Verse 5
Shall not Sion say: This man and that man is born in her? and the Highest himself hath founded her.
Numquid Sion dicet : Homo et homo natus est in ea, et ipse fundavit eam Altissimus?
The Prophet adds the chief praise of the holy city, that He was born in the city who, as the Most High, “founded her,” the Son of God. From this, the most glorious of all the things that may be said of her is that He who is her founder according to His divine nature, chose to be her citizen, according to His human nature. This understanding of the text is that of the Holy Fathers Jerome and Augustine, and after them, the Greek doctors Theodoretus and Euthymius, and before them, Tertullian, the most ancient of the Latin doctors, in his book
adversus Praxeam.
“Shall not this man say to Sion:” that is, is it possible that anyone might say to Sion something so new and so wondrous, and unheard of through the ages : “and a man is born in her, and the Highest himself hath founded her,” that is, will anyone indicate to Sion herself, “that a man is born in her,” and He Himself founded her, because He is “the Most High?” Not a few of the Jews tried to obscure this evident prophecy. But we. with the holy Fathers, have greater faith than all the Jews. Regarding the word
numquid / (expecting answer no), in Hebrew it reads as
et / and, but perhaps the Hebrew was corrupted by a scribe’s error, and
he, which means
numquid, should be read instead of
vau. Even if the particle
et / and remains, the sense is the same, if taken in an interrogative mode : For
And will anyone say to Sion? is the same as
Surely no-one will say to
Sion? In the Greek text, it does not have
numquid or
et, but
mater / mother, and this is how St. Augustine reads it :
Shall anyone say to mother Sion. But blessed Jerome in his commentary explicitly states the Greek text is corrupt, and the Septuagint translation was μητὶ, which is
numquid, but a letter ρ was added by an inexperienced scribe, making μήτηρ. The word Sion is in the dative case, as is known from the Hebrew article, and the verb
will say is masculine in Hebrew, and
Sion is feminine. Accordingly,
a man will say to Sion, and
Sion herself will not speak. The word
dicet / will say is in Hebrew
ieamur, which is
dicetur / will be said; but removing the points, the same letters read as
iemar, which means
dicet / will say, and the Septuagint translators read it this way. The phrase
homo et homo is interpreted by the Rabbis and their followers so that the sense is
many men. But in the Hebrew and Greek text, the first
homo is conjugated with the verb
dicet, so that the sense is:
A man/man will say to Sion; the second
homo is conjugated with the verb
natus est / is born, and this is the true interpunction and reading; nor should we, on account of the Rabbis’ glosses, pervert the text and abandon the Fathers’ exposition. The word
Et / and, when it says “And that man is born in her,” can be read as
quia / because, as it is frequently in the Scriptures. If anyone asks how Christ can be said to be born in Sion when it states He was born in Bethlehem, we shall reply that, in this context, Sion signifies the Church, or God’s people; Christ was born according to His humanity in God’s people, or in the Church, which began in Abel; according to His divinity, He is the founder of this Church. We might properly add that Christ may be said to be born in Sion by reason of His ancestors, David, Solomon and others, who set their throne in Sion.
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam.
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