Augustine on biblical interpretation from On Christian Teaching.
The most expert investigator of divine scriptures will be eh person who, first, has read them all and has a good knowledge–a reading knowledge, a least, if not yet a complete understanding–of those pronounced canonical….
The first rule in this laborious task, is, as I have said, to know these books; not necessarily to understand them but to read them so as to commit them to memory or at least make them not totally unfamiliar. Then the matters which are clearly stated in them, whether ethical precepts or articles of belief, should be examined carefully and intelligently.
then, after gaining a familiarity with the language of the divine scriptures, one should proceed to explore and analyze the obscure passages, by taking examples from the more obvious parts to illuminate obscure expressions and by uncertainty of ambiguous ones.
