"And the heaven departed as a scroll] when it is 'rolled together.' By heaven is here meant the Old Testament : also when a scroll or book is rolled up, ' the writing which it contains is hidden from the eyes ' of the beholders. The book, therefore, was rolled up ' from the Jews, because they would not understand ' the spiritual meaning of the Old Testament, which ' pointed out to them the Messiah. The heaven there- ' fore departed like a scroll when it is rolled together, ' because the Old Testament deserted the Jews, and ' passed over to the Gentiles.'

"The opening, therefore, of the first seal relates to those things, which took place before the flood; the second seal relates to the Patriarchs; the third, to those who were under the law; and the fourth, to the Prophets.  The three remaining openings relate to the New Testament.   The fifth opening relates to the Martyrs; the sixth, to the rejection of the Jews, and the calling of the Gentiles.  The seventh relates to the second coming of Christ."

"And the heaven departed as a scrowl when it is rolled together.] By heaven is here meant the Old Testament: also when a scrowl or book is rolled up, the writing which it contains is hidden from the eyes of the beholders.  The book, therefore, was rolled up from the Jews, because they would not understand the spiritual meaning of the Old Testament, which pointed out to them the Messiah   The heaven therefore departed like a scrowl when it rolled together, because the Old Testament deserted the Jews, and passed over to the Gentiles."
 

Ambrosiaster, a commentary on St 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 cites part of the commentary on Romans as by "Sanctus Hilarius" it has been ascribed by various critics at different times to almost every known Hilary. Germain Morin[1] 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 Africa in 377.

With this attribution Alexander Souter[2], 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. He concludes, on very thorough 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.
 

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