Exposition of the Gospel of Luke (complete)
Latin text: Schenkl, CSEL 32.4 (Latin text: Schenkl, CSEL 32.4, digitized by Open Greek and Latin (csel-dev, University of Leipzig), CC BY-SA 4.0).English: Claude (claude-opus-5-5), public domain (CC0).
Chapter 8
8.2CSEL 32.4:392
Omnis qui dimittit uxorem suam et ducit alteram moechatur et qui dimissam a uiro ducit moechatur. prius dicendum arbitror de lege coniugii, ut postea de prohibendo diuortio disputemus. quidam enim putant omne coniugium a deo esse, maxime quia scriptum est: quae deus coniunxit homo non separet. ergo si omne coniugium a deo, omne coniugium non licet solui. et quomodo apostolus dixit: quod si infidelis discedit, discedat? in quo mirabiliter et noluit aput Christianos causam residere diuortii et ostendit non a deo omne coniugium; neque enim Christianae gentilibus dei iudicio copulantur, cum lex prohibeat. sed occurrit illud quod ait Salomon:
“Everyone who puts away his wife and marries another commits adultery; and he who marries a woman put away by her husband commits adultery.” I think I must first speak of the law of marriage, so that afterwards we may discuss the prohibition of divorce. For some think that every marriage is from God, especially because it is written: “What God has joined, let man not separate.” Therefore, if every marriage is from God, no marriage may be dissolved. And how, then, did the Apostle say, “But if the unbeliever departs, let him depart”? In this he both wonderfully refused that a cause for divorce should exist among Christians, and showed that not every marriage is from God; for Christian women are not joined to Gentiles by God's judgment, since the law forbids it. But there comes to mind what Solomon says:
Luke 16:18 (quotation, high confidence) · Matt 19:6 (quotation, high confidence) · 1 Cor 7:15 (quotation, high confidence) · Deut 7:3 (allusion, low confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Ambrose opens his comment on Luke 16:18 by asking whether every marriage is from God, since Paul lets an unbeliever depart, and answers that a Christian's marriage to a pagan is not joined by God.
- This commentary has no public-domain English translation; the translation was re-read against the Latin. Terms: dimittere “put away”, diuortium “divorce”, moechari “commit adultery”. Ambrose's text of Luke 16:18 reads “a woman put away by her husband” (dimissam a uiro). Quotations: Luke 16:18; Matt 19:6; 1 Cor 7:15; allusion: Deut 7:3.
Topics: Divorce and remarriage, Marriage
Cite (SBL): Ambrose, Luc. 8.2 (CSEL 32.4:392; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ambrose-expositio-lucam/8-2). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ambrose-expositio-lucam/8-2
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin (Schenkl, CSEL 32.4, 1902); re-read against the Latin, since no public-domain English exists.
8.3CSEL 32.4:392–393
domum et substantiam patres partiuntur filiis; a deo autem praeparabitur uiro uxor. quod qui in Graeco legit non putat esse contrarium. bene enim dixit Graecus ἁρμόζεται; armonia enim conueniens et apta rerum omnium dicitur conmissa conexio. armonia est, cum fistulae organi per ordinem copulatae legitimae tenent gratiam cantilenae cordarumque aptus seruat ordo concordiam. , itaque non habent armoniam suam nuptiae, quando Christiano uiro gentilis mulier non legitime copulatur. ergo, ubi nuptiae, armonia? ubi armonia, deus iungit, ubi armonia non est, pugna atque dissensio est, quae non est a deo, quia deus caritas est.
“House and substance fathers divide among their sons; but by God a wife will be prepared for a man.” One who reads it in Greek does not think it contrary; for the Greek says well, ἁρμόζεται [“is fitted”]. For harmony is the name of the fitting and suitable joining of all things. There is harmony when the pipes of an organ, joined in order, hold the grace of a proper melody, and the fit order of the strings preserves concord. So marriages do not have their harmony when a Gentile woman is unlawfully joined to a Christian man. Therefore, where there is marriage, [let there be] harmony; where there is harmony, God joins; where there is no harmony, there is strife and dissension, which is not from God, for God is love.
Prov 19:14 (quotation, high confidence) · 1 John 4:8 (quotation, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Ambrose explains from the Greek of Prov 19:14 that God joins a marriage where there is harmony, which is lacking when a Christian man is unlawfully joined to a pagan woman.
- Proverbs 19:14 is quoted from the Latin version of the Septuagint; Ambrose appeals to the Greek ἁρμόζεται (“is fitted”). The accents of the Greek word were garbled in the digital text and corrected by a logged correction. Quotations: Prov 19:14 (LXX); 1 John 4:8.
Notes on the original text
- Digital text corrected (garbled accents in the digital text): ἅ́ρμὁζεται → ἁρμόζεται.
Topics: Marriage
Cite (SBL): Ambrose, Luc. 8.3 (CSEL 32.4:392–393; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ambrose-expositio-lucam/8-3). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ambrose-expositio-lucam/8-3
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin (Schenkl, CSEL 32.4, 1902); re-read against the Latin, since no public-domain English exists.
8.4CSEL 32.4:393–394
Noli ergo uxorem dimittere, ne deum tuae copulae diffitearis auctorem. etenim si alienos, multo magis uxorios debes tolerare et emendare mores. audi quid dixerit dominus: qui dimittit mulierem facit eam moechari. etenim cui non licet uiuente uiro mutare coniugium potest obrepere libido peccandi. itaque qui auctor erroris etiam reus culpae est, quod cum paruulis feta dimittitur, quod titubanti uestigio grandaeua detruditur. durum, si excludas parentem, pignora teneas, ut ad contumeliam caritatis addas etiam pietatis iniuriam; durius, si propter matrem etiam filios simul pellas, cum magis redimere a patre liberi debeant culpam parentis. quam periculosum, si fragilem adulescentulae aetatem errori offeras! quam inpium, si eius destituas senectutem, cuius defloraueris iuuentutem! ergo inhonoratis stipendiis et ueteranum inperator dimittat inglorium atque imperii possessione detrudat et rusticum laboris sui effetum agro suo propulset agricola? an quod in subditos nefas est in conparem fas est?
Do not, then, put away your wife, lest you deny that God is the author of your union. For if you ought to bear with and correct the ways of strangers, much more those of your wife. Hear what the Lord said: “He who puts away his wife makes her commit adultery.” For the desire of sinning can creep up on a woman who is not permitted to change her marriage while her husband lives. Therefore he who is the author of the error is also guilty of the fault, when she is put away with the little ones she has borne, when she is thrust out in old age with tottering step. It is hard if you drive out the mother and keep the children, so that to the outrage against love you add an injury to natural affection; harder, if because of the mother you drive out the children at the same time, when the children should rather redeem the parent's fault before their father. How dangerous, if you expose the fragile age of a young woman to error! How impious, if you abandon the old age of the woman whose youth you deflowered! Would an emperor, then, dismiss a veteran without honour, with his service unrewarded, and thrust him out of the possessions of the empire? Would a farmer drive from his field a peasant worn out by his labour? Or is what is wrong toward subjects right toward an equal?
Matt 5:32 (quotation, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Ambrose urges husbands not to put away their wives, since the wife put away, unable to remarry while he lives, is driven toward adultery, and the husband is guilty of her fault.
- Ambrose states that a woman put away “is not permitted to change her marriage while her husband lives”, and that the husband who puts her away is guilty of her consequent sin. Quotation: Matt 5:32.
Topics: Divorce and remarriage, Marriage
Cite (SBL): Ambrose, Luc. 8.4 (CSEL 32.4:393–394; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ambrose-expositio-lucam/8-4). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ambrose-expositio-lucam/8-4
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin (Schenkl, CSEL 32.4, 1902); re-read against the Latin, since no public-domain English exists.
8.5CSEL 32.4:394
dimittis ergo uxorem quasi iure sine crimine et putas id tibi licere, quia lex humana non prohibet. sed diuina prohibet; qui hominibus obsequeris, deum uerere. audi legem domini, cui obsequuntur etiam qui leges ferunt; quae deus coniunxit homo non separet.
You put away your wife, then, as if by right, without a charge, and you think this is lawful for you because human law does not forbid it. But divine law forbids it. You who obey men, fear God. Hear the law of the Lord, which even those who make the laws obey: “What God has joined, let man not separate.”
Matt 19:6 (quotation, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Ambrose answers that divorce allowed by civil law is still forbidden by God's law.
- “Without a charge” (sine crimine): divorce without any fault on the wife's part, which Roman law permitted. Quotation: Matt 19:6.
Topics: Divorce and remarriage, Marriage
Cite (SBL): Ambrose, Luc. 8.5 (CSEL 32.4:394; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ambrose-expositio-lucam/8-5). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ambrose-expositio-lucam/8-5
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin (Schenkl, CSEL 32.4, 1902); re-read against the Latin, since no public-domain English exists.
8.6CSEL 32.4:394
sed non solum hic caeleste praeceptum, sed quoddam etiam opus dei soluitur. paterisne, oro. liberos tuos uiuente te esse sub uitrico aut incolumi matre degere sub nouerca? pone, si repudiata non nubat: et haec uiro tibi debuit displicere, cui adultero fidem seruat? pone, si nubat: necessitas illius tuum crimen est et coniugium quod putas adulterium est. quid enim refert utrum id aperta criminis confessione an mariti specie adulter admittas nisi quod grauius est legem criminis fecisse quam furtum?
But here not only is a heavenly precept broken, but a certain work of God is also dissolved. Will you endure, I ask, that your children, while you live, be under a stepfather, or, while their mother is alive, live under a stepmother? Suppose the repudiated woman does not marry: ought she to have displeased you as a husband, she who keeps faith with you though you are an adulterer? Suppose she marries: her necessity is your crime, and the marriage you think [a marriage] is adultery. For what difference does it make whether you commit adultery by open confession of the crime or under the appearance of a husband, except that it is graver to have made the crime a law than a theft?
Matt 19:6 (allusion, medium confidence) · Luke 16:18 (allusion, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Ambrose argues that a husband who puts away his wife and remarries is an adulterer under the appearance of marriage, and is to blame if she, out of necessity, marries again.
- Translated exactly: of the repudiated wife who marries again, “her necessity is your crime, and the marriage you think [a marriage] is adultery”; the husband who remarries commits adultery “under the appearance of a husband”. The sentence about the wife who does not remarry is compressed in the Latin (“cui adultero fidem servat”): she keeps faith with a husband who is himself an adulterer. Allusion: Matt 19:6.
Topics: Divorce and remarriage, Marriage
Cite (SBL): Ambrose, Luc. 8.6 (CSEL 32.4:394; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ambrose-expositio-lucam/8-6). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ambrose-expositio-lucam/8-6
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin (Schenkl, CSEL 32.4, 1902); re-read against the Latin, since no public-domain English exists.
8.7CSEL 32.4:394–395
Sed fortasse dicit aliquis: quomodo Moyses mandauit dari librum repudii et dimittere uxorem? qui hoc dicit Iudaeus est, qui hoc dicit Christianus non est. et ideo quia hoc obicit quod obiectum est domino, respondeat ei dominus: ad duritiam inquit cordis uestri permisit uobis Moyses dare librum repudii et dimittere uxores; ab initio autem non fuit sic. Moyses permisit, inquit, non deus iussit; ab initio autem dei lex est. quae est lex dei? relinquet homo patrem et matrem et adhaerebit uxori suae et erunt ambo in carne una. ergo qui dimittit uxorem carnem suam scindit, diuidit corpus.
But perhaps someone says: How, then, did Moses command that a certificate of divorce be given and the wife put away? He who says this is a Jew; he who says this is not a Christian. And therefore, since he raises the objection that was raised against the Lord, let the Lord answer him: “Because of the hardness of your heart,” he says, “Moses permitted you to give a certificate of divorce and put away your wives; but from the beginning it was not so.” Moses permitted, he says; God did not command; but from the beginning is the law of God. What is the law of God? “A man shall leave father and mother and cleave to his wife, and the two shall be in one flesh.” Therefore he who puts away his wife tears his own flesh and divides the body.
Matt 19:7–8 (quotation, high confidence) · Mark 10:4–5 (allusion, medium confidence) · Deut 24:1 (allusion, high confidence) · Gen 2:24 (quotation, high confidence) · Matt 19:5 (quotation, medium confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Ambrose answers the appeal to Moses with Christ's words: Moses permitted divorce for hardness of heart, but God's law from the beginning makes husband and wife one flesh.
- The polemical sentence about the objector (“He who says this is a Jew”) is translated as written. Quotations: Matt 19:7–8 (with Mark 10:4–5); Deut 24:1; Gen 2:24 (Matt 19:5).
Topics: Divorce and remarriage, Marriage
Cite (SBL): Ambrose, Luc. 8.7 (CSEL 32.4:394–395; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ambrose-expositio-lucam/8-7). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ambrose-expositio-lucam/8-7
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin (Schenkl, CSEL 32.4, 1902); re-read against the Latin, since no public-domain English exists.
8.8CSEL 32.4:395
ostendit autem hic locus quae propter fragilitatem humanam scripta sunt non a deo scripta. unde et apostolus denuntio inquit non ego, sed dominus uxorem a uiro non discedere et infra caeteris inquit ego dico, non dominus: si quis frater infidelem habet uxorem et relinquit eam. itaque ubi est inpar coniugium, addidit: quod si infidelis discedit, discedat. simul idem apostolus negauit legis esse diuinae, ut coniugium qualecumque soluatur, nec ipse praecepit nec dedit deserenti auctoritatem, sed culpam abstulit destituto.
This passage shows that what was written because of human frailty was not written by God. Hence the Apostle too says, “I command, not I but the Lord, that a wife is not to depart from her husband”; and below, “To the rest I say, not the Lord: if any brother has an unbelieving wife,” and leaves her. So, where the marriage is unequal, he added: “But if the unbeliever departs, let him depart.” At the same time the same Apostle denied that it belongs to divine law that any marriage whatever should be dissolved: he neither commanded it himself nor gave authority to the one who deserts, but took away the fault from the one deserted.
1 Cor 7:10 (quotation, high confidence) · 1 Cor 7:12 (quotation, high confidence) · 1 Cor 7:15 (quotation, high confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Ambrose reads 1 Cor 7 as confirming that God never ordained divorce: Paul neither commands it nor authorizes the deserter, but only frees the deserted believer from blame.
- Ambrose says that Paul “took away the fault from the one deserted” (culpam abstulit destituto); he does not say here whether the deserted believer may marry again. His wording of 1 Cor 7:12 (“and leaves her”) differs from the verse. Quotations: 1 Cor 7:10, 12, 15.
Topics: Divorce and remarriage, Marriage
Cite (SBL): Ambrose, Luc. 8.8 (CSEL 32.4:395; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ambrose-expositio-lucam/8-8). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ambrose-expositio-lucam/8-8
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin (Schenkl, CSEL 32.4, 1902); re-read against the Latin, since no public-domain English exists.
8.9CSEL 32.4:395–396
haec moraliter. tamen quia supra proposuit regnum dei euangelizari et cum dixisset de lege unum apicem non posse cadere, subiecit: omnis qui dimittit . uxorem suam et ducit alteram moechatur. recte ammonet apostolus dicens sacramentum hoc magnum esse de Christo et ecclesia. inuenis igitur coniugium quod nemo dubitet a deo iunctum, cum ipse dicat: nemo uenit ad me nisi pater meus, qui misit me, adtraxerit eum; ille enim solus has nuptias potuit copulare. et ideo mystice Salomon dixit: a deo praeparabitur uiro uxor. uir Christus, uxor ecclesia est, caritate uxor, integritate uirgo. ergo quem deus traxit ad filium non separet persecutio, non auertat luxuria, non philosophia depraedetur, non Manicheus contaminet, non Arrianus auertat, non Sabellianus inficiat. deus iunxit. Iudaeus non separet. adulteri sunt omnes qui adulterare cupiunt fidei et sapientiae ueritatem.
These things are said morally. Yet because above he set out that the kingdom of God is preached, and when he had said that not one stroke of the law can fall, he added: “Everyone who puts away his wife and marries another commits adultery.” Rightly the Apostle admonishes, saying that this is a great mystery concerning Christ and the church. You find, then, a marriage that no one doubts is joined by God, since he himself says, “No one comes to me unless my Father who sent me draws him”; for he alone could join this marriage. And therefore Solomon said mystically: “By God a wife will be prepared for a man.” The man is Christ, the wife the church, a wife in love, a virgin in integrity. Therefore, whom God has drawn to the Son, let persecution not separate, luxury not turn away, philosophy not plunder, the Manichaean not defile, the Arian not turn away, the Sabellian not infect. God has joined; let the Jew not separate. All are adulterers who desire to adulterate the truth of faith and wisdom.
Luke 16:16–18 (quotation, high confidence) · Eph 5:32 (allusion, high confidence) · John 6:44 (quotation, high confidence) · Prov 19:14 (quotation, high confidence) · Matt 19:6 (allusion, medium confidence)
Notes and citation
Summary: Ambrose gives the spiritual sense of Luke 16:18: the marriage of Christ and the church, joined by God, which no persecution or heresy may separate.
- The spiritual reading follows the moral one (“these things are said morally”). Quotations and allusions: Luke 16:16–18; Eph 5:32; John 6:44; Prov 19:14 (LXX); Matt 19:6.
Topics: Divorce and remarriage, Marriage, Heresy, The church
Cite (SBL): Ambrose, Luc. 8.9 (CSEL 32.4:395–396; trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ambrose-expositio-lucam/8-9). (abbreviation not yet checked)
Permanent link: https://sophiascriptura.com/p/ambrose-expositio-lucam/8-9
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Translation: Translated by Claude from the Latin (Schenkl, CSEL 32.4, 1902); re-read against the Latin, since no public-domain English exists.