@smgale7689

4 months ago

I'd argue that McGrew makes a couple of significant mistakes in his exegesis of Psalm 58:

1) He insists that words like "astray" "deviate," and "erred" (v. 3) necessarily imply a progressive and/or delayed period of moral corruption that follows an initial/prior period of innocence and righteousness. In other words, he sees the "deviation" or "erring"/"straying" as a reference to the ACT or PROCESS (itself), of straying.

Of course, it CAN mean that, but not necessarily so. "Deviation," "erring"/"straying" can also refer to the mere violation of a STANDARD (or "rule"), without reference to the timing of it. In other words, it can refer to the FACT of the violation ITSELF, without implying anything at all about timing - and, more importantly, also not implying anything at all about any better prior state.

For example, if Jim makes an illegal move to start a chess match, we may say Jim "deviated" or "strayed" right out of the gate. But that phrasing does not imply that he initially played fairly for some time, but THEN strayed, over time, later on. That's because the "straying" or "deviation" language here is not in reference to "changing course" (one type of straying), but rather to "violating a standard" (another type of straying).

2) McGrew's other misstep here is to ignore the unavoidable implication of verse 3's reference to the womb. He spends a lot of time arguing what Psalm 58, on the whole, supposedly ISN'T saying, but doesn't really drill down on the import of the "womb" reference in verse 3.

That reference is exactly analogous to the chess example: there is an "erring" or "straying" that is referenced, AND it is pinpointed as being from the beginning. Jim cheated "out of the gate," and the evil err "from the womb." If we take that phrasing about Jim to mean that he played fair for 8 or 9 turns and THEN started cheating, then the phrase "out of the gate" quite literally evaporates without any meaning at all. Same for verse 3 ... if straying from one's very origin (i.e. "womb") implies straying only after a significant period of time spent on a better, prior course (and, ostensibly, straying at some age of accountability well past the womb), then verse 3's "womb" reference evaporates into virtual meaninglessness.

Again, to be fair, "going astray," "deviating," "erring," and similar language CAN, indeed imply the kind of meaning McGrew refers to (something like "changing course"), including in contexts of moral assessment. I'm happy to acknowledge that when it's there, and not try to force total depravity into that if it isn't in there. And INDEED there ARE certainly biblical references to progressive moral corruption over time. But in this case, there's also direct language pinning the problem back to the point of origin.

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