Philo vs. Paul on the "gift"

Like Philo, Paul concludes that God’s choice operates without regard to work; unlike Philo, he does not appeal to God’s foreknowledge of the “capacities, works, and passions” of Esau or Jacob, nor to the traces of virtue or vice formed in their characters before birth. Paul’s emphasis lies entirely, and by Philo’s lights dangerously, on the inexplicable initiative of God, on God’s choice and predetermination without regard to a corresponding condition of worth ([Rom] 9:11–12). In fact, Paul rules out numerous qualifying criteria for divine selection: birth (natural rights of descent), status (comparative “greatness”), and action (“works”). Where Philo, on examination of the text, found traces of “worth,” Paul has declined to find any, and has paraded, by contrast, the independence and autonomy of divine choice. Hence his question: “is there injustice (ἀδικία) with God” (9:14)? His answer, which we will consider below (17.2), suggests that the only factor conditioning God’s mercy is God’s mercy itself (9:15–18).—J. M. G. Barclay, Paul and the Gift, 323–24