134 Apokatastasis: Four Meditations
is not an abstract question regarding which individual human
beings are the "saved" and which the "damned." In fact, by the
end of the argument, the former category proves to be vastly
larger than that of the "elect" or the "called," while the latter
category makes no appearance at all. His is a much more gen-
eral question concerning the two communities of Israel and
of the church, and the answer at which he ultimately arrives
is one that he draws ingeniously from the logic of election in
Jewish scripture. He begins his reflections, it is true, by limn-
ing the problem that torments him in the starkest terms imag-
inable; but he does so in a completely and explicitly condi-
tional voice. We know, he says, that divine election is God's
work alone, not earned but given; it is not by their merit that
gentile believers have been chosen. "Jacob have I loved, but
Esau have I hated" (9:13) (though here, recall, Paul is quot-
ing Malachi, for whom Jacob symbolizes Israel and Esau sym-
bolizes Edom, which would seem to be, if one imagines the
point to be merely the separation between the damned and
the saved, the very inverse of the typology Paul is employ-
ing). For his own ends, Paul continues, God hardened Pha-
raoh's heart. He has mercy on whom he will, hardens whom he
will (9:15-18). And if you think this unjust, who then are you,
0 man, to reproach the God who made you? May not the pot-
ter cast his clay for purposes both high and low, as he chooses
(9:19-21)? So, "then, what if" (El DE, ei de) God should show
his power by preserving vessels suitable only for wrath, keep-
ing them solely for destruction, in order to provide an instruc-
tive counterpoint to the riches of the glory he lavishes on ves-
sels prepared for mercy, whom he has called from among the
Jews and the gentiles alike (9:22-24)? It is a terrible possibility,
admittedly, and horrifying to contemplate, but perhaps that is
simply how things are: The elect alone are to be saved, and the