Salmos 58
Jerome · Comentário Patrístico (catena)
Salmos 58:3
Atticus: I grant you that they are just men, but I cannot agree with you at all that they are without sin. For I say that humanity can be without fault, which in Greek is called kakia ["wickedness"], but I deny that it is anamartētos ["faultless"], that is to say sine peccato ["without sin"]. For this is a virtue that befits God alone; and every creature is subject to sin and stands in need of the mercy of God, as Scripture says: "The earth is full of the mercy of the Lord." And lest I seem to be discussing certain little faults, so to speak, of the saints, into which they slipped through error, I shall produce a few testimonies that refer not to individuals but rather to all people in general. In the thirty-first psalm, it is written, "I said I will confess against myself my injustice to the Lord, and you have forgiven the wickedness of my heart." And it continues immediately, "For this" (that is to say, for this impiety or iniquity, for both words can be understood in this passage) "shall everyone that is holy pray to you in a seasonable time." If one is holy, what is his reason for praying for forgiveness of his iniquity? If one has iniquity, in what sense is he called holy? In the sense, to be sure, that it is also written in another place: "A just person shall fall seven times and shall rise again." And, "The just is accuser of himself in the beginning of his speech." And in another place: "The wicked are alienated from the womb, they have gone astray from the womb, they have spoken false things." They became sinful at the very moment they were born in the likeness of Adam's sin, who was a figure of the one who was to come, or at the moment when Christ was born of a virgin. It has been written about him: "Every one who opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord." — Against the Pelagians 2.4
Salmos 58:3-8
Therefore, having been taught by these examples, I did not want to bite back at him who bites back at me or to retaliate in kind; and I chose rather to charm out the fury of a madman by incantation and to pour the antidote of a single look into a poisoned heart. But I am afraid that my efforts are in vain and that I shall be forced to sing the well-known song of David and console myself with these words: "The sinners are alienated from the assembly; they have gone astray from the womb; they have spoken false things. Their madness is according to the likeness of a serpent, like the deaf asp that stops its ears, which will not hear the voice of the charmers nor of the wizard that charms wisely. God shall break in pieces their teeth in their mouths; the Lord shall break the teeth of the lions. They shall come to nothing, like water running down; he has bent his bow until they are weakened. Like wax that melts, they shall be taken away: fire has fallen on them, and they have not seen the sun." And again: "The just shall rejoice when he shall see the revenge of the wicked; he shall wash his hands in the blood of the sinner." And people shall say, "If, indeed, there is a reward to the just, there is, indeed, a God who judges them on the earth." — Against Rufinus 3.43