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QUESTIONS 54-55 97 Truth, and since the soul's good lies in this, then one rightly accepts this as the meaning of the Scripture: "But as for myself, it is good for me to cling to God."5 55. ON THE SCRIPTURE: "THERE ARE SIXTY QUEENS, EIGHTY CONCUBINES, AND YOUNG WOMEN WITHOUT NUMBER"1 The number 10 can signify universal knowledge. If 10 refers to the inner and intelligible things which are signified by the number 6, this results in 10 x 6 which is 60. If 10 refers to earthly and corruptible things which are signified by the number 8, the result is 10 x 8 which is 80. Therefore the word queens refers to the souls which rule in the realm of the intelligible and spiritual. The word concubines [refers] to the souls which receive an earthly reward, concerning whom it is said: "They have received their reward."2 The phrase 5 Ps. 72(73).28. This Q. contains important elements of St. Augustine's own fully developed proof for the existence of God found in DVR 29.52-31.58 (PL 34.145-48) and DLA 2.3.7-15.39 (PL 32.1243-62). The succinct remarks of G. Bardy on both this Q. and the proof of DVR and DLA are worth quoting: "This proof is grounded in the life of the mind: the possession by a contingent mind of a truth, any truth, presupposes a dependence of this mind on a perfect Truth, and this proves that Truth's existence. The heart of this proof is the principle of sufficient reason which is here applied, not to the psychological formation of the concept, but to the metaphysical import of the fact· of knowledge taken in its totality, and God alone explains this fact. Illumination is the consequence of this. In this small Q. 54, St. Augustine does not develop this proof, properly speaking, but he suggests it toward the end; and one can find there a rough draft, or perhaps better yet a summary, of his full account in DLA. A little above in the same treatise, Eighty-three Different Questions, in Q. 45, there is also perhaps an allusion to the same thesis; and if it is purely implicit or scarcely perceived, it has, nonetheless, some value as a witness to a doctrinal tendency characterizing a frame of mind" (BA 10, p. 732, n. 56, "Amorce de la preuve de Dieu par la vie de l'esprit.") 1 Cant (Song) 6.7. 2 Mt 6.2. 98 ST. AUGUSTINE young women without number [refers1to the souls which possess no determinate knowledge and can be imperiled by various doctrines. Hence number, as has been said, signifies the sure and certain confirmation inherent in knowledge. 56. ON THE FORTY-SIX YEARS FOR THE BUILDING OF THE TEMPLE The numbers 6 + 9 + 12 + 10 + 8 make 45. Therefore add 1 and they make 46. This times 6 makes 276. Now it is said that human fetal development! reaches completion in the following way. In the first six days [the fetus1is similar to a kind of milk, in the following nine days it is changed to blood, then in the following twelve days it becomes solid, in the remaining ten and eight days the features of all its members achieve complete formation, and in the remaining time until birth it grows in size. Therefore to forty-five days add 1, which signifies the sum (because 6, 9, 12, 10, and 8 brought together into one sum make 45); add 1, as was said, and the result is 46. When this number is multiplied by 6, which stands at the head of the series, 276 results, i.e., nine months and six days. This is the time between March 25th (the day on which the Lord is believed to have been conceived , since he also suffered and died on that same day) to December 25th (the day on which he was born). Therefore it is not absurd to say that the temple, which signified his body,2 was built in forty-six years, so that there were as many years in the construction of the temple as there were days in the completing of the Lord's body.3 1 conceptio. 2 In 2.20-21. 3 Cf. DT 4.5.9 (PL42.893-94) and IE 10.12 (PL 35.1473-74). ...

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