Voices and influences
Ambrosiaster
The anonymous Roman commentator on Paul whom the church read for a thousand years believing he was Ambrose.
Summary
This site quotes Ambrosiaster 37 times across 7 books, and lists 0 works.
- Lived died 384.
- Quoted here most in 2 Corinthians: 14 of 37.
Ambrosiaster
- Lived
- died 384
- Tradition
- Patristic
- Portrait
- None held under a licence this site can print
5 of 37 quotations
Own words
Quoted at 50 words or fewer, because Ambrosiaster's works are in copyright.
God is no respecter of persons. Even Saul and Judas had been good at one time. How could someone who was not good have a share in the Savior's ministry? In the plan of God it was decided that we would be considered worthy for …
Commentary (church-history corpus), 384
Acts 1:17 He was one of our number and shared in this ministry.” BSB
These things are true, because this is the task of the law: to teach the ignorant, to subject the wicked to God, to provoke those who by the worship of idols are ungodly to trust in a better hope by the promise which is given …
COMMENTARY ON PAUL'S EPISTLES, 384
Romans 2:20 an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth— BSB
"Forgive," "cover," "not reckon"—all amount to one and the same thing. For all three are given and received in the same way.Paul has three categories to cover the different types of sin. The first category is that of wickedness or ungodliness, in that the Creator …
COMMENTARY ON PAUL'S EPISTLES, 384
Romans 4:8 Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.” BSB
What did Abraham believe? He believed that he would have a descendant, a son, in whom all the nations would be justified by faith while they were still uncircumcised, as Abraham then was.
COMMENTARY ON PAUL'S EPISTLES, 384
Romans 4:10 In what context was it credited? Was it after his circumcision, or before? It was not after, but before. BSB
The quotation is from Deuteronomy [30:12], but the last phrase is the apostle's own addition. He says that someone who does not doubt about the hope which is in Christ has the righteousness of faith.
COMMENTARY ON PAUL'S EPISTLES, 384
Romans 10:7 or, ‘Who will descend into the Abyss?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).” BSB
Influence, on the record
This site quotes Ambrosiaster 37 times across 7 books.
This site’s own count of what it does with the voice
The life, in order
The life told as one accountfrom this site's record
Ambrosiaster is a nickname for a man whose name was lost. It was coined by Erasmus in the sixteenth century, and it means roughly "the pseudo-Ambrose" — because for a thousand years the church read this author's commentary on Paul believing it was the work of Ambrose of Milan. It is not. What can be said with confidence comes from the text itself. He wrote at Rome. He wrote during the pontificate of Damasus, which fixes him between 366 and 384. He used the Old Latin Bible, not Jerome's new Vulgate, which is one reason his commentary matters: it preserves the Latin text of Paul as it stood before Jerome revised it. He knew Roman law and Roman civic life well, and he wrote for readers who did too. His achievement is the first complete Latin commentary on the thirteen letters of Paul. It is not allegorical and not showy. He explains what the apostle is saying, sentence by sentence, in ordinary Latin, with attention to the historical situation of each church Paul was writing to. Where a passage is hard, he says so and gives his best reading. Augustine used him. Pelagius used him. The medieval schools used him constantly, believing all the while that they were reading Ambrose. A second large work, the Questions on the Old and New Testament, is generally credited to the same hand. It travelled under Augustine's name, which is the same accident happening twice. His reading of Romans 5:12 became one of the most consequential sentences in Western theology. The Old Latin rendered Paul's Greek as "in whom all sinned," referring the phrase to Adam, and Ambrosiaster read it that way. Augustine took the reading from him and built on it, and the doctrine of original sin in the West carries the mark of a Latin translation that an anonymous Roman commentator explained without fuss. Guesses at his identity have included Isaac the converted Jew, the Roman official Decimius Hilarianus Hilarius, and others. None has held. What is left is the work: clear, sober, unmistakably the product of a trained mind, and completely anonymous. Sources: Ambrosiaster, Commentaries on the Pauline Epistles (Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 81); Alexander Souter, A Study of Ambrosiaster (1905); The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), s.v. "Ambrosiaster".
37 quotations across 7 books
Where this voice is quoted
If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which accomplishes in you patient endurance of the same sufferings…
“Because they were suffering persecutions from unbelievers for the sake of believers, they would be set free by God's help. This was viewed as a consolation to believers, so that they would not desert their faith because of such a stumbling block.”
For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was proclaimed among you by me and Silvanus and Timothy, was not “Yes” and “No,” but in Him it has always been…
“Competent preachers ought to be unambiguous about what they say. Say nothing that is not beneficial. Given that our human will often tends in ambivalent directions, Paul is insistent that he is not acting according to his will but according to what he knows will…”
will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious?
“It is obvious that the grace of the law of faith is greater than that of the law of Moses. For although the law of Moses was intended to be beneficial, it became the law of death because it was flouted.”
I rejoice that I can have complete confidence in you.
“Paul is glad not only because of their good resolve but because of the good actions by which they were correcting their former sinful practices. This is why he has perfect confidence in them.”
I am not making a demand, but I am testing the sincerity of your love in comparison to the earnestness of others.
“Paul is not ordering the Corinthians to send money to those who are suffering want but encouraging them to do so, demonstrating that they have the right attitude toward God and others. In return for their generosity they will undoubtedly receive a reward.”
For not only did he welcome our appeal, but he is eagerly coming to you of his own volition.
“Seeing that the Corinthians are making progress in good works, Titus has become particularly concerned about their attitude and has even volunteered to go to visit them.”
In full view of the churches, then, show these men the proof of your love and the reason for our boasting about you.
“Paul is urging the Corinthians to demonstrate their love by the way they treat those he is sending to them.”
For I know your eagerness to help, and I have been boasting to the Macedonians that since last year you in Achaia were prepared to give.
“The other churches followed after Corinth. When they heard that a church which had previously been involved in many errors had put them right, they were moved to good works.”
Such people should consider that what we are in our letters when absent, we will be in our actions when present.
“Someone to whom power has not been given is capable of being bold when absent but when present he is put to shame. The apostle will not be put to shame when issuing his rebuke.”
We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they show their ignorance.
“For we dare not join or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves: They are those who commend themselves, who desire to rule without receiving authority, claiming authority for themselves.”
Was it a sin for me to humble myself in order to exalt you, because I preached the gospel of God to you free of charge?
“Paul refused payment for two reasons. He would not resemble the false apostles who were preaching for their own advantage and not for the glory of God, nor would he allow the vigor of his message to become sluggish.”
And for the sake of your souls, I will most gladly spend my money and myself. If I love you more, will you love me less?
“Now Paul is openly expressing the love and affection which he had for them, since he is prepared not only to spend lavishly on their behalf but even to die for the salvation of their souls.”
Did I exploit you by anyone I sent you?
“Did any of those whom I sent to you take advantage of you?: This is what I mean, that those who were sent did not inform them of this, so that if they wished, they could offer the Apostle a worthy amount in return; for…”
For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth.
“Paul is saying this because there is no power against the truth. They cannot reprove someone who is living a good life, but only someone who is an enemy of the law. This power will come to nothing if people have done what is good.”