Augustine of Hippo — Commentary on Scripture

Daniel 2:1

The Spirit of prophecy does not affect everyone in the same way. The Spirit’s infusion in some people confers images of things; others are granted the mental fruit of understanding; others are given both by inspiration; and still others know nothing. But the Spirit works through the infusion in two ways. The first way comes during sleep, and not only to saints, but even Pharoah and King Nebuchadnezzar saw what neither of them was able to understand but both of them were able to see. The second way is through demonstration in ecstasy (which some Latins translate as “trembling”—astonishingly idiosyncratic, but close in meaning nonetheless), where the mind is separated from the bodily senses so that the human spirit, which is assumed by the divine Spirit, might be free of perceiving and intuiting ideas, as, for instance, when it was shown to Daniel what he had not understood, and to Peter, the sheet let down from heaven by its four corners, who only later recognized what this vision represented. One way is through the mental fruit of understanding, when the significance and relevance of…

The Spirit of prophecy does not affect everyone in the same way. The Spirit’s infusion in some people confers images of things; others are granted the mental fruit of understanding; others are given both by inspiration; and still others know nothing. But the Spirit works through the infusion in two ways. The first way comes during sleep, and not only to saints, but even Pharoah and King Nebuchadnezzar saw what neither of them was able to understand but both of them were able to see. The second way is through demonstration in ecstasy (which some Latins translate as “trembling”—astonishingly idiosyncratic, but close in meaning nonetheless), where the mind is separated from the bodily senses so that the human spirit, which is assumed by the divine Spirit, might be free of perceiving and intuiting ideas, as, for instance, when it was shown to Daniel what he had not understood, and to Peter, the sheet let down from heaven by its four corners, who only later recognized what this vision represented. One way is through the mental fruit of understanding, when the significance and relevance of the things demonstrated through images is revealed, which is a more certain prophecy, for the apostle calls such prophecy “greater,” as Joseph deserved to understand but Pharaoh only to see, and as Daniel explained to the king that he saw but did not know.

ON VARIOUS QUESTIONS TO SIMPLICIAN 2:1.1

Daniel 2:27-30

The one who interprets what another has seen is more a prophet than the one who had seen.… Less a prophet is he who … sees in spirit only the signs of the things signified, and a greater prophet is he who is granted only an understanding of images. But the greatest prophet is he who is endowed with both gifts, namely, that of seeing in spirit the symbolic likeness of corporeal objects and that of understanding them with the vital power of the mind. Such a one was Daniel. His preeminence was tested and established when he not only told the dream he had had but also explained the meaning of it. For the corporeal images themselves were produced in his spirit, and an understanding of them was revealed in his mind. I am using the word spirit, therefore, in the sense in which Paul uses it, where he distinguishes it from the mind: "I will pray with the spirit, but I will pray with the mind also." Here he implies that signs of things are formed in the spirit and that an understanding of the signs shines forth in the mind.

ON THE LITERAL INTERPRETATION OF GENESIS 12:9.20

Daniel 2:34

We know that the stone cut from the mountain without hands is Christ, who came from the kingdom of the Jews without human father: the stone that shattered all the kingdoms of the earth, all the tyrannies of idols and devils; the stone that grew and became a great mountain and filled the whole world.

HOMILIES ON 1 JOHN 1:12

Daniel 2:35

It talks of a mountain, and the mountain is veiled to the party of Donatus.… The holy Daniel saw a vision and wrote down what he saw, and he said that he had seen a stone hewn out of a mountain without hands. It is Christ, coming from the nations of the Jews, which was also a mountain, you see, because it has the kingdom.… What is the mountain over which the heretics stumbled? Listen to Daniel again: “And that stone grew and became a great mountain, such that it filled all the face of the earth.” How right the psalm is to say to Christ the Lord as he rises again, “Be exalted over the heavens, O God, and let your glory be over the whole earth.” What is your glory over the whole earth? Over the whole earth is your church, over the whole earth your bride.

SERMON 147A. 4

Daniel 2:35

“His holy hill” is his holy church. It is that mountain which, according to Daniel’s vision, grew from a very small stone till it overtook the kingdoms of the earth and grew to such a size that it “filled the face of the earth.”

EXPLANATIONS OF THE PSALMS 43:4

Daniel 3:16

Examine the divine Scriptures, and scrutinize them as closely as you can and see whether this [killing oneself] was ever done by any of the good and faithful souls, even though they suffered great trials at the hands of those who were trying to drive them to eternal destruction, not to eternal life.… I have heard that you said the apostle Paul meant that this was lawful when he said, “If I should deliver my body to be burned.” … But notice carefully and understand in what sense Scripture says that anyone should deliver his body to be burned: not, certainly, that he should jump into the fire when harassed by a pursuing enemy but that, when a choice is offered him of either doing wrong or suffering wrong, he chooses not to do wrong rather than not to suffer wrong. In this case, he delivers his body not to the power of the slayer, as those three men did who were being forced to adore the golden statue and who were threatened by the one who was forcing them with the furnace of burning fire if they did not do it. They refused to adore the idol, but they did not cast themselves into the fi…

Examine the divine Scriptures, and scrutinize them as closely as you can and see whether this [killing oneself] was ever done by any of the good and faithful souls, even though they suffered great trials at the hands of those who were trying to drive them to eternal destruction, not to eternal life.… I have heard that you said the apostle Paul meant that this was lawful when he said, “If I should deliver my body to be burned.” … But notice carefully and understand in what sense Scripture says that anyone should deliver his body to be burned: not, certainly, that he should jump into the fire when harassed by a pursuing enemy but that, when a choice is offered him of either doing wrong or suffering wrong, he chooses not to do wrong rather than not to suffer wrong. In this case, he delivers his body not to the power of the slayer, as those three men did who were being forced to adore the golden statue and who were threatened by the one who was forcing them with the furnace of burning fire if they did not do it. They refused to adore the idol, but they did not cast themselves into the fire.

LETTER 173

Daniel 3:26

Let faith be yours, and God will be with you in your trouble. There are waves on the sea, and you are tossed about in your cabin, because Christ sleeps.… If you allow faith to sleep in your heart, Christ is, you might say, sleeping with you in your ship. Because Christ dwells in you through faith, when you begin to be tossed about, awake Christ from his sleep. Awaken your faith, and you shall be assured he will not desert you. You may think that you are forsaken, because he does not rescue you at the very moment you desire. But did he not deliver the three children from the fire?

EXPLANATIONS OF THE PSALMS 91:19

Daniel 3:26

The flame could not approach or hurt the innocent and righteous children praising God, and he delivered them out of the fire. Some might say, “Truly, those who are righteous are those that are heard,” as it is written, “The righteous cried, and the Lord heard them and delivered them out of their troubles.” But I have cried, and he does not deliver me; either I am not righteous, or I do not do the things that he commands me to do or perhaps he just does not see me. Fear not: do what he commands you, and if he does not deliver you in bodily form, he will deliver you spiritually.… He delivered Peter when the angel came to him when he was in prison and said, “Arise, and go forth,” and suddenly his chains were released, and he followed the angel, and he delivered him. Had Peter, then, lost his righteousness when he did not deliver him from the cross? Did he not deliver him then? Even then God delivered him.… When God first delivered Peter, how many times did he suffer afterwards? So in the end, God sent him where he could suffer no evil.

EXPLANATIONS OF THE PSALMS 34:21

Daniel 3:27

Human weakness uses its acquaintance with things experienced to measure divine works that are beyond its experience and thinks it has made a keen observation when it says, “If there is flame, it is hot; if it is hot, it burns; if it burns, then it burned the bodies of the three men thrown into the fiery furnace by the wicked king.” If then even those who might not understand the idea of divine works still believe that a miracle was wrought on these three men, why should we then not believe that he who prevented those bodies from being consumed by the fire also prevented his body from being consumed by fire or famine or disease or old age or any other of the forces by which corruption usually breaks down human bodies? But if anyone says that incorruption against the fire was not added to the flesh of the three men, but that the power of the destruction was taken away from the fire itself, why do we fear that he who took away the ability of the fire to destroy not make flesh that could not be destroyed?… The divine power is able to remove whatever qualities he wills from that visible a…

Human weakness uses its acquaintance with things experienced to measure divine works that are beyond its experience and thinks it has made a keen observation when it says, “If there is flame, it is hot; if it is hot, it burns; if it burns, then it burned the bodies of the three men thrown into the fiery furnace by the wicked king.” If then even those who might not understand the idea of divine works still believe that a miracle was wrought on these three men, why should we then not believe that he who prevented those bodies from being consumed by the fire also prevented his body from being consumed by fire or famine or disease or old age or any other of the forces by which corruption usually breaks down human bodies? But if anyone says that incorruption against the fire was not added to the flesh of the three men, but that the power of the destruction was taken away from the fire itself, why do we fear that he who took away the ability of the fire to destroy not make flesh that could not be destroyed?… The divine power is able to remove whatever qualities he wills from that visible and palpable nature of bodies, while some qualities remain unchanged; so he is able to add unwearying strength to mortal members, preserving the characteristic marks of their form, even when they have died because of the corruption of mortality, so that the mortal appearance is there but wasting disease is absent; motion is there, but fatigue is not; the ability to eat is there, but the necessity of hunger is not.

LETTER 205

Daniel 3:29

If past events in the prophetic books serve as a figure of future ones, in the king named Nebuchadnezzar two periods were foreshadowed: that during the time of the apostles and the present one in which Christ is now living. For in the times of the apostles and martyrs that part was fulfilled that was foreshadowed when the king forced devout and upright men to adore an idol and when they refused had them thrown into a fire. Now, however, that part is fulfilled that was prefigured in the same king when he was converted to the true God and decreed for his realm that whoever blasphemed the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego should suffer due penalties. Therefore, the first part of the king's reign signified the earlier periods of impious kings, when Christians suffered instead of the impious, but the latter part of that king's reign signified the period of later faithful kings under whom the impious suffered instead of the Christians.

LETTER 93

Daniel 4:26

It is written, as I reminded you a short while ago, “O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you.” … And there are many other teachings in the divine writings that show how much almsgiving and deeds of charity avail for extinguishing and wiping out sins. Accordingly, to those whom he is going to condemn—no, first, on the contrary to those whom he is going to reward with crowns, he is going to impute nothing but their acts of charity, as though to say, “It would be difficult, if I examined you closely, and weighed you in the balance and thoroughly scrutinized your deeds, for me not to find reasons to condemn you; but, ‘Go into the kingdom; for I was hungry and you gave me to eat.’ So you are not going into the kingdom because you never sinned, but because you redeemed your sins with alms deeds.”

SERMON 389:5

Daniel 7:13

I do not know in what manner these people understand that the Ancient of Days appeared to Daniel, from whom the Son of man, which he deigned to be for our sakes, is understood to have received the kingdom; namely, from him who says to him in the Psalms, “You are my son; this day have I begotten you; ask of me, and I shall give you the nations for your inheritance” and who has “put all things under his feet.” If, however, both the Father giving the kingdom and the Son receiving it appeared to Daniel in bodily form, how can those people say that the Father never appeared to the prophets, and, therefore, that he only ought to be understood to be invisible whom no one has seen or can see? For Daniel has told us thus.… Behold the Father giving and the Son receiving an eternal kingdom; and both are in the sight of him who prophesies, in a visible form.

ON THE TRINITY 2:18.33

Daniel 7:18

Just as God’s promise made to Abraham is already visibly fulfilled in Christ, so other promises made to the seed of Abraham will be no less certainly fulfilled. The promise to Abraham was that “all the nations of the earth will be blessed in your seed.” It is one of many such promises. Some of the prophecies concerning Abraham’s seed say, “The dead shall rise again.… There shall be a new heaven and a new earth, and the former things will not be remembered, and they will not come on the earth, but they will be glad and rejoice forever in these things. For see, I shall make Jerusalem a rejoicing and my people joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem and joy in my people, and the voice of weeping will be heard in it no more.” Then there are the promises made to and through another prophet, saying, “At that time your people will be saved, everyone that will be found written in the book. And every one of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awaken, some to everlasting life and others to reproach and everlasting confusion.… But the saints of the most high God will take the kingdom, a…

Just as God’s promise made to Abraham is already visibly fulfilled in Christ, so other promises made to the seed of Abraham will be no less certainly fulfilled. The promise to Abraham was that “all the nations of the earth will be blessed in your seed.” It is one of many such promises. Some of the prophecies concerning Abraham’s seed say, “The dead shall rise again.… There shall be a new heaven and a new earth, and the former things will not be remembered, and they will not come on the earth, but they will be glad and rejoice forever in these things. For see, I shall make Jerusalem a rejoicing and my people joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem and joy in my people, and the voice of weeping will be heard in it no more.” Then there are the promises made to and through another prophet, saying, “At that time your people will be saved, everyone that will be found written in the book. And every one of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awaken, some to everlasting life and others to reproach and everlasting confusion.… But the saints of the most high God will take the kingdom, and they will possess the kingdom forever and ever … whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom.”

City of God 22.3

Daniel 7:18

But then there had not yet risen the prophet Daniel to say, “The saints shall receive the kingdom of the Most High.” For by these words he foretold the merit not of the Old but of the New Testament. In the same manner did the same prophets foretell that Christ himself would come, in whose blood the New Testament was consecrated.

PROCEEDINGS OF PELAGIANS 14

Daniel 9:21

Let them read that Daniel says, “And behold, the man Gabriel.” But why do we delay to shut up their mouths with another most evident and weighty proof, where no angel is mentioned individually or humankind in the plural, but rather the angels in their entirety are mentioned, namely, when it is said that through the angels not just any old word was spoken, but the law itself was given? Certainly, none of the faithful doubts that God gave Moses the law so that the people of Israel might be made subject to it, but nonetheless the law was given through angels. Thus Stephen says, “You received the law proclaimed by angels, and yet you do not keep it.” What is more evident than this? What is stronger and with such authority? The law was given to that people in the proclamations of the angels, but the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ was arranged and foretold through the law. Christ himself, the Word of God, was in a marvelous and indescribable manner in the angels, in whose proclamation the law was given. Thus he says in the Gospel, “If you believed Moses, you would believe me also, for he…

Let them read that Daniel says, “And behold, the man Gabriel.” But why do we delay to shut up their mouths with another most evident and weighty proof, where no angel is mentioned individually or humankind in the plural, but rather the angels in their entirety are mentioned, namely, when it is said that through the angels not just any old word was spoken, but the law itself was given? Certainly, none of the faithful doubts that God gave Moses the law so that the people of Israel might be made subject to it, but nonetheless the law was given through angels. Thus Stephen says, “You received the law proclaimed by angels, and yet you do not keep it.” What is more evident than this? What is stronger and with such authority? The law was given to that people in the proclamations of the angels, but the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ was arranged and foretold through the law. Christ himself, the Word of God, was in a marvelous and indescribable manner in the angels, in whose proclamation the law was given. Thus he says in the Gospel, “If you believed Moses, you would believe me also, for he wrote about me.” Therefore, the Lord was speaking then through the angels; through the angels the Son of God, the one who would be the mediator between God and humankind, arranged his coming from the seed of Abraham so that he could find those who would receive him and confess themselves guilty, inasmuch as their failure to keep the law had made them transgressors.

ON THE TRINITY 3:10

Daniel 10:11

Daniel was called by the angel “a man of desires.” What were those desires of his, but ardent longings for the beauty of wisdom? Because in his youth he had trampled on lust, as a prisoner he had crushed the pride of kings, when shut in close he had shut the mouths of lions.

SERMON 391:5

Daniel 10:14

The Greek version has a more concise expression for “give me understanding,” sunetison me, expressing “give understanding” by the single word sunetison, which the Latin cannot do; as if one could not say, “Heal me,” and it were necessary to say, “Give me health,” as it is here said, “Give me understanding”; or “Make me whole,” as here it may be said, “Make me intelligent.” This indeed an angel could do, for he said to Daniel, “I come to give you understanding”; and this word is in the Greek, as it is here also, sunetisai se; as if the Latin translator were to render therapeusai se by sanitatem dare tibi. For the Latin interpreter would not make a circumlocution by saying, to give you understanding, if, as we say from health, “to heal you,” so one could say from intellect, “to intellectuate you.” But if an angel could do this, what reason is there that this man should pray that this be done for him by God? Is it because God had commanded the angel to do it? Just so: for Christ is understood to have given this command to the angel.

EXPLANATIONS OF THE PSALMS 119:73

Daniel 12:1

“And the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name.” For he has their names written in the book of life. “He calls his own sheep by name.” Because of this the apostle says, “The Lord knows who are his.” “And he leads them out. And when he has led out his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice...”

TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 45:6.3

Daniel 12:2

Nor is there any real contradiction between John’s “all who are in the tombs” and Daniel’s “many” in place of “all.” As an illustration of this, notice how, in one place, God said to Abraham, “I have made you the father of many nations” and in another, “In your descendants all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.”

City of God 20.23

Daniel 12:7

The word times may seem an indefinite plural in our language [Latin], but the Greek texts (and, so I am told, the Hebrew texts as well) show that “times” is written in the dual number and so means “two times.”

City of God 20.23