Last verse of Psalm 120 in Augustine's exegesis

One of the constant problems in the study of the Christian exegetical tradition is the explanation and determination of the degree of originality of a particular interpretation. Every exegete, interpreting this or that text, to some extent relies on what has already been said by other interpreters, his predecessors - that is why we can talk about tradition. And yet, even if the exegete perceives from his predecessors the general concept of interpretation or some exegetical moves, he brings into the interpretation something original that does not repeat tradition. Already by the modifications that he makes to the exegetical ideas he borrowed, one can judge his own contribution to the understanding of the text being interpreted. However, there are cases when, for one reason or another, he cannot or does not want to take advantage of what his predecessors said about the text he is interpreting, and it is here that one can expect that it is here that his originality will manifest itself most clearly. This is exactly the case with Augustine of Hippo’s interpretation of Ps. 120 – the sermon of 407. In the psalm itself there are four characteristic passages that have always required special attention from interpreters. 1. The first phrase of the psalm is: “I have lifted up my eyes to the mountains.” What kind of mountains these are and why a glance at them precedes a question for help - this has been and remains the subject of various guesses. Augustine saw these mountains as a symbol of prophets and evangelists. The closest parallel and probable source of this allegory is the interpretation of Ps.120 by Hilary of Pictavia 1 . 2. The beginning of the fifth verse (“The Lord is a shadow over your right hand”) itself requires some clarification, that is, revealing the meaning of the symbols used here. But in addition, in some versions of the ancient Latin translation, this verse appears in a form that is even more difficult to interpret: by a curious coincidence, we read here Dominus tegumentum tuum super manum dexterae tuae (“The Lord is your shadow over the hand of your right hand”). In the interpretation of this verse, Augustine generally follows Hilary, in whose text the psalm reads similarly: Dominus protectio tua super manum dexterae tuae. Like Hilary - and most likely following him - Augustine deciphers this phrase as follows: “The Lord helps you to maintain the strength of your faith/righteousness,” although Augustine’s explanation and justification is much more extensive, with many biblical quotations to confirm that the meaning behind the symbols of the hand and right hand may be exactly what he postulated. 3. Verse 6 (“The sun will not scorch you by day, nor the moon by night”) also never leaves interpreters indifferent. Zeugma “the sun and the moon will not scorch” is usually explained in the sense that “scorch” refers to the sun in the proper sense, and in relation to the moon it generally means “it will strike, it will have a bad effect” (the action of the moon, as is known, has traditionally been explained by some diseases). Hilary interprets this verse in a literal sense, but in a very unique way: he says that the sun will not burn the person protected by God with the heat of the day, and the moon with the cold of the night, and concludes that the verse does not describe the earthly life of a person (for in earthly life a person cannot but be subject to external influences of natural forces), but the eternal. In his interpretation of this verse, Augustine acts independently of Hilary, but not independently of tradition. He interprets the sun as a symbol of God (Christ), and the moon as a symbol of the Church. The verse as a whole receives the following interpretation from him: “With divine protection, you will not be offended in God and in the Church.” At the same time, Augustine relies on his own allegory of the “moon” from Ps.10 2, which he probably thought out not without the influence of the interpretation of Victorinus of Petovionsky 3 on the Apocalypse. The peculiar choice of the method of interpretation, of course, was also due to the anti-Donatist polemics. 4. Finally, the last verse: “The Lord will preserve your coming in and your going out.” What is behind this so vague image? To answer this question, interpreters take one of two paths. On the one hand, they can accept this image almost without specification and consider “entry and departure” a metonymy for all human activity. In this case, the parallel passage to this verse is seen in Deut. 28:6 (“Blessed shall you be in your coming in and in your going out”; compare also Ps. 139:2, 28:19; 1 Sam. 29:6; 2 Sam. 3:25), and the clearest expression of the internal form is in Ps. 103:24 (“A man will go out to his work and to his labor until the evening”). 4. Of the ancient interpreters, John Chrysostom suggested understanding this verse this way: ps.120) . The second way involves clarifying who exactly enters and exits where. Those who believe that the “Songs of Ascension” (which includes Ps. 120) are associated with pilgrimage believe that we are talking about the safe return of pilgrims home (Clarisse, Bratsiotis, etc. 5). Those who believe that the “Songs of Ascent” reflect the situation of returning from Babylonian captivity refer to the “departure and entry” as the departure from captivity and arrival at home 6 . The first such interpretation is found in Eusebius of Caesarea 7. Hilary followed a completely different path, since in his text of the psalm there was first “departure” and then “entry” 8, and in his interpretation he presents the procession as the departure from the body, and the entry as the entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven. Augustine in this case does not follow any of the interpreters, including Hilary. Perhaps it was the difference in the text of the last verse that prevented Augustine from using the interpretation proposed by Hilary. The version of the return from captivity as the historical basis of the “Songs of Ascension” almost did not attract his attention (with the exception of the interpretation on Ps. 125 9). Therefore, the path he takes in interpretation is most likely his own. This is also a way of concretizing, clarifying, and clarifying the blurred and abstract image of “entry and departure.” Let us quote the entire passage of interpretation related to this verse: “What does entry mean, what does exit mean? When we are tested, we enter; when we overcome the test, we exit. Listen to the entry, listen to the departure. The poor vessel is tested by the furnace, says Scripture, and the righteous people are tested by the temptation of sorrow (Sir.27:5). If righteous people are like vessels of the poor, then it is fitting for them to enter the oven as vessels of the poor. And it’s not when they enter the oven that the poor person calms down, but when they leave. The Lord is not worried, because he knows his own and knows who will not burst in the oven. But those who are not hit by the wind of pride do not burst. So, humility is preserved in every temptation, for from the valley of tears we ascend with the song of steps, and the Lord preserves our entry so that we walk unharmed. Let us walk in sound faith when temptation occurs, and the Lord will preserve the procession from now on and forever. For when we come out of every temptation, then no temptation will ever fear us, and no lust will even disturb us. Listen to how the apostle mentions the same thing: God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear. This is how the origin is protected. But he will create, says the apostle, temptation and procession, so that you may be able to endure it (1 Cor. 10:13). How can we, brothers, interpret otherwise than these words of the apostle showed us? So, guard yourself, but not in your own strength, for the Lord is your protection.” So, entry and exit is specified as the entry of a clay vessel into a kiln and its removal from the kiln in a fired state. This firing is presented as an allegory of the life of the righteous, life understood as a test. The allegory is based on Sir.27:5. In addition, this image is on a par with the images of separating the good from the bad due to the fact that a criterion is also indicated that will be decisive during the test: the presence or absence of pride in a person, represented allegorically in the form of emptiness, an air bubble in a ceramic vessel. This designation, on the one hand, fits well into this system of images, on the other hand, usually when discussing pride in Augustine: pride often appears in him in the form of wind, air, inflating emptiness. The entire figurative complex is built based on just two quotes: Sir.27:5, which sets an allegorical picture, and 1 Cor.10:13, which, based on the word exitus, confirms the decoding of this picture: exitus - the end of the test by the Apostle Paul - is identified with the exit of the vessel from the furnace and thereby with exitus, mentioned in the interpretation of Ps.120:8. Thus, Augustine interprets the image from Ps. 120:8 by concretizing it in the direction of one of the options for developing the topic of selection and purification, so developed by the Hippo preacher 10 . Obviously, Augustine’s originality in the interpretation of Ps. 121:8 can be explained precisely by the importance for him of such figurative systems, especially in demand during the period of the anti-Donatist polemics. We do not know when exactly Augustine came up with this way of explaining Ps. 120:8, but we can say for sure that he reproduced it several times in different versions. In conjunction with 1 Cor. 10:13 and the image of the purification of metal, the quotation of Ps. 121:8 occurs in sermon 15 (para. 4, after 418) and in the commentary on Ps. 69 (para. 5); in combination with the image of a meager vessel, we find both quotes in sermon 256 (paragraph 3, after 418). A set of quotations identical to the interpretation on Ps.120:8 related to temptation and testing (1 Cor.10:13; Ps.120:8; Sir.27:5) is observed in the Easter sermon 223E (paragraph 1, date unknown). The last of the listed contexts is interesting because here the proposed interpretation of Ps. 121:8 is characterized precisely as an acceptable hypothesis: De isto exitu non absurde intellegi potest, etiam sancto Cantico nos esse commonitos, ubi legitur: Custodiat Dominus introitum tuum et exitum tuum, ut tamquam in fornacem vasa fictilia non solum bene formata nos patiatur intrare, sed etiam integra inde valeamus exire, sicut scriptum est: Vasa figuli probat fornax, et homines iustos temptatio tribulationis. Among the listed contexts, it is the 14th paragraph of the interpretation on Ps. 120 that seems to be the most perfect in terms of the integrity of the image and the most complete in terms of the idea expressed here: the reason why some “vessels” cannot come out of the “furnace” intact is indicated here - emptiness in the clay, pride. How should we evaluate this exegesis today from the point of view of modern biblical studies? Of the options for interpreting Ps. 120:8 she offers, the most convincing seems to be its interpretation as a metonymy of human activity. Obviously, Augustine does not follow the same, purely philological, path as the supporters of this well-founded version: he does not cite parallel passages that would confirm such a metonymic transfer. He builds a picture that, for various reasons, is close to his imagination and spirit, and motivates it with quotes related to the theme of the test and images of separating good from bad. However, something else is also obvious: the general meaning of his interpretation does not at all contradict “philological” exegesis: both in it and in his interpretation, “entry and departure” mean nothing more than the entire human life. Augustine’s interpretation does not cancel, but only clarifies the interpretation that seems to us most acceptable: he presents a person’s life not as a set of actions, but as a long test in these actions - in connection with the favorite theme of his sermon, but also not without connection with the obvious theme of Ps. 120 as a whole - the promise of divine protection and protection to a person who trusts in help from above. Stepantsov S.A. 2007: Historical meaning of Ps.125 (126) by Augustine and his predecessors // VPSTGU. Series 1. Theology, philosophy. 18, 7–15. Stepantsov S.A. 2008: “The mountains are already illuminated.” Ps.120:1 as interpreted by Augustine and his predecessors//Odysseus, 367–381. Cameron G.M. 1996: Augustine’s Construction of Figurative Exegesis against the Donatists in the Enarrationes in Psalmos. PhD Dissertation. Ann Arbor. Dulaey M. 2000: Recherches sur les sources exégétiques d’Augustin dans les trentedeux premières Enarrationes in Psalmos // L’esegesi dei Padri Latini. XXVIII Incontro di Studiosi dell'Antichita cristiana. Roma, 1999. 1. Parte Generale, Oriente, Africa. Roma, 253–292. Field F. (ed.) 1875: Origenis Hexaplorum quae supersunt, sive Veterum interpretum Graecorum in totum Vetus Testamentum fragmenta. Post Flaminium Nogilium, Drusium, et Montefalconium, adhibita etiam versione syro-hexaplari, concinnavit, emendavit, et multis partibus auxit Fridericus Field. Vol. 2. Oxonii. Mercati G. 1937: L’ultima parte perduta del Commentario d’Eusebio Cesarense ai Salmi//Opere minori. II. La città del Vaticano, 58–66. Poque S. 1984: Le langage symbolique dans la prédication de saint Augustin d’Hippone. Images heroes. P Stevens D. G. 1885: A Critical Commentary on the Songs of the Return with a Historical Introduction and Indexes Part II//Hebraica. 11, 119–173. See about this special study Stepantsov 2008, 367–381. This was pointed out in his dissertation by F.M. Cameron (Cameron 1996). Stevens 1885, 123–124, with a characteristic addition that expands the meaning of the psalm: “But not only this; he will bring your undertakings to a happy, successful termination. “Will not conduct you even to the end of life’s pilgrimage.” The same order (in different lexical realizations) is found in Aquila and Symmachus, see Field 1875, 280. See section on images of selection and purification in Poque 1984.