26. See, for example, ibid.. V1, 12, 20.
1 60 The Literal Meaning of Genesis the divine scriptures."24 In order to express what took place outside of space and time God used language adapted to the capacity of the human understanding, and this necessarily meant using the categories of space and time.25
For exegesis this meant watching out for the anthropomorphic expressions which the biblical writers used in describing God's action.26 A literal interpreta tion required, therefore, that the exegete not stop short at the surface, at the letter of what is said, but rather penetrate to the real intention of the biblical narrator, that is, God himself. The word by which God called things into existence, the repose he took after the act of creation, the temporal sequence of his actions, the change from morning to evening—all these must not be understood in the sense suggested by direct human experience. Instead, words and concepts must be so interpreted as to reflect the mystery of God and of his creative action. In keeping, then, with the doctrine formulated in Teaching Christianity, even in passages in which Augustine interpreted the scriptures in the literal sense, he also looked for the realities (res) to which words (verba) pointed as signs.27 For example, when Genesis spoke of light, Augustine was convinced that the light perceptible by the senses was not the true light; rather, the light of the mind was the ultimate reality to which the biblical author, that is, God, intended to refer.28
There is, however, a difference to be noted in the interpretation of the first account of creation as compared with the second (Gn 1:1—2:4a and Gen 2:4b—3:24). Whereas Augustine gave a strictly figurative interpretation of the first account (while regarding this as the literal sense), his exegesis of the second account sticks very close to the meaning of the letter. The reason for the differ ence is that Augustine did not regard the two accounts as two narratives of the same event, but rather as two different narratives of two moments or aspects of creation. The first account tells of the first moment of creation, in which a single creative act of God called all things into existence in an inchoative state from which they were all to develop gradually. The second account, however, no longer describes an event on the threshold between time and eternity, but an event within time. This account deals with human beings, their life in paradise, and how by their free acts they refused to comply with God's plan.
Augustine holds fast to the literal meaning of this biblical story. For him, paradise was a real garden, the tree of life and the tree of knowledge were real trees, the rivers were real rivers. He thought that by maintaining the reality of the spatio-temporal framework of the paradise story he could best safeguard the truths of faith implied in the story. In his view, sticking to the literal meaning
24. On Genesis: A Refutation of the Manichees 1, 14, 20. 25. See The Literal Meaning of Genesis V, 16, 34. 26. See, for example, ibid.. V1, 12, 20. 27. See Teaching Christianity 1. 2, 2 (CCL 32, 7). 28. See The Literal Meaning ofGenesis 1V, 28, 45.