Question of reader or writer?

“The student who fears God earnestly seeks his will in the holy scriptures. Holiness, makes him gentle, so that he does not revel in controversy; a knowledge of languages protects him from uncertainty over unfamiliar words or phrases, and a knowledge of certain essential things protects him from ignorance of the significance and detail of what is used by way of imagery,” (68).

This passage stood out to me because I got the impression that Augustine is saying that even the person who fears God, turns to God in the end to help with the fear. I also enjoyed how the authors states what the holiness does for the student. It allows him to have different sources of understanding.

Another thing that stood out to me was when Augustine states that we have to consult the rule of faith, if close consideration doesn’t explain the punctuation and articulation of a passage. This was interesting to me because he went on to talk about how different punctuation throughout the scriptures can change the entire meaning of it, or at least make the message different.

Saint Augustine goes on the talk about the punctuation throughout the scriptures and how we should be reading it. However, he states that such issues that revolve around punctuation are left for the readers to resolve. He also says that the punctuation problems can also be applied to reading aloud, and that this situation, can be resolved by consulting the rules of faith or the surrounding text. It seems that he tends to put the punctuation errors and errors when interpreting the scriptures on the readers, when I think that the way the scriptures were written allows us to interpret and read them incorrectly.