LatineEnglish
And all the thought of the heart was bent upon evil at all times.1
Vers. 6. Et cuncta cogitatio cordis intenta esset ad malum omni tempore.
Graece, si Latine ad verbum reddatur, sic est: Et unusquisque cogitat in corde suo diligenter super maligna omnibus diebus. Hebraica vero lectio hanc reddit sententiam: Et omne figmentum (seu, ut vertit Pagninus, imaginatio) cogitationum cordis eorum, duntaxat malum. Sed harum trium lectionum eadem est sententia. Hebraice est vocabulum Ieser, significans figmentum, a verbo Iasar quod est fingere. Ieser autem significat id quod fingitur, seu interius animo et cogitatione, seu exterius opere, ut figulus fingit vasa. Unde homo ipse dicitur figmentum, quia fictus et formatus a Deo est: tam secundum corpus, formatum ex pulvere (sicut dixit David Psalmo 102: Quoniam ipse cognovit figmentum nostrum, recordatus est quoniam pulvis sumus), quam secundum animam rationalem, ex nihilo creatam a Deo, sicut est apud eundem...
In Greek, if rendered into Latin word for word, it is thus: “And each one thinks in his heart diligently upon evil things all his days.” But the Hebrew reading yields this sense: “And every fashioning (or, as Pagninus renders, imagination) of the thoughts of their heart was only evil.” But of these three readings the sense is the same. In Hebrew the word is Ieser, signifying “a fashioning,” from the verb Iasar, which is “to fashion.” Now Ieser signifies that which is fashioned, whether inwardly in mind and thought, or outwardly in work, as a potter fashions vessels. Whence man himself is called a “fashioning,” because he was fashioned and formed by God: both as to the body, formed from dust (as David said in Psalm 102: “For he knew our frame; he remembered that we are dust”), and as to the rational soul, created from nothing by God, as it is in the same…2
...David Psalmo 32: Qui finxit sigillatim corda eorum; et apud Zachariam cap. 12: Dominus extendens caelum et fundans terram, et fingens spiritum hominis in eo. Belle autem quadrat hoc verbum figmenti in vanitatem humani animi, pleraque inaniter et vanissime fingentis, secundum illud Davidis: Dominus scit cogitationes hominum, quoniam vanae sunt.
…David, Psalm 32: “Who fashioned the hearts of them one by one”; and in Zachariah, ch. 12: “The Lord stretching forth the heaven and founding the earth, and fashioning the spirit of man within him.” And this word “fashioning” fits well the vanity of the human mind, which fashions very many things idly and most vainly, according to that saying of David: “The Lord knows the thoughts of men, that they are vain.”3
Maxima porro significatur his verbis Mosis depravatio et corruptela humani animi, non solum quantum ad animam sentientem, sed etiam quantum ad rationalem; haec enim significatur vocabulo cordis, id est tam intellectus quam voluntas, scilicet ubi tanquam in officina primum fingitur omne sive bonum sive malum hominis; ex corde enim maxime pendet bonitas ac pravitas humanarum actionum. Et ut Dominus dixit: De corde exeunt cogitationes malae, homicidia, adulteria, fornicationes, furta; denique quod exit de corde coinquinat hominem. Ergo illi homines non extrinsecus tantum ducebantur ad malum, id est vel ex occasione aliqua vel aliorum suasu et impulsu, sed intrinsecus, proprio consilio, electione et malitia. Magnam habent emphasim verba Mosis: Non aliquae, inquit, cogitationes, sed omnis, inquit, cogitatio; nec dicit eam fuisse pronam ad malum, sed intentam, id est omni vi sua applicatam, incumbentem et defixam in malum, quod significat vehementem conatum et impetum ad malum; nec id fuit ad certum aliquod tempus, sed omni tempore.
Moreover, by these words of Moses is signified the greatest depravation and corruption of the human soul, not only as to the sentient soul, but also as to the rational; for this is signified by the word “heart,” that is, both the intellect and the will — namely, where, as in a workshop, every good or evil of man is first fashioned; for upon the heart chiefly depends the goodness and the depravity of human actions. And as the Lord said: “From the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts”; and finally, “what comes out of the heart defiles a man.” Therefore those men were led to evil not from without only — that is, by some occasion, or by the persuasion and impulse of others — but from within, by their own counsel, choice, and malice. The words of Moses have great emphasis: not “some” thoughts, he says, but “all” thought; nor does he say it was “prone” to evil, but “bent,” that is, applied with all its force, leaning and fixed upon evil — which signifies a vehement effort and drive toward evil; nor was this for some fixed time, but “at all times.”4
Dicet aliquis videri incredibile homines illos nullam unquam suscepisse cogitationem bonam, nullum fecisse bonum opus morale. Qui opinantur ne bonum quidem morale opus fieri posse ab homine solis naturae viribus et liberi arbitrii potestate, sed ad bonum quodcunque morale faciendum opus esse speciali Dei auxilio, facile occurrerent dubitationi dicentes illos homines propter gravissima scelera ab ipsis commissa indignos fuisse ut specialibus Dei auxiliis iuvarentur; his autem carentes, mirandum non esse si nihil boni facerent. Sed illa videtur facilior et probabilior responsio, hanc Mosis orationem esse hyperbolicam, qualis in divina scriptura frequens est; ex qua oratione non debet intelligi quod simpliciter et praecise sonant verba, sed maximum aliquid. Vult enim Moses significare homines illos plurimum et maxima ex parte quae mala et flagitiosa sunt cogitasse et fecisse, adeo ut, si quid illi fecerint boni, id leve admodum, exiguum et rarum fuerit, et quasi pro nihilo habendum. Sic etiam paulo infra utitur Moses hyperbolica oratione, cum ait omnem carnem, id est hominem, corrupisse viam suam super terram, et finem universae carnis venisse coram Deo. Ex his enim generalibus sententiis procul dubio excipere oportet Noë, qui hoc ipso loco appellatur iustus et perfectus et gratiosus apud Deum. Similia autem horum quae Moses scribit de hominibus illius temporis cecinit David Psalmo 13 de hominibus impiis, vel de cunctis hominibus Dei gratia carentibus, quo sensu videtur citari a Paulo ad Rom. 3: Dixit insipiens in corde suo, non est Deus; corrupti sunt et abominabiles facti sunt in studiis suis; non est qui faciat bonum, non est usque ad unum...
Someone will say that it seems incredible that those men never conceived any good thought, did no good moral work. Those who hold that not even a morally good work can be done by man by the powers of nature alone and the faculty of free will, but that for the doing of any moral good there is need of God’s special aid, would readily meet the doubt by saying that those men, on account of the gravest crimes committed by them, were unworthy to be helped by God’s special aids; and, lacking these, it is no wonder if they did nothing good. But this seems the easier and more probable answer: that this saying of Moses is hyperbolic, such as is frequent in divine Scripture; from which saying one ought not to understand what the words sound simply and precisely, but something at the maximum. For Moses wishes to signify that those men, for the most part and in the greatest part, thought and did the things that are evil and wicked — so much so that, if they did any good, it was very slight, scanty, and rare, and to be reckoned as nothing. So too, a little below, Moses uses a hyperbolic expression when he says that all flesh — that is, man — had corrupted its way upon the earth, and that the end of all flesh had come before God. For from these general statements one must without doubt except Noah, who in this very passage is called just and perfect and gracious before God. And things like these which Moses writes of the men of that time, David sang in Psalm 13 of impious men, or of all men lacking the grace of God, in which sense it seems to be cited by Paul to the Romans 3: “The fool said in his heart, There is no God; they are corrupt and have become abominable in their pursuits; there is none that does good, no, not one…”5
...Dominus de caelo prospexit super filios hominum, ut videat si est intelligens aut requirens Deum. Omnes declinaverunt, simul inutiles facti sunt; non est qui faciat bonum, non est usque ad unum.
…The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that understood or sought after God. All have gone astray, they have become together unprofitable; there is none that does good, no, not one.”6
Translator’s notes
- Genesis 6:5b (the original prints this as ‘Vers. 6’; it is the second half of Vulgate 6:5). ↩
- §135 (continues on p. 128): the Greek and Hebrew renderings; the Hebrew Ieser (figmentum), and why man himself is called a ‘fashioning.’ Margin: Gen. 2. ↩
- §135 (continued from p. 127): further scriptural uses of ‘fashioning,’ aptly applied to the vanity of the human mind. Margin: Ps. 93. ↩
- §136: ‘heart’ signifies both intellect and will, the workshop of good and evil; the emphasis of Moses’ words (‘all,’ ‘bent,’ ‘at all times’). Margin: Matt. 15. ↩
- §137 (continues on p. 129): a doubt — could those men have done no good at all? Answered as hyperbole; Noah excepted. Margins: ‘A doubt, whether all the thought and work of those men was simply evil’; Rom. 3 / Ps. 13. ↩
- §137 (continued from p. 128): the rest of the Psalm 13 / Romans 3 citation. ↩