The City of God by Augustine - 17 - History as Allegory
Book Seventeen
Quote
📝 In the progress of the city of God through the ages, therefore, David first reigned in the earthly Jerusalem as a shadow of that which was to come.
Notes
🔥 Augustine continues his trek through the events and books of the Bible, picking up with King David and the Biblical prophets.
🔥 He explains that (in his view) prophecies pertain both to the city of man and to the city of God. There are allegorical meanings alongside the literal ones.
🔥 Hannah is the mother of the first prophet in the prophetic age. She was barren, but then blessed with a child, Samuel. She praises God and in her speech Augustine sees more foreshadowing of Christ, a prophecy of the city of God. It's one of many connections he sees from the Old Testament to the New Testament in the Bible.
🔥 The New Testament is central. Augustine says even that "the Old Testament profiteth nothing unless it bears witness to the New Testament."
🔥 Another example of the way this works, in the Old Testament, God promises David a son who will build God a house (a temple). Augustine believes this promise is really about Jesus, a future descendant of David's. David did have a son, Solomon, and Solomon did build a famous temple. But that temple was filled with "strange women worshiping false gods." It simply cannot be that God would promise something falsely — "don't dare" think otherwise, says Augustine.
🔥 Other of God's promises about a coming kingdom and future peace were about Jesus, too. Not Israel, even though the ones receiving those promises didn't know that.
🔥 Augustine continues going through the Psalms and picking out pieces that he believes are prophecies about Jesus. He finds one verse that mentions one sleeping and waking up again, and he argues that this is about Jesus's resurrection from death. Is there anyone so stupid not to see this? he says. Why would the writer talk about something so trivial as sleeping and waking if it were not really about something more symbolic?
🔥 He continues in the same vein with Ecclesiastes and Proverbs. Though he doesn't have time to go into those books at the same length. This book is already quite long...
🔥 Recounting more events described in the Bible, Israel is eventually split into two kingdoms, and then defeated and made subjects of other kingdoms. There were many other prophets throughout this time, too, leading up to Jesus.
Reflection
💬 Not much new to add here. This book is 90% theology, maybe 10% history. And a take on history that feels questionable, to say the least. Though maybe I'm just not able to see or appreciate what Augustine is trying to do with this book. My best guess, as I've written before, is that he's trying to create a cohesive, cosmic story for the history of humankind, and basing it on the Bible. Maybe the fall of Rome was making people feel like everything was meaningless, and he was trying to push back against that?