Augustine of Hippo

In his own words on Habakkuk

• Habakkuk 2:1

  Where, then, did I find you in order to learn about you? For you were not already in my memory before I learned of you. Where, then, did I find you in order to learn about you, unless in yourself above me? Yet there is no place. We go backward and we go forward, yet there is no place. O truth, you do preside over all things, even those that take counsel with you, and you do answer in the same time all who consult you, however diverse their questions. You do answer clearly, but all do not hear clearly. All seek counsel concerning what they wish, but they do not always hear what they wish. He serves you best who does not so much expect to hear the thing from you that he himself desires, but rather to desire what he hears from you.

  Confessions 10.26

• Habakkuk 2:2-3

  Of what else than the advent of Christ, who was to come, is Habakkuk understood to say, "And the Lord answered me, and said, 'Write the vision openly on a tablet of boxwood so that the one who reads these things may understand.' " For the vision is yet for a time appointed, and it will arise in the end, and it will not become void. If it delays, wait for it, because it will surely come and will not be delayed.

  City of God 18.31

• Habakkuk 2:4

  Those just people also were saved by their salutary faith in him as man and God who, before he came in the flesh, believed that he was to come in the flesh. Our faith is the same as theirs, since they believed that this would be, while we believe that it has come to pass. Hence the apostle Paul says, "But having the same spirit of faith, as it is written: 'I believed for which cause I have spoken,' we also believe for which cause we speak also." If, then, those who foretold that Christ would come in the flesh had the same faith as those who have recorded his coming, these religious mysteries could vary according to the diversity of times, yet all refer most harmoniously to the unity of the same faith. It is written in the Acts of the Apostles that the apostle Peter said, "Now therefore why do you make trial of your God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we shall be saved through the grace of our Lord Jesus just as they will." If, therefore, they, that is, the fathers, being unable to bear the yoke of the old law, believed that they were saved through grace of the Lord Jesus, it is clear that this grace saved even the just people of old through faith, for "the just man lives by faith."

  LETTER 190

• Habakkuk 2:4

  For it is not simply the enduring of such things that is advantageous, but the bearing of such things for the name of Christ not only with a tranquil mind, even with exultation. For many heretics, deceiving souls under the Christian name, endure many such things; but they are excluded from that reward on this account, that it is not said merely, "Blessed are they which endure persecution," but it is added, "for righteousness' sake." Now, where there is not sound faith, there can be no righteousness, for the just man lives by faith. Neither let schismatics promise themselves anything of that reward; for similarly, where there is no love there cannot be righteousness, for "love works no ill to his neighbor." And if they had it, they would not tear in pieces Christ's body, which is the church.

  SERMON ON THE MOUNT 5:13

• Habakkuk 2:4

  But "Mary," the other sister of Lazarus, "took a pound of perfume made from costly, pistic, aromatic nard. She anointed Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the ointment fragrance." We have heard what happened; let us search out the hidden meaning. You, whoever wishes to be a faithful soul, together with Mary anoint the Lord's feet with costly perfume. That perfume was justice, and so it was a full pound. However, it was perfume made from costly, pistic, aromatic nard. What does "pistic" mean? We might believe it to be some place in which this was costly perfume; and yet this is not an idle phrase and is quite well consonant with the mystery. The Greek word means "faith." You were seeking to work justice: "the just man lives by faith." Anoint Jesus' feet by living well. Follow the Lord's footsteps. Wipe with your hair. If you have more than enough, give to the poor, and you have wiped the Lord's feet. For hairs seem to be the body's superfluity. For you they are superfluous, but for the Lord's feet they are necessary. Perhaps on earth the Lord's feet are in need. For about whom except about his members will he say in the end, "When you did it for one of the least of mine, you did it for me"? You spent your superfluity, but you gave service to my feet.

  TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 50:6

• Habakkuk 2:4

  Therefore pride is contrary to this justice of God, because it puts its trust in its own works. Thus the psalm continues, "Let not the foot of pride come to me." This justice is the grace of the New Testament, by which the faithful are just, while they live by faith, until, by the perfection of justice, they are brought to the face-to-face vision, as they are also equally brought to immortality of the body itself, by the perfection of salvation.

  LETTER 140:30

• Habakkuk 3:3

  But tell us the other thing you were saying you were going to tell us. "The prophet," says he, "says God 'will come from Afric,' and now of course where the Afric is, there is Africa." Well, there's a fine testimony for you! God will come from the Afric, and from Africa God will come. The heretics are announcing another Christ who is born in Africa and goes through the world. I'm asking what it means, God will come from Africa. If you said, "God has only remained in Africa," you would certainly be saying something shameful enough. But now you also say, "He will come from Africa." We know where Christ was born, where he suffered, where he ascended into heaven, where he sent his disciples from, where he filled them with the Holy Spirit, where he instructed them to evangelize the whole world, and they complied, and the world is filled with the gospel. And you say, "God will come from Africa!" …So how does he come from "the shady mountain"? Read the Gospel once more: it was from the Mount of Olives that Christ ascended into heaven. Continue. And what could be clearer? You hear "from the Afric"; you have heard "from the shady mountain." We recite the law, we recite the Gospel; you have heard "beginning from Jerusalem"; now hear "throughout all the nations." In the same prophet continue with those words that you ignored, those words you left out.… "God will come from the Afric, and the Holy One from the shady mountain," that is, from the Mount of Olives, where he ascended into heaven, where he sent his disciples from, where he also said as he was about to ascend, "It is not for you to know the times which the Father has placed in his own power; but you will receive might from on high, and you will be witness to me … in Jerusalem, and in Judea and in Samaria, and as far as the whole earth."

  SERMON 46:38-40

• Habakkuk 3:3

  Where we recognize Christ in what is written: "God will come from the south and the holy one from the shady mountain; his strength will cover the heavens," there we recognize the church in what follows: "And the earth is full of his praise." Jerusalem was settled from Africa, as we read in the book of Joshua, son of Nun; from there the name of Christ was spread abroad; there is the shady mountain, the Mount of Olives, from which he ascended into heaven, so that his strength might cover the heavens and the church might be filled through all the earth with his praise.

  LETTER 105