The Messianic Character of the Twenty-First Psalm

Rev. E. F. Sutcliffe, S.J., "The Messianic Character of the Twenty-First Psalm." Irish Ecclesiastical Record, Fifth Series, Volume XVIII. (1921) pp. 348-363.

He said unto them: Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and should rise from the dead on the third day (Luke 24:46).

The twenty-first Psalm, in the Hebrew text the twenty-second, is a grand example of Hebrew poetry. Boldness of imagery, wealth of expression, and elevation of language combine to deepen the opening tone of sorrow and anguish, and to heighten the succeeding tone of triumph. These are the notes characteristic of the two parts into which the poem falls. In the first the speaker gives expression to his sense of abandonment and desolation. He calls on God for help, and asks plaintively why it is so long withheld. He tells of the many dangers that encompass him, and pictures his terrible plight. Then, suddenly assured of God's protecting care, he breaks out into words of praise, foretells the blessings that his deliverance will bring to lowly and mighty alike, and depicts the universal triumph and reign of God over the nations. Christian tradition from the beginning has seen in this psalm a prediction of the sufferings and final triumph of the Messias. Jewish commentators explain it of David, or of the Jewish people in exile. Even Ezechias and Jeremias have been represented as experiencing the sorrows and triumph it depicts. Hengstenberg proposed the ideal just man. Dr. Driver and Dr. Briggs see in the speaker one who identifies himself with the nation at large and speaks in its name; and the nation, of course, is Israel, "faithful Israel" or "godly Israel." We propose to examine the more important of these views, taking as the basis of our study the Hebrew text of the psalm, and the variant readings preserved by the Septuagint. The translation given makes no claim to be original. We shall begin by an analysis of the psalm in the strictly Messianic sense, noticing the main difficulties alleged from the Jewish standpoint. As a representative Jew we will quote the celebrated Jewish grammarian and exegete, David Kimchi. This medieval scholar has by no means lost his influence. Some of his works were reprinted in the nineteenth century, in particular the passages of anti-Christian polemic added by him to his commentary on various psalms. The edition here cited is the translation from the Hebrew made by R. G. Finch, D.D., and published by the S.P.C.K. as: The Longer Commentary of R. David Kimchi on the First Book of Psalms, 1919.

Our psalm is entitled: "For the Chief Musician; set to 'The Hind of the Dawn'; a psalm of David's." It opens with a passionate complaint that God does not listen to the sufferer's cry:

2. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Why art thou far from helping me, from the words of my roaring?
3. O my God, I cry by day, but thou answerest not;
And by night, but I have no rest.

The first verse was uttered by Our Lord, as He hung upon the cross, and He thereby showed that the psalm was fulfilled in Himself (Matt 27:46, Mark 15:34). The author of the Breviarium in Psalmos¹ goes so far as to say, "Hoc versiculo Dominus in cruce pendens usus est. Ex quo animadvertimus totum psalmum a Domino in cruce posito decantari." This cry of Our Lord's manifests a sense of abandonment that is certainly mysterious, for in Christ the human Nature was united with the divine in the one Person of the Word, who was not and could not be separated from the other Persons of the Blessed Trinity. The words are best explained with St. Thomas² as referring to Our Lord's being left to the power of His persecutors. In this St. Thomas agrees with St. Augustine.³ Should it be urged that if Christ was God, He knew why His Father had allowed Him to fall into the hands of His enemies, "seeing that he hath not spared his own son, but hath delivered him for all of us" (Rom 8:32), the answer is, He cried out for our sakes, that we might know the reality of His sufferings of mind and body. So God asked Adam, "Where art thou?" (Gen 3:9), and Cain, "Where is thy brother Abel?" (Gen 4:9), to bring home to them their guilt.

Here we may notice an objection urged by David Kimchi, that if Jesus was God, and "he did not wish to keep his soul alive, nor rescue it from the power of those who slew him... why did he cry: My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? (Why art Thou) so far from helping me?" He goes on: "if he were really God, he would be able to save himself." He was able to save Himself. But, though, as man, He felt that shrinking from suffering and desire for deliverance which are manifested by this cry of anguish, yet His will was firmly set to undergo the ignominy and the pain of His Passion. Therefore, though He could have saved Himself, He would not. He gave vent to this cry to let us know that His divinity did not preclude very real and very bitter pain of mind and body.

4. But thou art holy,
Enthroned on Israel's praises.
5. Our fathers trusted in thee,
They trusted, and thou didst deliver them,
6. They cried unto thee and were delivered,
They trusted in thee and were not ashamed.

God had ever heard the cry of Israel in distress, and the trust of His people had never been disappointed. God had manifested His holiness by the overthrow of the wicked, and the protection of His faithful servants (cf. Ezech 28:22). Yet now God's suffering Servant seemed to call to Him unheard. Indeed, such is the extremity of his distress that he exclaims:

7. But I am a worm, and no man;
A reproach of men and the outcast of the people.
8. All they that see me laugh me to scorn
They part the lip(s) and wag the head.
9. "He hoped in the Lord: let him deliver him.
Let him save him, seeing he delighteth in him."

It is hardly necessary to point out in detail how closely the events of the Passion correspond to this description (Matt 27:39,43; Mark 15:29). St. Matthew records among the very words flung derisively at Our Lord: "He trusted in God: let him now deliver him if he will have him." The psalm says that "all they that see me, laugh me to scorn"; and from the Evangelists we know that not only the priests with the scribes and ancients mocked and derided (Matt 27:41), but also the soldiers (Luke 23:36) and the thieves (Matt 27:44). That Our Lord was the rejected of the people is clear from the story of the Passion: "the whole multitude together cried out, saying: Away with this man... Crucify him, crucify him" (Luke 23:18-21).

10. But thou art he that didst draw me out of the womb:
My hope when I was upon the breasts of my mother.
11. Upon thee was I cast from the womb:
From my mother's womb thou art my God.

Even while reflecting sadly on His desolation and apparent abandonment, while contrasting the mercies of God to His servants in other days with His own condition, rejected and scorned, the Messias takes new hope in the thought of God's care for Him in infancy. How perfectly appropriate these expressions are in the mouth of Jesus Christ, who, as the Church teaches, was "drawn out of the womb" by a miraculous birth that left intact His Mother's virginity. From the womb, too, He was cast upon the care of God, for it was the protecting hand of God that saved the Babe from the murderous fury of Herod. This is St. Justin's interpretation of these words, "for it was at the time of His birth in Bethlehem... that Herod the King learnt concerning Him from the magi from Arabia and plotted to destroy Him, and that by the command of God Joseph took Him with Mary and went away to Egypt."⁴ With how good a right, too, could He take comfort in the thought that from His Mother's womb He had recognized the claims of God, and been His servant in all sincerity and truth. As Jesus said: "My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, that I may perfect his work" (John 4:34). David Kimchi here objects, how could Jesus say But thou art He that took me out of the womb, for, if He were God, as is alleged, "he himself it was who brought out of the womb." To this I answer, that throughout Jesus speaks as man, because it was in His human Nature that He endured the ignominy and the torments of His Passion. Moreover, in the unity of the Godhead, there is a Trinity of Persons; and Jesus speaks here of God His Father as He so often speaks in the Gospel of St. John. "I and the Father are one," He says, and yet He says, too: "I came not to do my will but the will of him that sent me."

12. Depart not from me, for tribulation is nigh:
For there is none to help.
13. Many bulls have surrounded me:
The strong ones of Bashan have beset me.
14. They have opened their mouths against me,
As a lion ravening and roaring.
15. I am poured out like water:
And all my bones are loosened.
My heart is become like wax
Melting in the midst of my bowels.

Full of the thought of the care with which God protected His Infancy, the suffering Servant breaks out anew into a petition for help. By the strong bulls of Bashan, a district to the north-east of Palestine, famous for its pastures, are probably signified the priests, scribes, and Pharisees, rich in substance, strong in authority.⁵ The following "they" refers grammatically to the bulls, but in sense to the persons designated, for the metaphor is not sustained. To be poured out like water is a striking phrase denoting absolute prostration. The line that follows is no figure, but denotes literally the dislocation of the joints caused by the posture of the body upon the cross, and, it may be, by the clumsiness or brutality of the executioners, wrenching the sacred limbs in the act of crucifixion.

16. My strength is dried up like a potsherd:
And my tongue hath cleaved to my jaws.
And thou has brought me down into the dust of death.
17. For dogs have encompassed me.
The host of the malignant hath beset me.
They have dug my hands and feet.
18. They have numbered all my bones.
They have stared and gazed upon me.
19. They have parted my garments among them:
And upon my vesture they have cast lots.

Our Lord continues the rehearsal of His sufferings, and first refers to the terrible thirst which wrung from Him on the cross the pregnant words, "I thirst." His loss of blood had been severe, and His strong Body, in losing its life-giving sap, is said to have dried up like a potsherd. As the bulls above probably refer to those in authority, so here the dogs — in the East animals despised as the public scavengers — may represent the rabble and the soldiery. The reference to the digging of the hands and feet is a clear reference to the crucifixion. The Jewish rabbis here read "like a lion,"⁶ in place of "they have dug," though this reading is supported by no early evidence and yields no satisfactory sense. It will be instructive to see what can be made of his text by Kimchi. When due allowance has been made for the quaint and even childish notions of natural history, it will be seen that this reading yields neither grammar nor sense. The passage is to be found on pp. 102-3 of the translation made by R. G. Finch:

For there have surrounded me dogs: the assembly of evil-doers have encircled me like a lion — my hands and my feet.

For they have encircled me like the lion which makes a circuit with his tail in the forest, and no creature which sees that circle moves out thence for fear of the lion and the terror he inspires, but they fold their hands and their feet, and the lion finds his prey in the midst of his circle. So we in exile are in the midst of a circle from which we cannot emerge lest we fall into the hands of the spoilers; for if we should escape from the power of the Mohammedans we should fall into the power of the uncircumcised, and so we fold our hands and feet and stand fearful and terror-stricken before them; for we have no power either to escape on foot or to fight with our hands. Behold, it is just as if our hands and feet were in fetters!

Some rationalists have attempted to explode the Catholic interpretation of this verse by affirming that crucified persons were not nailed in the feet, but their statement is made in the face of abundant and good evidence to the contrary. Plautus, St. Justin, and Tertullian were all contemporary with the practice of crucifixion, and their witness alone is decisive. Cf. Plautus, Mostellaria, ii. i. 13:

Ego dabo ei talentum primus qui in crucem excucurrerit;
Sed ea lege ut offigantur bis pedes, bis bracchia.

See also St. Justin, Dial. cum Tryph., 97; Tertullian, Adv. Marcion, 3, 19.

In the next verse, "they have numbered all my bones," I have followed the LXX against the printed Hebrew text, which has the first person singular. This numbering of the bones is explained by the cruel effects of the scourging, the dislocation of the bones referred to in verse 15, and by the digging into the hands and feet with rough nails.

The dividing of Our Lord's garments among the soldiery is expressly stated by St. Matthew (27:46) and St. John (19:23-24) to be a fulfilment of this prophecy. St. Justin, in his Apologia 35, urges as an argument in favour of Christianity that in Our Lord were fulfilled the prophecies both of the digging of His hands and feet, and of the division of His garments.

20. But thou, O Lord, be not far from me;
My strength, make haste to help me.
21. Deliver my soul from the sword;
My only one from the power of the dog.
22. Save me from the lion's mouth:
Yea, from the horns of the wild-oxen thou hast answered me.

The cry for help breaks out again, and the interpretation of this cry is afforded by the historic fulfilment of the prophetic utterance, which in part is plain and in part obscure before the event. The interpretation of the obscure element by the historic event is justified by the identification of the prophecy and the historic facts through the more clearly foretold elements. The Gospels tell us that Jesus died: and therefore the prayer, that His life, His "only one" (cf. Ps 34(35):17) might be delivered, which was heard by Almighty God ("thou hast answered me") was not a prayer to avert death, but a prayer that His life might be spared by the reunion of His Soul and Body — a prayer most fully granted in the Resurrection. This sudden assurance of the mercy of God is followed at once by a hymn of praise, foretelling the great blessings that shall accrue to all the world from this death and divine deliverance. Here begins the second part of the psalm.

23. Let me declare thy name to my brethren:
In the midst of the church will I praise thee.
24. Ye that fear the Lord, praise him:
All ye, the seed of Jacob, glorify him:
And all ye the seed of Israel stand in awe of him.
25. For he hath not slighted nor despised the affliction of the afflicted:
Neither hath he turned away his face from me:
And when I cried unto him, he heard.

David Kimchi objects that if the Christian view of Jesus is true, He had no brethren, for "God has no brethren." No, but as man He had cousins, whom the Evangelists call brethren, just as Abraham and Lot were "brethren" (Gen 13:8); and as sanctity is of greater consequence even than carnal relationship to Himself, He says, "whosoever shall do the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother" (Mark 3:35). And He expressly called His disciples "brethren" when He said to Mary Magdalen: "Go to my brethren and say to them: I ascend to my Father and to your Father, to my God and to your God" (John 20:17). This verse is the third in this psalm directly referred to Our Lord in the New Testament, for the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews (2:11-12) puts it into His mouth: "For which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying: I will declare thy name to my brethren: in the midst of the Church will I praise thee."

26. From thee is my praise in a great church:
I will pay my vows in the sight of them that fear him.
27. The meek shall eat and shall be filled:
They shall praise the Lord that seek him,
Their heart shall live for ever.
28. All the ends of the earth shall remember,
And shall be converted to the Lord:
And all the tribes of the Gentiles shall adore before him.
29. For the Kingdom is the Lord's:
And he shall have dominion over the nations.
30. When all the fat ones of the earth have eaten and adored:
Then shall all they that go down to the dust bow down before him,
Even he that cannot keep his soul alive.
31. A seed shall serve him:
A generation to come shall be accounted the Lord's,
32. They shall declare his justness
Unto a people that shall be born,
Even what he hath done.

This closing part of the psalm enumerates some of the great and wonderful blessings that will flow from the ignominy and death of the Messias, and His consequent triumph. Chief among them are the sacrifices of thanksgiving He will offer, and of which all, the lowly and the mighty alike, shall eat — a nourishment that shall give undying life to their souls. For the meaning: "I will offer in the sight of them that fear him the sacrifice I have vowed," compare Psalm 115(116):17-18:

I will sacrifice to thee the sacrifice of praise:
And I will call upon the name of the Lord.
I will pay my vows to the Lord
In the sight of all his people.

See also Psalm 75(76):12. This interpretation, which understands the words to refer to the Holy Eucharist, is not susceptible of strict proof, yet can hardly be doubted by Catholics who accept the Messianic character of the psalm. The heart of those who eat of this eucharistic meal shall live for ever with that eternal life Our Lord so often promised as the fruit of His Body and Blood. In John 6:55, He says: "He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath everlasting life..."; (59): "He that eateth this bread shall live for ever."

The conversion of the Gentiles, the chief Messianic trait of Old Testament prophecy, is strongly emphasized in the closing verses of this psalm. From this fact David Kimchi draws an objection against the Christian interpretation, for, "as you see," he says, "the Jews and the Mohammedans do not believe" in Jesus Christ. This difficulty rests on a misunderstanding of the catholicity promised to the Messianic Kingdom. It connotes absolute universality of invitation ("Go ye and teach all nations") and relative universality of acceptance. Some of all nations and tribes will accept the truth: "there shall come from the east and the west, and the north and the south, and shall sit down in the Kingdom of God" (Luke 13:29).

Such is the psalm according to Christian tradition, and wonderfully indeed it paints the picture of Christ's sufferings. So striking is the agreement of the parts which are common to both the prophecy and the historical narrative, that we have every warrant in accepting literally those verses, such as "All my bones are loosened," the fulfilment of which in Our Lord's Passion is not recorded by the Evangelists. To quote St. Augustine, writing of this very psalm: "tunc profecto et alia recte intelliguntur, quae ibi minus aperte dicta sunt, cum congruunt his, quae tanta manifestatione claruerunt."⁷ Other prophecies of the Old Testament are strikingly clear, notably Malachy's prediction of the Sacrifice of the Mass, but no other prophetic utterance descends to such detail in description. Not merely does this psalm foretell the crucifixion of Our Lord by the piercing of His Hands and Feet, quae proprie atrocitas crucis,⁸ it depicts His abandonment by God, His rejection by the people, His thirst, the division of His garments among the executioners, the mockery and scoffing of the Jews. There is, moreover, an indication of the Virgin Birth, and a passage that may well be a reference to the special protection whereby, soon after His birth, Our Lord was saved from the murderous designs of Herod. But the Passion and death of Our Lord were but the price of His final and glorious triumph. The ends of the earth shall remember and shall be converted to God: and where to-day has not God His faithful servants? This second part of the psalm foreshadows not obscurely the condescension which was to lead Our Lord to call us brothers, and the still more sublime condescension that would cause poor and great alike to eat of the eucharistic meal that would follow the thank-offering He was to offer in the sight of them that fear God.

With this striking internal evidence and the explicit statement in the New Testament that certain parts of the psalm were fulfilled in Our Lord, it is no surprise to find that the Fathers were unanimous in expounding it as Messianic. St. Justin uses the psalm as a prophecy fulfilled in Christ in arguing both with the Gentiles and with the Jews, briefly in his Apologia, nn. 35 and 38, and at length in the Dialogus cum Tryphone. After quoting verses 1-24, in n. 99, he expressly states his intention of showing that the whole psalm was spoken of Christ. Similarly, Tertullian, Adv. Marcionem, iii. 19: "vigesimus primus psalmus totam Christi continens passionem." And St. Ambrose, Expos. Ps. cxviii. 15, 8: "in vicesimo... primo psalmo... totius prophetatur series passionis." So St. Augustine, Contra Faustum, xii. 43: "quis non quasi evangelium cantari arbitretur."

Lastly, in support of the Messianic character of the psalm should be adduced the condemnation of the views of Theodore of Mopsuestia by Pope Vigilius. Theodore held that the psalm was written by David of himself and his own sufferings. He admitted the fact that Our Lord's garments were divided by lot, but he denied that this was in fulfilment of prophecy. Among other reasons he denied that the psalm was prophetic of Christ, on the ground that He "did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth" (1 Peter 2:22; Isaias 53:9), and therefore it could not be of Him that the Psalmist wrote: "Far from my salvation are the words of my sins," the Septuagint version of the first verse (though not, be it noted, the original Hebrew). But Christ took on Himself the sins of us all: "He was wounded for our iniquities: he was bruised for our sins" (Isaias 53:5). This view of Theodore's is formally anathematized by Pope Vigilius in his Constitutum de tribus capitulis, addressed to the Emperor Justinian. This condemnation was approved by the Second Council of Constantinople, A.D. 553. Among other passages from Theodore's writings read and anathematized in the fourth session were those concerning the Twenty-first Psalm which Vigilius had quoted in his Constitutum; and the twelfth canon of the Council anathematizes any who defend "Theodore and his impious writings."⁹ Pope Vigilius' condemnation of Theodore's doctrine is worded as follows: "Et ideo qui haec sapit, docet, credit, aut predicat, et non ea, in quibus delictorum meminit, ad corpus ipsius, quod est ecclesia, quae in hoc mundo sine delicto esse non potest, intelligit pertinere: illa autem de divisione vestimentorum, non specialiter de ipso capite, id est, Domino Deo nostro Jesu Christo praedicta, et in ipso credit esse completa, anathema sit."

This review of the internal evidence, of that drawn from the New Testament, from the Fathers, and from the utterances of the supreme authorities in the Church, is warrant for the statement that wholly to deny the Messianic character of the psalm would be an error against the Faith. The common opinion among Catholics is that expressed by St. Justin, when he says that the whole psalm was spoken of Christ. According to this view, David's own experience provides only the style of his metaphorical language. A second view, however, that the psalm is spoken partly of Christ and partly of David, is held by a small number of Catholic scholars. Among these mention should be made of Father Patrizi, S.J. Some of their reasons have been met above; here we will deal with the only other which seems of any consequence.¹⁰ They allege that verse 2, which represents the sufferer as calling on God by day and by night, is not verified in the Passion. In answer, it may be pointed out that these words do not, of course, refer literally to the hours Our Lord was hanging on the cross; but they can well refer to the whole story of the Passion, including the prayer by night in the garden when Our Lord prayed that the chalice might pass from Him. We know, too, of one other occasion, a few days before He suffered, when Our Lord prayed that He might be saved from the Passion: "Father, save me from this hour" (John 12:27). It may be, too, that this was part of Our Lord's petition when He passed the night in prayer.

It is not necessary to examine the other interpretations of the psalm at any length. The reader can readily judge for himself how well they fit its words. Theodore of Mopsuestia, as we have seen, adopted the view favoured by Jewish exegetes, that David wrote the psalm of himself. In refutation of this view it will be sufficient to appeal to David's life. When could David say of himself, "They have numbered all my bones... they parted my garments among them: and upon my vesture they cast lots"? And David's deliverance could not have brought such blessings to the world as those we read of in the second part of the psalm.

Dr. Driver, while rejecting the Davidic interpretation, adopts another, no less unacceptable. He writes¹¹: "Though the psalm is no prediction of the sufferings of Christ... yet the sufferings... so pathetically described in it, were realized by Him in His person." This sentence is a striking confirmation of our interpretation, for it admits that our Messianic exegesis is perfectly apt, yet rejects the idea that the psalm is a "prediction of the sufferings of Christ," and the reason given is that "the intensely personal character of the description shows that they (sic) spring from, and reflect, the personal experiences of the writer and his faithful compatriots." But surely the greater the stress laid on the personal character of the description, the less likely becomes the collective interpretation, which is that adopted by Dr. Driver. "The speaker," he says (ibid. p. 180), "it can hardly be doubted, is Israel." "The speaker here is... Israel, and in particular faithful Israel, personified as an individual" (p. 181). A poet, who "speaks in the person of the nation of which he is a member" (p. 183), is not likely to adopt an intensely personal tone, such as Dr. Driver admits the tone of the psalm to be.

Though Dr. Driver refuses to admit that the psalm is a "prediction of the sufferings of Christ," yet he writes "the glorious hopes for the future, with which the psalm closes, foreshadow remarkably the blessed consequences of the life and death of Christ" (p. 186). If only this foreshadowing was by the design of God, it constitutes a prediction or prophecy. But that appears to be the real difficulty about our interpretation, it makes the psalm a prophecy — and that cannot be admitted. So Dr. Briggs writes: "We cannot think of direct prophecy. The reference to a historical situation is unmistakable."¹² Yet on the same page he says: "It seems to the Christian that the Psalmist indeed gives a more vivid description of the sufferings of Christ on the Cross than the authors of the Gospels." Surely, this sentence is sufficient to show to what historical situation reference is made. The exegesis of Dr. Driver and of Dr. Briggs places us at the parting of the ways, for it rests on the assumption that prophecy is impossible. This fundamental question cannot be discussed at the end of an article. We may be allowed to remark, however, that, granted the possibility of prophecy, the question of fact would seem to be decided by this psalm alone; and granted the existence of an omnipotent, omniscient God there is no difficulty about the possibility.

David Kimchi, who, as we have seen, writes with an eye on Christian polemic, also defends the collective view. According to him, however, Israel, the speaker, is represented as in its present exile among the Gentiles. Take, for instance, his comment on verse 19: "They take our money and the labours of our hands to such an extent that they even part our garments and our clothes and take them for themselves and cast lots for them." He does not attempt to explain verse 15, "all my bones are parted asunder," in its application to the exiled Jews. He writes: "For fear of (our enemies) I am, figuratively, poured out like water, as if I had been melted, and all my bones are parted asunder." Bones are more substantial than water, and therefore he says of them they are parted asunder, for they are parted asunder from the ligaments by which they are bound one to the other. So also, "Our bones are scattered at the mouth of Sheol" (Ps 141:7). Verse 26 ill suits the collective interpretation. Kimchi explains rather forcibly: "From Thee is my praise in the great congregation of the nations." That cannot give the thought of one who writes merely "in a great congregation." Other points could be emphasized showing the difficulty of reconciling these collective views with the texts, but perhaps enough has been said to show their weakness and the indirect testimony they give to the truth of the Catholic exegesis.

E. F. Sutcliffe, S.J.

[1] Migne, P.L., 26, 879.

[2] Summa Theologia, 3, 47, 3 in corp.

[3] De Grat. Novi Testamenti, c x.

[4] Dial. cum Tryph., 102.

[5] Corluy.

[6] The LXX version, which was made by Jewish scholars before the Christian era, and, therefore, before prejudice could be aroused by controversy, gives here óruxan whence the Vulgate foderunt, "they have dug." With the exception of Symmachus, the ancient translators agree in giving a third person plural, which points to a Hebrew word ending in the letter waw. In this they differ from the Hebrew text of modern Bibles which print Ka'ari, "like a lion," a word which ends in a yod. It is impossible to extract any satisfactory meaning out of this reading. Moreover, it is supported by no early evidence at all. No extant Hebrew manuscript of the Psalms dates back beyond the tenth or ninth centuries. Further, all existing Hebrew texts are of Jewish origin, and represent the Massoretic revision, undertaken several centuries after the beginning of the Christian era. [The Hebrew Psalms scroll from Nahal Hever at Qumran, discovered after the publication of this article, predates the Masoretic revision, and it supports Sutcliffe's reading, B.D.] In the text under consideration they show considerable variety of reading. It is quite likely that when the reading Ka'ari first appeared in the text by error, the Jewish rabbis found it too convenient to be sacrificed in spite of its yielding no satisfactory sense. On this passage, cf. Father Corluy, Spicilegium Dogmatico-Biblicum, ii. p. 122. An important parallel instance of the contrast between the ante- and post-Christian exegesis of Jewish scholars is afforded by the famous prophecy of Isaias 7:14. The LXX version reads: "Behold, a Virgin (parthénos) shall conceive and bear a son." Later rabbis, as is shown by St. Justin, insisted here on using the word neânis, "a young woman." A parallel instance is afforded by the late change of text in Genesis 49:10 (Shiloh).

[7] De Civ. Dei, xvii. 17.

[8] Tertiillian, Adv. Marcion, 3, 19.

[9] Hardouin, Acta Concil., iii. col. 22-23, 91, 199.

[10] The reader who desires to see this question discussed more fully is referred to J. Corluy, S.J., Spicilegium Dogmatico-Biblicum, ii. pp. 114-5. In his recent study of the Vulgate psalter, The Psalms (Dublin, 1920), i. p. 78, Father Boylan seems to take the view that as "this psalm is clearly Messianic," and as "it is true that the Messianic meaning of a psalm is not excluded by the immediate and literal reference of the psalm to a particular historical personage or incident," it is a question of minor importance what the immediate reference may be, provided the Messianic meaning is firmly established. He continues: "Whatever the immediate subject of this psalm may be whether David, Ezechias, or the Israelite nation, as has been variously conjectured — the picture which it puts before us is more true of Christ, the Crucified, than it is of any other person — whether individual or national."

[11] Studies in the Psalms, p. 185.

[12] The Books of Psalms, i. p. 192.