ipse enim Christus dominus voluntate patris quasi primus angelus {dei} cum exercitu caelesti, sicut continetur in Apocalypsi Iohannis apostoli, descendet de caelo ad gerendum bellum nomine dei contra Antichristum. quo extincto iussu eius resurgent mortui. hoc est ergo in tuba dei descendere, nomine dei bellum gerere. est enim, ut ipse dixit ad Hiesum filium Nave, dux et princeps exercitus domini, propter quod archangelus dicitur.
Saturday, July 20, 2019
Ambrosiaster Remarks About 1 Thessalonians 4:16 (in Latin)
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5 comments:
Hi Edgar. Are you able to give an explanation of what you think Ambrosiaster is saying in this quote?
The first part appears to be saying:
"For Christ himself, the Lord, from [Or: "of"] the Father's will, as [Lit., "as if" Or: "a kind/sort of"] the first [Or: "Prime"] Angel [of God] along with the heavenly army..."
At the bottom he also appears to (like Justin Martyr and many other earlier Christian writers) identify him with/as the Angel that appeared to Joshua the Son of Nun and also says:
"the Leader and Prince of the armies of the Lord, on account of which is called the Arch-Angel."
My Latin is not good, so I would like your thoughts.
Hi Matt13weedhacker,
I mainly wanted to illustrate how Ambrosiaster links Christ with Michael. Voluntate patris might be rendered "by the will of the Father" or "by the Father's will"
As you likely know, voluntate is ablative and patris is genitive.
Ambrosiaster then writes that Christ will descend as contained in the book of Revelation: he will come to wage war in the name of God contra Antichristum (contra + the accusative).
Ambrosiaster does identify Christ with the angel who appeared to Joshua. Notice the ut ipse dixit (third-person singular), which could be translated "as he himself says . . . " That is, as Christ says to Joshua.
A quick check confirms that exercitus domini is a singular construct (army of the Lord/Lord's army)
propter quod archangelus dicitur should be "on account of which he is called the Arch-Angel" since dicitur is a third-person singular verb and it's passive.
Hope this helps.
I believe voluntate is either an agentive ablative (of agency) or an ablative of means.
“For Christ himself, the Lord, by means of the Father's will, as the First [Or: “Prime”] Angel of God, along with the heavenly army, as it is contained in the Apocalypse of John the Apostle, shall descend from heaven in order to carry on war [in] the name of God against the Anti-Christ. Which is brought to nothing when by his command he causes the dead to rise, this, therefore, is when he descends with God's trumpet, [and] carries on war [in] God's name. Indeed, this is as he himself says to Joshua the son of Nun, [as] the Leader and Prince of the Lord's army, on account of which he is called the Arch-Angel.”
From what I can see, the rendering looks pretty good. I just might suggest translating "ipse enim Christus dominus" as "For Christ the Lord himself . . ." Notice from the endings that these nouns go together plus the words constitute a familiar title.
For "hoc est ergo in tuba dei descendere," maybe "Therefore, this is when he descends with the trumpet of God."
Ergo is the third word in the construction, but it's postpositive, so it does not come first in Latin sentences. However, English often begins sentences with transitional words. So that is why I tweaked the word order in the translation.
Thanks, my friend.
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