Verse 4
With thee is the principality in the day of thy strength: in the brightness of the saints: from the womb before the day star I begot thee.
Tecum principium in die virtutis tuae in splendoribus sanctorum; ex utero, ante luciferum, genui te.
He said: “Rule thou in the midst of thy enemies,” which refers to that time when the kingdom of Christ is under attack from His enemies: he now announces what it will be like at the last day, when all His enemies will have been subdued and made His footstool. “With thee,” he says, “is the principality in the day of thy strength,” that is, Thy pre-eminence will be made manifest, Thy kingdom will be made apparent to all, and true authority will be with Thee alone. “In the day of thy strength,” namely in the last day, when Thy power shall move the heavens, obscure the sun, shake the earth, awaken the dead and lead all men before Thy tribunal. “In the brightness of the saints,” that is, when Thou wilt be surrounded by Thy saints, who will shine bright as the sun. “From the womb before the day star I begot thee,” that is, Thy pre-eminence will be so great because I, God the Father almighty, “begot thee,” not from nothing like all other created things, but “from the womb,” my womb, as my true son, natural and consubstantial; “ before the day star,” that is, before I created the stars, before every created thing, before all ages. This explanation is common to the Fathers, Jerome, Chrysostom, Augustine, Theodoret and Euthymius. But let’s focus on each word in turn.
Tecum / with thee: St. Jerome translates the Hebrew as populus tuus / thy people. Now the Hebrew can be read as
hhammecha, meaning
populus tuus / thy people; but also as
hhimmecha, meaning
tecum / with thee, and this is the Septuagint reading, and they rightly translate it thus.
Principium / principality[1] is translated from a Hebrew word which properly means
principes / princes, rulers; but the Septuagint seems to have read it as
principatus / pre-eminence, and this is the explanation of St, Chrysostom in this context of the Greek word ἀρχἠ, which can mean both
principium / beginning and
principatum / pre-eminence,
principality. If it is decided not to read principium for principatu, but simply for principio, we can explain the meaning as follows:
Tecum principium / with thee is the principality, that is, the first beginning of all things, because Thou art in the
Father and the Father is in Thee. But the first explanation seems preferable, as agreeing more with the Hebrew.
In the day of thy strength: there is no disagreement in the codices about these words, except that in Hebrew
virtutem properly refers to power and might.
In the brightness of the saints: in Hebrew, this reads as
in the mountains of holiness. But the Septuagint translators read the Hebrew characters as referring not to mountains but to splendour(s), brightness. It amounts to the same,
in the brightness of holiness,
in the brightness of saints, holy men may be said to be the splendours or brightness of holiness, because holiness shines resplendent in them.
From the womb: from these words, the
Holy Fathers prove most efficaciously the divinity of Christ: for if Christ were a creature, He could not be said to have been born from the womb: for nobody says a house is born from the womb, nor a bench, nor anything manufactured: nor does God ever say the heavens or the earth were born of the womb. By womb is to be understood the secret and intimate essence of God; and although the womb pertains properly to a mother and not a father, God the Father is correctly said to have given birth from the womb, so that the Son is shown more clearly to be consubstantial with the Father (who begot Him): for a son is more clearly from the substance of the mother than of the father; but God had no need of a wife in order to beget and give birth to a son. He Himself begot, and He gave birth, hence Isaiah says: “Shall not I
that make others to bring forth children, myself bring forth?”
[2] Before the day star: here is signified the eternity of the Son, who was begotten before the creation of the day star, and for this reason, before all created things. But he uses the expression
the day star since the Son of God is Himself the increate light-bearer. For He is the true light, which enlighteneth every man and every angel.
[3] St. Jerome translates the Hebrew word here as
from the dawn. But it can also be translated as
before the dawn. The Septuagint translators opted for the reading
luciferum / day star instead of
dawn, whether because the day star rises with the dawn, or because dawn itself is the lucifer, the bringer of light; St. Jerome translates Job xi 12 as
orieris ut lucifer /thou shalt rise as the day star, where the Hebrew says in the morning; and so luciferum can be read as meaning the morning or dawn.
I begot thee: in Hebrew this is now read as
to thee the dew of thy nativity. But the Septuagint translators did not have the two words
tibi ros / to thee the dew, and they read the words
of thy nativity as meaning
I begot thee, because the Hebrew word can be read both ways by changing the points, either as
of thy nativity or as
I begot thee. It is also possible that the Septuagint translators read
to thee the dew of thy nativity but that they wanted to clarify these obscure words and so they said,
I begot thee. For those words are obscure:
from the womb before the day star to thee the dew of thy nativity, that is,
from the womb before the day star thy nativity was from me, as the dew is from heaven. St. Augustine adds another explanation, namely David is referring to Christ according to the flesh: I begot thee from the womb of the Virgin Mary, my daughter, before the day star rose, that is, in the middle of the night. Tertullian also speaks of the Virgin giving birth in book V of
in Marcionem, but he attributes to God the words
I begot thee, as follows: I, God the Father, begot thee from the womb of the Virgin, in the time of night, before the day star arose.
[1] From the complete OED: The position, rank, or dignity of a prince or chief ruler; royal dominion or sovereignty; supreme authority. Obsolete.The quality, condition, or fact of being principal; chief place or rank; pre-eminence, superiority. Now rare.
[2] Shall not I that make others to bring forth children, myself bring forth, saith the Lord? shall I, that give generation to others, be barren, saith the Lord thy God? Numquid ego qui alios parere facio, ipse non pariam? dicit Dominus. Si ego, qui generationem ceteris tribuo, sterilis ero? ait Dominus Deus tuus. [Isaia. Lxvi 9]
[3] That was the true light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world. Erat lux vera, quae illuminat omnem hominem venientem in hunc mundum. [John i. 9]
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam.
No comments:
Post a Comment