intus utique mihi, intus in domicilio cogitationis nec hebraea nec graeca nec latina nec barbara veritas sine oris et linguae organis, sine strepitu syllabarum diceret: 'verum dicit'...
Confessions XI.iii
Unless you read a bit of Latin you probably will depend upon a translation in order to understand what Auggie saying here. He has been writing about Moses, to whom Augustine attributes authorship of Genesis. Augustine engages a basic question: how does one hear and understand (audiam et intellegam...), how God in the beginning made the heavens and the earth? Hmmm, well, a pretty straightforward and simple project of interpretation if there ever was one.
Augustine's first impulse is to address the issue of reaching the author of a text: what if he were able to converse with Moses, to speak with him? Would that answer the fundamental question about the origin of creation? The first problem is language. If Moses spoke to Augustine in Hebrew, it would be useless, while if Moses were to converse in Latin, then it might be more profitable. (XI.iii) But then Augustine comes to a foundational question: how would he know whether or not Moses spoke the truth (...an verum diceret)?
And here at once is the most dangerous and most comforting of realities. In reading the Scriptures and seeking for meaning, he has to look
intus utique mihi, intinus in domicilio cogitationis nec hebraea nec graeca nec latina nec barbara veritas sine oris et linguae organis, sine strepitu syllabarum diceret: 'verum dicit'...
External forms of assistance in reading the Scriptures are helpful (author, language and context), but the kind of knowing which Augustine searches for will be found 'within' him, in the inward house of his thoughts, where truth ['Truth' - as in the second person of the trinity, in whom 'are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge' X.xliii ] speaks to him without the form [= limitations?] of human language. Augustine ends this introduction to the question of understanding creation with a rather non-academic sort of plea: parce peccatis mea - "pardon my sins".
Mercy comes before knowledge, and understanding the meaning of scripture is dependent upon the presence of the Word.
[Side note: do you ever just mindlessly close the door to the bathroom, even when you know that no one else is home? Just wondering...]
I'm going to try to have a further look at Confessions X-XII while over in the middle east, so there might be sporadic bits of this in amongst pictures of bedouin campfires and such...whenever I find an internet connection...
Joe, can you give a quick run-down of this. My head was hurting this morning BEFORE reading your blog:
- To know if the scriptures are true, we cannot rely on others telling us so because our language might be different and they might be lying.
- To know if the scriptures are true, we have to rely on the Truth, who is Jesus.
- We need to respond to Jesus in order to know the scriptures are true.
- We need to repent of our sins to know Jesus, and thus to know the scriptures are true.
But... how do we get to know Jesus if we doubt the scriptures? In my mind it is a circular argument:
- To know Jesus we read the scriptures.
- To know if the scriptures are true we need to know Jesus.
Maybe I forgot something else that Augustine wrote.... I seem to remember about God being known in other ways other than scriptures, but scriptures is the best way.
Alex
Posted by: alex | April 23, 2007 at 01:17 PM
or, as we progress through, we might see something about the simultaneous action of teh two "Words" of God...
Posted by: joseph | April 25, 2007 at 09:31 AM