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 3 of the Epistle; the verse numbers are the Benedictine editors’.
(Verses 1–2.) What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God. Although there are many things that belong to the honour and merit of the seed of Abraham, he openly mentions this one only, because it is the greatest part of their praise that they were judged worthy to receive the Law, through which they might learn to distinguish right from wrong; so that, after this first thing, the nature of the rest might be understood. But since he has shown that the witness of their race profits the carnal Jews, that is, the unbelieving, nothing, he now teaches that it is of great advantage to believing Jews that they are sons of Abraham, lest he should seem to have treated all of them harshly, believers included. For to these the oracles of God were committed, when they received, by the merit of the fathers, the Law restored — the Law which had fallen into disuse through men’s sins, as though one could sin against God with impunity — and were called the people of God. Egypt too was struck with various plagues for the wrongs it did them; they were fed with bread from heaven; they were a terror to all nations, as Rahab the harlot bears witness; and to them also Christ the Saviour was promised for their sanctification (Joshua 2:9 ff.). So he says that it is of great advantage to the Jews in every way that they are sons of Abraham; for they are set before the Gentiles — but those of them who believe.
(Verse 3.) For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid. He says: because some of the Jews would not believe what God promised to the sons of Abraham, this will not prejudice the rest of the Jews, so as to have them declared unworthy to receive what God promised to the faithful; for the promise was made in such a way as to profit those who believe. God, then, not provoked to anger by their unbelief — that is, the unbelief of those Jews — will give to the rest, who believe, the eternal life which He promised would come through faith in Christ; for those who did not believe made themselves unworthy, without prejudice to the rest. With these words he commends the believing Jews; for it does them no harm that many of their people would not believe.
(Verse 4.) For God is true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged (Psalm 51:4). To confirm what he said above, that God is faithful in His promise and every man a liar, he added a prophetic example from the fiftieth psalm, in which he marked both that God is justified in His words and that man is a liar by reason of his unbelief. For both are read in the book of Psalms: that God is just and true, and that every man is a liar (Psalm 86:15). He calls man a liar when he does not believe what God has promised; for in denying that God will give what He promised, he is a liar; and while he is himself a liar, he declares God a liar in many ways, when he does not believe His promises. He calls every man a liar, therefore, who distrusts the promises of God. This, however, applies above all to the Jews, whose case the Apostle is treating in this place: seeing Christ, they denied that He was the one whom God had promised, and so they are pronounced liars. But God is true, who sent Christ as He had promised; and so He overcomes when He is judged, because He will give what it is denied He will give. For when He is not believed, He is judged a liar; but when He gives what He was judged unlikely to give, He overcomes, showing Himself true and the one who does not believe His words a liar. For such a man will see in majesty the Son of God whom he denies; he will see the resurrection of the flesh as well, and will know that unbelief has been overcome by the promise and the truth of God. For Christ too, when He was judged, overcame: He was unjustly put to death, and He made the devil guilty — the devil whom He had already overcome by not sinning — so that, conquered a second time, he lost those whom he held.
(Verses 5–6.) But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who inflicteth wrath? (I speak as a man.) God forbid. The Apostle says this in keeping with the sense of the prophet David. For David, when he had sinned in the matter of Uriah the Hittite (2 Samuel 11:4), knowing that the promise cannot be given to sinners, prays that the justification of God’s words may prevail over the judgment by which those who sin are judged (Psalm 51:4), and that God, sanctifying him, may restore him in his repentance, so as to give him what He promised to give the righteous. And so he went on: But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, and so on; that is, if God is justified because we are sinners, He will be unrighteous if He punishes. For if our unrighteousness profited Him, He would without doubt be unrighteous in condemning sinners; since our unrighteousness makes God righteous if He gives to us sinners what He promised to the saints. For although we are sinners, we are nonetheless restored through repentance, so that, no longer sinners but washed clean, we may be found worthy to receive the promise. This, then, is not the sense of the words of the prophet David when he says, Against Thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight: that Thou mightest be justified in Thy sayings, and mightest overcome when Thou art judged (Psalm 51:4) — the sense that is asserted by the perverse interpretation of malicious men: that men’s sins and evil deeds serve the justification of God, that He appears good through our evils, and that our unrighteousness shows Him righteous. Since, therefore, God is not unrighteous when He inflicts wrath, He is not justified by our sins; for if He were justified by our sins, He would be unrighteous if He punished them. But since He is not unrighteous when He punishes, it is plain that our unrighteousness does not commend the righteousness of God. For if it did commend it, He would not punish, since He is righteous. And so he added: I speak, he says, as a man. God forbid; that is, God forbid that God should be called unrighteous; for this befits man, who is known both to err and to be deceived and to deceive. But God remains unchangeable, and cannot but love what He has made. Otherwise how shall God judge this world? It is true: it would not be just for God to judge the world if its sins profited Him — so that God would seem good when, at His nod, sinners obtain pardon, and would not seem righteous if they did not sin. For if they did not sin, having no one to forgive, He would not be good.