confessions and enchiridion [179]
and the final source of truth is the indwelling Logos. [421] Cf. the notion of creation in Plato's Timaeus (29D-30C; 48E- 50C), in which the Demiurgos (craftsman) fashions the universe from pre-existent matter and imposes as much form as the Receptacle will receive. The notion of the world fashioned from pre-existent matter of some sort was a universal idea in Greco- Roman cosmology. [422] Cf. Ps. 33:9. [423] Matt. 3:17. [424] Cf. the Vulgate of John 8:25. [425] Cf. Augustine's emphasis on Christ as true Teacher in De Magistro. [426] Cf. John 3:29. [427] Cf. Ps. 103:4, 5 (mixed text). [428] Ps. 104:24. [429] Pleni vetustatis suae. In Sermon CCLXVII, 2 (PL 38, c. 1230), Augustine has a similar usage. Speaking of those who pour new wine into old containers, he says: Carnalitas vetustas est, gratia novitas est, "Carnality is the old nature; grace is the new"; cf. Matt. 9:17. [430] The notion of the eternity of this world was widely held in Greek philosophy, in different versions, and was incorporated into the Manichean rejection of the Christian doctrine of creatio ex nihilo which Augustine is citing here. He returns to the question, and his answer to it, again in De civitate Dei, XI, 4-8. [431] The unstable "heart" of those who confuse time and eternity. [432] Cf. Ps. 102:27. [433] Ps. 2:7. [434] Spatium, which means extension either in space or time. [435] The breaking light and the image of the rising sun. [436] Cf. Ps. 139:6. [437] Memoria, contuitus, and expectatio: a pattern that corresponds vaguely to the movement of Augustine's thought in the Confessions: from direct experience back to the supporting memories and forward to the outreach of hope and confidence in God's provident grace. [438] Cf. Ps. 116:10. [439] Cf. Matt. 25:21, 23. [440] Communes notitias, the universal principles of "common sense." This idea became a basic category in scholastic epistemology. [441] Gen. 1:14. [442] Cf. Josh. 10:12-14. [443] Cf. Ps. 18:28. [444] Cubitum, literally the distance between the elbow and the tip of the middle finger; in the imperial system of weights and measures it was 17.5 inches. [445] Distentionem, "spread-out-ness"; cf. Descartes' notion of res extensae, and its relation to time. [446] Ps. 100:3. [447] Here Augustine begins to summarize his own answers to the questions he has raised in his analysis of time. [448] The same hymn of Ambrose quoted above, Bk. IX, Ch. XII, 39, and analyzed again in De musica, VI, 2:2. [449] This theory of time is worth comparing with its most notable restatement in modern poetry, in T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets and especially "Burnt Norton." [450] Ps. 63:3. [451] Cf. Phil. 3:12-14. [452] Cf. Ps. 31:10. [453] Note here the preparation for the transition from this analysis of time in Bk. XI to the exploration of the mystery of creation in Bks. XII and XIII. [454] Celsitudo, an honorific title, somewhat like "Your Highness." [455] Rom. 8:31. [456] Matt. 7:7, 8. [457] Vulgate, Ps. 113:16 (cf. Ps. 115:16, K.J.; see also Ps. 148:4, both Vulgate and K.J.): Caelum caeli domino, etc. Augustine finds a distinction here for which the Hebrew text gives no warrant. The Hebrew is a typical nominal sentence and means simply "The heavens are the heavens of Yahweh"; cf. the Soncino edition of The Psalms, edited by A. Cohen; cf. also R.S.V., Ps. 115:16. The LXX reading seems to rest on a variant Hebrew text. This idiomatic construction does not mean "the heavens of the heavens" (as it is too literally translated in the LXX), but rather "highest heaven." This is a familiar way, in Hebrew, of emphasizing a superlative (e.g., "King of kings," "Song of songs"). The singular thing can be described superlatively only in terms of itself! [458] Earth and sky. [459] It is interesting that Augustine should have preferred the invisibilis et incomposita of the Old Latin version of Gen. 1:2 over the inanis et vacua of the Vulgate, which was surely accessible to him. Since this is to be a key phrase in the succeeding exegesis this reading can hardly have been the