On Noah

Contents

Reading pages: 1–29 · 30–52 · 53–77 · 78–109 · 110–128

1. 1Ambrose introduces Noah as a model of the just man and seeks rest in contemplating him amid personal and church troubles.
2. 2Noah's name means 'just' and 'rest,' and true rest comes from righteousness, which seeks the good of all.
3. 3The names of Noah's three sons stand for good, bad, and indifferent, and the bad is placed in the middle to be hemmed in.
4. 4Citing Homer, Ambrose explains that nature, like a general, encloses evil between the good and the indifferent.
5. 5Ambrose explains why Japheth comes first in the later genealogy: when evil breaks out, the good moves to defend the weak point and the indifferent takes the higher place.
6. 6God gave the generation before the flood great fruitfulness, so that blessing came from him and the flood from human sin.
7. 7The Spirit does not remain in fleshly men but remained on Christ, who alone, born of a virgin, was free of the bonds of sin common to all since Adam.
8. 8The giants of Genesis were born of angels and women, and are a figure of people who care for the body and neglect the soul.
9. 9Faithful people are called sons of God and the fleshly sons of the flesh; God's anger is spoken of to show the gravity of sin, not because God changes or suffers passion.
10. 10The animals perished with man because they were made for him; Noah found grace because of his righteousness, whose true lineage is virtue.
11. 11The earth was corrupted by human injustice; the saving of a remnant in the ark prefigures redemption through Christ.
12. 12Fleshly pleasure corrupted man's way, the way of paradise; some read 'his way' as God's way, that is, his word.
13. 13The ark of squared timbers, with its proportions of length, breadth, and height, is a figure of the well-proportioned human body.
14. 14The 'nests' of the ark are the hollows of the body, such as the eyes, ears, mouth, heart, and bones, and in the believer the body becomes a nest of chastity.
15. 15The pitch that binds the ark inside and out signifies the constitution that holds the human body and soul together.
16. 16The ark of the covenant, overlaid with gold and made of incorruptible wood, signifies the stable state of the saints, while Noah's ark, tossed by the flood, signifies the unstable life of sinners.
17. 17The ark narrowing to a cubit at the top signifies the head, the royal citadel of the body, where the mind rules and the senses keep watch.
18. 18The organs of the face serve both use and beauty, as the eyes, eyelashes, and brows show.
19. 19The ears are shaped and lined to protect the head from sudden sounds and intruding insects.
20. 20A damaged nose disfigures the face and threatens life itself.
21. 21The hair protects the head and suits sex, age, and season, as Paul says of long hair.
22. 22The mouth and teeth serve both speech and nourishment.
23. 23Ambrose surveys the rest of the body below the head, whose parts show the ark's breadth.
24. 24The door in the side of the ark signifies the body's outlet for waste, which Scripture describes more fittingly than the philosophers, as Paul says of the less honorable members.
25. 25In the church, a sinner who comes to baptism and is forgiven gains greater honor, as Paul the former persecutor became the greatest of laborers.
26. 26The gentiles, once ignoble and lame, received grace through faith and baptism, while the Jewish people lost what it had; the apostle, unlike Plato, revealed the mystery.
27. 27The lower chambers of the ark signify the organs of digestion, which belong to the lower place because food is corruptible.
28. 28The winding intestines, the two- and three-chambered lower parts of the ark, let food pass slowly so that life is sustained without constant hunger.
29. 29Without moderation in eating, the passions overflow like a flood and damage the body, as the injuries of the intestines show.
30. 30The flood within man is lust and corruption, and the remedy is to let the mind, the 'just man' within, shut up the passions in the ark.
31. 31The animals died with man because he was their ruler, as an army falls with its commander.
32. 32As the members die when the head is cut off, so the animals died with man, their head.
33. 33The animals were made for man's sake, so they perished with him.
34. 34In the deeper sense, the death of all things on earth is the death of the senses in the sinner, through lust, evil speech, and anger.
35. 35God establishes his covenant with the just man, who inherits God's gifts without loss to God, and Christ sealed both testaments with his blood.
36. 36Noah's household was saved through his righteousness, and the later failings of his son and of a wife do not undo this.
37. 37God saw Noah righteous 'in this generation,' judging the heart rather than appearance.
38. 38Allegorically, 'Go in' means enter into your own mind, where safety lies, since a sober mind governs soul and body.
39. 39The clean animals enter by sevens because seven is a holy and 'virgin' number, while the unclean enter by twos, an incomplete number.
40. 40Morally, the 'feminine' irrational faculties are made clean and firm by a wise man's governance, while the fool, divided and changeable, defiles his soul.
41. 41Clean and unclean animals in the ark signify that the soul holds the seeds of both good and bad movements, which sobriety must master.
42. 42The seven days before the flood recall creation and gave the people time to repent, showing God's readiness to forgive.
43. 43Some earlier interpreters took the forty days and forty nights to signify the destruction of men and women alike, since both had sinned alike.
44. 44The forty days of the flood correspond to Moses' forty days on Sinai and now to the forty days of fasting and prayer for life rather than punishment.
45. 45God blots out the flesh like letters erased from a tablet, so that better may be written; Ambrose contrasts the broken tablets of the law with the Spirit's writing in the church.
46. 46The flood purged the human race without destroying its substance, and it is a type of the cleansing of the soul.
47. 47Noah, like a friend rather than a slave, did all God commanded; the names 'Lord' and 'God' point to the Father and the Son, or to God's power to punish and to pardon.
48. 48The flood came in springtime, at the height of abundance, to make punishment felt, while the season and number of the year also promise renewal and pardon.
49. 49Allegorically, the floodgates of heaven and fountains of the deep are the passions of mind and body pouring out together, the worst of floods.
50. 50God shutting the ark signifies the skin that encloses and protects the body.
51. 51The rising waters that lifted the ark signify the passions by which the flesh is tossed about.
52. 52The fifteen cubits above the mountains signify the five senses in a threefold way, which Christ came to subdue as he came 'from Lebanon' to the church of the nations.
53. 53All moving flesh died in the flood; allegorically, the soul dries up and perishes unless it is watered by the virtues.
54. 54Allegorically, what God blotted out from the face of the earth is pride, which he removes from the book of life.
55. 55Noah alone remained in the ark with his own, signifying the just man who, freed from passions, governs his body as though incorporeal.
56. 56In remembering Noah God remembered his whole household, which was one house because it was united in love.
57. 57The order man, wild beasts, cattle places the fierce in the middle to be tamed, as the wise man holds and restrains wild thoughts within.
58. 58The 'spirit' that ended the flood was not wind but the creative power of the divine Spirit.
59. 59The shutting of the fountains and floodgates signifies the cutting off of the causes of the soul's sickness by Christ the physician.
60. 60Ambrose works through the chronology of the flood, showing that the earth was restored in the same season and by the same numbers in which it was flooded.
61. 61The door, or window, of the ark signifies the senses, especially sight, through which the mind comes to know God as maker of the world.
62. 62The raven sent out from the ark signifies the guilt and darkness that the just mind expels first, never to return.
63. 63'Until the water dried' does not imply the raven later returned, as with Joseph and Mary; guilt does not come back to the just soul.
64. 64The dove, which returned because it found no rest, signifies virtue, which finds its home only in the just mind, while malice, like the raven, settles amid the passions.
65. 65Noah's taking the dove in by hand signifies the wise man welcoming back virtue, which he sends out to explore and never truly loses.
66. 66Noah's waiting seven days before sending the dove again shows the wise man's patient effort, like a physician's, to correct others.
67. 67The dove's return at evening with an olive leaf signifies virtue bringing a token of hope, amendment, and peace to those who repent.
68. 68Noah knew from the leaf that the waters had receded, and saw in it a sign of God's mercy, whether it was old growth preserved or new.
69. 69The leaf showed that God preserved a seed of the human race, as Isaiah says, lest it become like Sodom and Gomorrah.
70. 70The dove's final departure signifies that virtue, once the passions subside, becomes a common good shared by many; Ambrose contrasts the believers who run to the fountain with Jews who refuse it.
71. 71The 'first' year and month after the flood point to Noah as first in virtue in the old generation and first in order in the new.
72. 72Allegorically, Noah's uncovering the roof of the ark signifies the just mind removing the covering of pleasure to rise toward invisible and eternal things.
73. 73The first month, in spring, honors Noah as first in grace, as the Passover month is called the first.
74. 74If the leaf grew after the flood, God could make the earth sprout in a single day, as at creation.
75. 75Noah waited for God's command before leaving the ark, as the just man claims nothing for himself.
76. 76The order of entering and leaving the ark shows abstinence from marital relations during the flood and their lawful resumption afterward.
77. 77Allegorically, in danger the mind should keep to its manly, strong reasonings, and only when the passions are calm should it bring forth virtues.
78. 78Noah built an altar unbidden, because true thanksgiving is freely offered, and offered it to 'God,' the name of kindness, not to 'Lord,' the name of command.
79. 79Noah offered clean beasts and birds, signifying the wise man's senses and understanding offered to God.
80. 80God promised not to curse the earth again, punishing once to teach fear and sparing thereafter, since sin cannot be wholly removed from human hearts.
81. 81The human heart is eagerly set on evil from youth, though even infants are not without sin; God therefore punishes only in part.
82. 82God's promise of seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, guarantees the ordered seasons on which the world, made of balanced contraries, depends.
83. 83Seed and harvest signify beginning and end, and the mind should always go on from one good work to the next, as the earth renews its fruits.
84. 84The body is fed on necessary fruits and the soul on the fruits of wisdom, though while in the body the soul must contend with fear and anger, its cold and heat.
85. 85The wise man balances anger and fear by virtue, as day and night, and in persecution lets the fear of God govern both.
86. 86The blessing and dominion given to Noah repeat those given to man made in God's image, to whom the just Noah is compared.
87. 87Allegorically, the just man fills the earth with wisdom and rules over the passions, the wild beasts and serpents of the soul.
88. 88The creeping things given for food are harmless ones, signifying the good affections, as distinct from the poisonous passions.
89. 89Ambrose would gladly read the gift of 'green plants' as a call to a plant diet, but notes that the precept is general and not all can follow such continence.
90. 90Meat may be eaten like plants, moderately, but not all creatures are fit for food, and luxury that eats near-poisonous flesh courts danger.
91. 91Allegorically, the irrational passions should be as subject to the wise man as plants to a farmer, harmless if not the strongest food.
92. 92Against the varied opinions of philosophers on the soul, Moses teaches that the rational soul comes from God's breath, while blood is the soul of the flesh, the seat of life and pleasure.
93. 93Allegorically, blood signifies the ardor of virtue, which makes the earnest reject fleshly food and thoughts, as Christ's food was to do the Father's will.
94. 94God requires blood from beasts and, more severely, from a man's 'brother,' since all men are brothers through one nature.
95. 95God names the brother because the gravest dangers, such as quarrels over inheritances, come from kin.
96. 96Calling the murderer a brother aggravates his crime and warns him that he cannot escape God's eternal judgment.
97. 97Allegorically, we must guard against our own thoughts and words, for which we too will give account to God.
98. 98The murderer's own life is 'shed' like spilled blood, losing hope of posterity and the soul's health.
99. 99'In the image of God' points to the Father and the Son, and because man is made in God's image, God avenges violence against him.
100. 100God's promise of vengeance refutes those who deny his care for men, deters violence, and frees the innocent from excessive fear of death.
101. 101God's promise means not that there will be no floods, but that none will destroy the whole earth.
102. 102God's providence keeps the flood of passions from destroying every soul, so that even sinners should not despair but turn back, as Zacchaeus did.
103. 103God's bow in the cloud is not the ordinary rainbow, which appears only by day and in certain weather.
104. 104The bow signifies God's invisible power, which balances the tension of the world, and it is a bow without an arrow, a sign of warning rather than a wound.
105. 105Ham alone is named with his son Canaan, to heighten his offense against his father and to mark the origin of the Canaanites.
106. 106Allegorically, Ham ('heat') begetting Canaan ('disturbance') signifies one evil passion begetting another.
107. 107Noah is called a 'farmer,' unlike Adam and Cain, who 'worked' the earth; the farmer acts as master of a household, the worker as a hireling.
108. 108The flesh is the earth, which the good farmer cultivates for the fruits of the Spirit, pruning it by temperance.
109. 109Noah planted a vine first, choosing for himself what was for pleasure, while offering what was necessary to God.
110. 110Drink from springs and rivers is the necessary gift of God's working, and it is working the earth, not work as such, that is servile.
111. 111Noah drank 'of' the wine, a portion; there is a bodily drunkenness and a sober drunkenness of the Spirit, and Noah was uncovered only within his own house.
112. 112The soul's nakedness comes from unknowing or careless sin, and its first covering is a shame that hides sin and gives hope of amendment.
113. 113The other nakedness of the soul is good: stripping off the passions and the burden of the body to see eternal beauty.
114. 114Ham is called 'the father of Canaan' so that father and son are convicted together of a shared wickedness.
115. 115Allegorically, the wicked delight in the apparent falls of the wise, mocking virtue because they measure good by worldly prosperity.
116. 116Shem and Japheth covered their father without looking, out of filial reverence.
117. 117Allegorically, the wise mind walks backward, recalling the past and covering former faults with good works, as Paul did.
118. 118Noah's mind remained sober even in his drunkenness, while Ham, who mocked him, was the one truly drunk and blind.
119. 119Ham is called 'younger' not in age but in understanding, as one who has not learned from the wise.
120. 120Noah blessed the God of Shem and cursed Canaan rather than Ham, because a father suffers in his son's punishment and both shared the same wickedness.
121. 121Allegorically, Ham and Canaan signify one passion, heat and agitation.
122. 122Japheth, the 'enlarged,' signifies indifferent goods such as wealth and beauty, which help or harm depending on whether virtue governs them.
123. 123Noah's 350 years after the flood signify the cross (300, the Greek letter tau) and the jubilee of remission and Pentecost (50).
124. 124Japheth's descendants spread even to the islands, fitting his name 'breadth.'
125. 125Allegorically, Japheth's spread signifies the restless widening of the desire for wealth, honor, and power.
126. 126Ham's eldest son Cush, interpreted as dust, shows that the wicked beget nothing fruitful, like the dust of Psalm 1.
127. 127Cush begot Nimrod, the earthly giant-hunter, an image of the ungodly who put earth before heaven.
128. 128Allegorically, Nimrod the hunter signifies the one who seeks heaven through earthly pleasures, and his kingdom Babylon signifies the confusion of vices.