'''Ambrosiaster''', a commentary on St [[Paul of Tarsus|Paul's]] epistles, "brief in words but weighty in matter," and valuable for the criticism of the [[Latin]] text of the [[New Testament]], was long attributed to St [[Ambrose]].

[[Erasmus]] in 1527 threw doubt on the accuracy of this ascription, and the author is usually spoken of as Ambrosiaster or pseudo-Ambrose. Because [[Augustine of Hippo|Augustine]] cites part of the commentary on [[Epistle to the Romans|Romans]] as by "Sanctus Hilarius" it has been ascribed by various critics at different times to almost every known Hilary. [[Germain Morin]]<ref>''Rev. d'hist. et de litt. religieuses'', tom. iv. 97 f.</ref> broke new ground by suggesting in 1899 that the writer was Isaac, a converted Jew, 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 [[North Africa during the Classical Period|Africa]] in 377.

With this attribution [[Alexander Souter]]<ref>''Study of Ambrosiaster'' (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1905.</ref>, agrees. 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.

In the book cited above Souter also discusses the authorship of the ''Quaestiones Veteris et Novi Testamenti,'' which the manuscripts ascribe to [[Augustine of Hippo|Augustine]]. He concludes, on very thorough [[philology|philological]] and other grounds, that this is with one possible slight exception the work of the same "Ambrosiaster." The same conclusion had been arrived at previously by Dom Morin.

==References==
*{{1911}}

==Notes==
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[[Category:New Testament commentaries]]

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