaine

St. Prosper of Aquitaine (c. 390–455) argued that Israel’s current state of blindness is being used by God for the salvation of the Gentiles. But after this, Israel will be saved:

As we have already said above, it is not given to any human study or genius to explore the decree and design according to which God . . .hath concluded all in unbelief, that He may have mercy on all . . . He delayed for centuries, while He was educating Israel, to enlighten the countless peoples of infidels; and now He allows that same Israel to go blind till the universality of the Gentiles enter the fold. He allows so many thousands of this people to be born and die to be lost, when only those whom the end of the world will find alive will attain salvation.[25]

This idea of Israel’s salvation after the time of Gentile blessing is also found in the following statement St. Prosper of Aquitaine:

But He has shown His mercy for all men in a far more extraordinary manner when the Son of God became the Son of man . . . . Since then the glory of the race of Israel shines not in one people only . . . The promised heritage falls no longer to the sons of the flesh, but to the sons of the promise. The great parsimony in bestowing grace which in the past ages befell all other nations, is now the lot of the Jewish people. Yet, when the fulness of the Gentiles will have come in, then a flood of the same waters of grace is promised for their dry hearts . . . . When the Apostle Paul stopped in his knowledge and discussion of this problem and gave way to utter astonishment, who would be so presumptuous as to believe that he could try and explain it rather than admire it in silence?[26]

Ambrose

Ambrose (c. 340–397) makes a connection between Miriam’s conflict with Moses and Paul’s declaration in Romans 11 that Israel would be saved:  

. . . this murmuring refers to the type of the Synagogue, which is ignorant of the mystery of ... the Church gathered out of the nations, and murmurs with daily reproaches, and envies that people through whose faith itself also shall be delivered from the leprosy of its unbelief, according to what we read that: “blindness in part has happened unto Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in, and so all Israel shall be saved.”[27]

Theodoret of Cyrus

In his commentary on Romans 11:26, Theodoret of Cyrus (393–457), like Augustine, stated that the Jews would believe in connection with the coming of Elijah in the end times:

And he [Paul] urges them not to despair of the salvation of the other Jews; for when the Gentiles have received the message, even they, the Jews, will believe, when the excellent Elijah comes, bringing to them the doctrine of faith. For even the Lord said this in the sacred gospels: ‘Elijah is coming, and he will restore all things.’[28]

According to Joel A. Weaver, this hope for a salvation of Israel in relation to the coming of Elijah “is not an isolated reading but rather part of a larger, widespread . . . expectation in Christianity.”[29]

St. Cyril of Alexandria

Others, too, affirmed a future for Israel. St. Cyril of Alexandria (378–444) stated with confidence that Israel would be saved after the calling of the Gentiles: “Although it was rejected, Israel will also be saved eventually, a hope which Paul confirms . . . . For indeed, Israel will be saved in its own time and will be called at the end, after the calling of the Gentiles.”[30]

Writing in the last third of the fourth century, Ambrosiaster stated: “However seriously the Jews may have sinned by rejecting the gift of God ... nevertheless, because they are the children of good people, whose privileges and many benefits from God they have received, they will be received with joy when they return to the faith, because God's love for them is stirred up by the memory of their ancestors.”[31]

Cassiodorus

Slightly outside the Patristic Era, Cassiodorus (c. 485–585) linked the salvation of Israel with Psalm 102. Commenting on verse 9—“He will not always be angry, nor will he be wroth for ever, he declared—“This verse can be applied also to the Jewish people, who we know are to be converted at the world's end. On this Paul says: Blindness in part has happened in Israel, that the fullness of the Gentiles should come in, and so all Israel should be saved.”[32] When Cassiodorus states “we know” it appears that this belief in a future salvation of Israel is something that was quite common during his day. It does not appear that he is presenting a novel idea.  

As Augustine indicated, belief in a future salvation of the Jews was a common belief for the theologians of the early church. The church did view itself as the new or true Israel, but this belief did not rule out a future salvation/restoration of Israel. Israel would be saved someday in accord with Old Testament prophecies and the teachings of Paul in Romans 9–11.Thus, while the supersessionist views of the early church fathers must be understood, so, too, must the hope for the nation Israel that most of them shared.