On Christian Doctrine — Iii

St. Augustine of Hippo

  1. 1. Summary of the Foregoing Books, and Scope of that Which Follows.
  2. 2. — Rule for Removing Ambiguity by Attending to Punctuation.
  3. 3. — How Pronunciation Serves to Remove Ambiguity. Different Kinds of Interrogation.
  4. 4. — How Ambiguities May Be Solved.
  5. 5. — It is a Wretched Slavery Which Takes the Figurative Expressions of Scripture in a Literal Sense.
  6. 6. — Utility of the Bondage of the Jews.
  7. 7. — The Useless Bondage of the Gentiles.
  8. 8. — The Jews Liberated from Their Bondage in One Way, the Gentiles in Another.
  9. 9. — Who is in Bondage to Signs, and Who Not.
  10. 10. — How We are to Discern Whether a Phrase is Figurative.
  11. 11. — Rule for Interpreting Phrases Which Seem to Ascribe Severity to God and the Saints.
  12. 12. — Rule for Interpreting Those Sayings and Actions Which are Ascribed to God and the Saints, and Which Yet Seem to the Unskillful to Be Wicked.
  13. 13. — Same Subject, Continued.
  14. 14. — Error of Those Who Think that There is No Absolute Right and Wrong.
  15. 15. — Rule for Interpreting Figurative Expressions.
  16. 16. — Rule for Interpreting Commands and Prohibitions.
  17. 17. — Some Commands are Given to All in Common, Others to Particular Classes.
  18. 18. — We Must Take into Consideration the Time at Which Anything Was Enjoyed or Allowed.
  19. 19. — Wicked Men Judge Others by Themselves.
  20. 20. — Consistency of Good Men in All Outward Circumstances.
  21. 21. — David Not Lustful, Though He Fell into Adultery.
  22. 22. — Rule Regarding Passages of Scripture in Which Approval is Expressed of Actions Which are Now Condemned by Good Men.
  23. 23. — Rule Regarding the Narrative of Sins of Great Men.
  24. 24. — The Character of the Expressions Used is Above All to Have Weight.
  25. 25. — The Same Word Does Not Always Signify the Same Thing.
  26. 26. — Obscure Passages are to Be Interpreted by Those Which are Clearer.
  27. 27. — One Passage Susceptible of Various Interpretations.
  28. 28. — It is Safer to Explain a Doubtful Passage by Other Passages of Scripture Than by Reason.
  29. 29. — The Knowledge of Tropes is Necessary.
  30. 30. — The Rules of Tichonius the Donatist Examined.
  31. 31. — The First Rule of Tichonius.
  32. 32. — The Second Rule of Tichonius.
  33. 33. — The Third Rule of Tichonius.
  34. 34. — The Fourth Rule of Tichonius.
  35. 35. — The Fifth Rule of Tichonius.
  36. 36. — The Sixth Rule of Tichonius.
  37. 37. — The Seventh Rule of Tichonius.

I. The man who fears God seeks diligently in Holy Scripture for a knowledge of His will. And when he has become meek through piety, so as to have no love of strife; when furnished also with a knowledge of languages, so as not to be stopped by unknown words and forms of speech, and with the knowledge of certain necessary objects, so as not to be ignorant of the force and nature of those which are used figuratively; and assisted, besides, by accuracy in the texts, which has been secured by skill and care in the matter of correction — when thus prepared, let him proceed to the examination and solution of the ambiguities of Scripture. And that he may not be led astray by ambiguous signs, so far as I can give him instruction (it may happen, however, that either from the greatness of his intellect, or the greater clearness of the light he enjoys, he shall laugh at the methods I am going to point out as childish) — but yet, as I was going to say, so far as I can give instruction, let him who is in such a state of mind that he can be instructed by me know, that the ambiguity of Scripture lies either in proper words or in metaphorical, classes which I have already described in the second book.