For if the firstfruit are holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root is holy, so are the branches.
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Ambrosiaster
AD 400
It is clear that they are one and the same substance, so it is impossible for the offering to be holy and the lump unclean, given that the offering comes from the lump. Thus Paul shows that those whose ancestors believed cannot be regarded as unworthy to receive the faith, for if some of the Jews have believed, why can it not be said that the others may also believe? Commentary on Paul’s Epistles.
“First fruits” and “root” both refer here to the patriarchs, the lawgiver and the prophets. “Lump” and “branches” refer to the whole of the Jewish people. .
Paul calls the Lord Christ the “first fruits,” because he was one of them according to the flesh, and through his resurrection he became the first to claim the inheritance. .
If the first-fruit (see the Greek word) be holy, so also is the mass; so also the rest, the product that follows. He alludes to the offering made by the law of the first-fruit, which was to acknowledge that all good things were from God, and to bring a blessing upon the rest.
If the root be holy, so are the branches. By the root, says St. Chrysostom, he understands Abraham, and the patriarchs, from whom all the Jewish nation proceeded, as branches from that root: and these branches are to be esteemed holy, not only because of the root they proceeded from, but also because they worshipped the true God. And if some, or a great part of these branches, have been broken, they may, as it is said, (ver. 23.) be ingrafted again. And you, Gentiles, ought to remember that, you were of yourselves a wild olive-tree: and it is only by the merciful call of God, that you have the happiness to be ingrafted upon the same root of the patriarchs; and so, by imitating the faith of Abraham, are become his...
And that the Saviour received first-fruits of those whom He was to save, Paul declared when he said, "And if the first-fruits be holy, the lump is also holy"
Upon them, so that the branches could not be seen for the water; and after the branches had drunk it in, he said to me, "Let us go, and return after a few days, and inspect all the branches; for He who created this tree wishes all those to live who received branches
