bor before, or even in comparison with, the truth, and therefore not himself, because not him whom he loves as himself. Accordingly, 4 Consilium misericordiae.
that holy man will be so single and so pure in heart, that he will not step aside from the truth, either for the sake of pleasing men or with a view to avoid any of the annoyances which beset this life. Such a son ascends to wisdom, which is the seventh and last step, and which he enjoys in peace and tranquillity. For the fear of God is the beginning of wis- dom.7 From that beginning, then, till we reach wisdom itself, our way is by the steps now described.
CHAP. 8. THE CANONICAL BOOKS.
12. But let us now go back to consider the third step here mentioned, for it is about it that I have set mys.elf to speak and reason as the Lord shall grant me wisdom. The most skillful interpreter of the sacred writings, then, will be he who in the first place has read them all and retained them in his knowledge, if not yet with full understanding, still with such knowledge as reading gives, — those of them, at least, that are called canonical. For he will read the others with greater safety when built up in the belief of the truth, so that they will not take first possession of a weak mind, nor, cheating it with dangerous falsehoods and delusions, fill it with prejudices adverse to a sound understanding. Now, in regard to the canonical Scriptures, he must follow the judg- ment of the greater number of catholic churches; and among these, of course, a high place must be given to such as have been thought worthy to be the seat of an apostle and to receive epistles. Accordingly, among the canonical Scriptures he will judge accord- ing to the following standard: to prefer those that are received by all the catholic churches to those which some do not receive. Among those, again, which are not received by all, he will prefer such as have the sanction of the greater number and those of greater authority, to such as are held by the smaller number and those of less authority. If, however, he shall find that some books are held by the greater number of churches, and others by the churches of greater authority (though this is not a very likely thing to happen), I think that in such a case the authority on the two sides is to be looked upon as equal.
13. Now the whole canon of Scripture on which we say this judgment is to be exercised, is contained in the following books: — Five books of Tyloses, that is, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy; one book of Joshua the son of Nun; oneof Judges; one short book called Ruth, which seems rather to belong to the beginning of Kings; next, 7 Ps. cxi. 10.
IChap. XL] ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE.
539 I four books of Kings, and two of Chronicles, — these last not following one another, but jirunning parallel, so to speak, and going over lithe same ground. The books now mentioned rare history, which contains a connected nar- llrative of the times, and follows the order of lithe events. There are other books which ■ seem to follow no regular order, and are con- inected neither with the order of the preceding ■ books nor with one another, such as Job, and Tobias, and Esther, and Judith, and the two J books of Maccabees, and the two of Ezra,1 iwhich last look more like a sequel to the con- I tinuous regular history which terminates with I the books of Kings and Chronicles. Next Bare the Prophets," in which there is one book I of the Psalms of David; and three books of llSolomon, viz., Proverbs, Song of Songs, and IJEcclesiastes. For two books, one called llWisdom and the other Ecclesiasticus, are as- Icribed to Solomon from a certain resemblance jof style, but the most likely opinion is that llthey were written by Jesus the son of Sirach.* J Still they are to be reckoned among the ^prophetical books, since they have attained recognition as being authoritative. The re- I mainder are the books which are strictly called I the Prophets: twelve separate books of the ii prophets which are connected with one an- I other, and having never been disjoined, are I reckoned as one book; the names of these ({prophets are as follows: — Hosea, Joel, Amos, rObadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, HZephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi; then 1 1 there are the four greater prophets, Isaiah, jjjeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel. The authority of the Old Testament3 is contained within the limits of these forty-four books. That of tithe New Testament, again, is contained within [the following: — Four books of the Gospel, [{according to Matthew, according to Mark, I according to Luke, according to John; four- liteen epistles of the Apostle Paul — one to the i iRomans, two to the Corinthians, one to the 1 Galatians, to the Ephesians, to the Philip- I pians, two to the Thessalonians, one to the f Colossians, two to Timothy, one to Titus, to I Philemon, to the Hebrews; twoof Peter; three I of John; one of Jude; and one of James; one (book of the Acts of the Apostles; and one of ■the Revelation of John.
■CHAP. 9. — HOW WE SHOULD PROCEED IN STUDY- ING SCRIPTURE.
14. In all these books those who fear God II and are of a meek and pious disposition seek 1 That is, Ezra and Nehemiah.
2 Augustin in his Retractations withdrew this opinion so far as II regards the book of Wisdom.
3 This application of the phrase " Old Testament" is with- * I drawn and apologized for in the Retractations.
the will of God. And in pursuing this search the first rule to be observed is, as I said, to know these books, if not yet with the under- standing, still to read them so as to commit them to memory, or at least so as not to re- main wholly ignorant of them. Next, those matters that are plainly laid down in them, whether rules of life or rules of faith, are to be searched into more carefully and more dili- gently; and the more of these a man discov- ers, the more capacious does his understanding become. For among the things that are plainly laid down in Scripture are to be found all matters that concern faith and the manner of life, — to wit, hope and love, of which I have spoken in the previous book. After this, when we have made ourselves to a certain extent familiar with the language of Scripture, we may proceed to open up and investigate the obscure passages, and in doing so draw examples from the plainer expressions to throw light upon the more obscure, and use the evi- dence of passages about which there is no doubt to remove all hesitation in regard to the doubtful passages. And in this matter mem- ory counts for a great deal; but if the memory be defective, no rules can supply the want.
CHAP. IO. — UNKNOWN OR AMBIGUOUS SIGNS PREVENT SCRIPTURE FROM BEING UNDER- STOOD.
15. Now there are two causes which pre- vent what is written from being understood: its being vailed either under unknown, or under alllbig uous s7gns7~~ Signs are either proper or figurative. They are called proper when they are used to point out the objects they were designed to point out, as we say bos when we mean an ox, because all men who with us use the Latin tongue call it by this name. Signs are figurative when the things themselves which we indicate by the proper names are used to signify something else, as we say bos, and understand by that syllable the ox, which is ordinarily called by that name; but then further by that ox understand a preacher of the gospel, as Scripture signifies, according to the apostle's explanation, when it says: " Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn."4 CHAP. II. KNOWLEDGE OF LANGUAGES, ESPE- CIALLY OF GREEK AND HEBREW, NECESSARY TO REMOVE IGNORANCE OF SIGNS.
16. The great remedy for ignorance of proper signs is knowledge of languages. And men who speak the Latin tongue, of whom 54Q ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE.
[Book II.
are those I have undertaken to instruct, need two other languages for the knowledge of Scripture, Hebrew and Greek, that they may have recourse to the original texts if the end- less diversity of the Latin translators throw them into doubt. Although, indeed, we often find Hebrew words untranslated in the books, as for example, Amen, Halleluia, Racha, Hosanna, and others of the same kind. Some of these, although they could have been trans- lated, have been preserved in their original form on account of the more sacred authority that attaches to it, as for example, Amen and Halleluia. Some of them, again, are said to be untranslatable into another tongue, of which the other two I have mentioned are exam- ples. For in some languages there are words that cannot be translated into the idiom of another language. And this happens chiefly in the case of interjections, which are words that express rather an emotion of the mind than any part of a thought we have in our mind. And the two given above are said to be of this kind, Racha expressing the cry of an angry man, Hosanna that of a joyful man. But the knowledge of these languages is nec- essary, not for the sake of a few words like these which it is very easy to mark and to ask about, but, as has been said, on account of the diversities among translators. For the translations of the Scriptures from Hebrew into Greek can be counted, but the Latin translators are out of all number. For in the early days of the faith every man who happened to get his hands upon a Greek manuscript, and who thought he had any knowledge, were it ever so little, of the two languages, ventured upon the work of transla- tion.
CHAP. 12. A DIVERSITY OF INTERPRETATIONS IS USEFUL. ERRORS ARISING FROM AMBIGU- OUS WORDS.
17. And this circumstance would assist rather than hinder the understanding of Scrip- ture, if only readers were not careless. For the examination of a number of texts has often thrown light upon some of the more ob- scure passages; for example, in that passage of the prophet Isaiah,1 one translator reads: "And do not despise the domestics of thy seed; " 2 another reads: "And do not despise thine own flesh."3 Each of these in turn confirms the other. For the one is explained by the other; because " flesh " may be taken in its literal sense, so that a man may under- 1 Isa. lviii. 7, " And that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh " (A. V.).
2 Et domesticos seminis tui ne despexeris.
3 Et carnem tuam ne despexeris.
stand that he is admonished not to despise his own body; and " the domestics of thy seed " may be understood figuratively of Christians, because they are spiritually born of the same seed as ourselves, namely, the Word. When now the meaning of the two translators is compared, a more likely sense of the words suggests itself, viz., that the command is not to despise our kinsmen, because when one brings the expression " domestics of thy seed " into relation with " flesh," kinsmen most naturally occur to one's mind. Whence, I think, that expression of the apostle, when he says, "If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them;"4 that is, that through emulation of those who had believed, some of them might believe too. And he calls the Jews his " flesh," on account of the relation- ship of blood. Again, that passage from the same prophet Isaiah: s " If ye will not believe, ye shall not understand,"6 another has trans- lated: "If ye will not believe, ye shall not abide."7 Now which of these is the literal translation cannot be ascertained. without ref- erence to the text in the original tongue. And yet to those who read with knowledge, a great truth is to be found in each. For it is difficult for interpreters to differ so widely as not to touch at some point. Accordingly here, as understanding consists in sight, and is abid- ing, but faith feeds us as babes, upon milk, in the cradles of temporal things (for now we walk by faith, not by sight);8 as, moreover, unless we walk by faith, we shall not attain to sight, which does not pass away, but abides, our understanding being purified by holding to the truth; — for these reasons one says, " If ye will not believe, ye shall not understand; " but the other, " If ye will not believe, ye shall not abide."
18. And very often a translator, to whom the meaning is not well known, is deceived by an ambiguity in the original language, and puts upon the passage a construction that is wholly alien to the sense of the writer. As for example, some texts read: " Their feet are sharp to shed blood;"9 for the word oCvs among the Greeks means both sharp and swift. And so he saw the true meaning who trans- lated: " Their feet are swift to shed blood." The other, taking the wrong sense of an am- biguous word, fell into error. Now transla- tions such as this are not obscure, but false; and there is a wide difference between the two 4 Rom xi. 14.
5 Isa. vii. q, " If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be es- tablished " (A. V.).
6 Nisi credideritis, non intelligetis.
7 Nisi credideritis, non permanebitis.
Chap. XIII.]
ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE.
541 ■things. For we must learn not to interpret, I but to correct texts of this sort. For the ■same reason it is, that because the Greek word ■ rltxjxo* means a calf, some have not under- 1 btood that pioGxzvi-iara* are shoots of trees, and have translated the word "calves;" and ■this error has crept into so many texts, that j you can hardly find it written in any other way. And yet the meaning is very clear; for Bit is made evident by the words that follow. For "the plantings of an adulterer will not take deep root," 2 is a more suitable form of expression than the " calves; " 3 because these walk upon the ground with their feet, and are not fixed in the earth by roots. In this pas- sage, indeed, the rest of the context also jus- tifies this translation.
CHAP. 13. HOW FAULTY INTERPRETATIONS CAN BE EMENDED.
19. But since we do not clearly see what the actual thought is which the several translators lendeavor to express, each according to his own ability and judgment, unless we examine it in the language which they translate; and since the translator, if he be not a very learned man, often departs from the meaning of his author, we must either endeavor to get a knowledge of those languages from which the Scriptures are translated into Latin, or we must get hold of the translations of those who keep rather close to the letter of the original, not because these are sufficient, but because we may use them to correct the freedom or the error of others, who in their translations have chosen to follow the sense quite as much as the words. For not only single words, but often whole phrases are translated, which could not be translated at all into the Latin idiom by any one who wished to hold by the usage of the ancients who spoke Latin. And though these sometimes do not interfere with the understanding of the passage, yet they are offensive to those who feel greater delight in things when even the signs of those things are kept in their own purity. For what is called a solecism is nothing else than the put- ting of words together according to a different rule from that which those of our predeces- sors who spoke with any authority followed. For whether we say inter homines (among men) or inter hominibus, is of no consequence to a man who only wishes to know the facts. And in the same way, what is a barbarism but the pronouncing of a. word in a different way from tFfat irfwhich those who spoke Latin before 1 Wisd. iv. 3.
2 Adiilterince j>lantationes non dabunt radices aitas.
3 I itulamina.
us pronounced it? For whether the word ig- «337?r?~(tD~pardon) should be pronounced with the third syllable long or short, is not a matter of much concern to the man who is beseeching God, in any way at all that he can get the words out, to pardon his sins. What then is purity of speech, except the preserving of the custom of language established by the authority of former speakers?
20. And men are easily offended in a matter of this kind, just in proportion as they are weak; and they are weak just in proportion as they wish to seem learned, not in the knowl- edge of things which tend to edification, but in that of signs, by which it is hard not to be puffed up,4 seeing that the knowledge of things even would often set up our neck, if it were not held down by the yoke of our Master. For how does it prevent our understanding it to have the following passage thus ex- pressed: " Quce est terra in qua isti insidunt super earn, si bona est an nequam; et quce stmt civitatcs, in quibus ipsi inhabitant in ipsis? " s And I am more disposed to think that this is simply the idiom of another language than that any deeper meaning is intended. Again, that phrase, which we cannot now take away from the lips of the people who sing it: '''Super ipsum autevi floriet sanctificatio mea," 6 surely takes away nothing from the meaning. Yet a more learned man would prefer that this should be corrected, and that we should say, not floriet, but florebit. Nor does any- thing stand in the way of the correction being made, except the usage of the singers. Mis- takes of this kind, then, if a man do not choose to avoid them altogether, it is easy to treat with indifference, as not interfering with a right understanding. But take, on the other hand, the saying of the apostle: " Quod stul- tum est Dei, sapientius est hominibus, et quod infirmum est Dei, fortius est hominibus." 7 If any one should retain in this passage the Greek idiom, and say, " Quod stultum est Dei, sapientius est hominum et quod infirmum est Dei fortius est hominum" 8 a quick and care- ful reader would indeed by an effort attain to the true meaning, but still a man of slower intelligence either would not understand it at all, or would put an utterly false construction upon it. For not only is such a form of speech 4 Comp. 1 Cor. viii. 1.
5 " And what the land is that they dwell in, whether it be good or bad; and what cities they be that they dwell in." — Num. xiii. 19 (A. V.).
6 '.' But upon himself shall my holiness flourish." — Ps. cxxxii. 18 (see LXX.). " But upon himself shall his crown flourish " (A. V.).
7 " Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men " (1 Cor. i. 25.)
8 " What is foolish of God is wiser of men, and what is weak of God is stronger of men."
542 ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE.
[Book II.
faulty in the Latin tongue, but it is ambigu- ous too, as if the meaning might be, that the folly of men or the weakness of men is wiser or stronger than that of God. But indeed even the expression sapientius est hominibus (stronger than men) is not free from ambigu- ity, even though it be free from solecism. For whether hominibus is put as the plural of the dative or as the plural of the ablative, does not appear, unless by reference to the mean- ing. It would be better then to say, sapien- tius est quam homines, and fortius est quern homines.
CHAP. 14. — HOW THE MEANING OF UNKNOWN WORDS AND IDIOMS IS TO BE DISCOVERED.
21. About ambiguous signs, however, I shall speak afterwards. I arn_tr.eati.ng at pres- ent 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 mem- ory 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 pas- sage that shows, either by the preceding or succeeding context, or by both, the force and significance of the phrase we are ignorant of, we can easily by the help of our memory turn our attention to the matter and learn all about it. So great, however, is the force of custom, even m regard to learning, that those who have been in a sort of way nurtured and brought up on the study of Holy Scripture, are surprised at other forms of speech, and think them less pure Latin than those which they have learnt from Scripture, but which are not to be found in Latin authors. In this matter, too, the great number of the translators proves a very great assistance, if they are examined and discussed with a careful comparison of their texts. Only all positive error must be re- moved. For those who are anxious to know the Scriptures ought in the first place to use their skill in the correction of the texts, so that the uncorrected ones should give way to the corrected, at least when they are copies of the same translation.
CHAP. 15. AMONG VERSIONS A PREFERENCE IS GIVEN TO THE SEPTUAGINT AND THE ITALA.
22. Now among translations themselves the Italian (Itala) " is to be preferred to the others, for it keeps closer to the words with- out prejudice to clearness of expression. And to correct the Latin we must use the Greek versions, among which the authority of the Septuagint is pre-eminent as far as the Old Testament is concerned; for it is reported through all the more learned churches that the seventy translators enjoyed so much of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in their work of translation, that among that number of men there was but one voice. And if, as is reported, and as many not unworthy of confidence assert,2 they were separated during the work of translation, each man being in a cell by himself, and yet nothing was found in the manuscript of any one of them that was not found in the same words and in the same order of words in all the rest, who dares put anything in comparison with an j authority like this, not to speak of preferring anything to it? And even if they conferred together with the result that a unanimous agreement sprang out of the common labor and judgment of them all; even so, it would not be right or becoming for any one man, whatever his experience, to aspire to correct the unanimous opinion of many venerable and learned men. Wherefore, even if any- thing is found in the original Hebrew in a dif- ferent 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 re- ligious scruple or from jealousy, to make known to other nations, were, with the assist- ance 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 mean- ing. 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, 1 The translation here referred to is the Vetus Latina, as re- vised by the Church of Northern Italy in the fourth century, prior to the final recension of Jerome, commonly called the Vulgate.
- Among these are Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and Clemens Alex- andrinus. Comp. Augustin, De Civ. Dei, xviii. 43. and Jipp. 71 and 75.
Chap. XVI.]
ON CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE.
543 though they were seventy in number, are said to have translated as with one voice. As to the books of the New Testament, again, if any perplexity arises from the diversities of the Latin texts, we must of course yield to the Greek, especially those that are found in the churches of greater learning and research.
CHAP. l6. THE KNOWLEDGE BOTH OF LAN- GUAGE AND THINGS IS HELPFUL FOR THE UN- DERSTANDING OF FIGURATIVE EXPRESSIONS.