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ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE
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by St Augustine of Hippo |
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Ch 25. The same word does not always
signify the same thing |
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And when it is shown to be figurative, the words in which
it is expressed will be found to be
drawn either from like objects or from objects having some
affinity.
35. But as there are many ways in which things show a likeness to
each other, we are not to
suppose there is any rule that what a thing signifies by
similitude in one place it is to be taken to
signify in all other places. For our Lord used leaven both in a
bad sense, as when He said,
"Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees," I and in a good sense, as
when He said, "The kingdom of
heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three
measures of meal, till the whole
was leavened."
36. Now the rule in regard to this variation has
two forms. For things that signify
now one thing and now another, signify either things that are
contrary, or things that are only
different. They signify contraries, for example, when they are
used metaphorically at one time in a
good sense, at another in a bad, as in the case of the leaven
mentioned above. Another example of
the same is that a lion stands for Christ in the place where it is
said, "The lion of the tribe of Judah
has prevailed;" and again, stands for the devil where it is
written, "Your adversary the devil, as a
roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour." In the
same way the serpent is used in
a good sense, "Be wise as serpents;" and again, in a bad sense,
"The serpent beguiled Eve through
his subtilty." Bread is used in a good sense, "I am the living
bread which came down from
heaven;" in a bad, "Bread eaten in secret is pleasant." And so in
a great many other case. The
examples I have adduced are indeed by no means doubtful in their
signification, because only plain
instances ought to be used as examples. There are passages,
however, in regard to which it is
uncertain in what sense they ought to be taken, as for example,
"In the hand of the Lord there is a
cup, and the wine is red: it is full of mixture." Now it is
uncertain whether this denotes the wrath
of God, but not to the last extremity of punishment, that is, "to
the very dregs;" or whether it
denotes the grace of the Scriptures passing away from the Jews and
coming to the Gentiles,
because "He has put down one and set up another,"--certain
observances, however, which they
understand in a carnal manner, still remaining among the Jews, for
"the dregs hereof is not yet
wrung out." The following is an example of the same object being
taken, not in opposite, but only
in different significations: water denotes people, as we read in
the Apocalypse,l and also the Holy Spirit, as for example, "Out of
his belly shall flow rivers of living water;" and many other
things besides water must be interpreted according to the place in
which they are found.
37. And in the same way other objects are not single in their
signification, but each one of them denotes not two only but
sometimes even several different things, according to the
connection in which it is found.
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Ch 26. Obscure passages are to be
interpreted by those which are clearer |
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Now from the places where the sense in which they are
used is more manifest we must gather
the sense in which they are to be understood in obscure passages.
For example, there is no better
way of understanding the words addressed to God, "Take hold of
shield and buckler and stand up
for mine help," than by referring to the passage where we read,
"Thou, Lord, hast crowned us
with Thy favour as with a shield." And yet we are not so to
understand it, as that wherever we
meet with a shield put to indicate a protection of any kind, we
must take it as signifying nothing
but the favour of God. For we hear also of the shield of faith,
"wherewith," says the apostle, "ye
shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked." Nor
ought we, on the other hand, in
regard to spiritual armour of this kind to assign faith to the
shield only; for we read in another
place of the breastplate of faith: "putting on," says the apostle,
"the breastplate of faith and love."
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Ch 27. One passage susceptible of various
interpretations |
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38. When, again, not some one interpretation, but two or more
interpretations are put upon the
same words of Scripture, even though the meaning the writer
intended remain undiscovered, there
is no danger if it can be shown from other passages of Scripture
that any of the interpretations put
on the words is in harmony with the truth. And if a man in
searching the Scriptures endeavours to
get at the intention of the author through whom the Holy Spirit
spake, whether he succeeds in this
endeavour, or whether he draws a different meaning from the words,
but one that is not opposed
to sound doctrine, he is free from blame so long as he is
supported by the testimony of some other
passage of Scripture. For the author perhaps saw that this very
meaning lay in the words which
we are trying to interpret; and assuredly the Holy Spirit, who
through him spake these words,
foresaw that this interpretation would occur to the reader, nay,
made provision that it should
occur to him, seeing that it too is founded on truth. For what
more liberal and more fruitful
provision could God have made in regard to the Sacred Scriptures
than that the same words might
be understood in several senses, all of which are sanctioned by
the concurring testimony of other
passages equally divine?
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Ch 28. It is safer to explain a doubtful
passage by other passages of Scripture than by reason |
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39. When, however, a meaning is evolved of such a kind that
what is doubtful in it cannot be
cleared up by indubitable evidence from Scripture, it remains for
us to make it clear by the
evidence of reason. But this is a dangerous practice. For it is
far safer to walk by the light of Holy
Scripture; so that when we wish to examine the passages that are
obscured by metaphorical
expressions, we may either obtain a meaning about which there is
no controversy, or if a
controversy arises, may settle it by the application of
testimonies sought out in every portion of
the same Scripture.
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Ch 29. The knowledge of tropes is
necessary |
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40. Moreover, I would have learned men to know that the
authors of our Scriptures use all those
forms of expression which grammarians call by the Greek name
tropes, and use them more freely
and in greater variety than people who are unacquainted with the
Scriptures, and have learnt these
figures of speech from other writings, can imagine or believe.
Nevertheless those who know these
tropes recognize them in Scripture, and are very much assisted by
their knowledge of them in
understanding Scripture. But this is not the place to teach them
to the illiterate, lest it might seem
that I was teaching grammar. I certainly advise, however, that
they be learnt elsewhere, although
indeed I have already given that advice above, in the second book
namely, where I treated of
the necessary knowledge of languages. For the written characters
from which grammar itself gets
its name (the Greek name for letters being "grammata") are the
signs of sounds made by the
articulate voice with which we speak. Now of some of these figures
of speech we find in Scripture
not only examples (which we have of them all), but the very names
as well: for instance, allegory,
enigma, and parable. However, nearly all these tropes which are
said to be learnt as a matter of
liberal education are found even in the ordinary speech of men who
have learnt no grammar, but
are content to use the vulgar idiom. For who does not say, "So may
you flourish? " And this is the
figure of speech called metaphor. Who does not speak of a
fish-pond in which there is no fish,
which was not made for fish, and yet gets its name from fish? And
this is the figure called
catachresis.
41. It would be tedious to go over all the rest in this way; for
the speech of the vulgar makes use
of them all, even of those more curious figures which mean the
very opposite of what they say, as
for example, those called irony and antiphrasis. Now in irony we
indicate by the tone of voice the
meaning we desire to convey; as when we say to a man who is
behaving badly, "You are doing
well." But it is not by the tone of voice that we make an
antiphrasis to indicate the opposite of
what the words convey; but either the words in which it is
expressed are used in the opposite of
their etymological sense, as a grove is called lucus from its want
of light; or it is customary to use
a certain form of expression, although it puts yes for no by a law
of contraries, as when we ask in
a place for what is not there, and get the answer, "There is
plenty;" or we add words that make it
plain we mean the opposite of what we say, as in the expression,
"Beware of him, for he is a good
man." And what illiterate man is there that does not use such
expressions, although he knows
nothing at all about either the nature or the names of these
figures of speech? And yet the
knowledge of these is necessary for clearing up the difficulties
of Scripture; because when the
words taken literally give an absurd meaning, we ought forthwith
to inquire whether they may not
be used in this or that figurative sense which we are unacquainted
with; and in this way many
obscure passages have had light thrown upon them.
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Ch 30.The rules of Tichonius the
Donatist examined |
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42. One Tichonius, who, although a Donatist himself, has written
most triumphantly against the
Donatists (and herein showed himself of a most inconsistent
disposition, that he was unwilling to
give them up altogether), wrote a book which he called the Book of
Rules, because in it he laid
down seven rules, which are, as it were, keys to open the secrets
of Scripture. And of these rules,
the first relates to the Lord and His body, the second to the
twofold division of the Lord's body,
the third to the promises and the law, the fourth to species and
genus, the fifth to times, the sixth
to recapitulation, the seventh to the devil and his body.
Now
these rules, as expounded by their
author, do indeed, when carefully considered, afford considerable
assistance in penetrating the
secrets of the sacred writings; but still they do not explain all
the difficult passages for there are
several other methods required which are so far from being
embraced in this number of seven, that
the author himself explains many obscure passages without using
any of his rules; finding, indeed,
that there was no need for them, as there was no difficulty in the
passage of the kind to which his
rules apply. As, for example, he inquires what we are to
understand in the Apocalypse by the
seven angels of the churches to whom John is commanded to write;
and after much and various
reasoning, arrives at the conclusion that the angels are the
churches themselves. And throughout
this long and full discussion, although the matter inquired into
is certainly very obscure, no use
whatever is made of the rules. This is enough for an example, for
it would be too tedious and
troublesome to collect all the passages in the canonical
Scriptures which present obscurities of
such a kind as require none of these seven rules for their
elucidation.
43. The author himself, however, when commending these rules,
attributes so much value to
them that it would appear as if, when they were thoroughly known
and duly applied, we should be
able to interpret all the obscure passages in the law--that is, in
the sacred books. For he thus
commences this very book: "Of all the things that occur to me, I
consider none so necessary as to
write a little book of rules, and, as it were, to make keys for,
and put windows in, the secret
places of the law. For there are certain mystical rules which hold
the key to the secret recesses of
the whole law, and render visible the treasures of truth that are
to many invisible. And if this
system of rules be received as I communicate it, without jealousy,
what is shut shall be laid open,
and what is obscure shall be elucidated, so that a man travelling
through the vast forest of
prophecy shall, if he follow these rules as pathways of light, be
preserved from going astray."
Now, if he had said, "There are certain mystical rules which hold
the key to some of the secrets of
the law," or even "which hold the key to the great secrets of the
law," and not what he does say,
"the secret recesses of the whole law;" and if he had not said
"What is shut shall be laid open,"
but, "Many things that are shut shall be laid open," he would have
said what was true, and he
would not, by attributing more than is warranted by the facts to
his very elaborate and useful
work, have led the reader into false expectations. And I have
thought it right to say thus much, in
order both that the book may be read by the studious (for it is of
very great assistance in
understanding Scripture), and that no more may be expected from it
than it really contains.
Certainly it must be read with caution, not only on account of the
errors into which the author
falls as a man, but chiefly on account of the heresies which he
advances as a Donatist. And now I
shall briefly indicate what these seven rules teach or advise.
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