Augustine of Hippo on Biblical Interpretation: Centered, Community-Governed, Sometimes Figurative, ca. 396

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Augustine of Hippo on Biblical InterpretationCen
tered, Community-Governed, Sometimes Figurative,
ca. 396

• Augustines approach was centered all readings
  must contribute to the love of God and ones
  neighbor, no matter what.
• The plenitude and end of the Law and of all the
  Sacred Writings is the love of a Being which is
  to be enjoyed and of a being that can share that
  enjoyment with us (On Christian Doctrine,
  1.35.39).
• If it seems to you that you have understood the
  divine scriptures, or any part of them, in such a
  way that by this understanding you do not build
  up this twin love of God and neighbor, then you
  have not understood them (1.36.40).
• If on the other hand you have made judgments
  about them that are helpful for building up this
  love, but for all that have not said what the
  author you have been reading actually meant in
  that place, then your mistake is not pernicious,
  and you certainly cannot be accused of lying
  (1.36.40).

Take up and read
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• Further guidelines
• First, read all the sacred writings (2.8.12).
• Let the most accepted writings govern the less
  accepted. (When Augustine wrote, Christians were
  still debating which writings should be accepted
  as sacred scripture.)
• Let the clearest govern the less clear (clarity
  being determined by the central purpose love of
  God and neighbor) (2.9.14).
• Get a general education in words and things
  Every good and true Christian should understand
  that wherever he may find truth, it is the
  Lords (2.18.28).
• What is read should be submitted to diligent
  scrutiny until an interpretation contributing to
  the reign of charity i.e., love of God, neighbor
  and self for Gods sake is produced. If this
  result appears literally in the text, the
  expression being considered is not figurative
  (3.15.23).
• Otherwise, the expression is figurative (3.10.14).

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• The recourse to figurative, or spiritual,
  interpretation mattered to Augustine, because it
  figured prominently in his conversion to
  Christianity.
• As a scholar, he had rejected the Bible because
  it seemed to portray God as moody and vindictive.
• Then he started listening to the preaching of
  Ambrose, Bishop of Milan.
• I was delighted to hear Ambrose in his sermons
  to the people saying, as if he were most
  carefully enunciating a principle of exegesis
  the letter kills, the spirit gives life 2
  Corinthians 36. Those texts which, taken
  literally, seemed to contain perverse teaching he
  would expound spiritually, removing the mystical
  veil. He did not say anything that I felt to be a
  difficulty, but whether what he said was true I
  still did not know. Augustine, Confessions,
  6.4.6.
• Augustine was later baptized by Ambrose.

Augustines Baptism
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• In the 16th century (1500s) Protestants rejected
  figurative interpretations as unbiblical (except
  for typological readings).
• But one of the earliest Christians to use
  figurative interpretations was St. Paul
• For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one
  by a slave woman and the other by a free woman.
  One, the child of the slave, was born according
  to the flesh the other, the child of the free
  woman, was born through the promise. Now this is
  an allegory these women are two covenants. One
  woman, in fact, is Hagar, from Mount Sinai,
  bearing children for slavery. Now Hagar is Mount
  Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present
  Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her
  children. But the other woman corresponds to the
  Jerusalem above she is free, and she is our
  mother. Galatians 422-26
• Compare this with Genesis 16 21Does Pauls
  interpretation seem natural or forced?

Paul
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• In his early interpretations of Genesis,
  Augustine alluded to Pauls example.
• If no other way is available of reaching
  understanding of what is said that is religious
  and worthy of God, except by supposing that it
  has all been set before us in a figurative sense
  and in riddles, we have the authority of the
  apostles for doing this, seeing that they solved
  so many riddles in the books of the Old Testament
  in this manner On Genesis A Refutation of the
  Manichees, 2.3.

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• For example, here is Genesis 24b-6 In the day
  that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens,
  when no plant of the field was yet in the earth
  and no herb of the field had yet sprung up a
  stream would rise from the earth, and water the
  whole face of the ground
• Here is Augustines interpretation with
  comments in On Genesis, 2.7
• The earth and the heavensthe whole visible
  creation well, sure
• Daythe whole of time hmmm
• Plant of the fieldthe invisible creation huh?
• The spring rising from the earth and watering the
  whole face of the groundthe flood of truth
  drenching the soul before sin who knew?

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• Augustine was not satisfied with this early
  commentary and later wrote another that tried to
  pay more attention to literal interpretations.
• Even then, he preferred to keep everything
  open-ended and invited readers to use their own
  judgment (On the Literal Interpretation of
  Genesis, 1.40).
• And he did not think interpretations should
  conflict with the perceptions of our own
  rational faculties (2.9).

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• Even a literal reading might not look so literal
  to todays readers.
• For example Augustine noted the difference
  between the six days of creation in Genesis 1,
  and the one day of creation in Genesis 2.
• He explained the difference by interpreting the
  days in Genesis 1 as logical steps in a single
  act of creation which was actually simultaneous
  (or timeless) (4.52).
• These timeless, potential moments in Gods
  knowledge began to unfold in time only in Genesis
  2.