Translated from Expositio in Matthaeum and Expositio in Lamentationes Jeremiae
I. ON THE CULPABLE BLINDNESS AND HARDENING OF THE Jews
From Expositio in Matthaeum, Book VII, on Matthew 13:13-15
Latin Text (Col. 35233-35239): Neque prǽscribit ut possis dicere quod ipse sit auctor mali, sed quibus vult miseretur, et emollit ut convertantur, et quos vult indurat. Non quod Deus aliquem excæcet ne videat cordis oculo, aut induret ne convertatur, sed quia jam cæcum et induratum justo judicio suo, relinquit, nec illuminat ut videat lumen vitæ, nec emollit ut convertatur et sanetur.
English Translation: Nor does He prescribe it in such a way that you can say that He Himself is the author of evil, but “He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens” [Rom 9:18]. Not that God blinds anyone so that they cannot see with the eye of the heart, or hardens them so they cannot be converted, but because [God], by His just judgment, abandons one who is already blind and hardened, and does not illuminate him so that he may see the light of life, nor soften him so that he may be converted and healed.
Context: This passage interprets Christ’s use of parables to conceal truth from those outside. Radbertus emphasizes that Jewish unbelief results from divine judgment upon their prior rejection, creating a self-reinforcing cycle of blindness.
From Expositio in Matthaeum, Book VII, on Matthew 13:13-15 (continued)
Latin Text (Col. 35268-35295): Unum, quod pro magnitudine sceleris etiam isti qui excæcantur, et præsserunt aures suas, ne audirent verba vitæ, pœnitentia indigni judicati sunt… tertium vero, quod in omnibus istis qui pereunt, qui graviter audire dicuntur, et claudunt oculos suos ne videant, ut sanentur, sciendum quod non naturæ vitium est, sed arbitrium malæ voluntatis.
English Translation: First, that on account of the magnitude of their crime, even those who are blinded and who stop their ears lest they hear the words of life, have been judged unworthy of repentance… Third, however, that in all these who perish, who are said to hear dully and close their eyes lest they see and be healed, it must be understood that this is not a defect of nature, but a decision of evil will.
Context: Radbertus insists that Jewish rejection is both divinely ordained punishment and freely chosen moral failure—a sophisticated theodicy that maintains both Jewish culpability and divine justice.
II. ON THE Synagogue‘S DEATH AND THE CHURCH’S LIFE
From Expositio in Matthaeum, Book V, on Matthew 9:18-26 (The Hemorrhaging Woman and Jairus’s Daughter)
Latin Text (Col. 27508-27509, 27543, 27693-27694): De cujus revera numero Synagoga divinitus removetur, ut saltem veniat ad novum… sanatur Synagoga, et resuscitatur ad vitam… dum perfida archisynagogi filia, videlicet Synagoga, suis doctoribus perfecta, mortua nuntiatur.
English Translation: Indeed from this number [eight, the number of resurrection] the Synagogue is divinely removed, so that at least she may come to the new… the Synagogue is healed and raised to life… while the faithless daughter of the ruler of the Synagogue—that is, the Synagogue—perfected by her own teachers, is announced as dead.
Latin Text (Col. 27514-27522): Nam princeps qui accedit rogaturus pro filia, typice populum patriarcharum specialiter designat, qui pro Synagoga indefessis precibus obsecrans, post Ecclesiæ introitum et curationem a profluvio infidelitatis, et a menstruis idolorum, vix filiæ obtinuit sanitatem.
English Translation: For the ruler who approaches to plead for his daughter typologically designates especially the people of the patriarchs, who, begging with unwearied prayers on behalf of the Synagogue, after the entrance and healing of the Church from the flux of infidelity and from the menstrual impurity of idols, scarcely obtained healing for his daughter.
Latin Text (Col. 27688-27695): Patet itaque, ut dixi, sensus mysticus, quod hæc mulier, videlicet Ecclesia, Christum tangit fide, quem turba premit. Ista siquidem est mulier, quæ primo vulnerata peccato primæ originis fluebat sanguine, et menstruis cruentabatur delictis. Quæ fide integra surripuit sanitatem, dum perfida archisynagogi filia, videlicet Synagoga, suis doctoribus perfecta, mortua nuntiatur.
English Translation: Therefore, as I said, the mystical meaning is clear: that this woman—namely, the Church—touches Christ by faith, whom the crowd presses upon. Indeed, this is the woman who, first wounded by the sin of original transgression, flowed with blood and was stained with the menstrual impurity of sins. She, by intact faith, snatched healing, while the faithless daughter of the ruler of the Synagogue—that is, the Synagogue—perfected by her own teachers, is announced as dead.
Context: The healing of the hemorrhaging woman (Church from the Gentiles) occurs before the raising of Jairus’s daughter (Synagogue), demonstrating the supersessionist order of salvation history. The Synagogue is “dead” through the very perfection of her teachers (the Pharisees), while the Church, though impure, lives by faith.
III. ON THE CURSING OF THE FIG TREE: THE Synagogue REJECTED
From Expositio in Matthaeum, Book IX, on Matthew 21:18-22
Latin Text (Col. 51428-51429, 51450-51457): In quibus temporibus semper ad eos esuriens venit [Christus] eorum justitiam. Sed quia ipsi magis magisque suas coacervabant iniquitates… [Synagogam] a Domino reprobatam… Nunquam ex te fructus nascatur in sempiternum. Non quia maledixit arborem, ideo fructus non dedit Synagoga, sed quia non dabat, maledixit ei, ut nec folia ipsa proferret.
English Translation: In all these times [Christ] came hungering for their righteousness. But because they more and more heaped up their own iniquities… [the Synagogue] was rejected by the Lord… “May fruit never come from you in eternity!” [Matt 21:19]. Not because He cursed the tree did the Synagogue fail to give fruit, but because she was not giving [fruit], He cursed her, so that she would not even put forth leaves.
Latin Text (Col. 51453-51457): Verum quia non ideo Judæi justitiam fidei perdiderunt, quia eos Deus dereliquit; sed ideo eos dereliquit Deus, quia justitiam non afferebant, ut nec ipsa species pietatis esset in eis, nec sermo.
English Translation: But truly, the Jews did not lose the righteousness of faith because God abandoned them; rather God abandoned them because they were not bringing forth righteousness, so that not even the appearance of piety would be in them, nor [true] speech.
Latin Text (Col. 51493-51495, 51514, 51527-51529): Hoc idcirco in figura Synagogæ factum est, quia non invenit in illa nisi folia tantum, traditiones scilicet Pharisaicas et promissiones legis… Synagoga, quomodo aruerit… Quapropter quisquis in ea permanserit Synagoga, quæ degeneravit a vite, et fecit spinas, fructus ex ea justitiæ nunquam erit.
English Translation: This was done as a figure of the Synagogue, because [Christ] found in her only leaves—namely, the Pharisaic traditions and the promises of the Law… how the Synagogue withered… Therefore whoever remains in that Synagogue, which has degenerated from the vine and produced thorns, fruit of righteousness will never come from her.
Context: The cursing of the fig tree becomes a prophetic-typological act pronouncing eternal judgment on the Synagogue. Radbertus emphasizes that this is both deserved (they failed to produce fruit) and final (the curse is “in sempiternum”). The withering demonstrates God’s definitive abandonment.
IV. ON THE BLOOD GUILT OF JERUSALEM
From Expositio in Matthaeum, Book X, on Matthew 23:37-38
Latin Text (Col. 56685-56697): Super Judæos qui crucifixerunt Christum, et persecuti sunt discipulos ejus, tantum accrevit malum, quantum nulli alii pertulerunt prius. Attamen omnis sanguis, et omnia quæ gesserunt, venient super generationem istam… quorum malitia, quia unita ab initio usque ad finem fuit, justum est ut et pœna una sit, ac si unius corporis. Alioquin legat prudens lector Josephum, et videat impræsentiarum, quanta venerunt super Judæos… ita repulsi a Deo, ut adhuc hodie ludibrium sint universis gentibus.
English Translation: Upon the Jews who crucified Christ and persecuted His disciples, evil has increased to such a degree as no others previously endured. Nevertheless, all the blood and all that they have done will come upon this generation… whose malice, because it was united from beginning to end, it is just that the punishment also be one, as if of one body. Otherwise let the prudent reader read Josephus, and see at the present time what great things have come upon the Jews… so repulsed by God that even today they are a laughingstock to all nations.
Context: Radbertus interprets the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD as the beginning of an ongoing divine punishment that continues “even today” (9th century). The collective guilt extends across all generations of Jews from Abel to Christ, unified in one body deserving one punishment.
From Expositio in Matthaeum, Book X, on Matthew 23:37 (continued)
Latin Text (Col. 56742-56746): Notandum quia non dixit, quæ occidisti et lapidasti, sed quæ occidis et quæ lapidas. Ac si dicatur: hoc proprium habes, blindsi jam naturalem borisuetudihotn, ut lapides sanctos et occidas. Nam enim cessavit Christo perempto, deinceps occidere ad se missos, quæ prius prophetas non [cessavit occidere].
English Translation: It should be noted that He did not say “you who killed and stoned,” but “you who kill and who stone” [present tense]. As if it were said: you have this as your own property, now already a natural habit, that you stone the holy ones and kill them. For after Christ was slain, [Jerusalem] did not cease killing those sent to her, just as previously she had not ceased killing the prophets.
Context: The use of the present tense (“you who kill”) transforms Jewish persecution from historical crime to essential character—a “natural habit.” This provides theological justification for viewing contemporary Jews as continuing the crimes of their ancestors.
V. ON THE LAMENTATIONS: JERUSALEM, Synagogue, AND CHURCH
From Expositio in Lamentationes, Prologue
Latin Text (Col. 76444-76451): Sicut proprio appellatur liber Salomonis Cantica Canticorum, ita et appellari queunt Threni Jeremiæ Lamentationes lamentationum: quia sicut omnino præcellunt illa, in quibus sponsus ac sponsa dulcibus fruuntur amplexibus, ita et lamentationes istæ vincunt omnia Scripturarum lamenta, in quibus abscessus sponsi ab sponsa magnis cum fletibus vehementius deploratur: ex quo sola civitas sedere, ac domina gentium quasi vidua, amarissime satis plangitur.
English Translation: Just as Solomon’s book is properly called the “Song of Songs,” so also Jeremiah’s Threnoi may be called the “Lamentations of Lamentations”: because just as those [Songs] supremely excel, in which bridegroom and bride enjoy sweet embraces, so also these lamentations surpass all the laments of Scripture, in which the departure of the bridegroom from the bride is most vehemently bewailed with great weeping: whereby the solitary city, the mistress of nations sitting as a widow, is most bitterly lamented.
Context: Radbertus establishes the interpretive framework: Lamentations is about the Synagogue/Jerusalem abandoned by her bridegroom (Christ). This sets up the supersessionist reading where the Church replaces the widowed Synagogue.
From Expositio in Lamentationes, Book I, on Lamentations 1:5
Latin Text (Col. 77310-77325): Quia fiunt hostes ejus in capite, scilicet aut hæretici, aut pagani, sicut in multis jam cernimus ecclesiis, certe aut mali et pessimi Christiani, qui non minus et ipsi hostes jure sunt appellati, et locupletantur inimici facundia disputandi, cum sit multa intelligentiæ penuria in viris quam sæpe ecclesiasticis… Quod cum tollitur, quia gladius Spiritus sancti est [Eph 6:17], recte hostes, hæretici videlicet et pervasores ecclesiarum Dei fiunt in capite, et de Scripturarum sanctarum dogmatibus locupletantur, propter multitudinem iniquitatum nostrarum.
English Translation: For her enemies have become the head—namely, either heretics or pagans, as we now perceive in many churches, or certainly evil and most wicked Christians, who no less are rightly called enemies, and the enemies are enriched with eloquence in disputing, when there is much poverty of understanding in men, so often even ecclesiastical ones… When this [the Word of God] is taken away, because it is the sword of the Holy Spirit [Eph 6:17], rightly do enemies—namely heretics and invaders of God’s churches—become the head, and are enriched from the doctrines of Holy Scripture, on account of the multitude of our iniquities.
Context: While this passage applies Lamentations to the contemporary Church suffering from heretics, the exegetical method is the same used for the Synagogue: her enemies (including Christians in the Synagogue‘s case) become her head because of her multitude of iniquities.
From Expositio in Lamentationes, Book I, on Lamentations 1:6
Latin Text (Col. 77362-77377): Obsessa quippe Jerusalem, exterius omnem decorem pulchritudinis suæ atque jucunditatis perdiderat, intrinsecus rebus exspoliatis, temploque ac sacerdotio destructo, ipsaque fame ac pestilentia laborans, nullius ope sustentabatur, ex eo quod principes ejus et rectores dissolutis viribus, ut Moyses ex præsagio in suis maledictis præmiserat, pavido corde non defensionem civium, sed fugam, non habentes pascua [Christi ante ultimam hanc captivitatem].
English Translation: Indeed, besieged Jerusalem had externally lost all the beauty of her comeliness and delight; internally, with her possessions plundered and her temple and priesthood destroyed, and laboring under famine and pestilence, she was sustained by no one’s help, because her princes and rulers, with their strength dissolved, just as Moses had foretold in his curses, with fearful hearts [sought] not the defense of the citizens but flight, not having the pastures [of Christ before this final captivity].
Latin Text (Col. 77396-77400): Mystice autem egreditur omnis decor a nostra Sion scilicet Ecclesia Christi, quæ vere non modo filia, imo et sponsa nuncupatur. De qua sane in Canticis: Ecce tu pulchra es, amica mea, ecce tu pulchra, oculi tui…
English Translation: But mystically, all beauty departs from our Zion—namely, the Church of Christ, who is truly called not only daughter but also bride. Of whom indeed in the Song of Songs: “Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, behold you are beautiful, your eyes…”
Context: The besieged Jerusalem represents both historical Judah and, typologically, any community (including the Church) under divine judgment. However, the Church is now “our Zion,” the beautiful bride, while Jerusalem/Synagogue remains in her cursed, widowed state.
VI. THEOLOGICAL SUMMARY: RADBERTUS’S SUPERSESSIONIST FRAMEWORK
Key Themes in These Passages:
1. Culpable Blindness:
- Jewish unbelief is simultaneously divine punishment and freely chosen wickedness
- God “abandons” those already hardened by their own evil will
- The blindness is “just judgment” (justo judicio) for the “magnitude of their crime”
- This creates a theological trap: Jews cannot see because they chose not to, and God ratifies that choice by withholding grace
2. Typological Condemnation:
- The hemorrhaging woman (Church) is healed before Jairus’s daughter (Synagogue)
- The fig tree is cursed “in sempiternum”—the Synagogue‘s sterility is permanent
- Lamentations for Jerusalem becomes a prophetic condemnation of the Synagogue
- Biblical curses (Deuteronomy 28, etc.) are applied as ongoing reality
3. Supersession and Displacement:
- The Church “snatches” (surripuit) healing while the Synagogue remains dead
- The Synagogue is “removed” (removetur) from the number eight (resurrection)
- “Our Zion” (nostra Sion) is now the Church, the bride
- The Synagogue is reduced to “widowhood” after her bridegroom departs
4. Perpetual Punishment:
- The destruction of 70 AD begins punishment that continues “even today” (adhuc hodie)
- Jews are “a laughingstock to all nations” as ongoing divine judgment
- The habit of killing prophets becomes “natural” (naturalem) to Jewish character
- Blood guilt is collective and transgenerational, “as if of one body”
EXEGETICAL METHOD
Radbertus employs a sophisticated multi-layered exegesis:
- Literal-Historical: The text describes historical events (Jesus healing, cursing fig tree, destruction of Jerusalem)
- Typological: These events prefigure spiritual realities
- Hemorrhaging woman = Church from Gentiles
- Jairus’s daughter = Synagogue from Jews
- Fig tree = Synagogue
- Jerusalem = Synagogue
- Moral-Tropological: Applied to the individual soul’s captivity to sin
- Anagogical: Points to eschatological realities (final judgment of unbelievers)
However, layers 2-4 consistently reinforce the same anti-Jewish themes, creating a comprehensive theological system in which Jewish rejection becomes:
- Historically proven (destruction of Jerusalem)
- Typologically predicted (all OT curses and rejections)
- Morally deserved (willful blindness and hardness)
- Eschatologically final (eternal curse)
This makes Radbertus’s exegesis particularly influential and dangerous, as it appears to demonstrate Jewish rejection from every angle of scriptural interpretation simultaneously.
Source. Patrologia Latina – Translated by Claude.AI. Paschasius Radbertus, Expositio in Matthaeum and Expositio in Lamentationes. Migne, PL 120. 1879.