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Confessiones

Caput 24

Sed quis nostrum sic invenit eam inter tam multa vera, quae in illis verbis aliter atque aliter intellectis occurrunt quaerentibus, ut tam fidenter dicat hoc senisse Moysen atque hoc in illa narratione voluisse intellegi, quam fidenter dicit hoc verum esse, sive ille hoc senserit sive aliud? ecce enim, deus meus, ego servus tuus, qui vovi tibi sacrificium confessionis in his litteris, et oro, ut ex misericordia tua reddam tibi vota mea, ecce ego quam fidenter dico in tuo verbo incommutabili omnia te fecisse, invisibilia et visibilia, numquid tam fidenter dico non aliud quam hoc adtendisse Moysen, cum scriberet: in principio fecit deus caelum et terram, quia non, sicut in tua veritate hoc certum video, ita in eius mente video id eum cogitasse, cum haec scriberet? potuit enim cogitare in ipso faciendi exordio, cum diceret: in principio; potuit et caelum et terram hoc loco nullam iam formatam perfectamque naturam sive spiritalem sive corporalem, sed utramque inchoatam et adhuc informem velle intellegi. video quippe vere potuisse dici, quidquid horum diceretur, sed quid horum in his verbis ille cogitaverit, non ita video, quamvis sive aliquid horum sive quid aliud, quod a me commemoratum non est, tantus vir ille mente conspexerit, cum haec verba promeret, verum eum vidisse apteque id enuntiavisse non dubitem.

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The Confessions of St. Augustin In Thirteen Books

Chapter XXIV.--Out of the Many True Things, It is Not Asserted Confidently that Moses Understood This or That.

33. But which of us, amid so many truths which occur to inquirers in these words, understood as they are in different ways, shall so discover that one interpretation as to confidently say "that Moses thought this," and "that in that narrative he wished this to be understood," as confidently as he says "that this is true," whether he thought this thing or the other? For behold, O my God, I Thy servant, who in this book have vowed unto Thee a sacrifice of confession, and beseech Thee that of Thy mercy I may pay my vows unto Thee, ¹ behold, can I, as I confidently assert that Thou in Thy immutable word hast created all things, invisible and visible, with equal confidence assert that Moses meant nothing else than this when he wrote, "In the beginning God created. the heaven and the earth." ² No. Because it is not as clear to me that this was in his mind when he wrote these things, as I see it to be certain in Thy truth. For his thoughts might be set upon the very beginning of the creation when he said, "In the beginning;" and he might wish it to be understood that, in this place, "the heaven and the earth" were no formed and perfected nature, whether spiritual or corporeal, but each of them newly begun, and as yet formless. Because I see, that which-soever of these had been said, it might have been said truly; but which of them he may have thought in these words, I do not so perceive. Although, whether it were one of these, or some other meaning which has not been mentioned by me, that this great man saw in his mind when he used these words, I make no doubt but that he saw it truly, and expressed it suitably.