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Augustine of Hippo, On Christian Doctrine
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Augustine of Hippo. On Christian Doctrine
Chapter 2.—What a Thing Is, and What A Sign.
Chapter 3.—Some Things are for Use, Some for Enjoyment.
Chapter 4.—Difference of Use and Enjoyment.
Chapter 5.—The Trinity the True Object of Enjoyment.
Chapter 6.—In What Sense God is Ineffable.
Chapter 7.—What All Men Understand by the Term God.
Chapter 8.—God to Be Esteemed Above All Else, Because He is Unchangeable Wisdom.
Chapter 9.—All Acknowledge the Superiority of Unchangeable Wisdom to that Which is Variable.
Chapter 10.—To See God, the Soul Must Be Purified.
Chapter 11.—Wisdom Becoming Incarnate, a Pattern to Us of Purification.
Chapter 12.—In What Sense the Wisdom of God Came to Us.
Chapter 13.—The Word Was Made Flesh.
Chapter 14.—How the Wisdom of God Healed Man.
Chapter 16.—Christ Purges His Church by Medicinal Afflictions.
Chapter 17.—Christ, by Forgiving Our Sins, Opened the Way to Our Home.
Chapter 18.—The Keys Given to the Church.
Chapter 19.—Bodily and Spiritual Death and Resurrection.
Chapter 20.—The Resurrection to Damnation.
Chapter 21.—Neither Body Nor Soul Extinguished at Death.
Chapter 22.—God Alone to Be Enjoyed.
Chapter 23.—Man Needs No Injunction to Love Himself and His Own Body.
Chapter 24.—No Man Hates His Own Flesh, Not Even Those Who Abuse It.
Chapter 25.—A Man May Love Something More Than His Body, But Does Not Therefore Hate His Body.
Chapter 26.—The Command to Love God and Our Neighbor Includes a Command to Love Ourselves.
Chapter 27.—The Order of Love.
Chapter 28.—How We are to Decide Whom to Aid.
Chapter 29.—We are to Desire and Endeavor that All Men May Love God.
Chapter 30.—Whether Angels are to Be Reckoned Our Neighbors.
Chapter 31.—God Uses Rather Than Enjoys Us.
Chapter 32.—In What Way God Uses Man.
Chapter 33.—In What Way Man Should Be Enjoyed.
Chapter 34.—Christ the First Way to God.
Chapter 35.—The Fulfillment and End of Scripture is the Love of God and Our Neighbor.
Chapter 37.—Dangers of Mistaken Interpretation.
Chapter 38.—Love Never Faileth.
Chapter 39.—He Who is Mature in Faith, Hope and Love, Needs Scripture No Longer.
Chapter 40.—What Manner of Reader Scripture Demands.
Chapter 1.—Signs, Their Nature and Variety.
Chapter 2.—Of the Kind of Signs We are Now Concerned with.
Chapter 3.—Among Signs, Words Hold the Chief Place.
Chapter 5.—Scripture Translated into Various Languages.
Chapter 6.—Use of the Obscurities in Scripture Which Arise from Its Figurative Language.
Chapter 8.—The Canonical Books.
Chapter 9.—How We Should Proceed in Studying Scripture.
Chapter 10.—Unknown or Ambiguous Signs Prevent Scripture from Being Understood.
Chapter 12.—A Diversity of Interpretations is Useful. Errors Arising from Ambiguous Words.
Chapter 13.—How Faulty Interpretations Can Be Emended.
Chapter 14.—How the Meaning of Unknown Words and Idioms is to Be Discovered.
Chapter 15.—Among Versions a Preference is Given to the Septuagint and the Itala.
Chapter 17.—Origin of the Legend of the Nine Muses.
Chapter 18.—No Help is to Be Despised, Even Though It Come from a Profane Source.
Chapter 19.—Two Kinds Of Heathen Knowledge.
Chapter 20.—The Superstitious Nature of Human Institutions.
Chapter 21.—Superstition of Astrologers.
Chapter 22 .—The Folly of Observing the Stars in Order to Predict the Events of a Life.
Chapter 23.—Why We Repudiate Arts of Divination.
Chapter 24.—The Intercourse and Agreement with Demons Which Superstitious Observances Maintain.
Chapter 26.—What Human Contrivances We are to Adopt, and What We are to Avoid.
Chapter 28.—To What Extent History is an Aid.
Chapter 29.—To What Extent Natural Science is an Exegetical Aid.
Chapter 30.—What the Mechanical Arts Contribute to Exegetics.
Chapter 31.—Use of Dialectics. Of Fallacies.
Chapter 32.—Valid Logical Sequence is Not Devised But Only Observed by Man.
Chapter 33.—False Inferences May Be Drawn from Valid Reasonings, and Vice Versa.
Chapter 34.—It is One Thing to Know the Laws of Inference, Another to Know the Truth of Opinions.
Chapter 35 .—The Science of Definition is Not False, Though It May Be Applied to Falsities.
Chapter 36.—The Rules of Eloquence are True, Though Sometimes Used to Persuade Men of What is False.
Chapter 37.—Use of Rhetoric and Dialectic.
Chapter 38.—The Science of Numbers Not Created, But Only Discovered, by Man.
Chapter 39.—To Which of the Above-Mentioned Studies Attention Should Be Given, and in What Spirit.
Chapter 40.—Whatever Has Been Rightly Said by the Heathen, We Must Appropriate to Our Uses.
Chapter 41.—What Kind of Spirit is Required for the Study of Holy Scripture.
Chapter 42.—Sacred Scripture Compared with Profane Authors.
Chapter 1 .—Summary of the Foregoing Books, and Scope of that Which Follows.
Chapter 2.—Rule for Removing Ambiguity by Attending to Punctuation.
Chapter 3.—How Pronunciation Serves to Remove Ambiguity. Different Kinds of Interrogation.
Chapter 4.—How Ambiguities May Be Solved.
Chapter 6.—Utility of the Bondage of the Jews.
Chapter 7.—The Useless Bondage of the Gentiles.
Chapter 8.—The Jews Liberated from Their Bondage in One Way, the Gentiles in Another.
Chapter 9.—Who is in Bondage to Signs, and Who Not.
Chapter 10.—How We are to Discern Whether a Phrase is Figurative.
Chapter 11.—Rule for Interpreting Phrases Which Seem to Ascribe Severity to God and the Saints.
Chapter 13.—Same Subject, Continued.
Chapter 14.—Error of Those Who Think that There is No Absolute Right and Wrong.
Chapter 15.—Rule for Interpreting Figurative Expressions.
Chapter 16.—Rule for Interpreting Commands and Prohibitions.
Chapter 17.—Some Commands are Given to All in Common, Others to Particular Classes.
Chapter 18.—We Must Take into Consideration the Time at Which Anything Was Enjoyed or Allowed.
Chapter 19.—Wicked Men Judge Others by Themselves.
Chapter 20.—Consistency of Good Men in All Outward Circumstances.
Chapter 21.—David Not Lustful, Though He Fell into Adultery.
Chapter 23.—Rule Regarding the Narrative of Sins of Great Men.
Chapter 24.—The Character of the Expressions Used is Above All to Have Weight.
Chapter 25.—The Same Word Does Not Always Signify the Same Thing.
Chapter 26.—Obscure Passages are to Be Interpreted by Those Which are Clearer.
Chapter 27.—One Passage Susceptible of Various Interpretations.
Chapter 29.—The Knowledge of Tropes is Necessary.
Chapter 30.—The Rules of Tichonius the Donatist Examined.
Chapter 31.—The First Rule of Tichonius.
Chapter 32.—The Second Rule of Tichonius.
Chapter 33.—The Third Rule of Tichonius.
Chapter 34.—The Fourth Rule of Tichonius.
Chapter 35.—The Fifth Rule of Tichonius.
Chapter 36.—The Sixth Rule of Tichonius.
Chapter 37.—The Seventh Rule of Tichonius.
Chapter 1.—This Work Not Intended as a Treatise on Rhetoric.
Chapter 2.—It is Lawful for a Christian Teacher to Use the Art of Rhetoric.
Chapter 3.—The Proper Age and the Proper Means for Acquiring Rhetorical Skill.
Chapter 4.—The Duty of the Christian Teacher.
Chapter 5.—Wisdom of More Importance Than Eloquence to the Christian Teacher.
Chapter 6.—The Sacred Writers Unite Eloquence with Wisdom.
Chapter 7.—Examples of True Eloquence Drawn from the Epistles of Paul and the Prophecies of Amos.
Chapter 9.—How, and with Whom, Difficult Passages are to Be Discussed.
Chapter 10.—The Necessity for Perspicuity of Style.
Chapter 11.—The Christian Teacher Must Speak Clearly, But Not Inelegantly.
Chapter 13.—The Hearer Must Be Moved as Well as Instructed.
Chapter 14.—Beauty of Diction to Be in Keeping with the Matter.
Chapter 15.—The Christian Teacher Should Pray Before Preaching.
Chapter 16.—Human Directions Not to Be Despised, Though God Makes the True Teacher.
Chapter 17.—Threefold Division of The Various Styles of Speech.
Chapter 18.—The Christian Orator is Constantly Dealing with Great Matters.
Chapter 19.—The Christian Teacher Must Use Different Styles on Different Occasions.
Chapter 20.—Examples of the Various Styles Drawn from Scripture.
Chapter 22.—The Necessity of Variety in Style.
Chapter 23.—How the Various Styles Should Be Mingled.
Chapter 24.—The Effects Produced by the Majestic Style.
Chapter 25.—How the Temperate Style is to Be Used.
Chapter 26.—In Every Style the Orator Should Aim at Perspicuity, Beauty, and Persuasiveness.
Chapter 27.—The Man Whose Life is in Harmony with His Teaching Will Teach with Greater Effect.
Chapter 28.—Truth is More Important Than Expression. What is Meant by Strife About Words.
Chapter 30.—The Preacher Should Commence His Discourse with Prayer to God.
Chapter 8.—The Canonical Books.
12. But let us now go back to consider the third step here mentioned, for it is about it that I have set myself to speak and reason as the Lord shall grant me wisdom. The most skillful interpreter of the sacred writings, then, will be he who in the first place has read them all and retained them in his knowledge, if not yet with full understanding, still with such knowledge as reading gives,—those of them, at least, that are called canonical. For he will read the others with greater safety when built up in the belief of the truth, so that they will not take first possession of a weak mind, nor, cheating it with dangerous falsehoods and delusions, fill it with prejudices adverse to a sound understanding. Now, in regard to the canonical Scriptures, he must follow the judgment of the greater number of catholic churches; and among these, of course, a high place must be given to such as have been thought worthy to be the seat of an apostle and to receive epistles. Accordingly, among the canonical Scriptures he will judge according to the following standard: to prefer those that are received by all the catholic churches to those which some do not receive. Among those, again, which are not received by all, he will prefer such as have the sanction of the greater number and those of greater authority, to such as are held by the smaller number and those of less authority. If, however, he shall find that some books are held by the greater number of churches, and others by the churches of greater authority (though this is not a very likely thing to happen), I think that in such a case the authority on the two sides is to be looked upon as equal.
13. Now the whole canon of Scripture on which we say this judgment is to be exercised, is contained in the following books:—Five books of Moses, that is, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy; one book of Joshua the son of Nun; one of Judges; one short book called Ruth, which seems rather to belong to the beginning of Kings; next, four books of Kings, and two of Chronicles—these last not following one another, but running parallel, so to speak, and going over the same ground. The books now mentioned are history, which contains a connected narrative of the times, and follows the order of the events. There are other books which seem to follow no regular order, and are connected neither with the order of the preceding books nor with one another, such as Job, and Tobias, and Esther, and Judith, and the two books of Maccabees, and the two of Ezra,63 That is, Ezra and Nehemiah. which last look more like a sequel to the continuous regular history which terminates with the books of Kings and Chronicles. Next are the Prophets, in which there is one book of the Psalms of David; and three books of Solomon, viz., Proverbs, Song of Songs, and Ecclesiastes. For two books, one called Wisdom and the other Ecclesiasticus, are ascribed to Solomon from a certain resemblance of style, but the most likely opinion is that they were written by Jesus the son of Sirach.64 Augustin in his Retractations withdrew this opinion so far as regards the book of Wisdom. Still they are to be reckoned among the prophetical books, since they have attained recognition as being authoritative. The remainder are the books which are strictly called the Prophets: twelve separate books of the prophets which are connected with one another, and having never been disjoined, are reckoned as one book; the names of these prophets are as follows:—Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi; then there are the four greater prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel. The authority of the Old Testament65 This application of the phrase “Old Testament” is withdrawn and apologized for in the Retractations. is contained within the limits of these forty-four books. That of the New Testament, again, is contained within the following:—Four books of the Gospel, according to Matthew, according to Mark, according to Luke, according to John; fourteen epistles of the Apostle Paul—one to the Romans, two to the Corinthians, one to the Galatians, to the Ephesians, to the Philippians, two to the Thessalonians, one to the Colossians, two to Timothy, one to Titus, to Philemon, to the Hebrews: two of Peter; three of John; one of Jude; and one of James; one book of the Acts of the Apostles; and one of the Revelation of John.
CAPUT VIII. Libri canonici.
12. Sed nos ad tertium illum gradum considerationem referamus, de quo disserere quod Dominus suggesserit, atque tractare instituimus. Erit igitur divinarum Scripturarum solertissimus indagator, qui primo totas legerit, notasque habuerit, et si nondum intellectu, jam tamen lectione, duntaxat eas quae appellantur canonicae. Nam caeteras securius leget fide veritatis instructus, ne praeoccupent imbecillem animum, et periculosis mendaciis atque phantasmatibus eludentes praejudicent aliquid contra sanam intelligentiam. In canonicis autem Scripturis, Ecclesiarum catholicarum quamplurium auctoritatem sequatur; inter quas sane illae sint, quae apostolicas Sedes habere et Epistolas accipere meruerunt. Tenebit igitur hunc modum in Scripturis canonicis, ut eas quae ab omnibus accipiuntur Ecclesiis catholicis, praeponat eis quas quaedam non accipiunt: in eis vero quae non accipiuntur ab omnibus, praeponat eas quas plures gravioresque accipiunt, eis quas pauciores minorisque auctoritatis Ecclesiae tenent. Si autem alias invenerit a pluribus, alias a gravioribus haberi, quanquam hoc 0041 facile invenire non possit, aequalis tamen auctoritatis eas habendas puto.
13. Totus autem canon Scripturarum, in quo istam considerationem versandam dicimus, his libris continetur : Quinque Moyseos, id est Genesi, Exodo, Levitico, Numeris, Deuteronomio; et uno libro Jesu Nave, uno Judicum, uno libello qui appellatur Ruth, qui magis ad Regnorum principium videtur pertinere; deinde quatuor Regnorum, et duobus Paralipomenon, non consequentibus, sed quasi a latere adjunctis simulque pergentibus. Haec est historia, quae sibimet annexa tempora continet, atque ordinem rerum: sunt aliae tanquam ex diverso ordine, quae neque huic ordini, neque inter se connectuntur, sicut est Job, et Tobias, et Esther, et Judith, et Machabaeorum libri duo, et Esdrae duo, qui magis subsequi videntur ordinatam illam historiam usque ad Regnorum vel Paralipomenon terminatam: deinde Prophetae, in quibus David unus liber Psalmorum; et Salomonis tres, Proverbiorum, Cantica canticorum, et Ecclesiastes. Nam illi duo libri, unus qui Sapientia, et alius qui Ecclesiasticus inscribitur, de quadam similitudine Salomonis esse dicuntur: nam Jesus Sirach eos conscripsisse constantissime perhibetur , qui tamen quoniam in auctoritatem recipi meruerunt, inter propheticos numerandi sunt. Reliqui sunt eorum libri, qui proprie Prophetae appellantur, duodecim Prophetarum libri singuli, qui connexi sibimet, quoniam nunquam sejuncti sunt, pro uno habentur: quorum Prophetarum nomina sunt haec, Osee, Joel, Amos, Abdias, Jonas, Michaeas, Nahum, Habacuc, Sophonias, Aggaeus, Zacharias, Malachias: deinde quatuor Prophetae sunt majorum voluminum, Isaias, Jeremias, Daniel, Ezechiel. His quadraginta quatuor libris Testamenti Veteris terminatur auctoritas : Novi autem, quatuor libris Evangelii, secundum Matthaeum, secundum Marcum, secundum Lucam, secundum Joannem; quatuordecim Epistolis Pauli apostoli, ad Romanos, ad Corinthios duabus, ad Galatas, ad Ephesios, ad Philippenses, ad Thessalonicenses duabus, ad Colossenses, ad Timotheum duabus, ad Titum, ad Philemonem, ad Hebraeos; Petri duabus; tribus Joannis; una Judae, et una Jacobi; Actibus Apostolorum libro uno, et Apocalypsi Joannis libro uno.