Ritröð Guðfræðistofnunar - 01.01.2013, Side 21

proinde cum multo pluribus illi
uixerint annis quam Israhelitae in
Aegypto fuerunt, quis non uideat
quam multi homines nasci potu-
erunt, unde illa ciuitas inpleretur, si
Hebraei multo minore tempore ita
multiplicari potuerunt?
Because they [the patriarchs prior
to the Deluge] lived significantly
longer than the Israelites in Egypt,
one can scarcely imagine how many
people would have been born during
so long a period and so populate a
city, since the Hebrews in a much
shorter period of time were able to
multiply to such a large extent!
A third example: If Moses turned all of the water of the Nile into blood,
where then did the Egyptian sorcerers find their water to turn into blood?
qu. 2,23 (to Ex 8,7)
proinde intellegendum est regionem,
ubi filii Israhel habitabant, plagis
talibus non fuisse percussam.
et inde potuerunt incantatores uel
aquam haurire, quam in sanguinem
uerterent, uel aliquas ranas educere
ad solam demonstrationem magicae
potentiae.
Now the second observation: Augustine often moralizes to an almost intole-
rable extent, following the principle that God cannot give bad example
in the Bible or in any way commend bad behaviour. Lies are especially
reprehensible for Augustine. Thus, in his commentaries, Augustine consis-
tently insists on observing this principle, even if it means ruining many a
humourous Old Testament story. A good example is the way Augustine
dealt with the story of the Hebrew midwives who saved the lives of Jewish
male infants from Pharaoh’s order to kill them by claiming that, unlike the
Egyptian women and more like the animals, the Jewish women gave birth
before the midwives arrived. For Augustine, this problem appeared to be
especially urgent because God proceeded to reward the Hebrew midwives
for their deceit. To solve this problem, Augustine makes a distinction:
Thus one can surmise that the
region where the children of Israel
lived was not affected by such
plagues.
And so the sorcerers were able to
turn water into blood and to cause
frogs to come forth, in order to
demonstrate their magic powers.
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