33. On Genesis: A Refutation ofthe Manichees 1, 23, 41.
30 On Genesis: A Refutation of the Manichees appeal to the authority of the apostle Paul for taking this approach in his first attempt at exegesis of the Bible.30 Moreover, allegorical interpretation was in the line of exegesis of Genesis that ran from Philo via Origen to Ambrose.
Not only did a figurative exegesis seem the safer method in comparison with a literal interpretation; it also enabled him, while drawing on his fund of meta physical ideas, to find in Genesis all his own objections to the positions of the Manichees. ln addition, a methodically figurative interpretation had the advan tage of allowing him to communicate the truths of the faith in a vivid way by means of allegory and to impress them on his Christian readers.31 ln characterizing this figurative meaning of scripture Augustine uses not only the woidsfigura (see 1, 13, 19) and allegoria (1, 22, 39), but also aenigma (Il, 2, 3), imago (1, 17, 28), similitudo (I, 13, 19), mysterium (1, 3, 5), sacramentum (I, 22, 23), signum (I, 8, 14), and velum (I, 22, 33). ln Augustine's conception of things, however, the symbolic element of the creation story referred not only to spiritual and transcendent truths, these being understood by him wholly within the framework of his philosophical convic tions. In this commentary on the scripture he drew a parallel, for the first time, between the six days of creation and the course of world history.32 With a typo logical interpretation of the Hexaemeron as his starting point he worked out a doctrine on the ages of the world and a periodization ofhistory. In later works he quite often repeats this division of history, but never again in the same detail and a comparable systematic form. To his mind, the biblical story ofcreation was not an historical account, but an advance notice of future events, in the guise of historical account: "There are no words therefore that can possibly describe how God made and established heaven and earth and every creature which he set in place there; but this commentary on the order of days, one by one, presents them as an account of things done, in such a way as to concentrate on them chiefly as predicting things to come in the future."33 When interpreted typologically and understood as prophecy through history, the Hexaemeron makes known to human beings God's plan of salvation.
While the Manichees used the Bible as a treasury from which to draw cita tions in support of their theses, but citations torn from their contexts and no longer having any relation to the history of humankind, Augustine uses the Bible
1995) 109-122; idem, St. Augustine on Genesis (note 16, above) 21-24. 30. See On Genesis against the Manichees 2, 2, 3. 31. See J. Pepin, "Saint Augustin et la fonction protreptique de l'allegorie," Recherches Augustiniennes\(\95%)243-2%(>. 32. See On Genesis: A Refutation of the Manichees 1, 23,35-41 . See P. Archambault, "The Ages of Man and the Ages of the World," Revue des ttudes augustiniennes 12 (1966) 193-228; K.-H. Schwarte, Die Vorgeschichte der augustinischen Weltalterlehre (Antiquitas, Reihe 1; Abhandlungen zur Alien Geschichte; Bonn, 1966) 17-61; B. Kotting and W. Geerlings, "Aetas,"inC. Mayer (ed.), Augustinus-Lexikon 1 (Basel, 1986-94) 150-158, especially 150. 33. On Genesis: A Refutation of the Manichees 1, 23, 41.