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ER 2229

Ambrosiaster commenting on 1 Timothy 3:8-10 says that Paul`s requirements for the deacons regard all the more bishops and presbyters. The "Commentaries do the Pauline Epistles", written in Rome, the 370s or 380s.

1 Tim 3: 8-10: "Diaconos similiter (pari modo) pudicos, non bilingues, non vino multo deditos, non turpibus lucris vacantes, habentes mysterium fidei in conscientia pura. et hi autem probentur primum et sic ministrent sine crimine."

1. qui tanta cura diaconos eligendos praecipit, quos constat esse ministros (ministros esse) sacerdotum, quales vult esse episcopos nisi, sicut ipse ait, inreprehensibiles, negotia tamen publica, turpia {vilia} lucra non habentes? scit enim ideo negotiari, ut capiant lucra, nec aliud profitetur quam gerit. turpia autem lucra haec dicit esse, si sub pia professione quaestibus studeatur; turpis enim deprehenditur, cum se purum ostendit (ostentet). post episcopum tamen diaconis (diaconatus) ordinationem subiecit. quare, nisi quia episcopi et presbyteri una ordinatio est? uterque enim sacerdos est, sed episcopus primus est, ut omnis episcopus presbyter sit. non tamen omnis presbyter episcopus.

2. hic enim episcopus est, qui inter presbyteros primus est. denique Timotheum presbyterum ordinatum significat, sed quia ante se alterum non habebat, episcopus erat. unde et quemadmodum episcopum ordinet ostendit. neque enim fas erat aut licebat, ut inferior ordinaret maiorem. nemo enim tribuit quod non accepit.

(ed. Vogels 1969: 267)

1 Tim 3: 8-10: "Likewise must the deacons be grave, not doubletongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre; holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. And let these also first be proved; then let them use the office of a deacon, being found blameless."

1. He who prescribes that the deacons, who are servants of the priests, should be chosen with such care, would he want bishops to be other than irreprehensible, as he says himself, not having public occupations and sordid gains? Because he knows that one makes business to have profits and one is perceived according to his conduct. And he calls the profits sordid when one strives for gains under pious pretences: he is discovered to be unclean although he seemed to be pure. The ordination of the deacon is placed under [that of] the bishop. Why would that be so if not for that reason that there is one ordination for the bishop and the presbyter? Both are priests but the bishop is the first one, and every bishop is a presbyter. But not every presbyter is a bishop.

2. The bishop is the first of the presbyters. [Paul] says that Timothy has been ordained a presbyter, but because he did not have anyone else above him, he was a bishop. And he showed that by ordaining a bishop. It is neither rightful nor allowed that a person of lower rank ordains the one of the higher rank. Because no one can give what he did not previously received.

(trans. M. Szada)

Place of event:

Region

Rome

City

Rome

About the source:

Author: Ambrosiaster
Title: Commentary to the Letters of Paul, Commentaries to the Pauline Epistles, Commentaria in Pauli epistulas
Origin: Rome (Rome)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian

"Ambrosiaster" is a name given in the scholarship (probably since the 17th-century edition of the Maurines) to the author of the Commentaries to the Letters of Paul which where attributed to Bishop Ambrose of Milan throughout the Middle Ages. Some proposed to identify Ambrosiaster with one of the known authors but none of these identifications is supported by compelling evidence. From the remarks scattered in the Commentaries we can deduce that he lived in Rome during the pontificate of Pope Damasus (366-384). As he sometimes speaks disapprovingly about the Roman deacons, it is possible that he was himself a presbyter (Hunter 2017). The Commentaries follow a Latin translation of the Pauline epistles common in Italy before the Vulgate revision. The Commentaries survived in the several revisions. Their editor Vogels distinguishes three recensions in the commentary to the Romans, alpha, beta and gamma, and two recensions, alpha and gamma, for the remaining letters. The text given here takes into account both revisions.

Also the Quaestiones Veteris and Novi Testamenti, transmitted under the name of Augustine, are now unanimously attributed to Ambrosiaster.

Edition:

H.I. Vogels ed., Ambrosiaster, Commentarius in xiii Epistulas Paulinas, Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Lationorum 81, Wien 1966–9

Bibliography:

D.G. Hunter, "The Significance of Ambrosiaster," Journal of Early Christian Studies 17 (2009), 1-26

D.G. Hunter, "Rivalry between Presbyters and Deacons in the Roman Church: Three Notes on Ambrosiaster, Jerome, and The Boasting of the Roman Deacons," Vigiliae Christianae 71 (2017), 495–510

S. Lunn-Rockliffe, Ambrosiaster's Political Theology, Oxford 2007

A. Merkt, "Wer war der Ambrosiaster?" Wissenschaft und Weisheit 59 (1996) 19-33

A. Polliastri, "Ambrosiaster", in: Encyclopedia of Ancient Christianity, ed. A. Di Berardino, Downers Grove 2013

Categories:

Food/Clothes/Housing - Food and drink

Described by a title - Presbyter/πρεσβύτερος

Impediments or requisits for the office - Improper/Immoral behaviour

Economic status and activity - Buying & selling

Economic status and activity - Indication of wealth

Relation with - Bishop/Monastic superior

Relation with - Deacon

Theoretical considerations - On priesthood

Theoretical considerations - On church hierarchy

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER2229, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=2229