TRV
Ambrose of Milan
Nicene & Post-Nicene · AD 325–500
1,843 passages across 58 books of the Bible · Who was this?
On Deuteronomy
20 of 27-
Deuteronomy 30:15
Let us ponder the nature of life and of death. Life is the enjoyment of the gift of breath, death the deprivation of it. Further, this gift of breath is considered by most people as a good. And so life is this, the enjoyment of goods, but death is the divestiture of them. And Scripture says, “Behold, I have set before your face life and death, good and evil,” for it calls life good and death evil and attributes to each its proper deserts.
DEATH AS A GOOD 1.2
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Deuteronomy 32:11
Finally, listen to Moses saying: He spread his wings and took them, and carried them on his shoulders (Deuteronomy 32:11): just as an eagle carries its offspring, which it is accustomed to examine; in order to hold and nurture those who have the true nature of birth, and to observe the grace of incorruptible nature; or to reject those in whom it has detected the weakness of a degenerate origin at a tender age.
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Deuteronomy 32:35
But what better pattern can there be than that of Divine justice? For the Son of God says: "Love your enemies;" and again: "Pray for those that persecute you and speak against you." So far does He remove the desire of vengeance from the perfect that He commands charity towards those who injure them. And since He had said in the Old Testament: "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay." He says in the Gospel, that we are to pray for those who have injured us, that He Who has said that He will avenge, may not do so; for it is His will to pardon at your desire with which according to His promise He agrees. But if you seek for you know that the unjust is more severely punished by his own convictions than by judicial severity.
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Deuteronomy 33:17
Ten thousand, he said, Ephraim, and thousands of Manasseh (Deut. XXXIII, 17), that is, he should rule over both the Jews and the Gentiles, and acquire for himself the fullness of the Church from both peoples.
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Deuteronomy 33:22
Moses blessed this tribe, saying: Dan is a lion's cub that shall leap forth from Bashan (Deut. XXXII, 22), that is, from confusion. Hence, according to the Greek translation, we should understand that Dan himself became a serpent sitting on the way. Dan means judgement. And therefore, this tribe underwent a grave risk of judgement, as the serpent, Antichrist, slipped in and wounded it with his venoms.
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Deuteronomy 33:24
But the Church has oil wherewith she dresses the wounds of her children, lest the hardness of the wound spread deeply; she has oil which she has received secretly. With this oil Asher washed his feet as it is written: "A blessed son is Asher, and he shall be acceptable to his brothers, and shall dip his feet in oil." With this oil, then, the Church anoints the necks of her children, that they may take up the yoke of Christ; with this oil she anointed the Martyrs, that she might cleanse them from the dust of this world; with this oil she anointed the Confessors, that they might not yield to their labours, nor sink down through weariness; that they might not be overcome by the heat of this world; and she anointed them in order to refresh them with the spiritual oil.
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Deuteronomy 34:5
And therefore, we do not read about him as we do about others, because he died in a state of deficiency: but he died through the word of God (Deuteronomy 34:5). For God neither experiences defection or diminution, nor does he undergo addition. Hence, the Scripture also adds: 'For no one knows his burial place until this day' (ibid. 6), so that you understand it as a translation rather than his demise. For death is a certain separation of the soul and body. Therefore, he was dead through the word of God, as Scripture says, not according to the flesh; so that you may observe not the message of death, but the gift of grace expressed, who was transferred rather than abandoned, of whom no one knows the burial.