How Confessions drew on The Gospels
A documented line of influence: Augustine of Hippo demonstrably engaged Matthew’s work. The commentary below is Gröblé’s, verbatim from each work’s page.
The source
The Gospels
Matthew · c. 85
BibleThe influenced
Confessions
Augustine of Hippo · c. 398
Ancient RomeRelevance
7/10
On Confessions’s page
- Augustine writes with the Gospels open beside him — the Confessions quotes scripture on nearly every page, and the four Gospels are its anchor
- He sets John's the Word was made flesh against the Platonist books he loved: a way to name exactly what the philosophers gave him and what they couldn't
- The whole confession closes on Matthew's knock and it shall be opened — read the Gospels first and you hear where Augustine's last words come from
On The Gospels’s page
- The book Augustine could not stop quoting — the Confessions is a mosaic of scripture, and the Gospels supply its load-bearing stones
- John's prologue, the Word made flesh, is Augustine's measuring stick: it's what he finds the Platonists lacking, the one thing their philosophy could never reach
- Matthew's knock and it shall be opened runs through the whole book and gives Augustine his closing words — the Gospel doesn't just influence the Confessions, it ends it