Believing and Calling: The Two Conditions of Romans 10 in John Chrysostom and His Teacher, Diodore of Tarsus
Romans 10:9-10 sets out what appear to be two distinct conditions for salvation: believing with the heart and confessing with the mouth. Commentators have not agreed on what the second condition requires. Ambrosiaster read the confession of Romans 10 as a public act, a profession made before other people. This essay argues that John Chrysostom, following the lead of his own teacher Diodore of Tarsus, read it differently: as a verbal but private act of calling upon Christ in prayer, indistinguishable in substance from petitioning God for anything else, and fully compatible with being performed alone and unheard. On this reading, Chrysostom and Diodore held a genuinely two-condition doctrine of the reception of salvation, heart-belief and mouth-calling, both privately performable, and neither reducible to the other. ¹
¹ To test whether this reading is idiosyncratic, I examined every occurrence of “mouth” (617), “confession” (86), “calling upon” (13), and “call upon” (58) in The Complete Works of St. John Chrysostom (36 vols.), reading the surrounding context in each case. Where this vocabulary bears on salvation, Chrysostom consistently treats calling upon Christ as verbal address to God, of a piece with prayer, rather than as a declaration requiring witnesses.
Diodore of Tarsus on calling upon the Lord
Commenting on Romans 10:11-13, Diodore writes that Paul necessarily sets forth those who call upon Christ, because God does not extend grace without discernment, even to those unwilling to offer the Benefactor so much as a request and a prayer. Diodore adds that God removed even the excuse of ignorance for those who might claim they failed to call upon Christ out of unfamiliarity rather than unbelief, since he sent evangelists and heralds to invite them to ask for the gift. The operative verbs throughout, epikaloumenous and parakalousin, are verbs of asking and praying, not verbs of public testimony. Diodore's own vocabulary already points toward calling upon Christ as a solicitation directed at God rather than a declaration directed at an audience.
Romans 10:11-13, V f. 152v
Ἀναγκαίως προέθηκε τοὺς ἐπικαλουμένους αὐτόν· οὐ γὰρ ἀκρίτως δίδωσιν ὁ θεὸς τὴν χάριν καὶ εἰς τοὺς μηδὲ τοσοῦτον παρασχεῖν βουλομένους τῷ εὐεργέτῃ ὅσον γοῦν αἰτῆσαι καὶ δεηθῆναι. ἵνα δὲ μή τις λέγῃ, ὡς οὐ δι' ἀπιστίαν καὶ ἀγνωμοσύνην ἀλλὰ δι' ἄγνοιαν πολλοὶ τὸν κύριον Ἰησοῦν οὐ παρακαλοῦσιν, δείκνυσι διὰ τῶν ἑξῆς, ὅτι ὁ θεὸς καὶ τὴν τῆς ἀγνοίας αὐτῶν περιεῖλεν πρόφασιν, ἀποστείλας εὐαγγελιστὰς καὶ κήρυκας προτρέποντας καὶ καλοῦντας εἰς τὴν τῆς δωρεᾶς αἴτησιν. διὸ ἐπήγαγεν τὸ ἑξῆς.
(Diodore of Tarsus, in Karl Staab, Pauluskommentare aus der griechischen Kirche, Neutestamentliche Abhandlungen 15, Munster: Aschendorff, 1933, page 101)
Chrysostom's teacher was not a peripheral influence. When Diodore visited Antioch after Chrysostom's ordination and was praised in a sermon as a second John the Baptist, Chrysostom took the pulpit the next day to redirect that praise onto Diodore himself, and elsewhere compared him to the martyrs. A resemblance in soteriology between the two men should not be treated as coincidence.
Chrysostom on Romans 10:9-14
Chrysostom's own comment on Romans 10:9 makes the same point Diodore makes, and states plainly how far the requirement extends. There is no need, he says, to go up to heaven or cross a great sea to receive the commandment, since the word of salvation is already in one's mind and tongue, and in one's mouth and heart. A person need not cross so much as the threshold of the house to be saved, since it is possible to sit at home and be saved.
Οὐ γὰρ ἔστιν εἰπεῖν, φησὶν, ὅτι εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν ἀναβῆναι δεῖ καὶ πέλαγος διαβῆναι μέγα, καὶ τότε λαβεῖν τὰς ἐντολάς· ἀλλὰ τὰ οὕτω μεγάλα καὶ ὑπέρογκα, εὔκολα ἡμῖν ἐποίησεν ὁ Θεός. Τί δέ ἐστιν, Ἐγγύς σου τὸ ῥῆμά ἐστι; Τουτέστιν, εὔκολόν ἐστιν· ἐν γὰρ τῇ διανοίᾳ σου καὶ τῇ γλώσσῃ ἡ σωτηρία. Οὐ μακρὰν ὁδὸν βαδίσαντας, οὐδὲ πέλαγος πλεύσαντας, οὐδὲ ὄρη παρελθόντας, οὕτω δεῖ σωθῆναι· ἀλλ' εἰ μηδὲ αὐτὸν βουληθῇς ὑπερβῆναι τὸν οὐδὸν, ἔξεστί σοι καὶ οἴκοι καθημένῳ σωθῆναι· ἐν γὰρ τῷ στόματί σου καὶ ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ ἐστὶ τῆς σωτηρίας ἡ ἀφορμή.
(Patrologia Graeca, vol. 60, column 567)
Commenting on the following verses, he identifies two distinct witnesses Paul brings forward, one to faith and one to its confession, everyone who believes pointing to the first and whosoever shall call upon the Lord's name pointing to the second, applicable equally to Jew and Gentile.
«Εἶδες πῶς καὶ τῆς πίστεως καὶ τῆς ὁμολογίας παράγει μαρτυρίας; Τὸ μὲν γὰρ εἰπεῖν, ὅτι Πᾶς ὁ πιστεύων, τὴν πίστιν ἐδήλωσε· τὸ δὲ εἰπεῖν, Ὅς ἂν ἐπικαλέσηται, τὴν ὁμολογίαν ἐνέφηνεν. Εἶτα πάλιν τὸ κοινὸν τῆς χάριτος ἀνακηρύττων, καὶ τὸ ἐκείνων φύσημα καταστέλλων, ἃ διὰ πολλῶν ἔμπροσθεν ἀπέδειξε, ταῦτα ἐν βραχέσιν ἀναμιμνήσκει, πάλιν δεικνὺς, ὅτι οὐδὲν τὸ μέσον τοῦ Ἰουδαίου καὶ τοῦ ἀκροβύστου. Οὐ γάρ ἐστι διαστολὴ, φησὶν, Ἰουδαίου τε καὶ Ἕλληνος. Καὶ ὃ περὶ τοῦ Πατρὸς εἴρηκεν ἐν τῇ περὶ τούτου ἀποδείξει, τοῦτο καὶ ἐνταῦθα περὶ τοῦ Χριστοῦ λέγει. Ὥσπερ γὰρ ἔμπροσθεν αὐτὸ κατασκευάζων ἔλεγεν· Ἢ Ἰουδαίων ὁ Θεὸς μόνον; οὐχὶ καὶ ἐθνῶν; ναὶ καὶ ἐθνῶν, ἐπείπερ καὶ εἷς ὁ Θεός· οὕτω καὶ ἐνταῦθά φησιν· Ὁ γὰρ αὐτὸς Κύριος πάντων, πλουτῶν εἰς πάντα καὶ ἐπὶ πάντας τοὺς ἐπικαλουμένους αὐτόν. Ὁρᾷς πῶς δείκνυσιν αὐτὸν σφοδρῶς ἐφιέμενον ἡμῶν τῆς σωτηρίας; εἴ γε καὶ πλοῦτον οἰκεῖον ἡγεῖται ταύτην· ὥστε μηδὲ νῦν αὐτοὺς ἀπογνῶναι μηδὲ νομίσαι, εἴ γε βουληθεῖεν μετανοῆσαι, ἀσυγγνώστους εἶναι. Ὁ γὰρ πλοῦτον οἰκεῖον ἡγούμενος τὸ σῴζειν ἡμᾶς, οὐ παύσεται πλουτῶν· ἐπεὶ καὶ τοῦτο πλοῦτος τὸ εἰς πάντας ἐκχεῖσθαι τὴν δωρεάν. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ καὶ τοῦτο μάλιστα αὐτοὺς ἐθορύβει, τὸ προεδρίας ἀπολαύοντας ὑπὲρ τὴν οἰκουμένην ἅπασαν, νῦν ἐκ τῆς πίστεως ἀπὸ τῶν θρόνων καταβιβάζεσθαι ἐκείνων, καὶ μηδὲν πλέον τῶν λοιπῶν ἔχειν· συνεχῶς τοὺς προφήτας εἰσάγει ταύτην ἐπᾴδοντας αὐτοῖς τὴν ἰσοτιμίαν. Πᾶς γὰρ ὁ πιστεύων, φησὶν, ἐπ' αὐτῷ, οὐ καταισχυνθήσεται· καὶ, Πᾶς ὃς ἂν ἐπικαλέσηται τὸ ὄνομα Κυρίου, σωθήσεται. Καὶ πανταχοῦ τὸ Πᾶς τέθειται, ἵνα μὴ ἀντιλέγωσιν.»
(Patrologia Graeca, vol. 60, columns 567–568)
Commenting on Romans 10:14, he traces salvation through a chain running from calling to believing to hearing to preaching to being sent, concluding that where the chain has been completed on God's side, unbelief can only be attributed to the hearer's own fault.
«Ὥστε ἀπιστοῦντες, οὐχ ἡμῖν ἀπιστεῖτε, φησίν, ἀλλὰ τῷ Ἡσαΐᾳ τῷ πρὸ πολλῶν ἐτῶν εἰπόντι, ὅτι καὶ ἀποσταλησόμεθα καὶ κηρύξομεν καὶ ἐροῦμεν ὅπερ εἰρήκαμεν. Εἰ τοίνυν τὸ μὲν σωθῆναι ἐκ τοῦ ἐπικαλέσασθαι ἦν, τὸ δὲ ἐπικαλέσασθαι ἐκ τοῦ πιστεῦσαι, τὸ δὲ πιστεῦσαι ἐκ τοῦ ἀκοῦσαι, τὸ δὲ ἀκοῦσαι ἐκ τοῦ κηρῦξαι, τὸ δὲ κηρῦξαι ἐκ τοῦ ἀποσταλῆναι, ἀπεστάλησαν δὲ καὶ ἐκήρυξαν, καὶ μετ' αὐτῶν ὁ προφήτης περιῄει δεικνὺς αὐτοὺς καὶ ἀνακηρύττων καὶ λέγων, ὅτι Οὗτοί εἰσιν, οὓς πρὸ πολλῶν ἄνωθεν ἐδήλουν χρόνων, ὧν καὶ τοὺς πόδας ἐνεκωμίαζον διὰ τὸν τοῦ κηρύγματος τρόπον· εὔδηλον, ὅτι τὸ μὴ πιστεῦσαι, ἐκείνων ἔγκλημα γέγονε μόνον· καὶ γὰρ τὰ παρὰ Θεοῦ πάντα ἀπήρτισται.»
(Patrologia Graeca, vol. 60, column 573)
Nothing in this sequence of comments requires the confession to be uttered before witnesses. Calling upon Christ's name functions in Chrysostom's reading exactly as prayer functions: verbal, but directed at God rather than at an audience.
Calling upon the Lord elsewhere in the corpus
This vocabulary is not confined to Chrysostom's homilies on Romans 10. Commenting on the opening of 1 Corinthians, where Paul addresses the church together with all who call upon the name of the Lord in every place, Chrysostom observes that even the small matter of believing is not something a person supplies from himself, since no one draws near to God first but is instead called by him, so that not even faith is wholly one's own achievement.
Κλητοῖς ἁγίοις. Καὶ γὰρ τοῦτο αὐτὸ τὸ πίστει σωθῆναι, φησίν, οὐκ ἐξ ὑμῶν· οὐ γὰρ προσήλθετε πρῶτοι, ἀλλ' ἐκλήθητε. Ὥστε οὐδὲ τὸ μικρὸν τοῦτο, ὑμέτερον ὅλον.
(Patrologia Graeca, vol. 61, column 13)
The same emphasis appears in his tenth homily on the Acts of the Apostles, where he urges his hearers to call upon God directly for the salvation of their own souls, offering as models Stephen praying for his executioners, the wife of Elkanah weeping and pleading for a son, and Moses interceding for those who had exiled him.
«Κάλεσον αὐτὸν ἐπὶ εὐεργεσίᾳ ἐχθροῦ· κάλεσον αὐτὸν ἐπὶ σωτηρίᾳ τῆς σῆς ψυχῆς· τότε παρέσται, τότε εὐφραίνεις αὐτόν· νῦν δὲ παροξύνεις. Κάλεσον αὐτὸν, ὡς ἐκάλεσε Στέφανος. Τί λέγων; Κύριε, μὴ στήσῃς αὐτοῖς τὴν ἁμαρτίαν ταύτην. Κάλεσον αὐτὸν, ὡς ἐκάλεσεν ἡ τοῦ Ἐλκανᾶ γυνὴ, μετὰ δακρύων, μετὰ θρήνων, μετὰ εὐχῆς. Οὐ κωλύω, ἀλλὰ καὶ σφόδρα παραινῶ. Κάλεσον αὐτὸν ὡς ἐκάλεσε Μωϋσῆς, καὶ ἐβόα παρακαλῶν ὑπὲρ τῶν φυγαδευσάντων αὐτόν.»
(Patrologia Graeca, vol. 60, column 92)
In each case the calling in view is private prayer addressed to God, not testimony addressed to onlookers.
A complication and its resolution
Elsewhere, however, Chrysostom draws a sharp line between a private and a public matter of conscience. Commenting on Romans 14:22, in his twenty-sixth homily on Romans, he distinguishes the conviction Paul tells the strong believer to keep to himself before God from the confession Christ requires before other people, citing Christ's warning in Luke 9:26 that whoever denies him before men will be denied in turn.
Σὺ πίστιν ἔχεις; Κατὰ σαυτὸν ἔχε. Ἐνταῦθά μοι δοκεῖ ἠρέμα καὶ εἰς κενοδοξίαν αἰνίττεσθαι τὸν τελειότερον. Ὃ δὲ λέγει τοιοῦτόν ἐστι· Θέλεις μοι δεῖξαι, ὅτι τέλειος εἶ καὶ ἀπηρτισμένος; Μὴ ἐμοὶ δείκνυε, ἀλλ' ἀρκείτω σοι τὸ συνειδός.
γ'. Πίστιν δὲ ἐνταῦθα οὐ τὴν περὶ δογμάτων, ἀλλὰ τὴν περὶ τῆς προκειμένης ὑποθέσεως λέγει. Περὶ γὰρ ἐκείνης φησί· Στόματι δὲ ὁμολογεῖται εἰς σωτηρίαν· καὶ, Ὃς δ' ἂν ἀρνήσηταί με ἔμπροσθεν τῶν ἀνθρώπων, ἀρνήσομαι αὐτὸν κἀγώ. Ἐκείνη μὲν γὰρ μὴ ὁμολογουμένη καταστρέφει, αὕτη δὲ ὁμολογουμένη ἀκαίρως. Μακάριος ὁ μὴ κρίνων ἑαυτὸν ἐν ᾧ δοκιμάζει. Πάλιν τὸν ἀσθενέστερον πλήττει, καὶ δείκνυσι τούτῳ ἀρκοῦντα στέφανον τὸν τοῦ συνειδότος. Κἂν γὰρ ἄνθρωπος μὴ ἴδῃ, ἀρκεῖς σὺ σαυτῷ εἰς τὸ γενέσθαι μακάριος. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ εἶπε, Καθ' ἑαυτὸν ἐχέτω, ἵνα μὴ νομίσῃ μικρὸν τὸ δικαστήριον τοῦτο, λέγει τῆς οἰκουμένης σοι τοῦτο βέλτιον. Κἂν πάντες σου κατηγορῶσι, σὺ δὲ σαυτὸν μὴ κατακρίνῃς, μηδὲ τὸ συνειδὸς ἐπιλάβηται, μακάριος εἶ. Οὐχ ἁπλῶς δὲ περὶ πάντων λέγων τοῦτο τέθεικεν. Εἰσὶ γὰρ πολλοὶ μὴ κατακρίνοντες ἑαυτοὺς, καὶ σφόδρα πλημμελοῦντες· οἳ πάντων εἰσὶν ἀθλιώτεροι· ἀλλὰ τέως τῆς προκειμένης ὑποθέσεως ἔχεται.
(Patrologia Graeca, vol. 60, column 640)
Here Chrysostom explicitly separates a private matter, in which one's own conscience and God are sufficient judges, from a public matter, in which failure to confess Christ under pressure carries a distinct penalty. If this passage described the same confession at issue in Romans 10:9, it would suggest that Chrysostom did, after all, require a public act.
It does not describe the same confession. The subject of Romans 14:22 is a scruple of conscience over disputed practices, food and similar matters on which believers differed, and the confession Chrysostom has in view when citing Luke 9:26 concerns steadfastness under the threat of denying Christ altogether, not the initial act by which salvation is received. Chrysostom's own account of vocal prayer elsewhere confirms that mouth-language does not, for him, imply an audience. In his eighth homily on First Timothy, commenting on Paul's instruction that men pray everywhere lifting up holy hands, Chrysostom reconciles this with Christ's command to pray behind a shut door by concluding that the two instructions are in full harmony: prayer may be offered anywhere, provided it is free of ostentation, and Christ's instruction to enter one's closet is aimed at removing display, not at limiting where or how the mouth may be used in address to God.
«Ὅταν προσεύχησθε, φησὶ, μὴ γίνεσθε ὡς οἱ ὑποκριταὶ, ὅτι φιλοῦσιν ἐν ταῖς συναγωγαῖς καὶ ἐν ταῖς γωνίαις τῶν πλατειῶν ἑστῶτες προσεύχεσθαι, ὅπως φανῶσι τοῖς ἀνθρώποις. Ἀμὴν λέγω ὑμῖν, ἀπέχουσι τὸν μισθὸν αὐτῶν. Σὺ δὲ ὅταν προσεύχῃ, εἴσελθε εἰς τὸ ταμιεῖόν σου, καὶ κλείσας τὴν θύραν σου, πρόσευξαι τῷ πατρί σου τῷ ἐν τῷ κρυπτῷ, καὶ αὐτὸς ἀποδώσει σοι ἐν τῷ φανερῷ.» Τί οὖν ὁ Παῦλός φησι, «Βούλομαι προσεύχεσθαι τοὺς ἄνδρας ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ, ἐπαίροντας ὁσίους χεῖρας χωρὶς ὀργῆς καὶ διαλογισμοῦ;» Ἀλλ' οὐκ ἔστιν ἐναντίον ἐκείνοις τοῦτο, μὴ γένοιτο, ἀλλὰ καὶ σφόδρα συνᾷδον. Πῶς καὶ τίνι τρόπῳ; Δεῖ δὲ πρότερον εἰπεῖν, τί ἐστιν, «Εἴσελθε εἰς τὸ ταμιεῖόν σου» καὶ τί δήποτε τοῦτο προστάττει, εἰ ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ δεῖ εὔχεσθαι· καὶ εἰ ἐν ἐκκλησίᾳ μὴ δεῖ εὔχεσθαι, καὶ εἰ ἐν ἄλλῳ μηδενὶ τῆς οἰκίας μέρει, ἀλλ' ἐν τῷ ταμείῳ μόνον. Τί οὖν ἐστι τὸ λεγόμενον; Τὸ ἀκενόδοξον δεικνὺς ἐνταῦθα ὁ Χριστός φησι, μὴ λάθρα ἁπλῶς, ἀλλὰ κεκρυμμένως τὰς εὐχὰς ποιοῦ. Ὥσπερ γὰρ λέγων, «Μὴ γνώτω ἡ ἀριστερά σου τί ποιεῖ ἡ δεξιά σου,» οὐ περὶ χειρῶν διαλέγεται ἁπλῶς, ἀλλὰ τὴν ὑπερβολὴν τῆς ἀκενοδοξίας παρίστησιν, οὕτω δὴ καὶ ἐνταῦθα τοῦτο αἰνίττεται. Οὐ τοίνυν εἰς τόπον περιώρισε τὴν εὐχὴν, ἀλλ' ἓν μόνον ἐπέταξε, τὸ ἀκενόδοξον.
(Sancti Patris Nostri Joannis Chrysostomi ... Interpretatio omnium epistolarum Paulinarum per homilias facta, page 62-63)
A confession made in one's mouth, on Chrysostom's own logic, requires no listener beyond God.
Conclusion
Taken together, then, Chrysostom's comment on Romans 10:9 that a person may sit at home and be saved is not in tension with his comment on Romans 14:22 and Luke 9:26. The one concerns the private, verbal calling upon Christ by which salvation is first received. The other concerns a distinct and later obligation, not to disown Christ publicly once tested. Reading the two together as describing a single requirement, as Ambrosiaster's account of Romans 10 effectively does, produces the contradiction the Heschmeyer principle, the principle that a careful reading should avoid positing self-contradiction in an author unless the text forces it, warns against: an author disagreeing with himself where a careful reading shows he is not disagreeing with himself at all.
Principal sources
Diodore of Tarsus, commentary on Romans 10:11-13, in Karl Staab, Pauluskommentare aus der griechischen Kirche, Neutestamentliche Abhandlungen 15 (Munster: Aschendorff, 1933), page 101
John Chrysostom, Homily 17 on Romans, Patrologia Graeca, vol. 60, columns 567–568
John Chrysostom, Homily 18 on Romans, Patrologia Graeca, vol. 60, column 573
John Chrysostom, Homily 16 on Romans
John Chrysostom, Homily 26 on Romans, Patrologia Graeca, vol. 60, column 640
John Chrysostom, Homily 1 on First Corinthians, Patrologia Graeca, vol. 61, column 13
John Chrysostom, Homily 10 on the Acts of the Apostles, Patrologia Graeca, vol. 60, column 92
John Chrysostom, Homily 8 on First Timothy, in Interpretatio omnium epistolarum Paulinarum per homilias facta, ed. Frederick Field, vol. 6 (Oxford: J. Wright, 1861), 62-63.
