Chapter XXIII.—Two Kinds of
Disagreements in the Books to Be Explained.
32. These things, therefore, being heard and
perceived according to my weakness of apprehension, which I confess
unto Thee, O Lord, who knowest it, I see that two sorts of
differences may arise when by signs anything is related, even by
true reporters,—one concerning the truth of the things, the other
concerning the meaning of him who reports them. For in one way we
inquire, concerning the forming of the creature, what is true; but
in another, what Moses, that excellent servant of Thy faith, would
have wished that the reader and hearer should understand by these
words. As for the first kind, let all those depart from me who
imagine themselves to know as true what is false. And as for the
other also, let all depart from me who imagine Moses to have spoken
things that are false. But let me be united in Thee, O Lord, with
them, and in Thee delight myself with them that feed on Thy truth, in the breadth of charity; and let us approach together unto the words of Thy book, and in them make search for Thy will, through the will of Thy servant by whose pen Thou hast dispensed them.