>>22606544St. Aquinas, Pauline commentaries, Romans, chapter 1, lecture 6
>The third thing to be considered is the people for whom the Gospel works salvation, namely, both the Jews and the gentiles. For God is God not of the Jews only, but also of the gentiles, as he says below (Rom 3:19); hence he adds to the Jew first and also to the Greek.>By Greek is meant all the gentiles, because the gentiles’ wisdom arose from the Greeks.>But since he says below there is no distinction between Jew and Greek (Rom 10:12), why does he say here that the Jew is first?>The answer is that there is no distinction as far as the goal of salvation to be obtained is concerned, for both obtain an equal reward, just as in the vineyard the early and the late workers received one coin (Matt 20:10). But in the order of salvation the Jews are first, because the promises were made to them (Rom 3:2), whereas the gentiles were included in their grace like a branch grafted into a cultivated olive tree (Rom 11:24). Also, our savior was born from the Jews: salvation is from the Jews (John 4:22). 