14.
As Peter once said to the Savior, 'Behold, we left all and followed thee; what then shall we have?' And Jesus said to them — plainly to the apostles — 'Amen, I say to you: you who followed me, in the regeneration, when God sits on his throne of glory, you too shall sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who left brothers or sisters or parents or children or fields or houses for my name's sake shall receive manifold, and inherit eternal life.' For the sake of these words, I would have prayed — possessing on earth as much as you, Ambrose, and more — to become a witness in Christ God, to 'receive manifold' — or as Mark says, 'hundredfold.' For a hundredfold is far more than the few we leave, if we go to martyrdom, with them hundredfolded. For this, if I bear witness, I wished to leave children too, with fields and houses — that with God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 'from whom every family in the heavens and on earth is named,' I might be called father of manifold, holier children — or, to speak boundedly, hundredfold ones. And if there are fathers of whom it was said to Abraham, 'But thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace, nursed in a good old age' — one might say (I know not if truly) that those fathers perhaps once bore witness, leaving children — for which they became fathers of fathers: of the patriarch Abraham and other such patriarchs. For likely those who left children and bore witness become fathers not of babes but of fathers.
Greek (GCS)
ὅταν πᾶσα (ἡ κτίσις“ ἐλευϑερωϑῇ ,ἀπὸ τῆς δουλείας τοῦ 249000 εἰς τὴν ἐλευϑερίαν τῆς δόξης τῶν τέχνων τοῦ ϑεοῦ". XIV. Καὶ ἐπέχεινα οὖν τις προμαρτύρων πλεῖόν τι παρὰ πολλους μάρτυρας ἐχόντων τὸ ἐν Χριστῷ φιλομαϑὲς τάχιον ἀναβήσεται. σοὶ ὃ δὲ, ὃ ἱερὲ ᾿Αμβρόσιε, ἐνιδόντι ἐξητασμένως εὐαγγελικῇ φωνὴ “πάρεστιν ἰδεῖν, οὡς ἄρα τάχα ἢ οὐδεὶς τῶν πώποτε ἢ πάνυ ὀλίγοι χύσεως μα- καρισμοῦ ἐπιτεύξονται ἐξαιρέτου τινὸς καὶ πλείονος" ἐν ὁποίῳ ἔσῃ καὶ σὺ, εἰ τὸν ἀγῶνα ἀδιστάκτως διανήξαιο. τὰ δὲ δήματα οὕτως ἔχει" 6 Πέτρος εἶπέ ποτε τῷ σωτῆρι" ἰδοὺ ἡμεῖς ἀφήκαμεν πάντα καὶ ἡ- 10 κολουϑήσαμέν σοι" τί ἄρα ἔσται ἡμῖν; ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν αὐτοῖς" (δη- λονότι τοῖς ἀποστόλοιςν „aunv λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι ὑμεῖς οἱ ἀχολουϑήσαν- τές μοι ἐν τῇ παλιγγενεσίᾳ, ὅταν καϑίσῃ ὃ ϑεὸς ἐπὶ ϑρόνου δόξης αὐτοῦ, καϑήσεσϑε καὶ αὐτοὶ ἐπὶ ϑρόνους δώδεκα χρίνοντες τὰς δώ- dexa φυλὰς τοῦ Ἰσραήλ. καὶ πᾶς ὅστις ἀφῆχεν ἀδελφοὺς ἢ ἀδελφὰς 15 ἢ γονεῖς ἢ τέκνα ἢ ἀγροὺς ἢ οἰκίας ἕνεχεν τοῦ ὀνόματός μου, πολ- λαπλασίονα λήψεται καὶ ζωὴν αἰώνιον κληρονομησείς. τούτων δὲ ἕνεχεν τῶν ῥητῶν ηὐξάμην ἂν τοσαῦτα κτησάμενος ἐπὶ γῆς, ὁπόσα ἔχεις, 7 καὶ τούτων πλείονα γενέσϑαι μάρτυς ἐν Χριστῷ τῷ ϑεῷ, ἵνα (πολλαπλασίονα λάβω ἢ, ὡς 6 Μάρχος φησὶν, χατονταπλα- 20 σίονα"““ (a) πολλῷ πλείονά ἐστιν ὀλίγων, ὁποῖα καταλείφομεν, ἐὰν ἐπὶ μαρτύριον xIndauer, ἑκατονταπλασιαζομένων. τούτου δὲ ἕνεχεν εἰ μαρτυρῶ, ἐβουλόμην καὶ τέκνα καταλιπεῖν μετὰ ἀγρῶν καὶ οἰχιῶν, ἵνα χαὶ παρὰ τῷ ϑεῷ καὶ πατρὶ τοῦ κυ- ρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, ,ἐξ οὗ πᾶσα πατριὰ ἐν οὐρανοῖς καὶ ἐπὶ 25 γῆς ὀνομάζεται“, πολλαπλασιόνων καὶ ἁγιωτέρων τέκνων χρηματί- co πατὴρ ἢ, iv ὡρισμένως εἴπω, ἑκατονταπλασιόνων. εἴπερ δέ εἰσι πατέρες, περὶ ὧν εἴρηται τῷ ᾿Αβραάμ᾽ „od δὲ ἀπελεύσῃ πρὸς τοὺς πατέρας σου μετ᾽ εἰρήνης τραφεὶς ἐν γήρᾳ καλῷ“, εἴποι ἂν τις (οὐκ οἶδα εἰ ἀληϑεύων) τάχα ἐκεῖνοι πατέρες εἰσὶ μαρτυρήσαντές ποτε καὶ 80 ἀφέντες τέκνα, ἀνϑ᾽ ὧν πατέρες γεγόνασι πατέρων τοῦ πατριάρχου ᾿Αβραὰμ καὶ ἄλλων τοιούτων πατριαρχῶν" εἰκὸς γὰρ τοὺς ἀφέντας τέχνα καὶ μαρτυρήσαντας οὐ νηπίων ἀλλὰ πατέρων γίνεσϑαι πατέρας. Wettsteins Vermutung (p. 175 am Rand): διανίζσαιο) ist grundlos, vgl. unten S.