Little Question Seven of Question One
Whether the prophecies of the Sibyls, female magicians, and pythonesses were breathed upon by divine power; and why the Sibyls alone were permitted to prophesy concerning Christ
It is asked whether the prophecies of future things made by the Sibyls and by certain female magicians and pythonesses among the gentile people should be believed to have been revealed to them by the Holy Spirit; and why it was granted among the gentiles to the female Sibyls alone to prophesy concerning Christ, and to no other among the Babylonian seers, philosophers, or poets.
To this Augustine answers as follows in Book XXI of The City of God: whether the Sibyls were good or evil, it must be believed that those things which they foretold concerning Christ and other matters pertaining to human salvation were inspired by God. For it is not likely that the devil would reveal to human beings those things which he foreknew would occur for their salvation.
That this is true concerning the good Sibyls is evident from the interpretation of the name. For she is called “Sibylla” as though “the mind of God,” because syos in Greek is called “God” in Latin, and bellē means “mind,” as though she were the mind of God.
For, as Augustine in Book XVIII of The City of God, chapter 23, and Isidore in Book VIII of the Etymologies say, among the gentile people there were certain women, virgins or non-virgins, famous for cognition of hidden things concerning the future and other matters. Among the gentiles these women were consulted in doubtful events, as though, from the merit of a singular life, they possessed knowledge of the mind of God or of the gods, just as true prophets were consulted among the Hebrews.
Concerning them Augustine says in the place cited above that, just as formerly outside the people of Israel and earlier among the gentile people there were certain good and holy men specially illuminated and directed by God—among whom were Job, Cornelius, and others—so also there could then have been certain other holy and religious women specially illuminated by God concerning future things, Christ, and other matters.
Hence Augustine, speaking in the place cited above concerning the prophecy of one of those Sibyls, called the Erythraean or Cumaean Sibyl, says that she has nothing in her whole poem which pertains to the worship of false gods, so that she appears deservedly to be counted in the number of those who pertain to the City of God.
Concerning evil women also—whether female magicians or diviners imbued with vain arts—it is likewise evident that certain of them who were more suitable could, through the gracious condescension of divine clemency, when certain occasions had been given, be specially illuminated by God concerning things to be done, in testimony to salutary future things.
Thus, when an occasion had been given, Balaam the soothsayer was illuminated. Although he was evil, he nevertheless uttered an illustrious prophecy concerning Christ, as is evident in Numbers 24. For the gift of prophecy extends not only to the good, but is common to the good and the evil, as are the other graces gratuitously given.
In other matters not pertaining to Christ, however, these divining female magicians could be illuminated by the devil, as were the superstitious wise men of Babylon.
But if someone were to ask why, among the gentiles, certain female prophets who prophesied concerning Christ were found only in the female sex, while none of the famous Babylonian seers skilled in the divinatory arts—whom the kings of the gentiles were accustomed to consult in doubtful matters, as is evident concerning Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar—or of the philosophers prophesied anything concerning Christ, the future judgment, the resurrection, and the other matters concerning which the Sibyls spoke, it is answered that only the person who has been instructed by God concerning these and similar secrets of God can render a reason for them.
Or perhaps it was done thus according to the custom of God, by which he often chooses the weak things of this world in order to confound the strong. The philosophers, or those who followed only the cognition which could be possessed by natural investigation concerning God and creatures, placed the obstacle of presumption and pride and did not merit to receive divine revelations from above.
It could nevertheless have been brought about secretly by God that even poets or certain philosophers fashioned or spoke certain things which God was going to do in the world for the general salvation of human beings, although those philosophers or poets did not look to matters of this kind but to other things with which their intention was occupied, as happened in Caiaphas, Virgil, and others.
These things are from Lord Henry of Hesse, On Genesis.