Ambrose of Milan — Commentary on Scripture

1 Samuel 22:1-2

For the just engage in many struggles. Does an athlete contend only once? How often, after he has won many victor’s crowns, is he overcome in another contest! How often it happens that one who has frequently gained the victory sometimes hesitates and is held fast in uncertainty! And it frequently comes to pass that a brave man is contending with brave men and greater struggles arise, where proofs of strength are greater. Thus, when David sought to flee to avoid the adversary, he also did not find his wings. He was driven here and there in an uncertain struggle.… But David is still in the cave—that is, in the flesh—in the cavern of his body, as it were, as he fights with King Saul, the son of hardness, and with the power of that spiritual prince who is not visible but is comprehensible.

FLIGHT FROM THE WORLD 5.28

1 Samuel 24:6-7

What a virtuous action that was, when David wished rather to spare the king his enemy, though he could have injured him! How useful, too, it was, for it helped him when he succeeded to the throne. For all learned to be faithful to their king and not to seize the kingdom but to fear and reverence him. Thus what is virtuous was preferred to what was useful, and then usefulness followed on what was virtuous.

On the Duties of the Clergy 3.9.60

1 Samuel 25:23-24

But before this David had already held back his armed hand in his indignation. How much greater it is not to revile again, than not to avenge oneself! The warriors, too, [who] prepared to take vengeance against Nabal, Abigail restrained by her prayers. From this we perceive that we ought not only to yield to timely entreaties but also to be pleased with them. So much was David pleased that he blessed her who intervened, because he was restrained from his desire for revenge.

On the Duties of the Clergy 1.21.94

1 Samuel 25:40-43

David had two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelite, and Abigail, whom he took later. The first was somewhat severe, the other full of mercy and graciousness, a kindly and generous soul who saw the Father with face unveiled, gazing on his glory. She received that heavenly dew of the grace of the Father, as her name is interpreted. What is the dew of the Father but the Word of God, which fills the hearts of all with the waters of faith and justice?Beautifully does the true David say to this soul what was said to Abigail: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me, and blessed be your customs.” And again he says to her, “Go in peace into your house, behold now I have heard your voice and have honored your face.” In the Canticles, too, these are the words of the bridegroom to his bride: “Show me your face and let me hear your voice.” Then she was sent away, since she had another husband who was called, in Hebrew, Nabal, which, in Latin, means foolish, harsh, unkind, ungentle, ungrateful, for he did not know how to show gratitude. Later, when her husband died, David the…

David had two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelite, and Abigail, whom he took later. The first was somewhat severe, the other full of mercy and graciousness, a kindly and generous soul who saw the Father with face unveiled, gazing on his glory. She received that heavenly dew of the grace of the Father, as her name is interpreted. What is the dew of the Father but the Word of God, which fills the hearts of all with the waters of faith and justice?Beautifully does the true David say to this soul what was said to Abigail: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me, and blessed be your customs.” And again he says to her, “Go in peace into your house, behold now I have heard your voice and have honored your face.” In the Canticles, too, these are the words of the bridegroom to his bride: “Show me your face and let me hear your voice.”
Then she was sent away, since she had another husband who was called, in Hebrew, Nabal, which, in Latin, means foolish, harsh, unkind, ungentle, ungrateful, for he did not know how to show gratitude. Later, when her husband died, David the prophet took her as his wife, since she was set free from the law of her husband. Through this union is signified the mystery of the church of the Gentiles which would believe, for, after losing her husband to whom she was at first united, she made her way to Christ, bringing a dowry of piety, of humility and of faith, and enriched with the heritage of mercy.

Letter 34

1 Thessalonians 3:11

Again, this is said that you may know that the Father is, and the Son is, and that the work of the Father and the Son is one. Note the saying of the apostle, “Now may God himself, and our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way to you.” Both Father and Son are named, but there is unity of direction, because there is unity of power. So also in another place we read, “Now may our Lord himself, Jesus Christ, and God and our Father, who has loved us, and given us eternal consolation, and good hope in grace, console and strengthen your hearts.” How perfect a unity it is that the apostle presents to us, insomuch that the fountain of consolation is one fountain, not many. Let doubt be silenced, then, or if it will not be overcome by reason, let the thought of our Lord’s gracious kindness incline it in the right direction.

Exposition of the Christian Faith 2.10.87

1 Thessalonians 4:4

Warn the Lord’s people, therefore, and beg them to abound in good works, to renounce vice, not to enkindle the fires of passion—I shall not say on the sabbath, but in every season. Let them not destroy their bodies. Let there be no immorality and uncleanness in the servants of God, because we are the servants of the unblemished Son of God. Let each one know himself and possess his vessel, and when the soil of the body has been ploughed, let him wait for the fruit in due season. Let his hand not cultivate thorns and thistles. Rather let him, too, say, “Our earth has yielded her fruit,” and in the bodily passions that might once have been seen as being like thick and wild woods let there be seen the calm order of virtues that have been grafted onto each tree.

Letter 2: To Constantius

1 Thessalonians 4:13

But if you again remind me of your grief because he departed so early from life, I certainly do not deny that he died at an untimely age, one whom we would have wished to support with time taken from our own life, that he might live out of our own years who could not complete his own. But I ask whether or not there is any consciousness after death? If there is, he is alive; no, rather, because there is, he now enjoys eternal life. For how does he not possess consciousness whose soul lives and flourishes and will return to the body, and will make that body live again when it has been reunited with it? The apostle cries out, “We would not, brothers, have you ignorant concerning those who are asleep, lest you should grieve, even as others who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so with him God will bring those also who have fallen asleep through Jesus.” Life, therefore, awaits them for whom resurrection awaits.

CONSOLATION ON THE DEATH OF EMPEROR VALENTINIAN 43-44

1 Thessalonians 4:14-15

All men shall rise again, but let no one lose heart, and let not the just grieve at the common lot of rising again, since he awaits the chief fruit of his virtue. All indeed shall rise again, but, as says the apostle, “each in his own order.” The fruit of the divine mercy is common to all, but the order of merit differs. The day gives light to all, the sun warms all, the rain fertilizes the possessions of all with genial flowers. We are all born, and we shall all rise again. But each shall be in his proper state, whether of living or living again, for grace differs and the condition differs.… Therefore he is aroused that he may live, that he may be like to Paul, that he may be able to say, “For we that are alive shall not precede those that are asleep.” He speaks here not of the common manner of life and the breath which we all alike now enjoy but of the future merit of the resurrection.

On the Death of Satyrus 2.92-93

1 Thessalonians 4:16

For truly death was no necessary part of the divine operation, since for those who were placed in paradise a continual succession of all good things streamed forth. Because of transgression, however, human life, condemned to lengthened labor, began to be wretched with intolerable groaning. Thus, it was fitting that an end should be set to the evils and that death should restore what life had lost. For immortality, unless grace breathed upon it, would be rather a burden than an advantage. And if one consider accurately, it is not the death of our being but of evil, for being continues, but it is evil that perishes.… So we shall either pay the penalty of our sins or attain to the reward of our good deeds. For the same being will rise again, now more honorably for having paid the tax of death. And then “the dead who are in Christ shall rise first. Then we who are alive will follow,” it is said, “and together with them be caught up in the clouds into the air to meet the Lord, and so we shall always be with the Lord.”

On the Death of Satyrus 2.47-48

1 Thessalonians 4:16

Shall we, then, think of festival days in terms of eating and drinking? On the contrary, let no one call us to account in respect to eating, “For we know that the law is spiritual.”“Let no one, therefore, call you to account for what you eat or drink in regard to a festival or a new moon or a sabbath. These are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ.” So let us seek the body of Christ which is the voice of the Father from heaven, the last trumpet, as it were, showed to you on that occasion when the Jews said that it thundered for him. Let us seek, I repeat, the body of Christ which the last trumpet will reveal to us, “For the Lord himself with cry of command, with voice of archangel, and with trumpet of God will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise up first.”

On the Death of Satyrus 2.108

1 Thessalonians 5:23

On this subject the Lord says, “When you come into the land to which I bring you and when you eat of the food of the land, you shall present an offering to the Lord. When you separate the firstfruits of your barn floors, you shall also give the firstfruits of your dough to the Lord.” We are a composite of diverse elements mixed together, cold with hot, and moist with dry. This mixture is the source of many pleasures and manifold delights of the flesh. But these are not the firstfruits of this body of ours. Since we are composed of soul and body and spirit, the first place is held by that mixture in which the apostle desires that we find sanctification. “And may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved sound, blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

On Cain and Abel, Book 2, Chapter 1

1 Timothy 1:4

I will take the fool’s line and propound some examples drawn from the things of a lower world. “I am become a fool; you have compelled me.” What indeed is more foolish than to debate over the majesty of God, which rather occasions questionings, than receiving godly instruction which is by faith. But to arguments let arguments reply. Let words make answer to them. Rather we will answer with love, the love which is in God, issuing of a pure heart and good conscience and faith unfeigned.

Exposition of the Christian Faith 4.5.60

1 Timothy 1:9

I consider not wealth but virtue as liberty, for it does not bow to the wishes of the stronger, and it is laid hold of and possessed by one’s own greatness of soul. The wise man is always free. He is always held in honor; he is always master of the laws. The law is not made for the just but for the unjust. The just man is a law unto himself, and he does not need to summon the law from afar, for he carries it enclosed in his heart, and it is said to him, “Drink water out of your own vessels and from the stream of your own well.”

Letter 37: To Simplician

1 Timothy 1:19

The truth of the Lord encompasses him, so that he is not afraid of the terror of the night or of the thing that walks about in darkness. Therefore, “Zabulon shall dwell by the sea.” Thus he may look upon the shipwrecks of others while himself free from danger. He may behold others driven here and there on the sea of this world, those who are borne about by every wind of doctrine, while himself persevering on the ground of an immovable faith.

On the Blessings of the Patriarchs, Chapter 5

1 Timothy 2:4

Is God not good to everyone then? Indeed, He is good to everyone, because He is the Savior of all, especially the faithful; and for this reason the Lord Jesus came, to save what was lost: He came to take away the sin of the world, to heal our wounds. But because not everyone seeks the medicine, but many refuse it, lest the force of the ulcer be aggravated by the remedies, He who desires to heal does not compel the unwilling.

Interrogation of Job and David, Book 3, Chapter 2

1 Timothy 2:5

But what is he who is at once the Most High and man, what but “the Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus who gave himself as a ransom for us”? This text indeed refers properly to his incarnation, for our redemption was made by his blood, our pardon comes through his power, our life is secured through his grace. He gives as the Most High; he prays as man. The one is the office of the Creator; the other of a redeemer. Be the gifts as distinct as they may, yet the Giver is one, for it was fitting that our Maker should be our Redeemer.

Exposition of the Christian Faith 3.2.8

1 Timothy 2:5

Let not the venom of Apollinaris flatter itself because it is written, “And in appearance he was found as a man,” for the manhood of Jesus is not thereby denied but confirmed, since elsewhere Paul himself speaks of him as “Mediator of God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus.” It is the customary manner of Scripture so to express itself as we also read in the Gospel, “And we saw his glory—glory as of the only-begotten of the Father.” As he is there called only-begotten Son of God, so he is said to be man, and the fullness of humanity that was in him is not denied.

LETTERS 27

1 Timothy 2:9

Let us then hold fast modesty and that moderation which adds to the beauty of the whole of life. For it is no light thing in every matter to preserve due measure and to bring about order, wherein that is plainly conspicuous which we call “decorum,” or what is seemly. This is so closely connected with what is virtuous that one cannot separate the two.… This seemliness which we offer to God we may believe to be far better than other things. It befits also a woman to pray in an orderly dress, but it is especially fitting to her to pray humbly covered and to pray giving promise of purity together with wholesome conversation.

On the Duties of the Clergy 1.45.219, 220

1 Timothy 2:9

In our prayers, too, modesty is most pleasing and gains us much grace from our God.… A noble thing, then, is modesty, which, though giving up its rights, seizing on nothing for itself, laying claim to nothing and in some ways somewhat retiring within the sphere of its own powers, yet is rich in the sight of God, in whose sight no one is rich. Richness is modesty, for it is the portion of God. Paul bids that prayer be offered up with modesty and sobriety. He desires that this should be first, and, as it were, lead the way of prayers to come, so that the sinner’s prayer may not be boastful but veiled, as it were, with the blush of shame. Indeed, it may merit a far greater degree of grace, in giving way to modesty at the remembrance of its fault.

On the Duties of the Clergy 1.18.70

1 Timothy 2:11

I think the prohibition in the law against a man wearing female garments refers not so much to clothing as to manners and to our habits and actions, since one act is becoming to a man, another to a woman. Therefore, the apostle, as the interpreter of the law, says, “Let your women keep silence in the churches, for it is not permitted them to speak, but to be submissive, as the law says. But if they wish to learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home.” And to Timothy he says, “Let a women learn in quietness in all submissiveness. I permit no woman to teach or have authority over men.” How unsightly it is for a man to act like a woman!

Letter 69: To Irenaeus