Wednesday, 28 April 2021

Bellarmine on Psalm 94 : Verse 3

Verse 3

For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.

quoniam Deus magnus Dominus, et rex magnus super omnes deos;


He offers five reasons why God should be praised by us. The first is because our Lord is a great God above all other Gods, and a great king above all other kings, whom some are wont to call gods. In this text, the Hebrew  has a word for Dominus / Lord which has four letters and which is proper to the true God; and so the adjective magnus / great should not be linked to Dominus / Lord but to God, as we have said. Furthermore, by gods are to be understood in the first place false gods, that is, demons, which among the Gentiles usurp the worship of the true God, as is said in Psalm xcv : “For all the gods of the Gentiles are devils.”[1] Secondly, by gods are to be understood the kings and judges of the earth, of who it is said in Psalm lxxxi : “I have said: You are gods.”[1] In Greek, it reads super omnem terram / above all the earth ; and this reading is followed by Theodoret and Euthymius; but in Hebrew it has super omnes deos / above all gods, and St. Jerome and St. Augustine read it in the same way; the Greek is probably a corruption.

[1] For all the gods of the Gentiles are devils: but the Lord made the heavens. quoniam omnes dii gentium daemonia; Dominus autem caelos fecit. [Ps. Xcv. 5]
[2] I have said: You are gods and all of you the sons of the most High. Ego dixi : Dii estis, et filii Excelsi omnes. [Ps. lxxxi. 6]


Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam.

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