Friday, June 12, 2020

Robert Bellarmine on Phinehas in Psalm 106:30-31

 

Then stood up Phinehas, and executed judgment: and so the plague was stayed. And that was counted unto him for righteousness unto all generations for evermore. (Psa 106:30-31)

 

Psa 106:30-31 (105:30-31 in the LXX and Vulgate) is a text that Protestants struggle with, as it soundly refutes their blasphemous understanding of justification. For a discussion, see, for e.g.:

 

Response to a Recent Attempt to Defend Imputed Righteousness

 

For an example of the eisegesis Protestants are forced to engage in, see:

 

John Murray on Genesis 15:6 and Psalm 106:31

 

Robert Bellarmine, who produced a lot of solid work refuting the various blasphemous teachings of Protestantism (which, sadly, still persist today), such as Sola Scriptura and Sola Fide, wrote the following about this text:

 

David now alludes to another sin committed by the Jews, the history of which is to be found in Numbers 25. We read there that the children of Israel, seduced by the daughters of Moab, began to commit fornication with them, and to worship an idol of heir’s, called Beelphegor, which incensed God so much that he ordered all the princes of the people to be hanged on gibbots; but when Phinees, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, in his zeal slew an Israelite in the act of fornication with a Madianite woman, God was so pleased with his zeal, that he forgave the whole people of it. “They also were initiated to Beelphegor;” to their other sins the Israelites added that of becoming disciples of Beelphegor, the idol of the Madianites; “and ate the sacrifice of the dead;” the sacrifices that were offered to their dead gods, such as Apis and Serapis with the Egyptians, Jupiter and Apollo with the Greeks, instead of sacrificing to the one, true, and living God. “And they provoked him with their inventions.” They naturally provoked God by the worship of new gods invented by them; not that they were the first to set up Beelphegor, but that they were the first to learn his worship from the Moabites, and introduce it to the Israelites. “And destruction was multiplied among them,” in consequence of that sin destruction set in upon them, numbers of them having miserably perished. “Then Phinees stood up, and pacified him; and the slaughter ceased.” Phinees, full of zeal for the glory of God, stood up courageously against the impious deserters of the old religion, and by his zeal so appeased God, that “the slaughter ceased.” “And it was reputed to him unto justice.” God, who searcheth the heart, and well knew the good dispositions of Phinees, did not look upon such slaughter as a sinful act, or one worthy of punishment, but, on the contrary, as a good and a meritorious act, “and that to generation and generation forevermore;” in allusion to the promise made by God to Phinees, that in consideration of what he did so nobly, the priesthood should remain in his family as long as the Jewish dynasty should hold. (Robert Bellarmine, A Commentary on the Book of Psalms [trans. John O’Sullivan; Dublin: James Duffy and Co., 1866; repr., Aeterna Press, 2015], 505-6)