Augustine's Commentary on Galatians Introduction, Text, Translation, and Notes

by Plumer, Eric

• ISBN13: 9780199244393
• ISBN10: 0199244391
• Edition: Bilingual
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-03-27
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Now available in English for the first time, Augustine's Commentary on Galatians is his only complete, formal commentary on any book of the Bible and offers unique insights into his understanding of Paul and of his own task as a biblical interpreter. Yet it is one of his least known workstoday - and this despite its importance in the past for such major figures as Aquinas, Luther, Erasmus, and Newman. The present volume seeks to remedy this situation by providing not only an English translation with facing Latin text, but also a comprehensive introduction and copious notes. SinceGalatians happens to be the only biblical book commented upon by all the ancient Latin commentators - including Jerome, Pelagius, Ambrosiaster, and Marius Victorinus, as well as Augustine - it provides a basis for comparing them and for identifying Augustine's special concerns and emphases.Augustine's Commentary also has crucial links to other works he wrote at the time, especially his monastic rule and De Doctrina Christiana. Augustine's emphasis on Galatians as a pastoral letter designed to preserve and strengthen Christian unity links the commentary to his monastic rule, while hismethod and sources link it to, and indeed pave the way for, the theory of biblical interpretation set forth in the De Doctrina Christiana.

Author Biography

Eric Plumer is Assistant Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Scranton, Pennsylvania, USA.

Table of Contents

oxford Early Christian Studies	p. i
Augustine's Commentary on Galatians	p. iii
Preface and Acknowledgements	p. vii
Abbreviations	p. xiv
General Abbreviations	p. xvii
Introduction	p. 1
Date of Composition	p. 3
Augustine in Relation to the Other Latin Commentators on Paul in Late Antiquity	p. 5
The Purpose of Augustine's Commentary	p. 60
Augustine as a Reader of Galatians	p. 89
Conclusions	p. 117
Augustine's Commentary on the Letter to the Galatians	p. 123
the Latin Text of Augustine's Commentary on Galatians	p. 237
Augustine's Latin Version of the Bible	p. 240
the Historicity of the Confessions	p. 242
Augustine's Concern with Donatism in the Years Immediately Preceding and Following the Commentary on Galatians	p. 249
Bibliography	p. 253
Index of Biblical References	p. 268
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