Group 2:

The two important

Implications of
Scriptures as Divine
Speech and the
Unity of Scripture
Group 2:

The two important

Implications of
Scriptures as Divine
Speech
➢ Everything said in
Scripture matters
First, whatever else inspiration
might mean for Augustine, it
means that Scripture is
spiritually useful. He asserts that
the biblical events “were not
recorded under the guidance of
the Holy Spirit for nothing”.
Rather, the words of Scripture,
all of them, are “useful signs”
(signa utilia). Augustine
reiterates, “No detail [in the
Scriptures], therefore is
pointless, everything has a
meaning’ so therefore
important.
➢ No one can exhaust
its meaning(s)
Second, the riches of Scripture are
inexhaustible. Augustine admits that
even in his old age, he was “still daily
making progress in discovering their
treasures”; he was still making
progress, because ‘so many things
veiled under manifold shadows of
mystery remain to be inquired.
Texts have many true meanings and therefore,
it is impossible to figure out all the true
meanings as well as to arrive at the one and the
only true meaning. This means that God’s Word
is humanly mediated and, despite being
inspired, Scripture retains the limitations of
human words and languages – ambiguity,
obscurity, vagueness, temporality, and
mutability.
Words as signs (signa) have only an approximate
correspondence to the things they signify. That is, the signs
are never identical with the things signified, for otherwise,
they would cease to be signed. (Meaning words are sensible
signs (signa), whether written or spoken, which point
beyond themselves to things or intelligible realities).
Consequently, the very perception of
words as signs has its important
implication to Augustine’s doctrine of
Scripture. For Augustine, the fulfilment
and the end of the Scripture is the love
of God and neighbor.
 Group 2:

The Unity of Scripture

Augustine believes that if the canonical Scripture is rightly
understood, everything in it coheres beautifully. “Peace
reigns in the Scriptures, everything is in agreement, there
are no contradictions at all”. Although Scripture addresses
human beings in many words and through several human
authors, Scripture as such is the “one single utterance of
God (unus sermo Dei )” , God is the very author of it.
The Scripture as a single text “speaks the
truth and do not say things that in any way
contradict one another, as long as a reader
approaches them piously, reads them humbly,
and asks not with the mind of a heretic that
leads to quarrels but with a believing heart
that produces edification”. The conviction that
everything in Scripture coheres is consistent
with the understanding of Scripture as the
divine speech.
Augustine gives special attention to the harmony
between the Old and New Testaments. The two
Testaments are “in mutual accord” both speak
‘with one mouth. After all, there has to be a
harmony between the two Testaments, because
both were written by one God. Augustine even
maintains rather optimistically that the harmony
between the Old and New Testaments is so
complete that there remains no point of
disharmony.
At the same time, he gives certain hermeneutical priority to the New
Testament as the revelation of the meaning of the Old. “In the Old
Testament, there is a veiling of the New, and in the New Testament,
there is a revealing of the Old”. Put differently, the New Testament
provides the theological perspective to “unlock” the meaning of the
Old. More precisely, “Our Lord’s cross was like a key for opening
what was locked away may these hidden things be unveiled”.
Augustine has a deep and traditional conviction that both Testaments
are about Jesus Christ.
 THANK YOU FOR
LISTENING!

FROM GROUP 2:
Caro, De La Cuesta, Dela Cruz, Delariarte, Demaisip, Ganzas, Gencianeo, Hallador