Book XVII: The Prophetic Age

[Nemo]

In their writings, many early Church Father have expressed a firm conviction that the Scriptures are the word of God, and one of the main reasons is their belief that the prophecies in the Scripture have been and are still being fulfilled.

In Book XVI, Augustine interpreted prophecies in the Five Books of Moses as foreshadowing and ultimately fulfilled in Lord Jesus Christ; In Book XVII, he traces the history of the City of God from the time of the Kings to Christ, which he calls "the prophetic age", and further interprets the messianic prophecies in the Scriptures.

[Nemo]

In chapter 3, Augustine reiterates the teaching that the Scriptures can and often do have both historical and allegorical significance at the same time.

It seems to me that Augustine treats history as the work of God, the Playwright. Just as in a literary work, a writer can bestow symbolic meaning on something, so in history, a temporal and finite entity can signify what is eternal, for example, the historical Jerusalem can signify the heavenly Jerusalem, a temporal king can foreshadow the King of Kings.

Therefore prophetic utterances of three kinds are to be found; forasmuch as there are some relating to the earthly Jerusalem, some to the heavenly, and some to both.
...
But just as, I think, they err greatly who are of opinion that none of the records of affairs in that kind of writings mean anything more than that they so happened, so I think those very daring who contend that the whole gist of their contents lies in allegorical significations. Therefore I have said they are threefold, not two-fold. Yet, in holding this opinion, I do not blame those who may be able to draw out of everything there a spiritual meaning, only saving, first of all, the historical truth.