John Chrysostom

"For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth, it was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated." What was the cause then why one was loved and the other hated? why was it that one served, the other was served? It was because one was wicked, and the other good. And yet the children being not yet born, one was honored and the other condemned. …

Homily on Romans 16 ↗

Theophylact of Ohrid

Here it is necessary for us to state in advance the meaning of what the apostle intends to discuss at length. Many were saying: why were the Gentiles preferred over the Jews? (For no one could say it was for virtue, because all had sinned.) The apostle gathers many difficulties that are incomprehensible to us but comprehensible to God alone. …

Commentary on Romans ↗

Augustine of Hippo

We know that children not yet born have done nothing either good or evil in their own life, nor have they any merits from a previous life, which no individual can have as his own. They come into the miseries of this life, their carnal birth according to Adam involves them at the moment of their nativity in the contagion of the primal death, and they are not delivered from the penalty of eternal death which a just verdict passing from one lays upon all unless they are born again in Christ through grace.

Letter 217 ↗

Thomas Aquinas

Then he clarifies his thesis, when he says for when the children were not yet born: first, by the authority of Genesis (Gen 25:24); second, by a text from the prophet Malachi, at as it is written. In regard to the first he does three things: first, he indicates the time of the promise and says that when the children were not yet born, one of the sons of Rebecca was set over the other in virtue of the promise. …

Commentary on Romans ↗