Seven Exegetical Works

Jacob and the Happy Life (De Iacob et vita beata)

JACOB AND THE HAPPY LIFE (De Iacob et vita beata) INTRODUCTION i\1H1LE WE CAN HAVE no absolute assurance of the date of this sermon, the extensive treatment given to Eleazar as an example of endurance under persecution suggests a very possible date of 386,1 when Ambrose and the Church at Milan were offering resistance to the reestablishment of Arianism there.2 Internal evidence suggests that the two books were originally given as sermons.3 The principal sources of the work, apart from the Bible, are the apocryphal Fourth Book of Machabees, which contains the story of Eleazar and that of the seven brothers,4 and the Enneads of Plotinus;5 references to classical authors are very rare. The purpose of Jacob and the Happy Life is in part philosophical , since Ambrose wishes to show the importance of right reason for the attainment of perfection, which is identified with true happiness. The examples, developed at greater I On the work as a whole, see Dudden 2.683, Palanque 514-15, and Paredi 249. 2 See Dudden 1.281-93; Paredi 237-55. 3 Cf. Jacob 1.5.17: "And so, to return to the beginning of this discourse . . ." (the Latin word translated "discourse" is sermo) and 2.5.23: "... as you have heard in today's reading..." Such a phrase as "the preceding book," in the first sentence of Book II, is proof enough that the sermons were adapted for publication as a unit. 4 See C. W. Emmet, The Fourth Book of Maccabees (London 1918), with a useful introduction. Most reliance is placed on 4 Machabees for Jacob 1.1.1-2.7 and 2.10.43-12.58. 5 Discussion of the Plotinian influence has developed fairly recently. It is certain that considerable resemblances exist between Enneads 1.4 and Jacob 1.7.28-8.39. See especially A. Soulignac, "Nouveaux paralleles entre saint Ambroise et Plotin," Archives de philosophie N.S. 19 (1956) 148-56, and P. Courcelle, "Nouveaux aspects du platonisme chez saint Ambroise," Revue des etudes latines 34 (1956) 220-39. II7 lIS SAINT AMBROSE length in the second book, are chiefly such Old Testament figures as Jacob, Rebecca, Isaac, Joseph, and those from Machabees . There is a good, but relatively inaccessible, translation of the first book into English, which contains useful explanatory and supplemental material;6 selections only from the second book have been translated into French.' 6 Rev. Mark Edwards, S.M., S. A mbrosii De Jacob et !lita beata I (un· published master's thesis, The Catholic Unh'ersity of America, Wash· ington 1952). 7 D. Gorce, Saillt Ambroise: Traites sllr [,Allcien Testament (Namur 1967). The sections of Book II translated are I, 3-9, 16-20, 22-23, 26-28,35-38,40-42. JACOB AND THE HAPPY LIFE BOOK ONE g.ECESSARY FOR THE TRAINING of all men is good discourse , full of prudence, while the mind given to reason excels in virtue and restrains its passions, for virtue is teachable.1 Further, one seeks it by study and learning and loses it by neglect. Otherwise, unless good discourse were necessary for correction, the law would never say, "You shall not commit adultery."~ But because discourse alone is helpful by way of admonition but weak by way of persuasion, therefore right reason must be employed with due reflection. Thus reason, given fuller consideration, may persuade us to the command laid down by good discourse. For man is not bound to obedience out of servile necessity, but by free will we either incline to virtue or lean to vice.a And thus either our affections, which are free, draw us into error, or our will, following upon reason, calls us away. Now the most severe of the guilty passions is concupiscence,4 but reason mitigates and restrains it. For it is able to mitigate but cannot uproot it, because the soul that is capable of reason is not the master of its passions but can only restrain them. And it is not possible that the irascible man not get angry, but only that he re1 Cf. 4 Mach. 1.1-2. (Emmet's translation is cited in Introd. n. 4 above.) 2 Exod. 20.13; d. 4 Mach. 2.5-6. 3 Cf. Plotinus, Enneads 3.2.10 and 6.8.6, cited by Courcelle, Recherches 100 n. 5. Ambrose discusses man's knowledge of good and evil...