 Chapter 14 How the meaning of unknown words and idioms is to be discovered. 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. Though 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 learned 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 are 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. Now, among translations themselves, the Italian Itala 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 preeminent 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, 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 theirs 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 sprung 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. Therefore, 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 group 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 a 17 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. Chapter 16. The knowledge both of language and things is helpful for the understanding of figurative expressions. In the case of figurative signs, again, if ignorance of any of them should chance to bring the reader to a standstill, 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 Evangelists had not interpreted that name, 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 anyone could interpret them, be of great value and service in solving the enigmas of Scripture. And the 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. 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, 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 erection 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, and to put it off too by coming through a narrow place according to the saying of our Lord, enter ye in at the straight gate. 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 barrel or the adamant often shuts the door of knowledge. And the only reason why we find it easy to understand that perpetual peace is indicated by the olive branch, which the doll brought with it when it returned to the ark, 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 highsoap, 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 highsoap and I shall be clean. 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 40 days. 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, where both the diurnal and the annual revolutions are accomplished in periods numbering four each. The diurnal in the hours of the morning, the noon tide, 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. Although 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, when soul so 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 mound 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 a 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. 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. Not a few things, too, are close against us and obscured by ignorance of music. One man, for example, has not unskillfully explained some metaphors from the difference between the sultry and the harp. 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 sultry of ten courts to have just so many strengths. 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, namely 46, 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. Chapter 17, Origin of the Legend of the Nine Muses For we must not listen to the falsities of heath and superstition, which represent nine muses as daughters of Jupiter and Mercury. Varo refutes these, and I doubt whether anyone 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 begot 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 a 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 comes from a profane source. 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, or to be 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 men and to birds, and four-footed beasts and creeping things. End of Section 7. Section 8 of On Christian Doctrine. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Yossip. On Christian Doctrine by Augustine of Hippo. Translated by JF Shaw. Section 8. Chapter 19. Two kinds of heathen knowledge. 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. All the arrangements made by men for the making and worshiping 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 horospices 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. In these remedies they are called by the less offensive name of physical, 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. 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 to 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 anyone 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 Nor can we exclude from this kind of superstition those who were called Genetliacci on account of their attention to birthdays, but are now commonly called Mathematicae. 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 insofar 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 free man goes to an astrologer 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 era 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 honour 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 honour of Caesar. And this would perhaps have been done, and the name handed down to distant ages, only that his ancestral 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 honour 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 Monsquintilis and Sextilis to July and August, naming them in honour of the men Julius Caesar and Augustus Caesar. And from this instance anyone 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 honour, 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 anyone 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? Chapter 22. The folly of observing the stars in order to predict the events of a life. 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 unlearned 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. When it necessarily follows, the 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 Ezau 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. 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 labours, 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. 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 dispute 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. Chapter 23. Why we repudiate arts of divination 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 into 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 practice 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, harken not unto them. For though the ghost of the dead Samuel foretold the truth to King Saul, that does not make such sacrilegious observances as those by which his ghost was brought up the lesser testable. And though the ventriloquist woman 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. All arts of this sort, therefore, are either nullities or are part of a guilty superstition, springing out of a baleful fellowship between man 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 you should have fellowship with devils. 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 worshiping 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 their 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. Chapter 24 The intercourse and agreement with demons which superstitious observances maintain. 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. What 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 arrangement and pre-arrangement as to its signification. And so anyone 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 a 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 man'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. End of Section 8. Section 9 of On Christian Doctrine. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Nancy Beth Leary. On Christian Doctrine by Augustine of Hippo. Translated by J. F. Shaw. Section 9 Book 2. Chapter 25 In human institutions which are not superstitious, there are some things superfluous and some convenient and necessary. But when all these have been cut away and rooted out in 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. And we may well believe this, because even now, if anyone who is unaccustomed to such follies goes into the theatre, unless someone 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. 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 everyone, 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. 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. 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. To this class also belong shorthand characters, those who are acquainted with which are called shorthand writers. 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. Chapter 27 Some departments of knowledge, not of mere human invention, aid us in interpreting scripture. 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 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 46 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. Now we know on the authority of the evangelist that he was about 30 years of age when he was baptized, 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 40 and 6 years in building, so that as this cannot be referred to our Lord's age it may be referred to the 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. 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 columniously to assert that our Lord Jesus Christ learned 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, 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 asserted 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. And even when, in the course of an historical narrative, former institutions of man 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 horuspices and all writings of the same kind, aim at teaching what ought to be done or observed, using the boldness of an advisor, not the fidelity of a narrator. Chapter 29 To what extent natural science is an exegetical aid? 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 around 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. 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 genithliac, 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 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 soul 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 practicing them unless some duty compels 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 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 a very great service in searching into and unraveling 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 a sense, 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 ascent 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. 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. 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 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 there 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 learned 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. of Hippo translated by J. F. Shaw section 10 chapter 32 valid logical sequence is not devised but only observed by man 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 consequence 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, namely 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 consequence is removed, the antecedent must also be removed, is not made by man, but only pointed out by him. And this rule has referenced 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. 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 a snail has no voice, it follows, since when the consequence 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. 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. 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 reigned on the calendar of January, although perhaps the fact is not so, says what possibly 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. 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 a 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 weering 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 insofar as they are effective in producing knowledge or belief, or in moving men's minds to desire and diversion. And men rather found out that these things are so, than arranged that they should be so. Chapter 37 Use of Rhetoric and Dialectic This art, however, when it is learned, 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 learned these things, they have learned the true secret of a happy life. Still, it sometimes happens that men find less difficulty in attaining the object for the sake of which these sciences are learned, 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 behind their 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 before 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 the assistants 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 learned 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 the innocent. Chapter 38. The science of numbers not created, but only discovered by man. Coming now to the science of number, it is clear to the Dalest 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 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. The man, however, who put 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. Chapter 39 To which of the above mentioned studies attention should be given, and in what spirit? Accordingly I think that it is well to warn studious and able young man, who fear God and are seeking for a 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 man 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 man also withdraw their attention from such institutions of man as are unnecessary and luxurious. But for the sake of the necessities of this life we must not neglect the arrangements of man 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. 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. Chapter 40 Whatever has been rightly said by the heathen, we must appropriate to our uses. Chapter 41 Moreover, if those who are called philosophers, and especially the Platonists, have said art 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 said 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. In the same way all branches of heathen learning have not only falls in superstitious fancies and heavy burdens of a necessary 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 minds 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. 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 lactancias brought with him, and victoriness, and optaras, and Hillary, not to speak of living men? How much Greeks out of the 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. And to none of all these would he then 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. Chapter 41. What kind of spirit is required for the study of Holy Scripture? 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 apostles, knowledge puffed up but charity edified. For so he will feel that whatever may be the riches he brings with him out of Egypt, yet unless he has kept a Passover, he cannot be safe. Now Christ is our Passover sacrificed for us, 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. To whom is it light, but to the meek and lowly in heart, whom knowledge doth not puff up but charity edifyeth. Let them remember, then, that those who celebrated the Passover at that time in type and shadow, when they were ordered to mark their doorposts with a blood of the lamb, used hyssop to mark them with. 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. 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 crossbar 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, namely 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. There is besides in hyssop a purgative virtue that the breast may not be swollen with that knowledge which potheth up, nor boast vainly of the riches brought out from Egypt. Purge me with hyssop, the soulmist says, 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 may rejoice. Chapter 42 Sacred scripture compared with profane authors. 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 learned from other sources, if it is hurtful it is there condemned, if it is useful it is there incontained. And while every man may find there all that he has learned of useful elsewhere, he will find there in much greater abundance things that are to be found nowhere else, but can be learned 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. End of Section 10. Section 11 of On Christian Doctrine. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org, recording by Yosef. On Christian Doctrine by Augustine of Hippo, translated by JF Shaw. Section 11. Book 3. Argument. The author, having discussed in a preceding book the method of dealing with unknown signs, goes on in this third book to treat of ambiguous signs. Such signs may be either direct or figurative. In the case of direct signs, ambiguity may arise from the punctuation, the pronunciation, or the doubtful signification of the words, and is to be resolved by attention to the context, a comparison of translations, or a reference to the original tongue. In the case of figurative signs, we need to guard against two mistakes. 1. The interpreting literal expressions figuratively. 2. The interpreting figurative expressions literally. The author lays down rules by which we may decide whether an expression is literal or figurative. The general rule being that whatever can be shown to be in its literal sense inconsistent, either with purity of life or correctness of doctrine, must be taken figuratively. He then goes on to lay down rules for the interpretation of expressions which have been proved to be figurative. The general principle being that no interpretation can be true which does not promote the love of God and the love of man. The author then proceeds to expound and illustrate the seven rules of Tyconius, the Donatist, which he commends to the attention of the student of Holy Scripture. 1. Summary of the foregoing books and scope of that which follows. The man who fears God seeks diligently in Holy Scripture for a knowledge of his will, and when he has become meek through piety so as to have no love of strife, when furnished also with the knowledge of languages so as not to be stopped by unknown words and forms of speech, and with the knowledge of certain necessary objects so as not to be ignorant of the force and nature of those which are used figuratively, and assisted besides by accuracy in the texts which has been secured by skill and care in the matter of correction. When thus prepared, let him proceed to the examination and solution of the ambiguities of Scripture, and that he may not be led astray by ambiguous signs, so far as I can give him instruction, it may happen, however, that either from the greatness of his intellect or the greater clearness of the light he enjoys, he shall laugh at the methods I am going to point out as childish. But yet as I was going to say, so far as I can give instruction, let him who is in such a state of mind that he can be instructed by me know that the ambiguity of Scripture lies either in proper words or in metaphorical classes which I have already described in this second book. Chapter 2. Rule for removing ambiguity by attending to punctuation. But when proper words make Scripture ambiguous, we must see in the first place that there is nothing wrong in our punctuation or pronunciation. Accordingly, if when attention is given to the passage, it shall appear to be uncertain in what way it ought to be punctuated or pronounced, let the reader consult the rule of faith which he has gathered from the plainer passages of Scripture and from the authority of the church and of which I treated at sufficient length when I was speaking in the first book about things. But if both readings or all of them, if there are more than two, give a meaning in harmony with the faith, it remains to consult the context, both what goes before and what comes after, to see which interpretation are of many that offer themselves, it pronounces for and permits to be dovetailed into itself. Now, look at some examples. The heretical pointing in Principio erat verbum et verbum erat apuddeum et deus erat, so as to make the next sentence run, verbum hoc erat in Principio apuddeum, rises out of unwillingness to confess that the word was God, but this must be rejected by the rule of faith, which in reference to the equality of the Trinity directs us to say et deus erat verbum, and then to add hoc erat in Principio apuddeum. But the following ambiguity of punctuation does not go against the faith in either way you take it, and therefore must be decided from the context. It is where the apostle says what I shall choose I what not, for I am in a straight betwixt two having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better, nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. Now it is uncertain whether we should read ex duobus concupitensiam habens, having a desire for two things, or compelor outem ex duobus, I am in a straight betwixt two, and so to add, concupitensiam habens dissolvi et essecum Christo, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ. But since there follows multo en imagis optimum, for it is far better, it is evident that he says he has a desire for that which is better, so that while he is in a straight betwixt two, yet he has a desire for one and sees a necessity for the other, a desire namely to be with Christ, and a necessity to remain in the flesh. Now this ambiguity is resolved by one word that follows, which is translated amim four, and the translators who have omitted this particle have preferred the interpretation which makes the Apostle seem not only in a straight betwixt two, but also to have a desire for two. We must therefore punctuate the sentence thus, et quid eligam ignoro, compelor outem ex duobus. What I shall choose I would not, for I am in a straight betwixt two. And after this point follows, concupitensiam habens dissolvi et essecum Christo, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ. And as if he were asked why he has a desire for this in preference to the other, he adds multo en imagis optimum, for it is far better. Why then is he in a straight betwixt two? Because there is a need for his remaining, which he adds in these terms, manare in carne necessari un proptur vos. Nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. Where, however, the ambiguity cannot be cleared up, either by the rule of faith or by the context, there is nothing to hinder us to point the sentence according to any method we choose or those that suggest themselves. As is the case in that passage to the Corinthians, having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Receive us, we have wronged no man. It is doubtful whether we should read, mundemus nos ab omnico inquiniazione carnis et spiritus, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, in accordance with the passage that she may be holy both in body and in spirit, or mundemus nos ab omnico inquiniazione carnis, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh. So as to make the next sentence, et spiritus perfecientes santificazione in timore dei capitenos, and perfecting holiness of spirit in the fear of God, receive us. Such ambiguities of punctuation, therefore, are left to the reader's discretion. Chapter 3. How pronunciation serves to remove ambiguity, different kinds of interrogation. And all the directions that I have given about ambiguous punctuations are to be observed likewise in the case of doubtful pronunciations. For these two, unless default lies in the carelessness of the reader, are corrected either by the rule of faith or by a reference to the proceeding or succeeding context. Or if neither of these methods is applied with success, they will remain doubtful, but so that the reader will not be in fault in whatever way he may pronounce them. For example, if our faith that God will not bring any charges against his elect, and that Christ will not condemn his elect, did not stand in the way, this passage, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect, might be pronounced in such a way as to make what follows an answer to this question, God who justifyeth, and to make a second question, who is he that condemneth, with the answer Christ Jesus who died. But as it would be the height of madness to believe this, the passage will be pronounced in such a way as to make the first part a question of inquiry, and the second are rhetorical interrogative. Now, the ancients said that the difference between an inquiry and an interrogative was this, that an inquiry admits of many answers, but to an interrogative the answer must be either no or yes. The passage will be pronounced then in such a way that after the inquiry, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect, what follows will be put as an interrogative, shall God who justifyeth, the answer no, being understood. And in the same way we shall have the inquiry, who is he that condemneth, and the answer here again in the form of an interrogative. Is the Christ who died, yea, rather, who is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us? The answer no, being understood to every one of these questions. On the other hand, in that passage where the apostle says, what shall we say then, that the Gentiles which followed not after righteousness have attained to righteousness, unless after the inquiry what shall we say then, what follows were given as the answer to this question, that the Gentiles which followed not after righteousness have attained to righteousness, it would not be in harmony with the succeeding context. But with whatever tone of voice one may choose to pronounce that saying of Nathaniel's, can any good thing come out of Nazareth, whether with that of a man who gives an affirmative answer, so that out of Nazareth is the only part that belongs to the interrogation, or with that of a man who asks the whole question without an hesitation? I do not see how a difference can be made, but neither sense is opposed to faith. There is again an ambiguity arising out of the doubtful sound of syllables, and this of course has relation to pronunciation. For example, in the passage my bone, os meum, was not hid from thee, which thou didst make in secret, it is not clear to the reader whether he should take the word os as short or long. If he make it short, it is a singular of ossa, bones. If he make it long, it is a singular of ora, mouths. Now, difficulties such as this are cleared up by looking into the original tongue. For in the Greek we find not stoma, mouth, but ostheon, bone. And for this reason the vulgar idiom is frequently more useful in conveying the sense than the pure speech of the educated. For I would rather have the barbarism non est absconditum at thee, osseum meum, than have the passage in better Latin, but the sense less clear. But sometimes when the sound of a syllable is doubtful, it is decided by a word near it belonging to the same sentence. As, for example, that saying of the apostle, of the which I tell you before, predico, as I have also told you in time past, predixi, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Now, if he had only said, of the which I tell you before, que predico vobis, and had not added as I have also told you in time past, si could predixi, we could not know without going back to the original whether in the word predico, the middle syllable should be pronounced long or short. But as it is, it is clear that it should be pronounced long, for he does not say si could predicavi, but si could predixi. Chapter four, how ambiguities may be solved. And not only these, but also those ambiguities that do not relate either to punctuation or pronunciation are to be examined in the same way. For example, that one in the epistle to the Thessalonians, propterea consolati sumus fratres in vobis. Now, it is doubtful whether fratres, brethren, is in the vocative or accusative case. And it is not contrary to faith to take it either way. But in the Greek language, the two cases are not the same in form. And accordingly, when we look into the original, the case is shown to be vocative. Now, if the translator had chosen to say propterea consolationem habuimus fratres in vobis, he would have followed the words less literally. But there would have been less doubt about the meaning. Or indeed, if he had added nostri, hardly anyone would have doubted that the vocative case was meant when he heard propterea consolati sumus fratres nostri in vobis. But this is a rather dangerous liberty to take. It has been taken, however, in that passage to the Corinthians, where the apostle says, I protest by your rejoicing, pervestram gloriam, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. For one translator has it pervestram gloriam, the form of adoration appearing in the Greek without any ambiguity. It is therefore very rare and very difficult to find any ambiguity in the case of proper words, as far at least as Holy Scripture is concerned, which neither the context showing the design of the writer, nor a comparison of translations nor a reference to the original tongue will suffice to explain. Chapter 5. It is a wretched slavery which takes the figurative expressions of Scripture in a literal sense. But the ambiguities of metaphorical words, about which I am next to speak, demand no ordinary care and diligence. In the first place, we must beware of taking a figurative expression literally. For the saying of the apostle applies in this case too, the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. For when what is said figuratively is taken as if it were said literally, it is understood in a cardinal manner. And nothing is more fittingly called the death of the soul than when that in it which raises it above the brutes, the intelligence, namely, is put in subjection to the flesh by a blind adherence to the letter. For he who follows the letter takes figurative words as if they were proper, and does not carry out what is indicated by a proper word into its secondary signification. But if he hears of the Sabbath, for example, thinks of nothing but the one day out of seven, which recurs in constant succession, and when he hears of a sacrifice does not carry his thoughts beyond the customary offerings of victims from the flock and of the fruits of the earth, now it is surely a miserable slavery of the soul to take signs for things and to be unable to lift the eye of the mind above what is corporeal and created that it may drink in eternal light. Utility of the bondage of the Jews This bondage, however, in the case of the Jewish people, differed widely from what it was in the case of the other nations. Because though the former were in bondage to temporal things, it was in such a way that in all these the one God was put before their minds. And although they paid attention to the signs of spiritual realities in place of the realities themselves, not knowing to what the signs referred, still they had this conviction rooted in their minds that in subjecting themselves to such a bondage they were doing the pleasure of the one invisible God of all. And the apostle describes this bondage as being like to that of boys under the guidance of a schoolmaster, and those who clung obstinately to such signs could not endure our Lord's neglect of them when the time for their revelation had come. And hence their leaders brought it as a charge against him that he healed on the Sabbath, and the people clinging to these signs as if they were realities could not believe that one who refused to observe them in the way the Jews did was God or came from God. But those who did believe from among whom the first church at Jerusalem was formed showed clearly how great an advantage it had been to be so guided by the schoolmaster that signs, which had been for a season imposed on the obedient, fixed the thoughts of those who observed them on the worship of the one God who made heaven and earth. These men, these men because they had been very near to spiritual things, for even in the temporal and carnal offerings and types, though they did not clearly apprehend their spiritual meaning, they had learned to adore the one eternal God, were filled with such a measure of the Holy Spirit that they sold all their goods and laid their price at the apostle's feet to be distributed among the needy and consecrated themselves wholly to God as a new temple of which the old temple they were serving was but the earthly type. Now it is not recorded that any of the Gentile churches did this because men who had for their gods idols made with hands had not been so near to spiritual things. Chapter 7. The useless bondage of the Gentiles. And if ever any of them endeavored to make it out that their idols were only signs, yet still they used them in reference to the worship and adoration of the creature. What difference does it make to me, for instance, that the image of Neptune is not itself to be considered a god, but only as representing the wide ocean and all the other waters beside that spring out of fountains. As it is described by a poet of theirs, who says, if I recollect a right, thou, Father Neptune, whose holy temples are reeded with a resounding sea, whose beard is the mighty ocean flowing forth unceasingly, and whose hair is the winding rivers. This husk shakes its rattling stones within a sweet covering, and yet it is not food for men, but for swine. He who knows the gospel knows what I mean. What profit is it to me, then, that the image of Neptune is used with a reference to this explanation of it, unless indeed the result be that I worship neither? For any statue you like to take is as much god to me as the wide ocean. I grant, however, that they who make gods of the works of man have sunk lower than they who make gods of the works of god. But the command is that we should love and serve the one god, who is the maker of all those things, the images of which are worshipped by the heathen either as gods, or as signs and representations of gods. If, then, to take a sign which has been established for a useful end instead of the thing itself which it was designed to signify is bondage to the flesh, how much more so is it to take signs intended to represent useless things for the things themselves? For even if you go back to the very things signified by such signs, and engage your mind in the worship of these, you will not be anything more free from the burden and delivery of bondage to the flesh. Chapter 8 The Jews liberated from their bondage in one way the Gentiles in another. Accordingly, the liberty that comes by Christ took those whom it found under bondage to useful signs, and who were, so to speak, near to it, and interpreting the signs to which they were in bondage, set them free by raising them to the realities of which these were signs. And out of such were formed the churches of the saints of Israel. Those on the other hand, whom it found in bondage to useless signs, it not only freed from their slavery to such signs, but brought to nothing and cleared out of the way all these signs themselves, so that the Gentiles were turned from the corruption of a multitude of false gods, which scripture frequently and justly speaks of as fornication, to the worship of the one God, not that they might now fall into bondage to signs of a useful kind, but rather that they might exercise their minds in the spiritual understanding of such. Chapter 9 Who is in bondage to signs and who not? Now, he is in bondage to a sign who uses, or pays homage to, any significant object without knowing what it signifies. He, on the other hand, who either uses or honors a useful sign divinely appointed, whose force and significance he understands, does not honor the sign which is seen and temporal, but that to which all such signs refer. Now, such a man is spiritual and free even at the time of his bondage, when it is not yet expedient to reveal to carnal minds those signs by subjection to which their cardinality is to be overcome. To this class of spiritual persons belonged the patriarchs and the prophets, and all those among the people of Israel through whose instrumentality the Holy Spirit ministered unto us the aids and consolations of the scriptures. But at the present time, after that the proof of our liberty has shone forth so clearly in the resurrection of our Lord. We are not oppressed with the heavy burden of attending even to those signs which we now understand, but our Lord himself, and apostolic practice, have handed down to us a few rites in place of many, and these at once very easy to perform, most majestic in their significance, and most sacred in the observance, such, for example, as the sacrament of baptism and the celebration of the body and blood of the Lord. And as soon as anyone looks upon these observances, he knows to what they refer, and so reveres them not in carnal bondage, but in spiritual freedom. Now, us to follow the letter, and to take signs for the things that are signified by them, is a mark of weakness and bondage. So to interpret signs wrongly is the result of being misled by error. He, however, who does not understand what a sign signifies, but yet knows that it is a sign, is not in bondage. And it is better, even to be in bondage to unknown but useful signs, than by interpreting them wrongly to draw the neck from under the yoke of bondage only to insert it in the coils of error. Chapter 10. How we are to discern whether a phrase is figurative. But in addition to the foregoing rule which guards us against taking a metaphorical form of speech as if it were literal, we must also pay heed to that which tells us not to take a literal form of speech as if it were figurative. In the first place, then, we must show the way to find out whether a phrase is literal or figurative. And the way is certainly as follows. Whatever there is in the word of God that cannot, when taken literally, be referred either to purity of life or soundness of doctrine, you may set down as figurative. Purity of life has referenced the love of God and one's neighbor. Soundness of doctrine to the knowledge of God and one's neighbor. Every man, moreover, has hope in his own conscience, so far as he perceives that he has attained to the love and knowledge of God and his neighbor. Now all these matters have been spoken of in the first book. But as men are prone to estimate sins, not by reference to their inherent sinfulness, but rather by reference to their own customs, it frequently happens that a man will think nothing blamable except what the man of his own country and time are accustomed to condemn, and nothing worthy of praise or approval except what is sanctioned by the custom of his companions. And thus it comes to pass that if scripture either enjoins what is opposed to the customs of the hearers or condemns what is not so opposed, and if at the same time the authority of the word has a hold upon their minds, they think that the expression is figurative. Now, scripture enjoins nothing except charity and condemns nothing except lust, and in that way fashions the lives of men. In the same way, if an erroneous opinion has taken possession of the mind, men think that whatever scripture asserts contrary to this must be figurative. Now, scripture asserts nothing but the Catholic faith in regard to things past, future and present. It is a narrative of the past, a prophecy of the future and a description of the present, but all these tend to nourish and strengthen charity and to overcome and root out lust. I mean by charity that affection of the mind which aims at the enjoyment of God for his own sake, and the enjoyment of one's self and one's neighbor in subordination to God. By lust I mean that affection of the mind which aims at enjoying one's self and one's neighbor and other corporeal things without reference to God. Again, what lust when unsubdued does towards corrupting one's own soul and body is called vice, but what it does to endure another is called crime. And these are the two classes into which all sins may be divided. But the vices come first. For when these have exhausted the soul and reduced it to a kind of poverty, it easily slides into crimes in order to remove hindrances too or to find assistance in its vices. In the same way, what charity does with a view to one's own advantage is prudence, but what it does with a view to a neighbor's advantage is called benevolence. And here prudence comes first, because no one can confer an advantage on another which he does not himself possess. Now, in proportion as the dominion of lust is pulled down, in the same proportion is that of charity built up. Chapter 11. Rule for interpreting phrases which seem to ascribe severity to God and the saints. Every severity, therefore, and apparent cruelty, either in word or deed that is ascribed in holy scripture to God or his saints, avails to the pulling down of the dominion of lust. And if its meaning be clear, we are not to give it some secondary reference, as if it were spoken figuratively. Take for example that saying of the apostle, But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurized up unto thyself's wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his deeds, to them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality eternal life, but unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first and also of the Gentile. But this is addressed to those who, being unwilling to subdue their lust, are themselves involved in the destruction of their lust. When, however, the dominion of lust is overturned in a man over whom it had held sway, this plain expression is used, they that are Christs have crucified the flesh with their affections and lusts. Only that, even in these instances, some words are used figuratively, as for example, the wrath of God and crucified. But these are not so numerous, nor placed in such a way as to obscure the sense and make it allegorical or enigmatic, which is the kind of expression properly called figurative. But in the same addressed to Jeremiah, see, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms to root out and to pull down and to destroy and to throw down. There is no doubt the whole of the language is figurative and to be referred to the end I have spoken of. End of section 12