Plurality

In the bewildering variety of true things that sincere inquirers discover in Scripture, who can be so bold as to say that he knows exactly what Moses knew and what he meant to say in [a] passage? Is it not easier to say what is the truth, whether Moses knew it or not?

…I am bold enough to say that in your changeless Word you made all things, invisible and visible. But can I say as boldly that Moses meant this and nothing else when he wrote ‘at the origin God made heaven and earth’? I am sure of what I hold, with the help of your own truth, but can I be as certain that I know what Moses was thinking when he wrote it?

…They speak as if some mantic art let them read the mind of Moses, to know what he meant; but pride prevents them from knowing. They are less interested in Moses’ meaning than in their own, not for its truth but just because it is their own.

- Augustine of Hippo, Confessions, XII.IV.33-34