While almost all of the works in this vault use Victorian translations, due to the English translations of this commentary being in copyright, it was machine-translated (by Claude, 2026) from the public-domain Latin. It has not been checked by a human translator.
Commentary on Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, long printed among the works of Ambrose. Its author, whom Erasmus first called “Ambrosiaster”, wrote at Rome while Damasus was bishop there (366–384). Chapter 11 of the Epistle; the verse numbers are the Benedictine editors’.
(Verse 1.) I say then, Hath God cast away his inheritance? God forbid. Since he has shown the people of Israel to be unbelieving, lest he should be thought to have called all Israel distrustful, he shows that God has not cast away His inheritance which He foreknew, that is, the sons of Abraham whom He knew would be faithful to Him. For He would not have promised them the kingdom if He knew that none of them would believe. The inheritance of the Lord according to the Law, then, is the sons of Abraham, but those who believe. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. By his own example he teaches that a part of Israel has been saved, which God foreknew would be saved, or can still be saved; a part of Israel having been assigned to perdition because of its unceasing distrust.
(Verse 2.) God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. This is what the Saviour says: Father, those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition (John 17:12). So too with these whom God foreknew would believe: none of them has been cast away from the promise; for it has come about just as God foreknew it would.
(Verses 2–4.) Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying, Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life (1 Kings 19:10). But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee before Baal (ibid. 18). These things are plain: for he shows that not only Elijah remained, who, devoted to God, did not worship idols, but many also who continued in the faith of God; just as from the Jews too not a few have believed. The history agrees with this as well: for many were hidden in caves (1 Kings 18:4) because of Ahab king of Samaria and Jezebel his wife, who, trusting in false prophets, persecuted the prophets of God and urged the people to idolatry.
(Verse 5.) Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant saved according to the election of grace. That is, “So too now,” he says, “these have remained in the promise of the Law, while many fall away; these whom God foreknew beforehand.” For those who received Christ as the one promised in the Law stood fast in the Law; but those who did not receive Him fell away from the Law. Therefore the believers are called the remnant, that is, those remaining in the Law.
(Verse 6.) And if by grace, then is it no more of works. It is plain that grace is the gift of God: not a wage owed to works, but granted freely, mercy coming between. Otherwise grace is no more grace. It is true: for if it is a wage, it is not grace; but because it is not a wage, without doubt it is free. For to give pardon to sinners is nothing else but grace; and to those who do not seek it, but it is offered to them, that they may believe. The grace, then, is twofold; for this befits God, who abounds in mercy: that He should even seek out those whom He rescues freely.
(Verse 7.) What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it. These Israelites are the carnal ones, who, thinking themselves justified by the works of the Law, did not obtain being righteous before God through faith. For this reason all are guilty through the Law, since cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them (Deuteronomy 27:26). But those who believed that they are justified by faith obtained the election, so that, being justified, they became sons of God; mindful of the Scripture which says, The just shall live by faith (Habakkuk 2:4), that is, not by the Law.
(Verses 7–10.) And the rest were blinded, as it is written — what follows is read in Isaiah — God hath given them the spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, unto this day (Isaiah 6:9). And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompence unto them (Psalm 69:22). Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway. He curses the table of the wicked for this reason, that there the innocent are commonly deceived; for they are called to a feast by guile, so as to be killed. For so Amnon the son of David was deceived by his brother Absalom (2 Samuel 13:27), and the wicked Holofernes thought he could deceive holy Judith by a banquet (Judith 12:1), and at the table of the criminal Herod the wicked raged against the head of John the prophet (Mark 6:28). The two prophets have one meaning concerning men of this kind, who, fighting against the faith from the beginning, have been found enemies of men. But some of them have been amended and corrected, though late; while some, remaining in their obstinacy, did not escape the severity of the sentence, being bowed down for ever, that is, blinded; so that for the future they cannot look upon the way of truth (which out of malice they had spurned, turning aside from it) and come to the grace of salvation. For he who, having understood, would not believe, ought to obtain what he wishes: that for the future he cannot receive the faith and be saved. The examples of the prophets given above, then, contain a double sense; for they were decreed and written in two ways. For two kinds of men are contained here. One is blinded for ever on account of its own malice, so as not to be saved; for these are of the worst will, so far that, understanding, they say they do not know what they hear. Thus they said of the Saviour: What is this that he saith? We know not what he speaketh. Why hear ye him? He hath a devil, and is mad (John 10:20). But the other part, which is truly Israel, contradicted them: These are not the words of him that hath a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind? So, envying the Saviour, they would not seem to understand what they heard; so that, since He was seen not to be understood by the lawyers and Pharisees, He might be thought to speak absurd things and things outside the Law — a thing that could also turn others away from the faith. Hence they hear from the Saviour: Ye have the key of knowledge: ye enter not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hinder (Luke 11:52). For who — not of the light-minded, but of the somewhat more serious — would not follow the counsel and opinion of the lawyers and Pharisees, men who seemed the defenders of the Law? Thus they said to those who are truly Israelites: Have any of the rulers believed on him? — so that they might seem justified in not having believed, if they had made many the partners of their conspiracy; for what is defended by few is commonly thought not proven. Therefore they were blinded, so that for the future they could not believe and be saved. They were helped, then, in their own will: so that, since, knowing the truth, they said it was false, for the future they should not understand what is true, and should hold the truth to be false, as they wished. The other kind is that which, while it follows the righteousness of the Law, does not receive the righteousness of Christ. Since these do this not now from the envy of an evil will, but by error, out of zeal for the tradition of the fathers, they are blinded for a time. For they ought to have learned from the mighty works of Christ that He could not deceive, whose power appeared so magnificent in what He did; and to compare His preaching with the new testament promised through the prophets, and so to confess that He is the one who was promised; lest they be found acting against God and agreeing with men. They are blinded for this reason, then: so that, when the Gentiles join themselves to their promise, they may by that very jealousy, while they envy the Gentiles, return to the faith of God.