Reading Scripture with Augustine: Some Key Principles
Time for bustin’ some Augustine. Augustine of Hippo (354–430 AD) ranks as one of the most influential thinkers of all time, and also one of the most important theologians.
In the early fifth century, he wrote De Doctrina Christiana (On Christian Doctrine or Teaching Christianity). He wrote this book to help Christians interpret the Scriptures and share its message with others. As he writes in his opening sentence:
There are two things which all treatment of the scriptures is aiming at: a way to discover what needs to be understood, and a way to put across to others what has been understood.
Augustine, Teaching Christianity [De Doctrina Christiana], 1.1, ed. Rotelle, trans. Hill, vol. I/11 of The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century [Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 1996], §1.1.1, page 109. All quotations of Augustine are from this translation.
In other words, we need:
A way to understand the Bible; and
A way to put it across.
In this article, we’ll focus on his “way to understand” the Bible. We’ll focus on “putting it across” later.
Signs and Things
Augustine kicks off De Doctrina by making a distinction between signs and things:
All teaching is either about things or signs; but things are learned about through signs.
De Doctrina, 1.2.2, page 110
Things are objects or realities that exist for their own sake. Signs are things that point to something else. For example, wood or stone are “things,” while words are “signs” because they convey meaning beyond themselves.
This distinction is foundational to Augustine's understanding of Scripture. He urges readers to explore the “signs” contained in Scripture so that they can more fully enjoy the ultimate “thing.”
2. Enjoying God
For Augustine, enjoying “consists in clinging to something lovingly for its own sake” (1.4.4, page 110). Furthermore, “Things that are to be enjoyed make us happy” (De Doctrina, 1.3.3 page 110). All of the “signs” in Scripture aim to direct believers toward the ultimate “thing” to be enjoyed: God. Therefore, the call to delight in God is at the heart of Augustine's theology.
The things therefore that are to be enjoyed are the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, in fact the Trinity, one supreme thing, and one which is shared in common by all who enjoy it.
De Doctrina, 1.5.5, page 111.
In other words, God is supreme, and true happiness consists in fully delighting in him. Everything else (including other Christians) is secondary and serves to draw us closer to this end.
The supreme reward is that we should enjoy him and that all of us who enjoy him should also enjoy one another in him.
De Doctrina, 1.32.35, page 126
3. Pursue Love
Since God is the ultimate “thing” to be enjoyed, and enjoyment is about clinging to him in love, it is therefore paramount that we pursue love of God. And if we truly love God, we will also love those who love and enjoy him, too. This will impact how we read Scripture. For Augustine, the purpose of Scripture is to cultivate love:
So what all that has been said amounts to, while we have been dealing with things, is that the fulfillment and the end of the law and of all the divine scriptures is love (Rom 13:8; 1 Tm 1:5); love of the thing which is to be enjoyed, and of the thing which is able to enjoy that thing together with us, because there is no need for a commandment that we should love ourselves.
De Doctrina 1.35.39, page 128.
The Scriptures lead us to the love of God, the ultimate thing to be enjoyed. This means that,
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 neighbour, then you have not yet understood them.
De Doctrina, 1.36.40, page 129.
Love is the lens through which Scripture must be read and interpreted. If reading Scripture doesn’t lead to love, whether love of God or love of people, you haven’t understood what you’ve read.
4. Read, Read, Read
But how do you get to that point where you’ve understood the signs of Scripture that enable you to enjoy God and pursue love?
Augustine has lots of thoughts on this. But central to them all is the need to read, read some more, and read a bit more when you’ve done that.
So then, the really accomplished investigators of the divine scriptures will be those who have begun by reading them all and becoming familiar with them at least by reading, if not yet by understanding them all—just those, that is, which are called canonical.
De Doctrina, 2.8.12, page 138
If you want to become an “accomplished investigator” of the Bible, you have to read it and read it lots. You won’t understand everything, and that’s ok. But your understanding will increase as you gradually chip away at reading the Bible.
Unfortunately, Augustine has some funky views on what the canon actually is, including his view on how the Septuagint (the Greek Bible) was translated and which books should be included (he includes several extra books—the Apocrypha, which probably shouldn’t be regarded as Holy Scripture). But his general point is correct.
Just over fifteen years ago, convinced of the importance of reading the Bible over and over, I committed myself to the practice of reading the whole Bible each calendar year. I’m just reaching the end of round fifteen. I don’t share this to show off—nobody really cares anyway. I share this because I can see first-hand how reading the Bible lots and lots proves his point. My knowledge and understanding of the Bible has increased dramatically from reading the Bible. This has helped me enjoy God more and has led me to love God and others more. You don’t have to read the Bible the same way I do. But there’s no substitute for continually immersing yourself in God’s word.
5. Appreciate the Languages
As we read Scripture more and more, Augustine calls us to appreciate the original languages. Augustine writes:
The best remedy for ignorance of proper signs is the knowledge of languages; and in addition to the English and Latin languages, the people whom I have now undertaken to advise have need of the two other languages of the divine scriptures, namely Hebrew and Greek, so that they can have recourse to the earlier versions whenever doubt about the meaning of a text is raised by the infinite variety of Latin translations.
De Doctrina, 2.11.16, page 141. Note that the translator has added “English” in an attempt to help the reader understand what Augustine is saying. Augustine spoke Latin, not English.
If we want to understand the Bible more deeply than what we read in our translations, we need to turn to its original languages. The Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew (and parts of Daniel and Ezra in Aramaic), and the New Testament was written in Greek. Appreciating these languages will increase our understanding of the Bible.
Augustine isn’t saying that our Bible translations are bad. As someone who has spent a fair bit of time reading the Bible in Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic, I’m convinced that most mainstream translations are excellent and achieve what they set out to achieve.
However, you pick up on nuances and details in the original languages that you miss in translations. It’s like the difference between watching TV in SD and HD. In SD, you can still follow the story and have a good grasp of what’s happening. But in HD, you pick up on more nuances and details and get a richer experience.
For some people, this means learning Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic. Certainly, those working in full-time Bible teaching roles need to know the original languages. You’d be disappointed if you went to learn from a teacher of French literature and discovered that they can’t read French. Similarly, you’d be disappointed if you went to learn from a teacher of Greek and Hebrew literature only to find out that they can’t read Greek and Hebrew!
Other people—most Christians, in fact—won’t have the time to learn the original Bible languages. But there are other ways they can “appreciate” the original languages. You can compare English translations or turn to a commentary for further insight from an expert.
6. Appreciate Authorial Intent
As we read the Bible—in whatever translation we read—we need to consider what the author intended to communicate. Augustine writes:
In reading it their one intention is to discover the thoughts and will of the authors it was written by, and through them to discover the will of God, which we believe directed what such human writers had to say.
De Doctrina 2.5.6, page 135.Those who are engaged in searching the divine utterances must make every effort to arrive at the intention of the author through whom the Holy Spirit produced that portion of scripture.
De Doctrina, 3.27.38, page 194
We don’t just open up the Bible to a random page, find some words we like and bend the meaning of the text to suit our own agenda. We need to work out what the original human author meant. This will help us understand God’s will. As we read in 2 Peter 1:21 (NIV),
Prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
The words that the human authors wrote down matter because God spoke these words to us by his Spirit.
Sometimes, we’ll get the meaning of a passage wrong, yet from our incorrect understanding, we say helpful things that build people up in love. Augustine is ok with this.
Any who understand a passage in the scriptures to mean something which the writer did not mean are mistaken, though the scriptures are not deceiving them. But all the same, as I had started to say, if they are mistaken in a judgment which is intended to build up [love], which is the end of the law, they are mistaken in the same sort of way as people who go astray off the road, but still proceed by rough paths to the same place as the road was taking them to. Still, they must be put right, and shown how much more useful it is not to leave the road, in case they get into the habit of deviating from it, and are eventually driven to take the wrong direction altogether.
De Doctrina, 1.36.41, page 129
Sometimes, you’ll get the meaning of the passage wrong, but you haven’t taught misleading stuff. If it leads to love, don’t beat yourself up too much. You’ve taken the wrong road but made your way to the right destination. But, at the same time, don’t get into the habit of taking the wrong road. You might not be so lucky next time.
7. Pay Attention to the Local Context
When we’re stuck on the meaning of a word or passage, it helps to explore the local context. Augustine writes:
It remains to refer to the whole context, to the sections that precede and that follow the ambiguous passage, holding it in the middle between them, so that we may see which of the several meanings that present themselves the context will vote for and allow to fit in with itself.
De Doctrina, 3.2.2, pages 175-176
What was said before the verse you don’t understand? What was said after? Has the same word or idea come up elsewhere in the book? Attention to the local context of your passage will help you understand the meaning.
For example, consider John 1:1. It’s talking about “the Word.” We’re told that “the Word” was “with God” and the Word “was God.” If we take either phrase out of context, we could end up mistaken or confused. Is the Word the same person as the “God” person? But if that’s the case, how can we make sense of the Word being “with God?” As we read through the rest of John 1, we discover that the Word is also God’s Son, the man Jesus Christ, who is in “closest relationship” with the Father. The context helps us understand that the God who is “with” the Word is the Father. The context helps us understand that the Word is God in the sense that he is “divine,” but he’s not the same person as God the Father.
So, it’s necessary to pay attention to the local context.
8. Pay Attention to the Big-Picture Context
It’s also important to pay attention to the big-picture context.
When we get stuck on a passage, and the local context doesn’t help, we can turn to other parts of the Bible, to “the plainer passages of scripture” (De Doctrina, 3.2.2, page 175).
Augustine writes:
Magnificent and salutary, therefore, is the way the Holy Spirit has so adjusted the holy scriptures, that they ward off starvation with the clearer passages, while driving away boredom with the obscurer ones. There is almost nothing, in fact, that can be extracted from their obscurities, which cannot be found very plainly said somewhere else.
De Doctrina, 3.2.6, page 136
We’ll never starve when we read the Bible because there are very clear passages. Some bits of the Bible are difficult to understand. That keeps us from getting bored. But we can go to the clearer parts of the Bible to understand the confusing parts: “Wherever their meaning is clear, there we must learn how they are to be understood in obscurer places.” (De Doctrina, 3.26, page 194).
9. All Truth is God’s Truth
For Augustine, truth—wherever it is found—belongs to God
All good and true Christians should understand that truth belongs to their Lord wherever they may find it.
De Doctrina, 2.18.28, page 151
Therefore, he sees value in turning to history, science and human reason as we read the Bible. However, we must do so with caution. He writes:
But where a possible meaning emerges which cannot be made entirely clear by other certain testimonies of the holy scriptures, it remains to elucidate it with arguments from reason, even if the writer whose words we are trying to understand did not perhaps intend that meaning. But this habit is risky; it is really much safer to walk along with the divine scriptures; when we wish to examine passages rendered obscure with words used metaphorically, either let something emerge from our scrutiny that is not controversial, or else if it is so, let the matter be settled from the same scripture by finding and applying testimonies from anywhere else in the sacred books.
De Doctrina, 3.28.39, page 194
Since all truth is God’s truth, there is a place for reason and logic. However, we must proceed with caution.
10. Read with the Church, Now and Then
Finally, Augustine emphasises the importance of reading Scripture within the community of faith.
So when, on paying closer attention, you still see that it is uncertain how something is to be phrased, or how to be pronounced, you should refer it to the rule of faith, which you have received from the plainer passages of scripture and from the authority of the Church, about which we dealt sufficiently when we were talking in the first book about things.
De Doctrina, 3.2.2., 175
When we come across ambiguous or unclear passages, readers should interpret them using the “rule of faith.” By the “rule of faith”, he basically means core Christian beliefs that most Christians believe, derived from clearer, more straightforward parts of Scripture. While the church isn’t more authoritative than the Bible, the Church community is an important authority.
Augustine’s method assumes that Scripture is harmonious and unified in its message, with the rule of faith making stuff coherent and preventing misinterpretation.
Sometimes, Christians can adopt a “me and my Bible” mindset, thinking that they can solve everything on their own. Augustine reminds us that we’re not the first to read the Bible. People have been reading it for a long time, and we can learn from other Christians, past and present.
We can read books, commentaries, and blogs, listen to sermons at church, online, and at conferences, listen to podcasts, and, of course, have good old discussions with fellow Christians.
There are many ways in which we can draw upon fellow Christians for assistance in understanding his word.
My Two Reservations
According to Augustine, to understand Scripture, we need to understand the various “signs” within it to understand the ultimate “thing”—God—so that we might enjoy him and love him and his people. To this end, we need to read, read, read, appreciating the languages, paying attention to the local and big-picture context, recognising that all truth is God’s truth, and having others help us understand his word.
All in all, this is reasonably helpful.
My two biggest concerns have to do with what he writes about figurative meanings of texts and with what he doesn’t say concerning how we read the Old Testament in light of the New.
Figurative Readings
Augustine’s emphasis on figurative readings of Scripture, especially in Book 3, risks subjectivity. I fear it can lead to overly allegorical interpretations, that is, interpretations looking for hidden meanings that stray from the text’s original intent and historical context. This approach may also downplay the plain, literal meaning of passages, making interpretation reliant on the interpreter’s theological assumptions rather than the text itself.
2. Reading the Old Testament in Light of the New
I also feel he doesn’t say much about how we read the Old Testament in light of the gospel. I’m convinced that Scripture should lead us to love of God and love of neighbour. But we get there via the cross. Augustine doesn’t tell us much about how we get from the Old Testament to the gospel, whether through prophecy, promises or typology, leaving his method open to questions about how the Old Testament’s fulfilment in Christ is understood and applied.
