20. Revisions 1. 18, 1 (CCL 57, 54).
1 08 Unfinished Literal Commentary on Genesis avoid asserting anything rashly, and something you don't know as if you did; and remember that you are just a human being investigating the works to the extent that you are permitted to do so."15
Both his realization of the inexhaustible depths of the divine words16 and his awareness of his own limitations in the areas of exegesis, philology, physics, mathematics, astronomy, and so on allowed Augustine to propose numerous very divergent hypotheses, which he offered simply as possible interpretations of the biblical text. Indeed, it is not always clear which hypothesis he himself preferred.17 On the other hand, it is clear in not a few passages which interpreta tive possibilities he favored or rejected.18
Exegesis
At the beginning of his commentary Augustine lists four ways of interpreting the Old Testament (quattuor modi legis exponendae): "the way of history, the way of allegory, the way of analogy, the way of aetiology" (secundum historiam, secundum allegoriam, secundum analogiam, secundum aetiologiam).19 As is shown by the appended definition ofthese exegetical terms and the application of each to the first verse of Genesis, Augustine seems to be thinking of four ways of reading Old Testament texts. An historical-literal reading (1) aims at an understanding ofwhat has occurred and is being narrated. Aetiological (2) and analogical (3) readings likewise remain at the level of the literal meaning of the words, inquiring, on the one hand (2), into the reasons for a particular expression or a particular event and endeavoring, on the other hand
(3), to show the compatibility and harmony with the gospel. An allegorical reading (4) looks beyond the literal sense for a higher, figurative sense. As Augustine explains in the Revisions,20 he was attempting in this commentary a strictly historico-literal reading (ad litteram/'secundum historicam proprietatem) of the text of Genesis.
15. 1bid.. 9, 30; see 8, 29. 16. See The Literal Meaning ofGenesis 1, 21. 41; see Teaching Christianitv 111, 27,38 (CCL 32, 9f.); Confessions X11, 1 8. 27; X11, 32, 43 (CCL 27, 229 and 240). See Th.Finan. "St Augustine on the mira profunditas of Scripture. Texts and Contexts," in Th. Finan and V. Twomey (eds.). Scriptural lntepretation in the Fathers: Letterand Spirit (Patristic Hermeneutics. Proceedings of the Second Patristic Conference at Maynooth, 1993; Cambridge, 1995) 162-199. 17. See Unfinished Literal Commentary on Genesis 4, 1 8; 6, 27; 9, 30. 18. See ibid., 3, 10; 4, 13and 17;5, 19-20and25;9,31; 10,32; 1 1,34-35; 13,40 and42; 14,46. 19. 1bid., 2, 5; The Advantage of Believing 3. 5 (CSEL 25/1. 7f.). On the subject see A. Penna, Sant'Agostino, La Genesi 1 (Nuova Biblioteca Agostiniana 9/1; Rome, 1988) LX1-LXV; Marin, "11 De genesi . . . ," (note 2, above) 123-127. 20. Revisions 1. 18, 1 (CCL 57, 54).