Introduction

Abstract

Abstract The latter half of the fourth century witnessed what some have called a ‘renaissance’ of interest in the Pauline epistles in the Latin church. The works produced in these decades include commentaries by Ambrosiaster, an anonymous writer, and Pelagius on all the epistles; commentaries by Marius Victorinus,Jerome, and Augustine on select epistles; and Rufinus of Aquileia’s translation of Origen’s commentary on Romans —in addition to the attention given to the epistles in the letters and tracts of the time.3 This wealth of commentaries, investing so much in the writings of the apostle,4 is all the more striking because as a genre the commentary appeared relatively late in the west.