There is a “mysterious and hidden Wisdom of God. God planned it before all ages for our glory.” And this Wisdom of God is Christ;he is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

In the Book of Revelation we are shown a scroll sealed with seven seals. If you were to give it to a learned person to read, the scholar would say: I cannot, because it is sealed. How many people today, who claim to be learned, hold a sealed Book [the Bible] in their hands! And they cannot open it until the seals are broken by him “who wields David’s key and who opens and no one can close, who closes and no one can open.” Understand from this that you cannot begin to follow the Scriptures without a guide to show you the way [the Holy Spirit].

So tell me: to live in the atmosphere of these holy books, to think about them constantly, neither to know nor to look for anything beside them, is this not to live in the kingdom of heaven already, here on earth? And do not be put off, in the Scriptures, by the simplicity and bluntness of language which may be the translators’ fault or even intentional. They are always set forth in such a way that whoever comes along can find instruction so that, in one and the same sentence, both the learned and the ignorant can find the plain meaning.

I am not by any means making so wild and foolish a claim as to flatter myself that I understand everything in Scriptures: but I confess that I long to understand and am pressing on in my endeavor. So here on earth let us study these things, the understanding of which is laid up for us in heaven.

—Letter 53, to Paulinus of Nola