AN APPROACH TO THE HISTORICAL MEANINGIN PSALM 125 (126) IN THE WRITINGS OF AUGUSTINE AND HIS PREDECESSORS

• Main Author: S. A. STEPANTSOV
• Format: Article
• Language: Russian
• Published: St. Tikhon's Orthodox University 2007-05-01
• Series: Вестник Православного Свято-Тихоновского гуманитарного университета: Серия I. Богословие, философия
• Online Access: http://periodical.pstgu.ru/ru/pdf/article/372

This article deals with an aspect of Augustine’s exegesis of Psalm 125. It raises the ques-tion of whether it can be assumed that Psalm 125 refers precisely to the historical event of thereturn of the Jews from the Exile. The paper traces a correlation between Augustine’s exegesisof this Psalm and an earlier Latin tradition of Psalm exegesis, mainly, that of St. Hilary ofPoitiers. Augustine, as well as St. Hilary, draws an analogy between the return of the Jews fromthe Exile and the conversion to God through Christ. The latter is being pictured as the liber-ation from the captivity to sin granted to us through the Redemption. Therefore, Augustine’sexegesis, unlike that of St. Hilary, does not deny (not does it emphasize) a correlation betweenthe literal meaning of this Psalm and the Exile. The paper points to Tyconius’Sixth Rule(De Recapitulatione) as another possible source of such exegesis