Augustine

Augustine’s Six Rules: (From Robert Lowery, Lincoln Christian Seminary)
1. The authority of Scripture rests on the authority of the church – authority is given to the ancient text as the church receives it.
2. The obscurities in Scripture have been put there by God, and are to be interpreted on the basis of many plain passages. Also consult traditional interpretation and the context.
3. When Scripture is ambiguous the rule of faith can be used to interpret it (what the church has customarily taught).
4. Figurative passages must not be taken literally; attention must be paid to the literary form of each text.
5. A figure need not always have only one meaning. Meaning may vary with context.
6. Any possible meaning which a text can have is legitimate, whether the author realized it or not. A truth could be apprehended at many different levels, and it was wrong to limit the biblical text to just one meaning.