Biblioteca Agostiniana 9/1; Rome, 1988) 185-193; M. Marin, "11 De Genesi ad litteram
1ntroduction
Origin and intention
The Augustine who had been living a contemplative life in Thagaste had meanwhile become a priest in Hippo (39 1 ); there, together with some friends, he lived in a monastic community. Among his most important tasks during the ensuing period was the instruction of the faithful and the preaching of God's word to them. The Manichees were active in Hippo as elsewhere and, as Possidius tells us, not a few Christians were impressed by their propaganda.1
Given this situation, Augustine decided to compose another commentary on the book of Genesis.2 In his Revisions he describes in detail the origin and fate of the work: "The two books on Genesis which I composed against the Manichees treated of the words of scripture according to the allegorical sense, because l did not dare expound in their literal meaning such great mysteries of the natural order; that is to say, how what is said there can be taken as strictly historical. So later on I wished to test what I was capable of in this most laborious and difficult work as well; but tyro that I was in the business of expounding scripture, I soon collapsed under the weight of such a burden. And without having completed one book, l laid aside a task I was unable to keep up.
"But when in this work I am engaged on here [that is, the Revisions] I was revising my minor works, this one, unfinished as it was, came into my hands. I had never published it and had decided to suppress it, since later on I wrote a work in twelve books, of which the title is A Literal Commentary on Genesis. ln them indeed there seem to be many more questions asked than answers found, but still that earlier effort is in no way to be compared with them. However, I preferred to keep this one too after I had revised it, as a pointer that will not, l think, be without its use, to my first attempts at cracking open and exploring the divine writings; and I have decided its title is to be Unfinished Literal
Commentary on Genesis."3
1. Possidius, Life ofAugustine 6, 1. 2. On this work generally see L. Carrozzi, Sant'Agostino, Libro incompiuto su la Genesi (Nuova Biblioteca Agostiniana 9/1; Rome, 1988) 185-193; M. Marin, "11 De Genesi ad litteram imperfectus liber," in De Genesi contra Manichaeos. De Genesi ad litteram liber imperfectus (Lectio Augustini 8; Palermo, 1992) 1 17-151. 3. Revisions 1, 18, 1 (CCL 57, 54). See D. Weber, "1n scripturis exponendis tirocinium meum succubuit. Zu Augustins friihen Versuchen einer Genesis-Exegese," in L'esegesi dei Padri