Augustine of Hippo

In his own words on Deuteronomy

• Deuteronomy 5:22

  There it was on tables of stone that the finger of God operated; here it was on the hearts of men. There the law was given outwardly, so that the unrighteous might be terrified; here it was given inwardly, so that they might be justified. For this, "Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment,"—such, of course, as was written on those tables,—"it is briefly comprehended," says he, "in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." Now this was not written on the tables of stone, but "is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us." God's law, therefore, is love. "To it the carnal mind is not subject, neither indeed can be;" but when the works of love are written on tables to alarm the carnal mind, there arises the law of works and "the letter which killeth" the transgressor; but when love itself is shed abroad in the hearts of believers, then we have the law of faith, and the spirit which gives life to him that loves.

  ON THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER 17.29

• Deuteronomy 6:4

  Consider now for a while the passages of Scripture which force us to confess that the Lord is one God, whether we are asked about the Father alone, or the Son alone, or the Holy Spirit alone, or about the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit together. Certainly it is written, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one Lord." Of whom do you think that this is said? If it is said only of the Father, then our Lord Jesus Christ is not God. Why did those words come to Thomas when he touched Christ and cried out, "My Lord and my God," which Christ did not reprove but approved, saying, "Because you have seen, you have believed"?

  LETTER 238

• Deuteronomy 6:4

  That Trinity is one God. Not that Father, Son and Holy Spirit are identically the same. But the Father is Father, the Son is Son, and the Holy Spirit is Holy Spirit, and this Trinity is one God, as it is written: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one God."

  On Faith and the Creed 9.16

• Deuteronomy 6:5

  Then in all this plenitude of charity will be fulfilled the commandment, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." For while there remains any remnant of the lust of the flesh, to be kept in check by the rein of continence, God is by no means loved with all one's soul. For the flesh does not lust without the soul; although it is the flesh which is said to lust, because the soul lusts carnally. In that perfect state the just man shall live absolutely without any sin, since there will be in his members no law warring against the law of his mind, but wholly will he love God, with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his mind which is the first and chief commandment.

  Concerning Man's Perfection in Righteousness

• Deuteronomy 6:5

  Now it is plain that the number four has relation to the body, from the four well known elements of which it consists, and the four qualities of dry, humid, warm, cold. Hence too it is administered by four seasons, spring, summer, autumn, winter. All this is very well known. For of the number four relating to the body we have treated elsewhere somewhat subtilly, but obscurely: which must be avoided in this discourse, which we would have accommodated to the unlearned. But that the number three has relation to the mind may be understood from this, that we are commanded to love God after a threefold manner, with the whole heart, with the whole soul, with the whole mind: of each of which severally we must treat, not in the Psalms, but in the Gospels: for the present, for proof of the relation of the number three to the mind, I think what has been said enough.

  Expositions on the Psalms, Psalm 6

• Deuteronomy 6:5

  Therefore the supreme and true wisdom is in that first commandment: "You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul." From this it follows that wisdom is love of God, which is "poured forth in our hearts," not otherwise than "by the Holy Spirit who is given to us." But "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," and "there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear."

• Deuteronomy 6:13

  What is to be said of justice in its relation to God? As the Lord says, "No man can serve two masters," and the apostle rebukes those who serve the creature rather than the Creator, so had it not been said before in the Old Testament: "You shall adore the Lord your God and him only shall you serve"? But what need is there to say more about this here since the Scriptures are full of such texts? Justice then offers this rule of life to the lover we are describing: that he serve with gladness the Lord whom he loves, that is to say, the supreme good, the supreme wisdom, the supreme peace; and with respect to all other things, that he govern those which are subject to him and endeavor to subject all else to the same rule. This rule of life is confirmed, as we have shown, by the authority of both Testaments.

  ON THE CATHOLIC AND THE MANICHAEAN WAYS OF LIFE 1.24.44

• Deuteronomy 6:13

  Whoever yields assent to the supreme authority of divine Scripture should first examine these words: "The Lord your God shall you adore, and him only shall you serve." In Greek the expression used does not signify the service owed to human masters but that which is offered to God, called latreia. Thus idolatry is rightly condemned because the latreia which is due to the true God alone is offered to idols. It does not say, "You shall adore only the Lord your God," but it says, "And him only shall you serve." It used the word only with "you shall serve," meaning, no doubt, that service which is called latreia. To this service belong temple, sacrifice, priest, and other like attributes.

  LETTER 173A

• Deuteronomy 7:5

  When you have received lawful authority, do all this. Where authority has not been given to us, we don't do it; where it has been given, we don't fail to do it. Many pagans have these abominations on their estates. Do we march in and smash them? The first thing we try to do is to break the idols in their hearts. When they too become Christians, they either invite us in to perform this good work or else they get in first with it before us. The thing we have to do now is pray for them, not get angry with them.

  SERMON 62.17

• Deuteronomy 8:4

  God granted to the garments of the Israelites their proper state without any damage for forty years. If so, how much more does he grant a very happy temperament of certain state to the bodies of those who obey his command until they may be turned into something better? This embetterment occurs not by the death of man, by which the body is deserted by the soul, but by a blessed change from mortality to immortality, from an animal to a spiritual quality.

  On the Good of Marriage 2.2

• Deuteronomy 8:4

  If the garments of the Israelites could last without wearing out for so many years in the desert and the hides of dead animals could continue undestroyed for so long a time in their shoes, surely God can extend the quality of incorruption in certain bodies for as long as he wills. I think therefore that the body of the Lord is the same now in heaven as it was when he ascended into heaven.

  LETTER 205

• Deuteronomy 9:9

  This is why Moses fasted for forty days, and Elijah, and the Mediator himself, our Lord Jesus Christ: because in this time-bound state of ours restraint from bodily attractions and allurements is very necessary. The people also spent forty years wandering in the desert, and forty days of rain produced the flood. The Lord spent forty days after his resurrection with his disciples, to convince them of the reality of his risen body. This suggests that in this life, in which we are in exile away from the Lord, the number forty stands, as I have just said, for our need to celebrate the memorial of the Lord's body, which we do in the church until he comes.

  Sermon 51.32

• Deuteronomy 12:3

  Give no credit to their words, neither be afraid of them. They say that we are enemies of their idols. So be it; may God give them all into our power, as he has already given us what we have broken down. For I say this, beloved, that you may not attempt to overcome those which it is not lawfully in your power to overcome. It is the way of ill-regulated men and the mad Circumcelliones to be violent when they have no power and to be ever eager to die without cause. You heard what we read to you, all of you who were present in the Mappalia: 2 "When the land shall have been given into your power"—he says first "into your power" and so enjoins what is to be done—"then you shall destroy their altars and break in pieces their groves, and hew down all their images." When the power has not been given us, do not do it; when it is given, do not neglect it.

  SERMONS ON NEW TESTAMENT LESSONS 12.17

• Deuteronomy 13:3

  He permits us to be tested not in order that he, for whom nothing lies hidden, might know but in order that he might make us know the extent of our progress in love for him. According to this same mode of speech our Lord also says that he does not know the day or the hour of the end of the world. What can there be that he does not know? He was concealing it from the disciples for their benefit, and he said that he did not know it because he was causing them not to know by concealing it.

  ON GENESIS, AGAINST THE MANICHAEANS 1.22.34

• Deuteronomy 13:3

  Take, for instance, the text "God tempts no one": it cannot be understood as meaning every kind of temptation but only of a particular kind which God doesn't tempt anyone with. Otherwise that other text, "the Lord your God is tempting you," would be false. Otherwise too we might be denying that Christ is God or that the gospel is not telling the truth when we read that he questioned one of the disciples, "tempting him, but he himself knew what he was going to do." You see, there is a temptation that leads to sin, and in that way God tempts no one. Then there is a temptation or testing that proves the quality of faith, and that way even God is prepared to tempt people. In the same sort of way, when we hear "whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit," we shouldn't take it as meaning every kind of blaspheming, just as in the other case we don't understand every kind of tempting.

  SERMON 71.15

• Deuteronomy 13:3

  God is said to know even when he causes someone to know, as it has been written: "The Lord your God puts you to the test that he might know if you love him." Now this manner of speaking does not mean that God does not know; rather, [it was said] in order that people might know how far they have progressed in the love of God—a thing which is not fully recognized by them except by way of the testings which come about. As for the expression "he puts to the test," it means that God permits testing. Therefore when it is also said that God does not know, this means either that he does not approve (i.e., does not recognize [as conformable to] his discipline and teaching), as it has been said: "I do not know you." Or [it means] that he causes people not to know for their own good, because it serves no useful purpose for them to know. Accordingly the text "the Father alone knows" is correctly grasped if understood to say that he causes the Son to know, and the text "the Son does not know," if understood to say that the Son causes men not to know (i.e., does not disclose to them what would serve no useful purpose for them to know).

  ON EIGHTY-THREE VARIED QUESTIONS 60

• Deuteronomy 17:11

  Just as a person has to pick his way between fire and water so as to be neither burned nor drowned, so we should steer our way between the pinnacle of pride and the whirlpool of sloth, as it is written, "turning neither to the right nor to the left." For there are some who, through fear of being carried up to the heights on the right, slip and are drowned on the left. Others … fear to be sucked in by the soft ease of sloth on the left and are ruined and destroyed by the ostentation of boasting on the other side, and [they] vanish into smoke and ashes.

  LETTER 48

• Deuteronomy 18:15

  "Like me," says Moses. This means according to the form of the flesh, not to the eminence of majesty. Therefore we find the Lord Jesus called a prophet. Accordingly that woman is no longer greatly in error when she says, "I see that you are a prophet." She begins to call her husband, to exclude the adulterer. "I see that you are a prophet." And she begins to ask about a thing that constantly disturbs her.

  TRACTATE ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 15.23.1

• Deuteronomy 19:15

  Therefore if a people composed of a great multitude was found a false witness, how must it be understood, "In the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall stand," except that in this way. The Trinity, in which is unending stability of truth, was revealed through a mystery. Do you want to have a good case? Have two or three witnesses, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

  TRACTATE ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 36.10.1

• Deuteronomy 19:15

  As a matter of fact, a single witness generally speaks the truth, while a mob may tell lies. And the world, in its conversion to Christianity, believed one apostle preaching the gospel rather than the mistaken multitude who persecuted him.

  AGAINST FAUSTUS, A MANICHAEAN 16.13

• Deuteronomy 23:24

  Let all the servants of God grant [the monks] permission to enter their fields whenever they wish and to depart when well fed and satisfied. This is according to the law given to the people of Israel that no one should arrest a thief in his fields unless he wished to take something away with him. Rather, the owner of the field should permit him who had touched nothing but what he had eaten to depart free and unpunished.

  On the Work of Monks 23.28

• Deuteronomy 24:1

  The Lord explains the intention of the law, which required a bill of divorce in every case where a wife was put away. The precept not to put away a wife is the opposite of saying that a man may put away his wife if he pleases, which is not what the law says. On the contrary, to prevent the wife from being put away, the law required this intermediate step, that the eagerness for separation might be checked by the writing of this bill and the man might have time to think of the evil of putting away his wife.

  AGAINST FAUSTUS, A MANICHAEAN 19.26

• Deuteronomy 25:5

  In the third book, then, when I was solving the question of how it was possible for Joseph to have two fathers, I indeed said that "he was begotten by one and adopted by the other." But I should have mentioned too the kind of adoption, for what I said sounds as if another living father had adopted him. The law, however, also adopted the children of the deceased by ordering that "a brother marry the wife" of his childless, deceased brother and "raise up seed" by the same woman "for his deceased brother." In this way the explanation of this matter of the two fathers of one man is indeed made clearer.

  RECONSIDERATIONS 2.33.2

• Deuteronomy 25:9

  The role of holy women was different in the times of the prophets. Obedience, not concupiscence, impelled women to marry for the propagation of the people of God, among whom the forerunners of Christ were sent in advance. For this people, by the things that happened to them as a type, whether they recognized these types or not, were indeed prophetic of Christ, from whom Christ was to take flesh. Hence, in order that this race might be multiplied, the man who did not raise up seed in Israel was held accursed by sentence of the law. That is why holy women were animated by the pious desire of offspring rather than by desire. We may rightly believe that they would not have sought the marriage union if children could have been obtained in any other way.

  ON THE GOOD OF WIDOWHOOD 6.10

• Deuteronomy 31:6

  Pay attention to what comes next: "Without love, a measure of money is sufficient for present needs, because he himself said, 'I will not forsake you; I will not desert you.' " "You were afraid of all kinds of evils, against which you were saving money; count me as your guarantor." That's what God says to you. God—not a man, not your equal or you yourself—says to you: "I will not forsake you; I will not desert you." If a person made such a promise, you would trust him. God makes it, and you hesitate? He made the promise, put it in writing, made out the bond; you needn't worry at all.

  SERMONS 177.11

• Deuteronomy 32:39

  So the apostle was petrified, knocked down and laid low, raised up and patched up. The words, you see, were realized in him: "It is I that will strike and I that will heal." You see, it doesn't say, "I will heal, and I will strike," but "I will strike, and I will heal." I will strike you and give myself to you. Thus being laid low, he was horrified at his own justice, in which he was certainly without reproach, praiseworthy, great, even glorious among the Jews. He reckoned it was waste, he thought it was loss, he counted it dung, "that he might be found in him, not having his own justice, which is from the law; but that which is through the faith of Christ, which is," he says, "from God."

  SERMON 169.10

• Deuteronomy 32:39

  [Paul's conversion] fulfilled in him what was written in the prophet, "I will strike, and I will heal." What God strikes, you see, is that in people which lifts up itself against God. The surgeon isn't being heartless when he lances the tumor, when he cuts or burns out the suppurating sore. He's causing pain; he certainly is, but in order to restore health. It's a horrid business; but if it wasn't, it wouldn't be any use.

  SERMON 77.3

• Deuteronomy 32:39

  He is God, so he also takes pity. He gets angry, and he takes pity. He gets angry and strikes; he takes pity and heals. He gets angry and does to death; he takes pity and brings to life. In one person he does this. It's not that he does some people to death and brings others to life, but in the same people he is both angry and gentle. He is angry with errors; he is gentle with bad habits put right. "I will strike and I will heal: I will kill and I will make alive." One and the same Saul, afterward Paul, he both laid low and raised up. He laid low an unbeliever; he raised up a believer. He laid low a persecutor; he raised up a preacher.

  SERMON 24.7

• Deuteronomy 32:50

  Let's take a look at this text too: "Climb the mountain and die." The bodily death of Moses stood for the death of his doubting, but on the mountain. What marvelous mysteries! When this has been definitely explained and understood, how much sweeter it is to the taste than manna! Doubting was born at the rock, died on the mountain.

  SERMON 352.5

• Deuteronomy 32:51

  [Moses] touched the rock with his rod with doubt and thus distinguished this miracle from the rest, in which he had not doubted. He thus offended, thus deserved to hear that he should die without entering into the land of promise. For being disturbed by the murmurs of an unbelieving people, he did not hold fast that confidence which he ought to have held.

  EXPLANATION OF THE PSALMS 106:26