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11 - Ambrosiaster

from Part II

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 June 2019

Philip L. Reynolds
Affiliation:
Emory University, Atlanta
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Summary

Ambrosiaster, an early Christian exegete writing in Latin at the end of the fourth century in Rome, was a thinker whose mind was profoundly shaped by notions of law. He devoted considerable attention to questions of the relation between various kinds of law: the law of nature (lex naturalis), the Mosaic Law, Roman law, and Christian law (“the law of faith”). As an interpreter of the Pauline corpus, he was especially influenced by Paul’s discussion of law in the Epistle to the Romans, where the Apostle argued, “When Gentiles who have not the law do by nature what the law requires, they are a law to themselves” (Rom 2:14). Ambrosiaster saw contemporary Roman law as derived partly from natural law, partly from Mosaic law, and partly from the Greeks. As a result, he did not hesitate to justify both Christian doctrine and Christian practice by referring to Roman legal traditions. Because Ambrosiaster’s Pauline commentary was transmitted in the Middle Ages under the name of Ambrose, and because his Questions on the Old and New Testaments was ascribed to Augustine, he exerted great influence on the subsequent tradition, especially on medieval canon law.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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References

Sources

Ambrosiaster. Commentarius in epistulas paulinas. Ed. Heinrich J. Vogels. CSEL 81.1–3 (1966–69).Google Scholar
Ambrosiaster. Quaestiones Veteris et Novi Testamenti CXXVII. Ed. Alexander Souter. CSEL 50 (1908). [A full critical addition of the Quaestiones is currently being prepared by Marie-Pierre Bussières for the CCL series.]Google Scholar
Ambrosiaster. Contre les païens et Sur le destin. Ed. / trans. Marie-Pierre Bussières. SC 512 (2007). [A critical edition and French translation of Quaestiones 114 and 115.]Google Scholar
Ambrosiaster. Commentaries on Romans and 1–2 Corinthians and Commentaries on Galatians-Philemon. Trans. / ed. Bray, Gerald L.. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2009. [This translation must be read with caution, for it is idiosyncratic and does not properly distinguish the different versions of the Commentaries. A new English translation by Theodore de Bruyn, Stephen Cooper, and David G. Hunter has begun to appear in the series Writings from the Greco-Roman World series from the SBL Press. See note 17 above.]Google Scholar

Further Reading

Di Santo, Emanuele. L’apologetica dell’Ambrosiaster. Cristiani, pagani e Giudei nella Roma tardoantica. Studia Ephemeridis Augustinianum 112. Rome: Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum, 2008.Google Scholar
Di Santo, Emanuele. “La lex Christiana nell’apologetica romana di fine IV secolo: L’Ambrosiaster e le Consultationes Zacchaei et Apollonii.” In Lex et religio: XL Incontro di Studiosi dell’Antichità Cristiana (Roma, 10–12 maggio 2012), Studia Ephemeridis Augustinianum 135 (Rome: Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum, 2013), 535–56.Google Scholar
Frakes, Robert M. Compiling the Collatio Legum Mosaicarum et Romanarum in Late Antiquity. Oxford Studies in Roman Society and Law.Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.Google Scholar
Geerlings, Wilhelm. “Das Verständnis von Gesetz im Galaterbriefkommentar des Ambrosiaster.” in Wyrwa, Dietmar (ed.), Die Weitlichkeit des Glaubens in der Alten Kirche. Festschrift für Ulrich Wickert zum siebezigsten Geburtstag, Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und die Kunde der älteren Kirche, Beihefte 85 (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1997), 101–13.Google Scholar
Heggelbacher, Othmar. Vom römischen zum christlichen Recht. Iuristische Elemente in des Schriften des sog. Ambrosiaster. Arbeiten aus dem iuristischen Seminar der Universität Freiburg Schweiz 19. Freiburg: Universitätsverlag, 1959.Google Scholar
Hunter, David G.The Paradise of Patriarchy: Ambrosiaster on Woman as (Not) God’s Image,” JTS n.s. 43 (1992): 447–69.Google Scholar
Hunter, David G.. “The Significance of Ambrosiaster.” JECS 17 (2009): 126.Google Scholar
Lunn-Rockliffe, Sophie. Ambrosiaster’s Political Theology. Oxford Early Christian Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.Google Scholar
Souter, Alexander. A Study of Ambrosiaster. Texts and Studies 7.4. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1905.Google Scholar

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  • Ambrosiaster
  • Edited by Philip L. Reynolds, Emory University, Atlanta
  • Book: Great Christian Jurists and Legal Collections in the First Millennium
  • Online publication: 21 June 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108559133.011
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  • Ambrosiaster
  • Edited by Philip L. Reynolds, Emory University, Atlanta
  • Book: Great Christian Jurists and Legal Collections in the First Millennium
  • Online publication: 21 June 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108559133.011
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Ambrosiaster
  • Edited by Philip L. Reynolds, Emory University, Atlanta
  • Book: Great Christian Jurists and Legal Collections in the First Millennium
  • Online publication: 21 June 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108559133.011
Available formats
×