Unknown words stop a reader. Augustine’s remedy is not guesswork: ask a speaker of the tongue, learn the tongue, compare translators, and correct the copies before you interpret them. He prefers the Itala among Latin versions and the Septuagint among the Greek, and he will use Hebrew names—Siloam, Zion, Jordan—because things as well as words unlock figures. The Confessions then finds where the measure actually lives. The syllables are gone. What remains is the impression in the mind, and the present intention carrying what is still to come into what has already been. Aquinas adds the sign that is meant to confirm the word. A miracle is God’s work, not a performer’s. It may attend true preaching; it is never given to prop up a lie.

Today’s Readings:

Augustine of Hippo — On Christian Doctrine, Book 2, Chapters 14–16 (Sections 21–23)

Augustine of Hippo — The Confessions, Book 11, Chapter 27 (Section 36)

Thomas Aquinas — Summa Theologica, Part 2–2, Question 178 (The Grace of Miracles)

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