Ambrosiaster
Ambrosiaster is the name given to the writer of a commentary on St Paul's epistles, "brief in words but weighty in matter," and valuable for the criticism of the Latin text of the New Testament. This commentary was erroneously attributed for a long time to St Ambrose.
The commentary itself was written during the papacy of Pope Damasus I, that is, between 366 and 384, and is considered an important document of the Latin text of Paul before the Vulgate of Jerome, and of the interpretation of Paul prior to Augustine of Hippo.[1]
In 1527 Erasmus threw doubt on the accuracy of ascribing the authorship of this document to Ambrose, and its author is now usually spoken of as Ambrosiaster, or pseudo-Ambrose.[1] Because Augustine cites part of the commentary on Romans as by "Sanctus Hilarius" it has been ascribed by various critics at different times to almost every known Hilary. Germain Morin broke new ground by suggesting in 1899 that the writer was Isaac,[2] a converted Jew and writer of a tract on the Trinity and Incarnation, who was exiled to Spain in 378-380 and then relapsed to Judaism; but he afterwards abandoned this theory of the authorship in favour of Decimus Hilarianus Hilarius, proconsul of Africa in 377.
With this attribution Alexander Souter agrees.[3] There is scarcely anything to be said for the possibility of Ambrose having written the book before he became a bishop, and added to it in later years, incorporating remarks of Hilary of Poitiers on Romans. The best presentation of the case for Ambrose is by P. A. Ballerini in his complete edition of that father's works.
Several other minor works have been attributed to this same author. There is also the Quaestiones Veteris et Novi Testamenti, which manuscripts have traditionally ascribed to Augustine. Most scholars consider this work to be that of Pseudo-Ambrose as well.[1]
[edit] References
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b c Kinzig, Wolfram (1996), "Ambrosiaster", in Hornblower, Simon; Spawforth, Anthony, Oxford Classical Dictionary (3rd ed.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-521693-8
- ^ Rev. d'hist. et de litt. religieuses, tom. iv. 97 f.
- ^ Study of Ambrosiaster (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1905).
[edit] Bibliography
[edit] Texts
- Heinrich Joseph Vogels, Vinzenz Bulhart, and Rudolf Hanslik. 1966. Ambrosiastri qui dicitur Commentarius in Epistulas Paulinas. Corpus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum Latinorum vol. 81, pt. 1-3. Vindobonae: Hoelder-Pichler-Tempsky.
- Isaac Judaeus, Isacis Judaei Quae supersunt, ed. A. Hoste, CCL 9 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1957), pp. 331–48. The questions were at this time attributed to Isaac the Jew, but now to Ambrosiaster.
- also see links below
[edit] Studies
- Moreschini, Claudio, and Enrico Norelli. 2005 "Ambrosiaster," in Early Christian Greek and Latin Literature: A Literary History. Peabody, Mass: Hendrickson Publishers. vol. 2, p. 296-98.
- Mundle, Wilhelm. 1919. Die Exegese der paulinischen Briefe im Kommentar des Ambrosiaster.
- Queis, Dietrich Traugott von, and Augustine. 1972. Ambrosiaster: Quaestiones Veteris et Novi Testamenti. Quaestio 115: De fato. Basel.
- Rockliffe, S. 2007. Ambrosiaster's Political Theology. Oxford.
- Souter, Alexander. 1905. A study of Ambrosiaster. Cambridge [Eng.]: The University Press.
- Souter, Alexander. 1927. The earliest Latin commentaries on the Epistles of St. Paul; a study. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
[edit] External links
- The text of Ambrosiaster's Commentary on the Epistles of Paul, taken from Migne's Patrologia Latina vol 17, and attributed to Ambrose, is available here.
- A less readable put printable PDF version of the Migne "Commentaries" is available from Google books.
- A facsimile of Souter's 1908 edition of the Quaestiones is available from Google books.
- The text of Ambrosiaster's Quaestiones, taken from Migne's Patrologia Latina vol. 35 and attributed to Augustine, is available here.
