Writings of Augustine. On Christian Doctrine
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On Christian Doctrine
In Four Books.
Translated by Rev. Professor J. F. Shaw, of Londonderry.
Published in 1886 by Philip Schaff,
New York: Christian Literature Publishing Co.
Book II.
Argument--Having completed his exposition of things, the author now
proceeds to discuss the subject of signs. He first defines what a
sign is, and shows that there are two classes of signs, the natural
and the conventional. Of conventional signs (which are the only class
here noticed), words are the most numerous and important, and are
those with which the interpreter of Scripture is chiefly concerned.
The difficulties and obscurities of Scripture spring chiefly from two
sources, unknown and ambiguous signs. The present book deals only
with unknown signs, the ambiguities of language being reserved for
treatment in the next book. The difficulty arising from ignorance of
signs is to be removed by learning the Greek and Hebrew languages, in
which Scripture is written, by comparing the various translations, and
by attending to the context. In the interpretation of figurative
expressions, knowledge of things is as necessary as knowledge of
words; and the various sciences and arts of the heathen, so far as
they are true and useful, may be turned to account in removing our
ignorance of signs, whether these be direct or figurative. Whilst
exposing the folly and futility of many heathen superstitions and
practices, the author points out how all that is sound and useful in
their science and philosophy may be turned to a Christian use. And in
conclusion, he shows the spirit in which it behoves us to address
ourselves to the study and interpretation of the sacred books.
Chapter 1.--Signs, Their Nature and Variety.
1. As when I was writing about things, I introduced the subject with
a warning against attending to anything but what they are in
themselves, [1758] even though they are signs of something else, so
now, when I come in its turn to discuss the subject of signs, I lay
down this direction, not to attend to what they are in themselves, but
to the fact that they are signs, that is, to what they signify. For a
sign is a thing which, over and above the impression it makes on the
senses, causes something else to come into the mind as a consequence
of itself: as when we see a footprint, we conclude that an animal
whose footprint this is has passed by; and when we see smoke, we know
that there is fire beneath; and when we hear the voice of a living
man, we think of the feeling in his mind; and when the trumpet sounds,
soldiers know that they are to advance or retreat, or do whatever else
the state of the battle requires.
2. Now some signs are natural, others conventional. Natural signs
are those which, apart from any intention or desire of using them as
signs, do yet lead to the knowledge of something else, as, for
example, smoke when it indicates fire. For it is not from any
intention of making it a sign that it is so, but through attention to
experience we come to know that fire is beneath, even when nothing but
smoke can be seen. And the footprint of an animal passing by belongs
to this class of signs. And the countenance of an angry or sorrowful
man indicates the feeling in his mind, independently of his will: and
in the same way every other emotion of the mind is betrayed by the
tell-tale countenance, even though we do nothing with the intention of
making it known. This class of signs, however, it is no part of my
design to discuss at present. But as it comes under this division of
the subject, I could not altogether pass it over. It will be enough
to have noticed it thus far.
Footnotes
[1758] See Book i. 519.
Chapter 2.--Of the Kind of Signs We are Now Concerned with.
3. Conventional signs, on the other hand, are those which living
beings mutually exchange for the purpose of showing, as well as they
can, the feelings of their minds, or their perceptions, or their
thoughts. Nor is there any reason for giving a sign except the desire
of drawing forth and conveying into another's mind what the giver of
the sign has in his own mind. We wish, then, to consider and discuss
this class of signs so far as men are concerned with it, because even
the signs which have been given us of God, and which are contained in
the Holy Scriptures, were made known to us through men--those, namely,
who wrote the Scriptures. The beasts, too, have certain signs among
themselves by which they make known the desires in their mind. For
when the poultry-cock has discovered food, he signals with his voice
for the hen to run to him, and the dove by cooing calls his mate, or
is called by her in turn; and many signs of the same kind are matters
of common observation. Now whether these signs, like the expression
or the cry of a man in grief, follow the movement of the mind
instinctively and apart from any purpose, or whether they are really
used with the purpose of signification, is another question, and does
not pertain to the matter in hand. And this part of the subject I
exclude from the scope of this work as not necessary to my present
object.
Chapter 3.--Among Signs, Words Hold the Chief Place.
4. Of the signs, then, by which men communicate their thoughts to one
another, some relate to the sense of sight, some to that of hearing, a
very few to the other senses. For, when we nod, we give no sign
except to the eyes of the man to whom we wish by this sign to impart
our desire. And some convey a great deal by the motion of the hands:
and actors by movements of all their limbs give certain signs to the
initiated, and, so to speak, address their conversation to the eyes:
and the military standards and flags convey through the eyes the will
of the commanders. And all these signs are as it were a kind of
visible words. The signs that address themselves to the ear are, as I
have said, more numerous, and for the most part consist of words. For
though the bugle and the flute and the lyre frequently give not only a
sweet but a significant sound, yet all these signs are very few in
number compared with words. For among men words have obtained far and
away the chief place as a means of indicating the thoughts of the
mind. Our Lord, it is true, gave a sign through the odor of the
ointment which was poured out upon His feet; [1759] and in the
sacrament of His body and blood He signified His will through the
sense of taste; and when by touching the hem of His garment the woman
was made whole, the act was not wanting in significance. [1760]But
the countless multitude of the signs through which men express their
thoughts consist of words. For I have been able to put into words all
those signs, the various classes of which I have briefly touched upon,
but I could by no effort express words in terms of those signs.
Footnotes
[1759] John xii. 3-7; Mark xiv. 8.
[1760] Matt. ix. 20.
Chapter 4.--Origin of Writing.
5. But because words pass away as soon as they strike upon the air,
and last no longer than their sound, men have by means of letters
formed signs of words. Thus the sounds of the voice are made visible
to the eye, not of course as sounds, but by means of certain signs.
It has been found impossible, however, to make those signs common to
all nations owing to the sin of discord among men, which springs from
every man trying to snatch the chief place for himself. And that
celebrated tower which was built to reach to heaven was an indication
of this arrogance of spirit; and the ungodly men concerned in it
justly earned the punishment of having not their minds only, but their
tongues besides, thrown into confusion and discordance. [1761]
Footnotes
[1761] Gen. xi.
Chapter 5.--Scripture Translated into Various Languages.
6. And hence it happened that even Holy Scripture, which brings a
remedy for the terrible diseases of the human will, being at first set
forth in one language, by means of which it could at the fit season be
disseminated through the whole world, was interpreted into various
tongues, and spread far and wide, and thus became known to the nations
for their salvation. And in reading it, men seek nothing more than to
find out the thought and will of those by whom it was written, and
through these to find out the will of God, in accordance with which
they believe these men to have spoken.
Chapter 6.--Use of the Obscurities in Scripture Which Arise from Its
Figurative Language.
7. But hasty and careless readers are led astray by many and manifold
obscurities and ambiguities, substituting one meaning for another; and
in some places they cannot hit upon even a fair interpretation. Some
of the expressions are so obscure as to shroud the meaning in the
thickest darkness. And I do not doubt that all this was divinely
arranged for the purpose of subduing pride by toil, and of preventing
a feeling of satiety in the intellect, which generally holds in small
esteem what is discovered without difficulty. For why is it, I ask,
that if any one says that there are holy and just men whose life and
conversation the Church of Christ uses as a means of redeeming those
who come to it from all kinds of superstitions, and making them
through their imitation of good men members of its own body; men who,
as good and true servants of God, have come to the baptismal font
laying down the burdens of the world, and who rising thence do,
through the implanting of the Holy Spirit, yield the fruit of a
two-fold love, a love, that is, of God and their neighbor;--how is it,
I say, that if a man says this, he does not please his hearer so much
as when he draws the same meaning from that passage in Canticles,
where it is said of the Church, when it is being praised under the
figure of a beautiful woman, "Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep that
are shorn which came up from the washing, whereof every one bears
twins, and none is barren among them?" [1762]Does the hearer learn
anything more than when he listens to the same thought expressed in
the plainest language, without the help of this figure? And yet, I
don't know why, I feel greater pleasure in contemplating holy men,
when I view them as the teeth of the Church, tearing men away from
their errors, and bringing them into the Church's body, with all their
harshness softened down, just as if they had been torn off and
masticated by the teeth. It is with the greatest pleasure, too, that
I recognize them under the figure of sheep that have been shorn,
laying down the burthens of the world like fleeces, and coming up from
the washing, i.e., from baptism, and all bearing twins, i.e., the twin
commandments of love, and none among them barren in that holy fruit.
8. But why I view them with greater delight under that aspect than if
no such figure were drawn from the sacred books, though the fact would
remain the same and the knowledge the same, is another question, and
one very difficult to answer. Nobody, however, has any doubt about
the facts, both that it is pleasanter in some cases to have knowledge
communicated through figures, and that what is attended with
difficulty in the seeking gives greater pleasure in the finding.--For
those who seek but do not find suffer from hunger. Those, again, who
do not seek at all because they have what they require just beside
them often grow languid from satiety. Now weakness from either of
these causes is to be avoided. Accordingly the Holy Spirit has, with
admirable wisdom and care for our welfare, so arranged the Holy
Scriptures as by the plainer passages to satisfy our hunger, and by
the more obscure to stimulate our appetite. For almost nothing is dug
out of those obscure passages which may not be found set forth in the
plainest language elsewhere.
Footnotes
[1762] Cant. iv. 2.
Chapter 7.--Steps to Wisdom: First, Fear; Second, Piety; Third,
Knowledge; Fourth, Resolution; Fifth, Counsel; Sixth, Purification of
Heart; Seventh, Stop or Termination, Wisdom.
9. First of all, then, it is necessary that we should be led by the
fear of God to seek the knowledge of His will, what He commands us to
desire and what to avoid. Now this fear will of necessity excite in
us the thought of our mortality and of the death that is before us,
and crucify all the motions of pride as if our flesh were nailed to
the tree. Next it is necessary to have our hearts subdued by piety,
and not to run in the face of Holy Scripture, whether when understood
it strikes at some of our sins, or, when not understood, we feel as if
we could be wiser and give better commands ourselves. We must rather
think and believe that whatever is there written, even though it be
hidden, is better and truer than anything we could devise by our own
wisdom.
10. After these two steps of fear and piety, we come to the third
step, knowledge, of which I have now undertaken to treat. For in this
every earnest student of the Holy Scriptures exercises himself, to
find nothing else in them but that God is to be loved for His own
sake, and our neighbor for God's sake; and that God is to be loved
with all the heart, and with all the soul, and with all the mind, and
one's neighbor as one's self--that is, in such a way that all our love
for our neighbor, like all our love for ourselves, should have
reference to God. [1763] And on these two commandments I touched in
the previous book when I was treating about things. [1764]It is
necessary, then, that each man should first of all find in the
Scriptures that he, through being entangled in the love of this
world--i.e., of temporal things--has been drawn far away from such a
love for God and such a love for his neighbor as Scripture enjoins.
Then that fear which leads him to think of the judgment of God, and
that piety which gives him no option but to believe in and submit to
the authority of Scripture, compel him to bewail his condition. For
the knowledge of a good hope makes a man not boastful, but sorrowful.
And in this frame of mind he implores with unremitting prayers the
comfort of the Divine help that he may not be overwhelmed in despair,
and so he gradually comes to the fourth step,--that is, strength and
resolution, [1765] --in which he hungers and thirsts after
righteousness. For in this frame of mind he extricates himself from
every form of fatal joy in transitory things, and turning away from
these, fixes his affection on things eternal, to wit, the unchangeable
Trinity in unity.
11. And when, to the extent of his power, he has gazed upon this
object shining from afar, and has felt that owing to the weakness of
his sight he cannot endure that matchless light, then in the fifth
step--that is, in the counsel of compassion [1766] --he cleanses his
soul, which is violently agitated, and disturbs him with base desires,
from the filth it has contracted. And at this stage he exercises
himself diligently in the love of his neighbor; and when he has
reached the point of loving his enemy, full of hopes and unbroken in
strength, he mounts to the sixth step, in which he purifies the eye
itself which can see God, [1767] so far as God can be seen by those
who as far as possible die to this world. For men see Him just so far
as they die to this world; and so far as they live to it they see Him
not. But yet, although that light may begin to appear clearer, and
not only more tolerable, but even more delightful, still it is only
through a glass darkly that we are said to see, because we walk by
faith, not by sight, while we continue to wander as strangers in this
world, even though our conversation be in heaven. [1768]And at this
stage, too, a man so purges the eye of his affections as not to place
his neighbor before, or even in comparison with, the truth, and
therefore not himself, because not him whom he loves as himself.
Accordingly, that holy man will be so single and so pure in heart,
that he will not step aside from the truth, either for the sake of
pleasing men or with a view to avoid any of the annoyances which beset
this life. Such a son ascends to wisdom, which is the seventh and
last step, and which he enjoys in peace and tranquillity. For the
fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. [1769]From that beginning,
then, till we reach wisdom itself, our way is by the steps now
described.
Footnotes
[1763] Comp. Matt. xxii. 37-40.
[1764] See Book 1. c. 22.
[1765] Fortitudo.
[1766] Consilium misericordię.
[1767] Matt. v. 8.
[1768] 1 Cor. xiii. 12; 2 Cor. v. 7.
[1769] Ps. cxi. 10.
Chapter 8.--The Canonical Books.
12. But let us now go back to consider the third step here mentioned,
for it is about it that I have set myself to speak and reason as the
Lord shall grant me wisdom. The most skillful interpreter of the
sacred writings, then, will be he who in the first place has read them
all and retained them in his knowledge, if not yet with full
understanding, still with such knowledge as reading gives,--those of
them, at least, that are called canonical. For he will read the
others with greater safety when built up in the belief of the truth,
so that they will not take first possession of a weak mind, nor,
cheating it with dangerous falsehoods and delusions, fill it with
prejudices adverse to a sound understanding. Now, in regard to the
canonical Scriptures, he must follow the judgment of the greater
number of catholic churches; and among these, of course, a high place
must be given to such as have been thought worthy to be the seat of an
apostle and to receive epistles. Accordingly, among the canonical
Scriptures he will judge according to the following standard: to
prefer those that are received by all the catholic churches to those
which some do not receive. Among those, again, which are not received
by all, he will prefer such as have the sanction of the greater number
and those of greater authority, to such as are held by the smaller
number and those of less authority. If, however, he shall find that
some books are held by the greater number of churches, and others by
the churches of greater authority (though this is not a very likely
thing to happen), I think that in such a case the authority on the two
sides is to be looked upon as equal.
13. Now the whole canon of Scripture on which we say this judgment is
to be exercised, is contained in the following books:--Five books of
Moses, that is, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy; one
book of Joshua the son of Nun; one of Judges; one short book called
Ruth, which seems rather to belong to the beginning of Kings; next,
four books of Kings, and two of Chronicles--these last not following
one another, but running parallel, so to speak, and going over the
same ground. The books now mentioned are history, which contains a
connected narrative of the times, and follows the order of the
events. There are other books which seem to follow no regular order,
and are connected neither with the order of the preceding books nor
with one another, such as Job, and Tobias, and Esther, and Judith, and
the two books of Maccabees, and the two of Ezra, [1770] which last
look more like a sequel to the continuous regular history which
terminates with the books of Kings and Chronicles. Next are the
Prophets, in which there is one book of the Psalms of David; and three
books of Solomon, viz., Proverbs, Song of Songs, and Ecclesiastes.
For two books, one called Wisdom and the other Ecclesiasticus, are
ascribed to Solomon from a certain resemblance of style, but the most
likely opinion is that they were written by Jesus the son of Sirach.
[1771]Still they are to be reckoned among the prophetical books,
since they have attained recognition as being authoritative. The
remainder are the books which are strictly called the Prophets:
twelve separate books of the prophets which are connected with one
another, and having never been disjoined, are reckoned as one book;
the names of these prophets are as follows:--Hosea, Joel, Amos,
Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah,
Malachi; then there are the four greater prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah,
Daniel, Ezekiel. The authority of the Old Testament [1772] is
contained within the limits of these forty-four books. That of the
New Testament, again, is contained within the following:--Four books
of the Gospel, according to Matthew, according to Mark, according to
Luke, according to John; fourteen epistles of the Apostle Paul--one to
the Romans, two to the Corinthians, one to the Galatians, to the
Ephesians, to the Philippians, two to the Thessalonians, one to the
Colossians, two to Timothy, one to Titus, to Philemon, to the
Hebrews: two of Peter; three of John; one of Jude; and one of James;
one book of the Acts of the Apostles; and one of the Revelation of
John.
Footnotes
[1770] That is, Ezra and Nehemiah.
[1771] Augustin in his Retractations withdrew this opinion so far as
regards the book of Wisdom.
[1772] This application of the phrase "Old Testament" is withdrawn and
apologized for in the Retractations.
Chapter 9.--How We Should Proceed in Studying Scripture.
14. In all these books those who fear God and are of a meek and pious
disposition seek the will of God. And in pursuing this search the
first rule to be observed is, as I said, to know these books, if not
yet with the understanding, still to read them so as to commit them to
memory, or at least so as not to remain wholly ignorant of them.
Next, those matters that are plainly laid down in them, whether rules
of life or rules of faith, are to be searched into more carefully and
more diligently; and the more of these a man discovers, the more
capacious does his understanding become. For among the things that
are plainly laid down in Scripture are to be found all matters that
concern faith and the manner of life,--to wit, hope and love, of which
I have spoken in the previous book. After this, when we have made
ourselves to a certain extent familiar with the language of Scripture,
we may proceed to open up and investigate the obscure passages, and in
doing so draw examples from the plainer expressions to throw light
upon the more obscure, and use the evidence of passages about which
there is no doubt to remove all hesitation in regard to the doubtful
passages. And in this matter memory counts for a great deal; but if
the memory be defective, no rules can supply the want.
Chapter 10.--Unknown or Ambiguous Signs Prevent Scripture from Being
Understood.
15. Now there are two causes which prevent what is written from being
understood: its being vailed either under unknown, or under ambiguous
signs. Signs are either proper or figurative. They are called proper
when they are used to point out the objects they were designed to
point out, as we say bos when we mean an ox, because all men who with
us use the Latin tongue call it by this name. Signs are figurative
when the things themselves which we indicate by the proper names are
used to signify something else, as we say bos, and understand by that
syllable the ox, which is ordinarily called by that name; but then
further by that ox understand a preacher of the gospel, as Scripture
signifies, according to the apostle's explanation, when it says:
"Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn." [1773]
Footnotes
[1773] Bovem triturantem non infrenabis.--1 Cor. ix. 9.
Chapter 11.--Knowledge of Languages, Especially of Greek and Hebrew,
Necessary to Remove Ignorance or Signs.
16. The great remedy for ignorance of proper signs is knowledge of
languages. And men who speak the Latin tongue, of whom are those I
have undertaken to instruct, need two other languages for the
knowledge of Scripture, Hebrew and Greek, that they may have recourse
to the original texts if the endless diversity of the Latin
translators throw them into doubt. Although, indeed, we often find
Hebrew words untranslated in the books as for example, Amen,
Halleluia, Racha, Hosanna, and others of the same kind. Some of
these, although they could have been translated, have been preserved
in their original form on account of the more sacred authority that
attaches to it, as for example, Amen and Halleluia. Some of them,
again, are said to be untranslatable into another tongue, of which the
other two I have mentioned are examples. For in some languages there
are words that cannot be translated into the idiom of another
language. And this happens chiefly in the case of interjections,
which are words that express rather an emotion of the mind than any
part of a thought we have in our mind. And the two given above are
said to be of this kind, Racha expressing the cry of an angry man,
Hosanna that of a joyful man. But the knowledge of these languages is
necessary, not for the sake of a few words like these which it is very
easy to mark and to ask about, but, as has been said, on account of
the diversities among translators. For the translations of the
Scriptures from Hebrew into Greek can be counted, but the Latin
translators are out of all number. For in the early days of the faith
every man who happened to get his hands upon a Greek manuscript, and
who thought he had any knowledge, were it ever so little, of the two
languages, ventured upon the work of translation.
Chapter 12.--A Diversity of Interpretations is Useful. Errors Arising
from Ambiguous Words.
17. And this circumstance would assist rather than hinder the
understanding of Scripture, if only readers were not careless. For
the examination of a number of texts has often thrown light upon some
of the more obscure passages; for example, in that passage of the
prophet Isaiah, [1774] one translator reads: "And do not despise the
domestics of thy seed;" [1775] another reads: "And do not despise
thine own flesh." [1776]Each of these in turn confirms the other.
For the one is explained by the other; because "flesh" may be taken in
its literal sense, so that a man may understand that he is admonished
not to despise his own body; and "the domestics of thy seed" may be
understood figuratively of Christians, because they are spiritually
born of the same seed as ourselves, namely, the Word. When now the
meaning of the two translators is compared, a more likely sense of the
words suggests itself, viz., that the command is not to despise our
kinsmen, because when one brings the expression "domestics of thy
seed" into relation with "flesh," kinsmen most naturally occur to
one's mind. Whence, I think, that expression of the apostle, when he
says, "If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my
flesh, and might save some of them;" [1777] that is, that through
emulation of those who had believed, some of them might believe too.
And he calls the Jews his "flesh," on account of the relationship of
blood. Again, that passage from the same prophet Isaiah: [1778]"If
ye will not believe, ye shall not understand," [1779] another has
translated: "If ye will not believe, ye shall not abide." [1780]
Now which of these is the literal translation cannot be ascertained
without reference to the text in the original tongue. And yet to
those who read with knowledge, a great truth is to be found in each.
For it is difficult for interpreters to differ so widely as not to
touch at some point. Accordingly here, as understanding consists in
sight, and is abiding, but faith feeds us as babes, upon milk, in the
cradles of temporal things (for now we walk by faith, not by sight);
[1781] as, moreover, unless we walk by faith, we shall not attain to
sight, which does not pass away, but abides, our understanding being
purified by holding to the truth;--for these reasons one says, "If ye
will not believe, ye shall not understand;" but the other, "If ye will
not believe, ye shall not abide."
18. And very often a translator, to whom the meaning is not well
known, is deceived by an ambiguity in the original language, and puts
upon the passage a construction that is wholly alien to the sense of
the writer. As for example, some texts read: "Their feet are sharp
to shed blood;" [1782] for the word hozus among the Greeks means both
sharp and swift. And so he saw the true meaning who translated:
"Their feet are swift to shed blood." The other, taking the wrong
sense of an ambiguous word, fell into error. Now translations such as
this are not obscure, but false; and there is a wide difference
between the two things. For we must learn not to interpret, but to
correct texts of this sort. For the same reason it is, that because
the Greek word moschos means a calf, some have not understood that
moscheumata [1783] are shoots of trees, and have translated the word
"calves;" and this error has crept into so many texts, that you can
hardly find it written in any other way. And yet the meaning is very
clear; for it is made evident by the words that follow. For "the
plantings of an adulterer will not take deep root," [1784] is a more
suitable form of expression than the "calves;" [1785] because these
walk upon the ground with their feet, and are not fixed in the earth
by roots. In this passage, indeed, the rest of the context also
justifies this translation.
Footnotes
[1774] Isa. lviii. 7, "And that thou hide not thyself from thine own
flesh" (A.V.).
[1775] Et domesticos seminis tui ne despexeris.
[1776] Et carnem tuam ne despexeris.
[1777] Rom. xi. 14.
[1778] Isa. vii. 9, "If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be
established" (A.V.).
[1779] Nisi credideritis, non intelligetis.
[1780] Nisi credideritis, non permanebitis.
[1781] 2 Cor. v. 7.
[1782] Rom. iii. 15.
[1783] Wisd. iv. 3.
[1784] Adulterinę plantationes non dabunt radices altas.
[1785] Vitulamina.
Chapter 13.--How Faulty Interpretations Can Be Emended.
19. But since we do not clearly see what the actual thought is which
the several translators endeavor to express, each according to his own
ability and judgment, unless we examine it in the language which they
translate; and since the translator, if he be not a very learned man,
often departs from the meaning of his author, we must either endeavor
to get a knowledge of those languages from which the Scriptures are
translated into Latin, or we must get hold of the translations of
those who keep rather close to the letter of the original, not because
these are sufficient, but because we may use them to correct the
freedom or the error of others, who in their translations have chosen
to follow the sense quite as much as the words. For not only single
words, but often whole phrases are translated, which could not be
translated at all into the Latin idiom by any one who wished to hold
by the usage of the ancients who spoke Latin. And though these
sometimes do not interfere with the understanding of the passage, yet
they are offensive to those who feel greater delight in things when
even the signs of those things are kept in their own purity. For what
is called a solecism is nothing else than the putting of words
together according to a different rule from that which those of our
predecessors who spoke with any authority followed. For whether we
say inter homines (among men) or inter hominibus, is of no consequence
to a man who only wishes to know the facts. And in the same way, what
is a barbarism but the pronouncing of a word in a different way from
that in which those who spoke Latin before us pronounced it? For
whether the word ignoscere (to pardon) should be pronounced with the
third syllable long or short, is not a matter of much concern to the
man who is beseeching God, in any way at all that he can get the words
out, to pardon his sins. What then is purity of speech, except the
preserving of the custom of language established by the authority of
former speakers?
20. And men are easily offended in a matter of this kind, just in
proportion as they are weak; and they are weak just in proportion as
they wish to seem learned, not in the knowledge of things which tend
to edification, but in that of signs, by which it is hard not to be
puffed up, [1786] seeing that the knowledge of things even would often
set up our neck, if it were not held down by the yoke of our Master.
For how does it prevent our understanding it to have the following
passage thus expressed: "Quę est terra in quo isti insidunt super
eam, si bona est an nequam; et quę sunt civitates, in quibus ipsi
inhabitant in ipsis?" [1787]And I am more disposed to think that
this is simply the idiom of another language than that any deeper
meaning is intended. Again, that phrase, which we cannot now take
away from the lips of the people who sing it: "Super ipsum autem
floriet sanctificatio mea," [1788] surely takes away nothing from the
meaning. Yet a more learned man would prefer that this should be
corrected, and that we should say, not floriet, but florebit. Nor
does anything stand in the way of the correction being made, except
the usage of the singers. Mistakes of this kind, then, if a man do
not choose to avoid them altogether, it is easy to treat with
indifference, as not interfering with a right understanding. But
take, on the other hand, the saying of the apostle: "Quod stultum est
Dei, sapientius est hominibus, et quod infirmum est Dei, fortius est
hominibus." [1789]If any one should retain in this passage the
Greek idiom, and say, "Quod stultum est Dei, sapientius est hominum et
quod infirmum est Dei fortius est hominum," [1790] a quick and careful
reader would indeed by an effort attain to the true meaning, but still
a man of slower intelligence either would not understand it at all, or
would put an utterly false construction upon it. For not only is such
a form of speech faulty in the Latin tongue, but it is ambiguous too,
as if the meaning might be, that the folly of men or the weakness of
men is wiser or stronger than that of God. But indeed even the
expression sapientius est hominibus (stronger than men) is not free
from ambiguity, even though it be free from solecism. For whether
hominibus is put as the plural of the dative or as the plural of the
ablative, does not appear, unless by reference to the meaning. It
would be better then to say, sapientius est quam homines, and fortius
est quam homines.
Footnotes
[1786] Comp. 1 Cor. viii. 1.
[1787] "And what the land is that they dwell in, whether it be good or
bad; and what cities they be that they dwell in."-- Num. xiii.19
(A.V.).
[1788] "But upon himself shall my holiness flourish."-- Ps. cxxxii. 18
(see LXX.). "But upon himself shall his crown flourish" (A.V.).
[1789] "Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the
weakness of God is stronger than men" (1 Cor. i. 25).
[1790] "What is foolish of God is wiser of men, and what is weak of
God is stronger of men."
Chapter 14.--How the Meaning of Unknown Words and Idioms is to Be
Discovered.
21. About ambiguous signs, however, I shall speak afterwards. I am
treating at present of unknown signs, of which, as far as the words
are concerned, there are two kinds. For either a word or an idiom, of
which the reader is ignorant, brings him to a stop. Now if these
belong to foreign tongues, we must either make inquiry about them from
men who speak those tongues, or if we have leisure we must learn the
tongues ourselves, or we must consult and compare several
translators. If, however, there are words or idioms in our own tongue
that we are unacquainted with, we gradually come to know them through
being accustomed to read or to hear them. There is nothing that it is
better to commit to memory than those kinds of words and phrases whose
meaning we do not know, so that where we happen to meet either with a
more learned man of whom we can inquire, or with a passage that shows,
either by the preceding or succeeding context, or by both, the force
and significance of the phrase we are ignorant of, we can easily by
the help of our memory turn our attention to the matter and learn all
about it. So great, however, is the force of custom, even in regard
to learning, that those who have been in a sort of way nurtured and
brought up on the study of Holy Scripture, are surprised at other
forms of speech, and think them less pure Latin than those which they
have learnt from Scripture, but which are not to be found in Latin
authors. In this matter, too, the great number of the translators
proves a very great assistance, if they are examined and discussed
with a careful comparison of their texts. Only all positive error
must be removed. For those who are anxious to know, the Scriptures
ought in the first place to use their skill in the correction of the
texts, so that the uncorrected ones should give way to the corrected,
at least when they are copies of the same translation.
Chapter 15.--Among Versions a Preference is Given to the Septuagint
and the Itala.
22. Now among translations themselves the Italian (Itala) [1791] is
to be preferred to the others, for it keeps closer to the words
without prejudice to clearness of expression. And to correct the
Latin we must use the Greek versions, among which the authority of the
Septuagint is pre-eminent as far as the Old Testament is concerned;
for it is reported through all the more learned churches that the
seventy translators enjoyed so much of the presence and power of the
Holy Spirit in their work of translation, that among that number of
men there was but one voice. And if, as is reported, and as many not
unworthy of confidence assert, [1792] they were separated during the
work of translation, each man being in a cell by himself, and yet
nothing was found in the manuscript of any one of them that was not
found in the same words and in the same order of words in all the
rest, who dares put anything in comparison with an authority like
this, not to speak of preferring anything to it? And even if they
conferred together with the result that a unanimous agreement sprang
out of the common labor and judgment of them all; even so, it would
not be right or becoming for any one man, whatever his experience, to
aspire to correct the unanimous opinion of many venerable and learned
men. Wherefore, even if anything is found in the original Hebrew in a
different form from that in which these men have expressed it, I think
we must give way to the dispensation of Providence which used these
men to bring it about, that books which the Jewish race were
unwilling, either from religious scruple or from jealousy, to make
known to other nations, were, with the assistance of the power of King
Ptolemy, made known so long beforehand to the nations which in the
future were to believe in the Lord. And thus it is possible that they
translated in such a way as the Holy Spirit, who worked in them and
had given them all one voice, thought most suitable for the Gentiles.
But nevertheless, as I said above, a comparison of those translators
also who have kept most closely to the words, is often not without
value as a help to the clearing up of the meaning. The Latin texts,
therefore, of the Old Testament are, as I was about to say, to be
corrected if necessary by the authority of the Greeks, and especially
by that of those who, though they were seventy in number, are said to
have translated as with one voice. As to the books of the New
Testament, again, if any perplexity arises from the diversities of the
Latin texts, we must of course yield to the Greek, especially those
that are found in the churches of greater learning and research.
Footnotes
[1791] The translation here referred to is the Vetus Latina, as
revised by the Church of Northern Italy in the fourth century, prior
to the final recension of Jerome, commonly called the Vulgate.
[1792] Among these are Justin Martyr, Irenęus, and Clemens
Alexandrinus. Comp. Augustin, De Civ. Dei, xviii. 43, and Epp. 71 and
75.
Chapter 16.--The Knowledge Both of Language and Things is Helpful for
the Understanding of Figurative Expressions.
23. In the case of figurative signs, again, if ignorance of any of
them should chance to bring the reader to a stand-still, their meaning
is to be traced partly by the knowledge of languages, partly by the
knowledge of things. The pool of Siloam, for example, where the man
whose eyes our Lord had anointed with clay made out of spittle was
commanded to wash, has a figurative significance, and undoubtedly
conveys a secret sense; but yet if the evangelist had not interpreted
that name, [1793] a meaning so important would lie unnoticed. And we
cannot doubt that, in the same way, many Hebrew names which have not
been interpreted by the writers of those books, would, if any one
could interpret them, be of great value and service in solving the
enigmas of Scripture. And a number of men skilled in that language
have conferred no small benefit on posterity by explaining all these
words without reference to their place in Scripture, and telling us
what Adam means, what Eve, what Abraham, what Moses, and also the
names of places, what Jerusalem signifies, or Sion, or Sinai, or
Lebanon, or Jordan, and whatever other names in that language we are
not acquainted with. And when these names have been investigated and
explained, many figurative expressions in Scripture become clear.
24. Ignorance of things, too, renders figurative expressions obscure,
as when we do not know the nature of the animals, or minerals, or
plants, which are frequently referred to in Scripture by way of
comparison. The fact so well known about the serpent, for example,
that to protect its head it will present its whole body to its
assailants--how much light it throws upon the meaning of our Lord's
command, that we should be wise as serpents; [1794] that is to say,
that for the sake of our head, which is Christ, we should willingly
offer our body to the persecutors, lest the Christian faith should, as
it were, be destroyed in us, if to save the body we deny our God! Or
again, the statement that the serpent gets rid of its old skin by
squeezing itself through a narrow hole, and thus acquires new
strength--how appropriately it fits in with the direction to imitate
the wisdom of the serpent, and to put off the old man, as the apostle
says, that we may put on the new; [1795] and to put it off, too, by
coming through a narrow place, according to the saying of our Lord,
"Enter ye in at the strait gate!" [1796]As, then, knowledge of the
nature of the serpent throws light upon many metaphors which Scripture
is accustomed to draw from that animal, so ignorance of other animals,
which are no less frequently mentioned by way of comparison, is a very
great drawback to the reader. And so in regard to minerals and
plants: knowledge of the carbuncle, for instance, which shines in the
dark, throws light upon many of the dark places in books too, where it
is used metaphorically; and ignorance of the beryl or the adamant
often shuts the doors of knowledge. And the only reason why we find
it easy to understand that perpetual peace is indicated by the olive
branch which the dove brought with it when it returned to the ark,
[1797] is that we know both that the smooth touch of olive oil is not
easily spoiled by a fluid of another kind, and that the tree itself is
an evergreen. Many, again, by reason of their ignorance of hyssop,
not knowing the virtue it has in cleansing the lungs, nor the power it
is said to have of piercing rocks with its roots, although it is a
small and insignificant plant, cannot make out why it is said, "Purge
me with hyssop, and I shall be clean." [1798]
25. Ignorance of numbers, too, prevents us from understanding things
that are set down in Scripture in a figurative and mystical way. A
candid mind, if I may so speak, cannot but be anxious, for example, to
ascertain what is meant by the fact that Moses and Elijah, and our
Lord Himself, all fasted for forty days. [1799]And except by
knowledge of and reflection upon the number, the difficulty of
explaining the figure involved in this action cannot be got over. For
the number contains ten four times, indicating the knowledge of all
things, and that knowledge interwoven with time. For both the diurnal
and the annual revolutions are accomplished in periods numbering four
each; the diurnal in the hours of the morning, the noontide, the
evening, and the night; the annual in the spring, summer, autumn, and
winter months. Now while we live in time, we must abstain and fast
from all joy in time, for the sake of that eternity in which we wish
to live; al though by the passage of time we are taught this very
lesson of despising time and seeking eternity. Further, the number
ten signifies the knowledge of the Creator and the creature, for there
is a trinity in the Creator; and the number seven indicates the
creature, because of the life and the body. For the life consists of
three parts, whence also God is to be loved with the whole heart, the
whole soul, and the whole mind; and it is very clear that in the body
there are four elements of which it is made up. In this number ten,
therefore, when it is placed before us in connection with time, that
is, when it is taken four times we are admonished to live unstained
by, and not partaking of, any delight in time, that is, to fast for
forty days. Of this we are admonished by the law personified in
Moses, by prophecy personified in Elijah, and by our Lord Himself,
who, as if receiving the witness both of the law and the prophets,
appeared on the mount between the other two, while His three disciples
looked on in amazement. Next, we have to inquire in the same way, how
out of the number forty springs the number fifty, which in our
religion has no ordinary sacredness attached to it on account of the
Pentecost, and how this number taken thrice on account of the three
divisions of time, before the law, under the law, and under grace, or
perhaps on account of the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
and the Trinity itself being added over and above, has reference to
the mystery of the most Holy Church, and reaches to the number of the
one hundred and fifty-three fishes which were taken after the
resurrection of our Lord, when the nets were cast out on the
right-hand side of the boat. [1800]And in the same way, many other
numbers and combinations of numbers are used in the sacred writings,
to convey instruction under a figurative guise, and ignorance of
numbers often shuts out the reader from this instruction.
26. Not a few things, too, are closed against us and obscured by
ignorance of music. One man, for example, has not unskillfully
explained some metaphors from the difference between the psaltery and
the harp. [1801]And it is a question which it is not out of place
for learned men to discuss, whether there is any musical law that
compels the psaltery of ten chords to have just so many strings; or
whether, if there be no such law, the number itself is not on that
very account the more to be considered as of sacred significance,
either with reference to the ten commandments of the law (and if again
any question is raised about that number, we can only refer it to the
Creator and the creature), or with reference to the number ten itself
as interpreted above. And the number of years the temple was in
building, which is mentioned in the gospel [1802] --viz.,
forty-six--has a certain undefinable musical sound, and when referred
to the structure of our Lord's body, in relation to which the temple
was mentioned, compels many heretics to confess that our Lord put on,
not a false, but a true and human body. And in several places in the
Holy Scriptures we find both numbers and music mentioned with honor.
Footnotes
[1793] John ix. 7.
[1794] Matt. x. 16.
[1795] Eph. iv. 22.
[1796] Matt. vii. 13.
[1797] Gen. viii. 11.
[1798] Ps. li. 7.
[1799] Ex. xxiv. 18; 1 Kings xix. 8; Matt. iv. 2.
[1800] John xxi. 11.
[1801] Ps. xxxiii. 2.
[1802] John ii. 20.
Chapter 17.--Origin of the Legend of the Nine Muses.
27. For we must not listen to the falsities of heathen superstition,
which represent the nine Muses as daughters of Jupiter and Mercury.
Varro refutes these, and I doubt whether any one can be found among
them more curious or more learned in such matters. He says that a
certain state (I don't recollect the name) ordered from each of three
artists a set of statues of the Muses, to be placed as an offering in
the temple of Apollo, intending that whichever of the artists produced
the most beautiful statues, they should select and purchase from him.
It so happened that these artists executed their works with equal
beauty, that all nine pleased the state, and that all were bought to
be dedicated in the temple of Apollo; and he says that afterwards
Hesiod the poet gave names to them all. It was not Jupiter,
therefore, that begat the nine Muses, but three artists created three
each. And the state had originally given the order for three, not
because it had seen them in visions, nor because they had presented
themselves in that number to the eyes of any of the citizens, but
because it was obvious to remark that all sound, which is the material
of song, is by nature of three kinds. For it is either produced by
the voice, as in the case of those who sing with the mouth without an
instrument; or by blowing, as in the case of trumpets and flutes; or
by striking, as in the case of harps and drums, and all other
instruments that give their sound when struck.
Chapter 18.--No Help is to Be Despised, Even Though It Come from a
Profane Source.
28. But whether the fact is as Varro has related, or is not so, still
we ought not to give up music because of the superstition of the
heathen, if we can derive anything from it that is of use for the
understanding of Holy Scripture; nor does it follow that we must busy
ourselves with their theatrical trumpery because we enter upon an
investigation about harps and other instruments, that may help us to
lay hold upon spiritual things. For we ought not to refuse to learn
letters because they say that Mercury discovered them; nor because
they have dedicated temples to Justice and Virtue, and prefer to
worship in the form of stones things that ought to have their place in
the heart, ought we on that account to forsake justice and virtue.
Nay, but let every good and true Christian understand that wherever
truth may be found, it belongs to his Master; and while he recognizes
and acknowledges the truth, even in their religious literature, let
him reject the figments of superstition, and let him grieve over and
avoid men who, "when they knew God, glorified him not as God, neither
were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their
foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they
became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an
image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed
beasts, and creeping things." [1803]
Footnotes
[1803] Rom. i. 21-23.
Chapter 19.--Two Kinds Of Heathen Knowledge.
29. But to explain more fully this whole topic (for it is one that
cannot be omitted), there are two kinds of knowledge which are in
vogue among the heathen. One is the knowledge of things instituted by
men, the other of things which they have noted, either as transacted
in the past or as instituted by God. The former kind, that which
deals with human institutions, is partly superstitious, partly not.
Chapter 20.--The Superstitious Nature of Human Institutions.
30. All the arrangements made by men for the making and worshipping
of idols are superstitious, pertaining as they do either to the
worship of what is created or of some part of it as God, or to
consultations and arrangements about signs and leagues with devils,
such, for example, as are employed in the magical arts, and which the
poets are accustomed not so much to teach as to celebrate. And to
this class belong, but with a bolder reach of deception, the books of
the haruspices and augurs. In this class we must place also all
amulets and cures which the medical art condemns, whether these
consist in incantations, or in marks which they call characters, or in
hanging or tying on or even dancing in a fashion certain articles, not
with reference to the condition of the body, but to certain signs
hidden or manifest; and these remedies they call by the less offensive
name of physica, so as to appear not to be engaged in superstitious
observances, but to be taking advantage of the forces of nature.
Examples of these are the earrings on the top of each ear, or the
rings of ostrich bone on the fingers, or telling you when you hiccup
to hold your left thumb in your right hand.
31. To these we may add thousands of the most frivolous practices,
that are to be observed if any part of the body should jump, or if,
when friends are walking arm-in-arm, a stone, or a dog, or a boy,
should come between them. And the kicking of a stone, as if it were a
divider of friends, does less harm than to cuff an innocent boy if he
happens to run between men who are walking side by side. But it is
delightful that the boys are sometimes avenged by the dogs; for
frequently men are so superstitious as to venture upon striking a dog
who has run between them,--not with impunity however, for instead of a
superstitious remedy, the dog sometimes makes his assailant run in hot
haste for a real surgeon. To this class, too, belong the following
rules: To tread upon the threshold when you go out in front of the
house; to go back to bed if any one should sneeze when you are putting
on your slippers; to return home if you stumble when going to a place;
when your clothes are eaten by mice, to be more frightened at the
prospect of coming misfortune than grieved by your present loss.
Whence that witty saying of Cato, who, when consulted by a man who
told him that the mice had eaten his boots, replied, "That is not
strange, but it would have been very strange indeed if the boots had
eaten the mice."
Chapter 21.--Superstition of Astrologers.
32. Nor can we exclude from this kind of superstition those who were
called genethliaci, on account of their attention to birthdays, but
are now commonly called mathematici. For these, too, although they
may seek with pains for the true position of the stars at the time of
our birth, and may sometimes even find it out, yet in so far as they
attempt thence to predict our actions, or the consequences of our
actions, grievously err, and sell inexperienced men into a miserable
bondage. For when any freeman goes to an as trologer of this kind, he
gives money that he may come away the slave either of Mars or of
Venus, or rather, perhaps, of all the stars to which those who first
fell into this error, and handed it on to posterity, have given the
names either of beasts on account of their likeness to beasts, or of
men with a view to confer honor on those men. And this is not to be
wondered at, when we consider that even in times more recent and
nearer our own, the Romans made an attempt to dedicate the star which
we call Lucifer to the name and honor of Cęsar. And this would,
perhaps, have been done, and the name handed down to distant ages,
only that his ancestress Venus had given her name to this star before
him, and could not by any law transfer to her heirs what she had never
possessed, nor sought to possess, in life. For where a place was
vacant, or not held in honor of any of the dead of former times, the
usual proceeding in such cases was carried out. For example, we have
changed the names of the months Quintilis and Sextilis to July and
August, naming them in honor of the men Julius Cęsar and Augustus
Cęsar; and from this instance any one who cares can easily see that
the stars spoken of above formerly wandered in the heavens without the
names they now bear. But as the men were dead whose memory people
were either compelled by royal power or impelled by human folly to
honor, they seemed to think that in putting their names upon the stars
they were raising the dead men themselves to heaven. But whatever
they may be called by men, still there are stars which God has made
and set in order after His own pleasure, and they have a fixed
movement, by which the seasons are distinguished and varied. And when
any one is born, it is easy to observe the point at which this
movement has arrived, by use of the rules discovered and laid down by
those who are rebuked by Holy Writ in these terms: "For if they were
able to know so much that they could weigh the world, how did they not
more easily find out the Lord thereof?" [1804]
Footnotes
[1804] Wisd. xiii. 9.
Chapter 22 .--The Folly of Observing the Stars in Order to Predict the
Events of a Life.
33. But to desire to predict the characters, the acts, and the fate
of those who are born from such an observation, is a great delusion
and great madness. And among those at least who have any sort of
acquaintance with matters of this kind (which, indeed, are only fit to
be unlearnt again), this superstition is refuted beyond the reach of
doubt. For the observation is of the position of the stars, which
they call constellations, at the time when the person was born about
whom these wretched men are consulted by their still more wretched
dupes. Now it may happen that, in the case of twins, one follows the
other out of the womb so closely that there is no interval of time
between them that can be apprehended and marked in the position of the
constellations. Whence it necessarily follows that twins are in many
cases born under the same stars, while they do not meet with equal
fortune either in what they do or what they suffer, but often meet
with fates so different that one of them has a most fortunate life,
the other a most unfortunate. As, for example, we are told that Esau
and Jacob were born twins, and in such close succession, that Jacob,
who was born last, was found to have laid hold with his hand upon the
heel of his brother, who preceded him. [1805]Now, assuredly, the
day and hour of the birth of these two could not be marked in any way
that would not give both the same constellation. But what a
difference there was between the characters, the actions, the labors,
and the fortunes of these two, the Scriptures bear witness, which are
now so widely spread as to be in the mouth of all nations.
34. Nor is it to the point to say that the very smallest and briefest
moment of time that separates the birth of twins, produces great
effects in nature, and in the extremely rapid motion of the heavenly
bodies. For, although I may grant that it does produce the greatest
effects, yet the astrologer cannot discover this in the
constellations, and it is by looking into these that he professes to
read the fates. If, then, he does not discover the difference when he
examines the constellations, which must, of course, be the same
whether he is consulted about Jacob or his brother, what does it
profit him that there is a difference in the heavens, which he rashly
and carelessly brings into disrepute, when there is no difference in
his chart, which he looks into anxiously but in vain? And so these
notions also, which have their origin in certain signs of things being
arbitrarily fixed upon by the presumption of men, are to be referred
to the same class as if they were leagues and covenants with devils.
Footnotes
[1805] Gen. xxv. 24.
Chapter 23.--Why We Repudiate Arts of Divination.
35. For in this way it comes to pass that men who lust after evil
things are, by a secret judgment of God, delivered over to be mocked
and deceived, as the just reward of their evil desires. For they are
deluded and imposed on by the false angels, to whom the lowest part of
the world has been put in subjection by the law of God's providence,
and in accordance with His most admirable arrangement of things. And
the result of these delusions and deceptions is, that through these
superstitious and baneful modes of divination many things in the past
and future are made known, and turn out just as they are foretold and
in the case of those who practise superstitious observances, many
things turn out agreeably to their observances, and ensnared by these
successes, they become more eagerly inquisitive, and involve
themselves further and further in a labyrinth of most pernicious
error. And to our advantage, the Word of God is not silent about this
species of fornication of the soul; and it does not warn the soul
against following such practices on the ground that those who profess
them speak lies, but it says, "Even if what they tell you should come
to pass, hearken not unto them." [1806]For though the ghost of the
dead Samuel foretold the truth to King Saul, [1807] that does not make
such sacrilegious observances as those by which his ghost was brought
up the less detestable; and though the ventriloquist woman [1808] in
the Acts of the Apostles bore true testimony to the apostles of the
Lord, the Apostle Paul did not spare the evil spirit on that account,
but rebuked and cast it out, and so made the woman clean. [1809]
36. All arts of this sort, therefore, are either nullities, or are
part of a guilty superstition, springing out of a baleful fellowship
between men and devils, and are to be utterly repudiated and avoided
by the Christian as the covenants of a false and treacherous
friendship. "Not as if the idol were anything," says the apostle;
"but because the things which they sacrifice they sacrifice to devils
and not to God; and I would not that ye should have fellowship with
devils." [1810]Now what the apostle has said about idols and the
sacrifices offered in their honor, that we ought to feel in regard to
all fancied signs which lead either to the worship of idols, or to
worshipping creation or its parts instead of God, or which are
connected with attention to medicinal charms and other observances for
these are not appointed by God as the public means of promoting love
towards God and our neighbor, but they waste the hearts of wretched
men in private and selfish strivings after temporal things.
Accordingly, in regard to all these branches of knowledge, we must
fear and shun the fellowship of demons, who, with the Devil their
prince, strive only to shut and bar the door against our return. As,
then, from the stars which God created and ordained, men have drawn
lying omens of their own fancy, so also from things that are born, or
in any other way come into existence under the government of God's
providence, if there chance only to be something unusual in the
occurrence,--as when a mule brings forth young, or an object is struck
by lightning,--men have frequently drawn omens by conjectures of their
own, and have committed them to writing, as if they had drawn them by
rule.
Footnotes
[1806] Comp. Deut. xiii. 1-3.
[1807] 1 Sam. xxviii., comp. Ecclus. xlvi. 20.
[1808] Ventriloqua femina. The woman with a familiar spirit to whom
Saul resorted in his extremity is called in the Septuagint translation
engastrimuthos. See 1 Sam. xxviii. 7.
[1809] Acts xvi. 16-18.
[1810] 1 Cor. x. 19, 20.
Chapter 24.--The Intercourse and Agreement with Demons Which
Superstitious Observances Maintain.
37. And all these omens are of force just so far as has been arranged
with the devils by that previous understanding in the mind which is,
as it were, the common language, but they are all full of hurtful
curiosity, torturing anxiety, and deadly slavery. For it was not
because they had meaning that they were attended to, but it was by
attending to and marking them that they came to have meaning. And so
they are made different for different people, according to their
several notions and prejudices. For those spirits which are bent upon
deceiving, take care to provide for each person the same sort of omens
as they see his own conjectures and preconceptions have already
entangled him in. For, to take an illustration, the same figure of
the letter X, which is made in the shape of a cross, means one thing
among the Greeks and another among the Latins, not by nature, but by
agreement and pre-arrangement as to its signification; and so, any one
who knows both languages uses this letter in a different sense when
writing to a Greek from that in which he uses it when writing to a
Latin. And the same sound, beta, which is the name of a letter among
the Greeks, is the name of a vegetable among the Latins; and when I
say, lege, these two syllables mean one thing to a Greek and another
to a Latin. Now, just as all these signs affect the mind according to
the arrangements of the community in which each man lives, and affect
different men's minds differently, because these arrangements are
different; and as, further, men did not agree upon them as signs
because they were already significant, but on the contrary they are
now significant because men have agreed upon them; in the same way
also, those signs by which the ruinous intercourse with devils is
maintained have meaning just in proportion to each man's
observations. And this appears quite plainly in the rites of the
augurs; for they, both before they observe the omens and after they
have completed their observations, take pains not to see the flight or
hear the cries of birds, because these omens are of no significance
apart from the previous arrangement in the mind of the observer.
Chapter 25.--In Human Institutions Which are Not Superstitious, There
are Some Things Superfluous and Some Convenient and Necessary.
38. But when all these have been cut away and rooted out of the mind
of the Christian we must then look at human institutions which are not
superstitious, that is, such as are not set up in association with
devils, but by men in association with one another. For all
arrangements that are in force among men, because they have agreed
among themselves that they should be in force, are human institutions;
and of these, some are matters of superfluity and luxury, some of
convenience and necessity. For if those signs which the actors make
in dancing were of force by nature, and not by the arrangement and
agreement of men, the public crier would not in former times have
announced to the people of Carthage, while the pantomime was dancing,
what it was he meant to express,--a thing still remembered by many old
men from whom we have frequently heard it. [1811]And we may well
believe this, because even now, if any one who is unaccustomed to such
follies goes into the theatre, unless some one tells him what these
movements mean, he will give his whole attention to them in vain. Yet
all men aim at a certain degree of likeness in their choice of signs,
that the signs may as far as possible be like the things they
signify. But because one thing may resemble another in many ways,
such signs are not always of the same significance among men, except
when they have mutually agreed upon them.
39. But in regard to pictures and statues, and other works of this
kind, which are intended as representations of things, nobody makes a
mistake, especially if they are executed by skilled artists, but every
one, as soon as he sees the likenesses, recognizes the things they are
likenesses of. And this whole class are to be reckoned among the
superfluous devices of men, unless when it is a matter of importance
to inquire in regard to any of them, for what reason, where, when, and
by whose authority it was made. Finally, the thousands of fables and
fictions, in whose lies men take delight, are human devices, and
nothing is to be considered more peculiarly man's own and derived from
himself than anything that is false and lying. Among the convenient
and necessary arrangements of men with men are to be reckoned whatever
differences they choose to make in bodily dress and ornament for the
purpose of distinguishing sex or rank; and the countless varieties of
signs without which human intercourse either could not be carried on
at all, or would be carried on at great inconvenience; and the
arrangements as to weights and measures, and the stamping and weighing
of coins, which are peculiar to each state and people, and other
things of the same kind. Now these, if they were not devices of men,
would not be different in different nations, and could not be changed
among particular nations at the discretion of their respective
sovereigns.
40. This whole class of human arrangements, which are of convenience
for the necessary intercourse of life, the Christian is not by any
means to neglect, but on the contrary should pay a sufficient degree
of attention to them, and keep them in memory.
Footnotes
[1811] See Tylor's Early History of Mankind, pp. 42, 43.
Chapter 26.--What Human Contrivances We are to Adopt, and What We are
to Avoid.
For certain institutions of men are in a sort of way representations
and likenesses of natural objects. And of these, such as have
relation to fellowship with devils must, as has been said, be utterly
rejected and held in detestation; those, on the other hand, which
relate to the mutual intercourse of men, are, so far as they are not
matters of luxury and superfluity, to be adopted, especially the forms
of the letters which are necessary for reading, and the various
languages as far as is required--a matter I have spoken of above.
[1812]To this class also belong shorthand characters, [1813] those
who are acquainted with which are called shorthand writers. [1814]
All these are useful, and there is nothing unlawful in learning them,
nor do they involve us in superstition, or enervate us by luxury, if
they only occupy our minds so far as not to stand in the way of more
important objects to which they ought to be subservient.
Footnotes
[1812] See above, chap. xi.
[1813] Notę.
[1814] Notarii.
Chapter 27.--Some Departments of Knowledge, Not of Mere Human
Invention, Aid Us in Interpreting Scripture.
41. But, coming to the next point, we are not to reckon among human
institutions those things which men have handed down to us, not as
arrangements of their own, but as the result of investigation into the
occurrences of the past, and into the arrangements of God's
providence. And of these, some pertain to the bodily senses, some to
the intellect. Those which are reached by the bodily senses we either
believe on testimony, or perceive when they are pointed out to us, or
infer from experience.
Chapter 28.--To What Extent History is an Aid.
42. Anything, then, that we learn from history about the chronology
of past times assists us very much in understanding the Scriptures,
even if it be learnt without the pale of the Church as a matter of
childish instruction. For we frequently seek information about a
variety of matters by use of the Olympiads, and the names of the
consuls; and ignorance of the consulship in which our Lord was born,
and that in which He suffered, has led some into the error of
supposing that He was forty-six years of age when He suffered, that
being the number of years He was told by the Jews the temple (which He
took as a symbol of His body) was in building. [1815]Now we know on
the authority of the evangelist that He was about thirty years of age
when He was baptized; [1816] but the number of years He lived
afterwards, although by putting His actions together we can make it
out, yet that no shadow of doubt might arise from another source, can
be ascertained more clearly and more certainly from a comparison of
profane history with the gospel. It will still be evident, however,
that it was not without a purpose it was said that the temple was
forty and six years in building; so that, as more secret formation of
the body which, for our sakes, the only-begotten Son of God, by whom
all things were made, condescended to put on. [1817]
43. As to the utility of history, moreover, passing over the Greeks,
what a great question our own Ambrose has set at rest! For, when the
readers and admirers of Plato dared calumniously to assert that our
Lord Jesus Christ learnt all those sayings of His, which they are
compelled to admire and praise, from the books of Plato--because (they
urged) it cannot be denied that Plato lived long before the coming of
our Lord!--did not the illustrious bishop, when by his investigations
into profane history he had discovered that Plato made a journey into
Egypt at the time when Jeremiah the prophet was there, [1818] show
that it is much more likely that Plato was through Jeremiah's means
initiated into our literature, so as to be able to teach and write
those views of his which are so justly praised? For not even
Pythagoras himself, from whose successors these men assert Plato
learnt theology, lived at a date prior to the books of that Hebrew
race, among whom the worship of one God sprang up, and of whom as
concerning the flesh our Lord came. And thus, when we reflect upon
the dates, it becomes much more probable that those philosophers
learnt whatever they said that was good and true from our literature,
than that the Lord Jesus Christ learnt from the writings of Plato,--a
thing which it is the height of folly to believe.
44. And even when in the course of an historical narrative former
institutions of men are described, the history itself is not to be
reckoned among human institutions; because things that are past and
gone and cannot be undone are to be reckoned as belonging to the
course of time, of which God is the author and governor. For it is
one thing to tell what has been done, another to show what ought to be
done. History narrates what has been done, faithfully and with
advantage; but the books of the haruspices, and all writings of the
same kind, aim at teaching what ought to be done or observed, using
the boldness of an adviser, not the fidelity of a narrator.
Footnotes
[1815] John. ii. 19.
[1816] Luke iii. 23.
[1817] See above, chap. xvi.
[1818] Augustin himself corrected this mistake. Retractations, ii. 4.
Chapter 29.--To What Extent Natural Science is an Exegetical Aid.
45. There is also a species of narrative resembling description, in
which not a past but an existing state of things is made known to
those who are ignorant of it. To this species belongs all that has
been written about the situation of places, and the nature of animals,
trees, herbs, stones, and other bodies. And of this species I have
treated above, and have shown that this kind of knowledge is
serviceable in solving the difficulties of Scripture, not that these
objects are to be used conformably to certain signs as nostrums or the
instruments of superstition; for that kind of knowledge I have already
set aside as distinct from the lawful and free kind now spoken of.
For it is one thing to say: If you bruise down this herb and drink
it, it will remove the pain from your stomach; and another to say: If
you hang this herb round your neck, it will remove the pain from your
stomach. In the former case the wholesome mixture is approved of, in
the latter the superstitious charm is condemned; although indeed,
where incantations and invocations and marks are not used, it is
frequently doubtful whether the thing that is tied or fixed in any way
to the body to cure it, acts by a natural virtue, in which case it may
be freely used; or acts by a sort of charm, in which case it becomes
the Christian to avoid it the more carefully, the more efficacious it
may seem to be. But when the reason why a thing is of virtue does not
appear, the intention with which it is used is of great importance, at
least in healing or in tempering bodies, whether in medicine or in
agriculture.
46. The knowledge of the stars, again, is not a matter of narration,
but of description. Very few of these, however, are mentioned in
Scripture. And as the course of the moon, which is regularly employed
in reference to celebrating the anniversary of our Lord's passion, is
known to most people; so the rising and setting and other movements of
the rest of the heavenly bodies are thoroughly known to very few. And
this knowledge, although in itself it involves no superstition,
renders very little, indeed almost no assistance, in the
interpretation of Holy Scripture, and by engaging the attention
unprofitably is a hindrance rather; and as it is closely related to
the very pernicious error of the diviners of the fates, it is more
convenient and becoming to neglect it. It involves, moreover, in
addition to a description of the present state of things, something
like a narrative of the past also; because one may go back from the
present position and motion of the stars, and trace by rule their past
movements. It involves also regular anticipations of the future, not
in the way of forebodings and omens, but by way of sure calculation;
not with the design of drawing any information from them as to our own
acts and fates, in the absurd fashion of the genethliaci, but only as
to the motions of the heavenly bodies themselves. For, as the man who
computes the moon's age can tell, when he has found out her age today,
what her age was any number of years ago, or what will be her age any
number of years hence, in just the same way men who are skilled in
such computations are accustomed to answer like questions about every
one of the heavenly bodies. And I have stated what my views are about
all this knowledge, so far as regards its utility.
Chapter 30.--What the Mechanical Arts Contribute to Exegetics.
47. Further, as to the remaining arts, whether those by which
something is made which, when the effort of the workman is over,
remains as a result of his work, as, for example, a house, a bench, a
dish, and other things of that kind; or those which, so to speak,
assist God in His operations, as medicine, and agriculture, and
navigation; or those whose sole result is an action, as dancing, and
racing, and wrestling;--in all these arts experience teaches us to
infer the future from the past. For no man who is skilled in any of
these arts moves his limbs in any operation without connecting the
memory of the past with the expectation of the future. Now of these
arts a very superficial and cursory knowledge is to be acquired, not
with a view to practising them (unless some duty compel us, a matter
on which I do not touch at present), but with a view to forming a
judgment about them, that we may not be wholly ignorant of what
Scripture means to convey when it employs figures of speech derived
from these arts.
Chapter 31.--Use of Dialectics. Of Fallacies.
48. There remain those branches of knowledge which pertain not to the
bodily senses, but to the intellect, among which the science of
reasoning and that of number are the chief. The science of reasoning
is of very great service in searching into and unravelling all sorts
of questions that come up in Scripture, only in the use of it we must
guard against the love of wrangling, and the childish vanity of
entrapping an adversary. For there are many of what are called
sophisms, inferences in reasoning that are false, and yet so close an
imitation of the true, as to deceive not only dull people, but clever
men too, when they are not on their guard. For example, one man lays
before another with whom he is talking, the proposition, "What I am,
you are not." The other assents, for the proposition is in part true,
the one man being cunning and the other simple. Then the first
speaker adds: "I am a man;" and when the other has given his assent
to this also, the first draws his conclusion: "Then you are not a
man." Now of this sort of ensnaring arguments, Scripture, as I judge,
expresses detestation in that place where it is said, "There is one
that showeth wisdom in words, and is hated;" [1819] although, indeed,
a style of speech which is not intended to entrap, but only aims at
verbal ornamentation more than is consistent with seriousness of
purpose, is also called sophistical.
49. There are also valid processes of reasoning which lead to false
conclusions, by following out to its logical consequences the error of
the man with whom one is arguing; and these conclusions are sometimes
drawn by a good and learned man, with the object of making the person
from whose error these consequences result, feel ashamed of them and
of thus leading him to give up his error when he finds that if he
wishes to retain his old opinion, he must of necessity also hold other
opinions which he condemns. For example, the apostle did not draw
true conclusions when he said, "Then is Christ not risen," and again,
"Then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain;" [1820] and
further on drew other inferences which are all utterly false; for
Christ has risen, the preaching of those who declared this fact was
not in vain, nor was their faith in vain who had believed it. But all
these false inferences followed legitimately from the opinion of those
who said that there is no resurrection of the dead. These inferences,
then, being repudiated as false, it follows that since they would be
true if the dead rise not, there will be a resurrection of the dead.
As, then, valid conclusions may be drawn not only from true but from
false propositions, the laws of valid reasoning may easily be learnt
in the schools, outside the pale of the Church. But the truth of
propositions must be inquired into in the sacred books of the Church.
Footnotes
[1819] Qui sophistice loquitur, odibilis est. Ecclus. xxxvii. 20.
[1820] 1 Cor. xv. 13, 14.
Chapter 32.--Valid Logical Sequence is Not Devised But Only Observed
by Man.
50. And yet the validity of logical sequences is not a thing devised
by men, but is observed and noted by them that they may be able to
learn and teach it; for it exists eternally in the reason of things,
and has its origin with God. For as the man who narrates the order of
events does not himself create that order; and as he who describes the
situations of places, or the natures of animals, or roots, or
minerals, does not describe arrangements of man; and as he who points
out the stars and their movements does not point out anything that he
himself or any other man has ordained;--in the same way, he who says,
"When the consequent is false, the antecedent must also be false,"
says what is most true; but he does not himself make it so, he only
points out that it is so. And it is upon this rule that the reasoning
I have quoted from the Apostle Paul proceeds. For the antecedent is,
"There is no resurrection of the dead,"--the position taken up by
those whose error the apostle wished to overthrow. Next, from this
antecedent, the assertion, viz., that there is no resurrection of the
dead, the necessary consequence is, "Then Christ is not risen." But
this consequence is false, for Christ has risen; therefore the
antecedent is also false. But the antecedent is, that there is no
resurrection of the dead. We conclude, therefore, that there is a
resurrection of the dead. Now all this is briefly expressed thus: If
there is no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen; but
Christ is risen, therefore there is a resurrection of the dead. This
rule, then, that when the consequent is removed, the antecedent must
also be removed, is not made by man, but only pointed out by him. And
this rule has reference to the validity of the reasoning, not to the
truth of the statements.
Chapter 33.--False Inferences May Be Drawn from Valid Reasonings, and
Vice Versa.
51. In this passage, however, where the argument is about the
resurrection, both the law of the inference is valid, and the
conclusion arrived at is true. But in the case of false conclusions,
too, there is a validity of inference in some such way as the
following. Let us suppose some man to have admitted: If a snail is
an animal, it has a voice. This being admitted, then, when it has
been proved that the snail has no voice, it follows (since when the
consequent is proved false, the antecedent is also false) that the
snail is not an animal. Now this conclusion is false, but it is a
true and valid inference from the false admission. Thus, the truth of
a statement stands on its own merits; the validity of an inference
depends on the statement or the admission of the man with whom one is
arguing. And thus, as I said above, a false inference may be drawn by
a valid process of reasoning, in order that he whose error we wish to
correct may be sorry that he has admitted the antecedent, when he sees
that its logical consequences are utterly untenable. And hence it is
easy to understand that as the inferences may be valid where the
opinions are false, so the inferences may be unsound where the
opinions are true. For example, suppose that a man propounds the
statement, "If this man is just, he is good," and we admit its truth.
Then he adds, "But he is not just;" and when we admit this too, he
draws the conclusion, "Therefore he is not good." Now although every
one of these statements may be true, still the principle of the
inference is unsound. For it is not true that, as when the consequent
is proved false the antecedent is also false, so when the antecedent
is proved false the consequent is false. For the statement is true,
"If he is an orator, he is a man." But if we add, "He is not an
orator," the consequence does not follow, "He is not a man."
Chapter 34.--It is One Thing to Know the Laws of Inference, Another to
Know the Truth of Opinions.
52. Therefore it is one thing to know the laws of inference, and
another to know the truth of opinions. In the former case we learn
what is consequent, what is inconsequent, and what is incompatible.
An example of a consequent is, "If he is an orator, he is a man;" of
an inconsequent, "If he is a man, he is an orator;" of an
incompatible, "If he is a man, he is a quadruped." In these instances
we judge of the connection. In regard to the truth of opinions,
however, we must consider propositions as they stand by themselves,
and not in their connection with one another; but when propositions
that we are not sure about are joined by a valid inference to
propositions that are true and certain, they themselves, too,
necessarily become certain. Now some, when they have ascertained the
validity of the inference, plume themselves as if this involved also
the truth of the propositions. Many, again, who hold the true
opinions have an unfounded contempt for themselves, because they are
ignorant of the laws of inference; whereas the man who knows that
there is a resurrection of the dead is assuredly better than the man
who only knows that it follows that if there is no resurrection of the
dead, then is Christ not risen.
Chapter 35 .--The Science of Definition is Not False, Though It May Be
Applied to Falsities.
53. Again, the science of definition, of division, and of partition,
although it is frequently applied to falsities, is not itself false,
nor framed by man's device, but is evolved from the reason of things.
For although poets have applied it to their fictions, and false
philosophers, or even heretics--that is, false Christians--to their
erroneous doctrines, that is no reason why it should be false, for
example, that neither in definition, nor in division, nor in
partition, is anything to be included that does not pertain to the
matter in hand, nor anything to be omitted that does. This is true,
even though the things to be defined or divided are not true. For
even falsehood itself is defined when we say that falsehood is the
declaration of a state of things which is not as we declare it to be;
and this definition is true, although falsehood itself cannot be
true. We can also divide it, saying that there are two kinds of
falsehood, one in regard to things that cannot be true at all, the
other in regard to things that are not, though it is possible they
might be, true. For example, the man who says that seven and three
are eleven, says what cannot be true under any circumstances; but he
who says that it rained on the kalends of January, although perhaps
the fact is not so, says what posssibly might have been. The
definition and division, therefore, of what is false may be perfectly
true, although what is false cannot, of course, itself be true.
Chapter 36.--The Rules of Eloquence are True, Though Sometimes Used to
Persuade Men of What is False.
54. There are also certain rules for a more copious kind of argument,
which is called eloquence, and these rules are not the less true that
they can be used for persuading men of what is false; but as they can
be used to enforce the truth as well, it is not the faculty itself
that is to be blamed, but the perversity of those who put it to a bad
use. Nor is it owing to an arrangement among men that the expression
of affection conciliates the hearer, or that a narrative, when it is
short and clear, is effective, and that variety arrests men's
attention without wearying them. And it is the same with other
directions of the same kind, which, whether the cause in which they
are used be true or false, are themselves true just in so far as they
are effective in producing knowledge or belief, or in moving men's
minds to desire and aversion. And men rather found out that these
things are so, than arranged that they should be so.
Chapter 37.--Use of Rhetoric and Dialectic.
55. This art, however, when it is learnt, is not to be used so much
for ascertaining the meaning as for setting forth the meaning when it
is ascertained. But the art previously spoken of, which deals with
inferences, and definitions, and divisions, is of the greatest
assistance in the discovery of the meaning, provided only that men do
not fall into the error of supposing that when they have learnt these
things they have learnt the true secret of a happy life. Still, it
sometimes happens that men find less difficulty in attaining the ob
ject for the sake of which these sciences are learnt, than in going
through the very intricate and thorny discipline of such rules. It is
just as if a man wishing to give rules for walking should warn you not
to lift the hinder foot before you set down the front one, and then
should describe minutely the way you ought to move the hinges of the
joints and knees. For what he says is true, and one cannot walk in
any other way; but men find it easier to walk by executing these
movements than to attend to them while they are going through them, or
to understand when they are told about them. Those, on the other
hand, who cannot walk, care still less about such directions, as they
cannot prove them by making trial of them. And in the same way a
clever man often sees that an inference is unsound more quickly than
he apprehends the rules for it. A dull man, on the other hand, does
not see the unsoundness, but much less does he grasp the rules. And
in regard to all these laws, we derive more pleasure from them as
exhibitions of truth, than assistance in arguing or forming opinions,
except perhaps that they put the intellect in better training. We
must take care, however that they do not at the same time make it more
inclined to mischief or vanity,--that is to say, that they do not give
those who have learnt them an inclination to lead people astray by
plausible speech and catching questions, or make them think that they
have attained some great thing that gives them an advantage over the
good and innocent.
Chapter 38.--The Science of Numbers Not Created, But Only Discovered,
by Man.
56. Coming now to the science of number, it is clear to the dullest
apprehension that this was not created by man, but was discovered by
investigation. For, though Virgil could at his own pleasure make the
first syllable of Italia long, while the ancients pronounced it short,
it is not in any man's power to determine at his pleasure that three
times three are not nine, or do not make a square, or are not the
triple of three, nor one and a half times the number six, or that it
is not true that they are not the double of any number because odd
numbers [1821] have no half. Whether, then, numbers are considered in
themselves, or as applied to the laws of figures, or of sounds, or of
other motions, they have fixed laws which were not made by man, but
which the acuteness of ingenious men brought to light.
57. The man, however, who puts so high a value on these things as to
be inclined to boast himself one of the learned, and who does not
rather inquire after the source from which those things which he
perceives to be true derive their truth, and from which those others
which he perceives to be unchangeable also derive their truth and
unchangeableness, and who, mounting up from bodily appearances to the
mind of man, and finding that it too is changeable (for it is
sometimes instructed, at other times uninstructed), although it holds
a middle place between the unchangeable truth above it and the
changeable things beneath it, does not strive to make all things
redound to the praise and love of the one God from whom he knows that
all things have their being;--the man, I say, who acts in this way may
seem to be learned, but wise he cannot in any sense be deemed.
Footnotes
[1821] Intelligibiles numeri.
Chapter 39.--To Which of the Above-Mentioned Studies Attention Should
Be Given, and in What Spirit.
58. Accordingly, I think that it is well to warn studious and able
young men, who fear God and are seeking for happiness of life, not to
venture heedlessly upon the pursuit of the branches of learning that
are in vogue beyond the pale of the Church of Christ, as if these
could secure for them the happiness they seek; but soberly and
carefully to discriminate among them. And if they find any of those
which have been instituted by men varying by reason of the varying
pleasure of their founders, and unknown by reason of erroneous
conjectures, especially if they involve entering into fellowship with
devils by means of leagues and covenants about signs, let these be
utterly rejected and held in detestation. Let the young men also
withdraw their attention from such institutions of men as are
unnecessary and luxurious. But for the sake of the necessities of
this life we must not neglect the arrangements of men that enable us
to carry on intercourse with those around us. I think, however, there
is nothing useful in the other branches of learning that are found
among the heathen, except information about objects, either past or
present, that relate to the bodily senses, in which are included also
the experiments and conclusions of the useful mechanical arts, except
also the sciences of reasoning and of number. And in regard to all
these we must hold by the maxim, "Not too much of anything;"
especially in the case of those which, pertaining as they do to the
senses, are subject to the relations of space and time. [1822]
59. What, then, some men have done in regard to all words and names
found in Scripture, in the Hebrew, and Syriac, and Egyptian, and other
tongues, taking up and interpreting separately such as were left in
Scripture without interpretation; and what Eusebius has done in regard
to the history of the past with a view to the questions arising in
Scripture that require a knowledge of history for their
solution;--what, I say, these men have done in regard to matters of
this kind, making it unnecessary for the Christian to spend his
strength on many subjects for the sake of a few items of knowledge,
the same, I think, might be done in regard to other matters, if any
competent man were willing in a spirit of benevolence to undertake the
labor for the advantage of his brethren. In this way he might arrange
in their several classes, and give an account of the unknown places,
and animals, and plants, and trees, and stones, and metals, and other
species of things that are mentioned in Scripture, taking up these
only, and committing his account to writing. This might also be done
in relation to numbers, so that the theory of those numbers, and those
only, which are mentioned in Holy Scripture, might be explained and
written down. And it may happen that some or all of these things have
been done already (as I have found that many things I had no notion of
have been worked out and committed to writing by good and learned
Christians), but are either lost amid the crowds of the careless, or
are kept out of sight by the envious. And I am not sure whether the
same thing can be done in regard to the theory of reasoning; but it
seems to me it cannot, because this runs like a system of nerves
through the whole structure of Scripture, and on that account is of
more service to the reader in disentangling and explaining ambiguous
passages, of which I shall speak hereafter, than in ascertaining the
meaning of unknown signs, the topic I am now discussing.
Footnotes
[1822] Ne quid nimis.--Terence, Andria, act i. scene 1.
Chapter 40.--Whatever Has Been Rightly Said by the Heathen, We Must
Appropriate to Our Uses.
60. Moreover, if those who are called philosophers, and especially
the Platonists, have said aught that is true and in harmony with our
faith, we are not only not to shrink from it, but to claim it for our
own use from those who have unlawful possession of it. For, as the
Egyptians had not only the idols and heavy burdens which the people of
Israel hated and fled from, but also vessels and ornaments of gold and
silver, and garments, which the same people when going out of Egypt
appropriated to themselves, designing them for a better use, not doing
this on their own authority, but by the command of God, the Egyptians
themselves, in their ignorance, providing them with things which they
themselves were not making a good use of; [1823] in the same way all
branches of heathen learning have not only false and superstitious
fancies and heavy burdens of unnecessary toil, which every one of us,
when going out under the leadership of Christ from the fellowship of
the heathen, ought to abhor and avoid; but they contain also liberal
instruction which is better adapted to the use of the truth, and some
most excellent precepts of morality; and some truths in regard even to
the worship of the One God are found among them. Now these are, so to
speak, their gold and silver, which they did not create themselves,
but dug out of the mines of God's providence which are everywhere
scattered abroad, and are perversely and unlawfully prostituting to
the worship of devils. These, therefore, the Christian, when he
separates himself in spirit from the miserable fellowship of these
men, ought to take away from them, and to devote to their proper use
in preaching the gospel. Their garments, also,--that is, human
institutions such as are adapted to that intercourse with men which is
indispensable in this life,--we must take and turn to a Christian use.
61. And what else have many good and faithful men among our brethren
done? Do we not see with what a quantity of gold and silver and
garments Cyprian, that most persuasive teacher and most blessed
martyr, was loaded when he came out of Egypt? How much Lactantius
brought with him? And Victorinus, and Optatus, and Hilary, not to
speak of living men! How much Greeks out of number have borrowed!
And prior to all these, that most faithful servant of God, Moses, had
done the same thing; for of him it is written that he was learned in
all the wisdom of the Egyptians. [1824]And to none of all these
would heathen superstition (especially in those times when, kicking
against the yoke of Christ, it was persecuting the Christians) have
ever furnished branches of knowledge it held useful, if it had
suspected they were about to turn them to the use of worshipping the
One God, and thereby overturning the vain worship of idols. But they
gave their gold and their silver and their garments to the people of
God as they were going out of Egypt, not knowing how the things they
gave would be turned to the service of Christ. For what was done at
the time of the exodus was no doubt a type prefiguring what happens
now. And this I say without prejudice to any other interpretation
that may be as good, or better.
Footnotes
[1823] Ex. iii. 21, 22; xii. 35, 36.
[1824] Acts vii. 22.
Chapter 41.--What Kind of Spirit is Required for the Study of Holy
Scripture.
62. But when the student of the Holy Scriptures, prepared in the way
I have indicated, shall enter upon his investigations, let him
constantly meditate upon that saying of the apostle's, "Knowledge
puffeth up, but charity edifieth." [1825]For so he will feel that,
whatever may be the riches he brings with him out of Egypt, yet unless
he has kept the passover, he cannot be safe. Now Christ is our
passover sacrificed for us, [1826] and there is nothing the sacrifice
of Christ more clearly teaches us than the call which He himself
addresses to those whom He sees toiling in Egypt under Pharaoh: "Come
unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you
rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly
in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is
easy, and my burden is light." [1827]To whom is it light but to the
meek and lowly in heart, whom knowledge doth not puff up, but charity
edifieth? Let them remember, then, that those who celebrated the
passover at that time in type and shadow, when they were ordered to
mark their door-posts with the blood of the lamb, used hyssop to mark
them with. [1828]Now this is a meek and lowly herb, and yet nothing
is stronger and more penetrating than its roots; that being rooted and
grounded in love, we may be able to comprehend with all saints what is
the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, [1829] --that is, to
comprehend the cross of our Lord, the breadth of which is indicated by
the transverse wood on which the hands are stretched, its length by
the part from the ground up to the cross-bar on which the whole body
from the head downwards is fixed, its height by the part from the
crossbar to the top on which the head lies, and its depth by the part
which is hidden, being fixed in the earth. And by this sign of the
cross all Christian action is symbolized, viz., to do good works in
Christ, to cling with constancy to Him, to hope for heaven, and not to
desecrate the sacraments. And purified by this Christian action, we
shall be able to know even "the love of Christ which passeth
knowledge," who is equal to the Father, by whom all things, were made,
"that we may be filled with all the fullness of God." [1830] There is
besides in hyssop a purgative virtue, that the breast may not be
swollen with that knowledge which puffeth up, nor boast vainly of the
riches brought out from Egypt. "Purge me with hyssop," the psalmist
says, [1831] "and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter
than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness." Then he immediately
adds, to show that it is purifying from pride that is indicated by
hyssop, "that the bones which Thou hast broken [1832] may rejoice."
Footnotes
[1825] 1 Cor. viii. 1.
[1826] 1 Cor. v. 7.
[1827] Matt. xi. 28-30.
[1828] Ex. xii. 22.
[1829] Eph. iii. 17, 18.
[1830] Eph. iii. 19.
[1831] Ps. li. 7, 8.
[1832] Ossa humiliata, Vulgate.
Chapter 42.--Sacred Scripture Compared with Profane Authors.
63. But just as poor as the store of gold and silver and garments
which the people of Israel brought with them out of Egypt was in
comparison with the riches which they afterwards attained at
Jerusalem, and which reached their height in the reign of King
Solomon, so poor is all the useful knowledge which is gathered from
the books of the heathen when compared with the knowledge of Holy
Scripture. For whatever man may have learnt from other sources, if it
is hurtful, it is there condemned; if it is useful, it is therein
contained. And while every man may find there all that he has learnt
of useful elsewhere, he will find there in much greater abundance
things that are to be found nowhere else, but can be learnt only in
the wonderful sublimity and wonderful simplicity of the Scriptures.
When, then, the reader is possessed of the instruction here pointed
out, so that unknown signs have ceased to be a hindrance to him; when
he is meek and lowly of heart, subject to the easy yoke of Christ, and
loaded with His light burden, rooted and grounded and built up in
faith, so that knowledge cannot puff him up, let him then approach the
consideration and discussion of ambiguous signs in Scripture. And
about these I shall now, in a third book, endeavor to say what the
Lord shall be pleased to vouchsafe.
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