Bellarmine on Psalm 50: Verses 5 and 6

1542-1641. Rijksmuseum, CC0, Wikimedia Commons

We continue with the commentary on Psalm 50 written by the great polymath, Scripture scholar and apologist, St Robert Bellarmine (1542-1641).

“One of Bellarmine’s confreres in the College of Cardinals called him ‘the most learned churchman since St. Augustine’and I’d agree with that,” Fr. Baker[1] said. “His knowledge of Scripture and Theology — he seemed to know the entire Bible by heart, plus the teachings not only of nearly every pope, but of many bishops, too! — it’s just astonishing. Bellarmine was truly a polymath.” [From an interview published in the National Catholic Register in September 2017]
[1] Author of a translation of Bellarmine’s Controversies of the Christian Faith, published by Keep the Faith Books (2016)

The Latin is reproduced courtesy of the Digital Collection site  - UANL and is followed by my fairly literal translation. The Scripture excerpts (Douay Rheims/Vulgate) are taken from the DRBO site but the verse numbering follows that of Bellarmine’s Latin text.

Verse 5

To thee only have I sinned, and have done evil before thee: that thou mayst be justified in thy words and mayst overcome when thou art judged.

Tibi soli peccavi, et malum coram te feci; ut justificeris in sermonibus tuis, et vincas cum judicaris.

Here is the third reason why he asks forgiveness from God: because he has no other judge to fear. “To thee only have I sinned.” he says. He does not say: against thee only have I sinned, for he had sinned against Urias whom he killed and against Bethsabee in adultery, and against the people whom he scandalised; but rather he says: “To thee only have I sinned,” for he could be judged only by Him Who could convict him; for he had no other judge, and if he did have, he could not be convicted because his sin was without witness; and although through suspicion the rumour of his sin remained in the people, the sin could not be proved according to due process; but before God he was convicted because God had seen and his conscience was a witness before God, Who sees within the innards and hearts of men; and so he submits, declaring: “and have done evil before thee;” for although David had sinned hidden from human gaze in the darkness of a closed bedchamber, he was not able to block the divine gaze. “ That thou mayst be justified in thy words;” the word “that” does not  signify a cause but a consequence, as 

Theodoretus  noted of this text, and  the meaning is : “To thee only have I sinned, and have done evil before thee,” after which follows  “that thou mayst be justified in thy words,” while you pronounce me a sinner and wanting in justice. “And mayst overcome when thou art judged,” a repetition of the same idea: for if a criminal case was instituted between you and me, and I were to wish to deny the crime of which you judged me guilty, you would have an overwhelming victory and I would lose the case when you are judged with me. I suggest this is the literal sense of this obscure sentence, greatly confirmed by the words of the Apostle in Romans iii: “ But God is true; and every man a liar, as it is written, That thou mayest be justified in thy words, and mayest overcome when thou art judged.”[1] But I do not reject what others have said .that “God is justified in his words and will win when He is judged,” if He pardons the repentant, for He bound Himself to pardon the repentant. St Augustine applies this verse to Christ, for He alone is without sin and therefore we, the unjust, sin against Him, the sole just one, and He alone won when He was judged unjustly by the unjust.

[1]  But God is true; and every man a liar, as it is written, That thou mayest be justified in thy words, and mayest overcome when thou art judged. Est autem Deus verax : omnis autem homo mendax, sicut scriptum est : Ut justificeris in sermonibus tuis : et vincas cum judicaris. [Rom. Iii. 4]

Verse 6

For behold I was conceived in iniquities; and in sins did my mother conceive me.

Ecce enim in iniquitatibus conceptus sum, et in peccatis concepit me mater mea.

The fourth reason is derived from our first origin, and from the sin of the first man transmitted through generation, from which we are made weak and inclined to sin; and by reason of this almost natural misery, we deserve mercy. But this text is not to be understood as referring to the sins of his parents but to original sin, which we receive at conception; St Augustine demonstrates this because David was not born from adultery but from the chaste union of pious parents. Now we can also prove this from the very words employed in the Hebrew. Conceptus sum,  I was conceived, is in Hebrew  cholalthi, which does not mean the actum gignendi, the act of begetting, which pertains to parents, but to the actum formationis membrorum, the formation of the members; this formation in the womb occurs a significant time after the parents’ lying together. The Holy Spirit, through divine Providence, did not want there to be written in this text genitus sum, I was begotten, but conceptus, conceived, or formatus sum, I was formed; so that this would prevent perverted interpretations by heretics. The words concepit me mater mea, my mother did conceive me, are represented in Hebrew by iechemathni, which properly means she made me warm, or she cherished me.Therefore it does not refer to an act of  coition in which

 the parents sin when they fornicate or commit adultery, but to  the act of cherishing warmly the infant in the womb while the members are formed so that a soul may be infused. St Jerome will however translate this as Peperit me mater mea, my mother brought me forth; and St Augustine chooses: Aluit me mater mea, my mother nourished/raised me; we choose with the Septuagint: Concepit me mater mea, my mother did conceive me: but the proper sense of the word is what we have said and the various readings do not contradict this; for a mother is rightly said to conceive when an infant is formed and developed in her womb; just as alere, to nourish, means not only when a mother feeds an infant with milk after birth but when she keeps the infant safe and helps him grow in the womb; finally, St Jerome is not wrong when he translates as: In peccato peperit me mater mea, In sin did my mother bring me forth, for she brought forth a sinner whom in sin she did conceive. Consider too that the original text uses the singular: "I was conceived in sin; and in sin did my mother conceive me." For it is true that original sin, which we contract from conception, is one, not many. But the Septuagint translators wrote: "I was conceived in iniquities; and in sins did my mother conceive me," for that one sin is like the fount of all other sins and in it are included all sins.

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.