Southern Baptist Theology in the Late Twentieth Century
Southwestern Journal of Theology
Volume 54, No. 2 – Spring 2012
Managing Editor: Malcolm B. Yarnell III
By Ambrosiaster. Translated and Edited by Gerald L. Bray. Ancient Christian Texts. IVP Academic, 2009. 166 pages. Hardcover, $60.00.
This volume contains commentaries on ten Pauline epistles from Galatians through Philemon. The translator’s introduction in this volume is the same as that in Commentaries on Romans and 1–2 Corinthians. Like Commentary on Romans, as well, Commentary on Galatians is an important work in understanding Ambrosiaster’s doctrine of justification by faith alone. In Galatians 1:4, Ambrosiaster refers to union with Christ through forgiveness, which is possible by faith. Whoever is under the law is cursed whether he is under the ceremonial law or the moral law because the law of God requires us to obey all its requests. Therefore, Ambrosiaster laments, “the [moral] commandments are so great that it is impossible to keep them” (Gal 3:10[16]). Sola fide does away with human pride because man is always justified before God with imputed, not earned, righteousness by faith alone. Paul presents Abraham as an “example” of “imputed [inputari]” righteousness “not by the work of the law, but by faith” (Gal 3:6[15]). Ambrosiaster uses the same verb ‘inputo’ in another place (Gal 3:21[20]). However, Bray’s rendering of that Latin word in Galatians 3:21 as “reckoned” weakens Ambrosiaster’s keen perspective of the legal aspect of justifying righteousness. Nevertheless, readers must remember that Ambrosiaster, long before Luther, already understood the importance of imputed righteousness by faith alone, not by merits.
Ambrosiaster draws attention to the cosmic aspect of the gospel in Ephesians 3. Through Paul’s preaching that proclaimed the revelation of Christ, God wants to “impress the spirits in the heavenly places, who are the principalities and powers” (Eph 3:10[44]). The preaching ministry of the church is beneficial to the heavenly spirits who are serving Satan under his tyranny. The gospel challenges them to “turn away from their error” and “renounce their allegiance to the devil’s tyranny” (Eph 3:10[44]). However, Ambrosiaster does not speak of whether they will truly repent and be saved after hearing Paul’s preaching of Christ. Ambrosiaster’s exegesis of the gifts of Christ for the church in Ephesians 4 reveals that some Roman Christians in the fourth century realized the leadership structure of their catholic church differed from that of the New Testament church. Ambrosiaster tries to justify his church’s deviation from Paul by appealing to the temporality of some in ecclesiastical leadership in first century Christianity. He argues, “By apostles Paul means bishops, and by prophets he means expositors of the Scriptures” (Eph 4:10[48]). Without denying that the New Testament spoke of prophets like Agabus who exactly predicted the things that would occur in the future, Ambrosiaster points out the temporality of the foretelling function of prophets. They were given only “in order to support the beginnings of the faith” (Eph 4:11[49]). In other words, such a function is no longer necessary in the advanced life of the church. To call the expositors of the Bible prophets is not wrong at all because they reveal the hidden meanings of the Bible and speak of the future hope that is not yet realized. Evangelists are “deacons” like Philip and Stephen who freely preach without having a fixed ecclesiastical see. Pastors are not bishops but the “readers” who “instruct the people with readings” (Eph 4:11[49]). Teachers are the “exorcists” who “restrain and beat the unruly” (Eph 4:11[49]). All these different functions are found in the bishop who is the chief prophet, evangelist, pastor, and teacher in the church.
In order to explain why his contemporary church is different from the New Testament church in practice and leadership, Ambrosiaster emphasizes that his church is in a dispensation different from the New Testament church. God allowed everyone to preach, baptize, and even interpret the Bible in order to make the church grow everywhere. However, the church is now established everywhere and needs a system to maintain an order in the church. Therefore, deacons are no longer able to preach or baptize, and people should not be anointed on any day. Interestingly, Ambrosiaster admitted that bishops and elders are not two different positions but interchangeable in the New Testament.
In the exegesis of Phil. 2:9, Ambrosiaster strongly condemns adoptionism: “If Christ is not God but a man adopted as a mighty son of God, what is the point of Paul’s preaching on humility? A man and every other creature must be humble. There should be no praise for someone who humbled himself before God. Likewise, if Christ was not God but a man, what is a striking element of his being in the likeness of a man? Is every man not in the same likeness?” (Phil 2:9[71]).
If the theology of Ambrosiaster in his commentary on Romans has an Augustinian element concerning original sin, the theology of Ambrosiaster in his commentary on 1 Timothy has an Arminian element concerning free will. For Ambrosiaster, no grace exists that man cannot resist. After reminding his readers of the biblical truth that God wants everyone to be saved (1 Tim 2:4), Ambrosiaster asks, then, why is His will not fulfilled as He wishes? He answers his own question: “God wants everyone to be saved, but only if they come to him. He does not want this if it means that people are saved when they do not want to be” (1 Tim 2:4[125]). There is no true salvation without voluntary acceptance on the part of sinners. Ambrosiaster refuses to understand the salvific power of the gospel as if it is a physical force or a medicine for the body. Indeed, the gospel is powerful, but it is a “spiritual medicine” that requires the “mind” of its recipients to accept it “with total willingness” (1 Tim. 2:4[125]). Since the church is the great house of God containing not only gold silver but also wood vessels, Ambrosiaster reprimands the Novatians for their ecclesiology of the pure church (2 Tim 2:20[148]). It is not surprising to note that later Augustine condemned the Donatists who claimed their pure church by using the same verse.
Ambrosiaster’s exegesis of 1 and 2 Thessalonians shows his eschatology. Concerning the second coming of Christ, Ambrosiaster warns his audience not to be deceived easily by those who pretend as if they receive special revelation from the Holy Spirit as the Montanists did. Since God is not self-contradictory, whatever the Spirit reveals is not to be contradictory with the written Word of God. However, Ambrosiaster has no perspective of the millennial kingdom on earth as an intermediate stage between Christ’s parousia and eternity, although advocating the literal eternal punishment of sinners in hell. Paul also warned, according to Ambrosiaster, that Christians should not receive any book written in the name of the apostles naively because false teachers tried to deceive them with spurious authority. Interestingly, Ambrosiaster regards the fall of the Roman Empire as the last event of the world right before the second coming of Christ:
“The Lord would not come back until the Roman Empire fell and the antichrist appeared, who would kill the saints and give the Romans back their freedom, but under his name” (2 Thess 2: 1–4 [115]).
If we expect a contemporary commentator’s critical analysis of a word or syntax from Ambrosiaster, we will definitely be disappointed. If we look for a practical implication of a passage from his commentaries, as with the NIV Application Commentary series, we will be also disappointed. However, if we want to know how early Christians, who were closer to Paul than we are, understood Paul without having the presuppositions of contemporary readership on Paul, this volume will greatly help us. This volume also provides many valuable details about Roman Christianity in the fourth century.
