about his real intentions, and his thoroughly "anti-fundamentalist" understanding of the literal
202 The Literal Meaning of Genesis must be stated very briefly that our authors knew about the shape of the sky whatever may be the truth of the matter. But the Spirit of God who was speaking through them did not wish to teach people about such things which would contribute nothing to their salvation.
21. But, says somebody, how are these people, who attribute to the sky the shape of a sphere or globe, not contradicted by what is written in our literature: who stretched out the sky like a skin (Ps 104:2)? Certainly let it be contradicted by that, if what they say is false; this, after all, is true which has divine authority behind it, rather than that which is the guesswork of human weakness. But if it should happen that they can prove their case with evidence and arguments beyond any possibility of doubt, then it has to be demonstrated that what is said here among us about a skin is not contrary to those explanations of theirs. Other wise, in any case (if you are going to be crassly literal-minded21) it will also be contrary to another place in these very scriptures of ours where the sky is said to be like a suspended dome.22 What, I ask you, could be so different and opposed to each other as a skin stretched out flat, and the hollow curve of a dome? But if we are obliged, as indeed we are, to understand these two expressions in such a way that they are found to agree with each other and not to be in the least contra dictory, then we are also and equally obliged to demonstrate that neither of them is opposed to those explanations, should they happen to be shown by rational arguments to be true, which inform us that the sky has the shape of a hollow globe all round us—provided, once again, it can be proved.
22. And even if that comparison on our side with a dome is taken literally, it will make no difficulty for those who say the sky is a globe; it is reasonable to assume that scripture wished to talk about the shape of the sky with reference to that part of it which is above us. So if the sky is not a globe, it is in one part—the part which covers the earth—a dome, while if it is a globe, then it is a dome all round. But as for the text about a skin, that is rather more serious, because it may seem to be be opposed, not to the globe, which may just be a human fabrication, but to our own dome. My treatment of this in terms of allegory may be found in the thirteenth book of my Confessions.2* So whether the sky being stretched out like a skin is to be understood allegorically in the way I suggested there, or in some other way, still to satisfy the tiresome people who persist in demanding a literal explanation24 1 will say what in my opinion should be obvious to anyone
21. Translator's parentheses again. 22. See 1s 40:22. according to the Greek Septuagint, which Augustine's Latin version followed. The Hebrew is less contrary to the "skin" of Ps 1 04, having "like a curtain," The word 1 have translated as "dome" is camera, which isjust a slightly incorrect transliteration of the Greek. 23. Chapter 15. section 16. 1n the volume of the Confessions in this series the word 1 have translated "dome" is rendered by "vault," and there is no reference to the text from 1saiah. 24. But he is engaged in a Literal Commentary on Genesis! This remark here is very revealing about his real intentions, and his thoroughly "anti-fundamentalist" understanding of the literal sense. Both these comparisons of the sky, or the heavens, to a skin stretched out and to a dome
Book II 203 of sense. Each term, no doubt, that is both "skin" and "dome" can be understood figuratively; but what we have to see is how each can be explained literally. Well, if it is not only a curved but also a flat ceiling that can be called a dome,25 then assuredly a skin for its part can be stretched out round a curve as well as on a flat plane. After all, both wine containers and footballs are skins.
Whether the heavens rotate or not
10, 23. Some brothers and sisters also raise the question of the movement of the sky, whether it stands still or rotates. Because if it rotates, they say, how can it be a solid structure? But if it stands still, how is it that the constellations, which are generally held to be fixed in it, go round from the east to the west, with the northern ones making shorter circuits round the pole, so that the sky would seem to be rotating like a sphere or globe, ifthere is another pole, hidden from us, at the other extremity, or like a discus if there is no other pole? My answer to them is that these matters require many subtle and laborious calculations for their inves tigation, if the truth is to be definitely established whether this or that is the case; and that I have no time now for going into them and discussing them, and nor should they have any either, these brothers and sisters whom I am keen to instruct in this work for their own salvation and the benefit needed by the Church.
This at least they should know, that on the one hand the name of "solid struc ture" does not oblige us to think of the sky as stationary—it is permissible, after all, to understand that it is called solid, not to indicate immobility, but purely and simply solidity, or its being the impassable boundary between the upper and lower waters. And on the other hand, if the truth convincingly shows that the sky is stationary, this does not rule out the circuit of the stars, or make it impossible for us to explain this. And in fact it has been established by those men who have indulged their idle curiosity by devoting their leisure to the study of these things, that even if the sky remained motionless and only the constellations moved, all the things that have been observed and recorded in their revolutions could still occur.
or vault are clearly poetic, metaphorical, not intended by the author to be taken as literal descriptions in the narrow sense. 1t is people who insist on ignoring metaphor that Augustine rightly regards as tiresome. 25 . Which it scarcely can be in English; nor could it properly be the case with the Latin camera; but in works by Tacitus and Suetonius this had been transferred to signify flat-bottomed boats with a kind of domed or vaulted superstructure. However, what Augustine was more probably thinking of here was the extension of the word to mean any ordinary room or chamber—our English word that in fact is derived from camera.