son is not very far from the Aristotelian anagnorisis, the legal
approval of inanimate things, like inheritance, may be regarded as
an acknowledgement of facts. In this manner, one can unilaterally
acknowledge (agnosco) one’s own property, sinfulness, and the mis-
takes one has made.^15 At the same time, inheritance and property are
also paradigmatic examples of gift transfer between people. The legal
approval of an inheritance in this sense is also an interpersonal event.
When the Vulgate speaks of knowing or acknowledging the truth,
the Latin reader can use the legal analogy and understandagnitio
veritatisin terms of acknowledging facts. At the same time, however,
the idea of gift transfer is not simply ruled out. When 1 Tim. 2:4 says
that God desires everyone to be saved and to come to theagnitio
veritatis, a Latin reader can interpret God’s desire as a horizon of
expectation that enables theagnitioto be an upward recognition in
the sense of gift transfer between God and humankind. An individual
who recognizes God can expect God to work out salvation. Similarly,
the Latin phrase of Titus 1:1‘according to the faith of God’s elect and
agnitionem veritatis’can be read to mean that the divine election is
already offered as an initial favour and theagnitiothus becomes an
upward recognition of God. In this manner, the biblical Latin phrase
moves between acknowledgement of facts and interpersonal gift
transfer in the sense of‘upward’recognition.
Apart from its biblical use, the Latin phraseagnitio veritatisdoes
not receive much theological attention before the time of Rufin(400CE).
Tertullian mentions it twice, speaking of people who come to know
the truth after having been deceived.^16 The phrase appears several
times in Rufin’s Latin translations of Origen’s works. In Rufin’s
translation of Origen’sCommentary on Romans, we encounter the
view that God has implanted some ideas about divine being in
believers so that they can attain the knowledge of the truth in faith
through these ideas, acknowledgingfirst the visible reality and then
proceeding towards the invisible.^17
For the present, I will restrict my biblical discussion to the phrases
discussed above. Some other biblical concepts will be introduced
when they enter the historical discussion on recognition. They con-
cern three biblical themes: (i) the issues of commendation (2.3),
(ii) the parables regarding master/lord and servants (2.4), and
(^15) TLL, s.v. agnosco. (^16) Apol.21, 149;De resurr. mort. 22, 2.
(^17) In Rom.VL 16, 83. I rely on searches from the LLT database.
The Latin Traditions 47