Age Before Beauty

I understand more than those who are old, because I have complied with Your precepts.  Psalm 119:100  NASB

More than – The grammatical error spreads.  Consider the strikingly different translation of Chabad: “From the wise elders I gain understanding, for I kept Your precepts.”  The NASB rearranges the syntax and translates מִזְּקֵנִ֥ים as “more than the aged” rather than “from the aged.”  Again, the issue is the preposition min.  Changing the syntax so that the emphasis is on the author creates the unnecessary comparison; unnecessary because such a comparison flies in the face of the role of the elder in Hebrew society and because it carries an implicit rejection of Hebraic authority.  The NASB is a nice Christian reframing of the text but it has a hidden antisemitic adjustment.  The rendering by Chabad retains the proper role of elders in the author’s world and extols their contribution to his understanding.  It couldn’t be more radically different.

From the beginning of this mem section of the acrostic, we have noticed this radical revision.  The Hebrew clearly extols the unsurpassed status of the Torah.  And Torah is taught.  In the time of the poet, you didn’t go to the library and open the book.  You didn’t access the Tanakh on your phone.  You listened to the voice of the scribes, the elders, who orally taught its precepts and principles.  Without them, you probably didn’t have access to God’s word.  You loved the Torah because it was communicated to you by someone else who loved the Torah.  In fact, Moses actually commanded this process (Deuteronomy 32:7).  What would ever make you say that you’re better, more intelligent, more astute than your teachers?  We often forget the oracular nature of Hebrew faith, and once we forget this, we’re apt to draw some very mistaken conclusions.  Such, I believe, is the case here in this mem section.  Chabad has it right.  The other versions reflect deeply-buried theological antisemitism.

So, let’s set aside the NASB and other English mistakes and focus on the true meaning of this verse.  Consider it in the context of the previous verse:

From all my teachers I gained understanding, for Your testimonies are my conversation.

From the wise elders I gain understanding, for I kept Your precepts.

Followed by: From every evil way I restrained my feet in order that I keep Your word.

Before we proceed, notice that the next verse (101) contains the same opening preposition min, as do others in this section.  Are we to follow suit with the NASB English and translate the next verse as “More than every evil way, I have restrained . . .”?  Of course not.  That makes no sense.  And yet the grammatical construction is the same.  Chabad is consistent.  NASB is not.

What can we discover from the translation, “From all my teachers I gained understanding, for Your testimonies are my conversation”?  Perhaps we should begin with a clear conception of bîn, i.e., understanding.   “The verb refers to knowledge which is superior to the mere gathering of data. It is necessary to know how to use knowledge one possesses (Pirke Abot 3:12).”^[1]  While Pirke Abot is a work from centuries later, its insight into the Hebraic attitude is relevant.  What does 3:12 say?  “Rabbi Ishmael would say: Be yielding to a leader, affable to the black-haired, and receive every man with joy.”  This hardly sounds compatible with a claim that I understand more than my elders.  In fact, it is the insight and wisdom  of the Fathers, not their “fact-gathering,” that distinguishes their position as teachers.  What man seeking righteousness would reject such?  “bîn is a power of judgment and perceptive insight and is demonstrated in the use of knowledge.”^[2]  Hebrew education is based on a kind of apprenticeship.  “Follow me” and do it like this is both theoretical and practical.  And for this I need an instructor.

The verb here is a reflexive.  That means the action performed happens to the subject himself.  It is as if it read, “I gained for myself understanding.”  In the context of Hebrew education, how can this be removed from the role of the elder?  Would it be Hebraic to proclaim that the clan elders offered nothing, that I learned it all myself.  How could we square this with the rest of the statement, “because I complied with Your precepts (piqqûdîm) when the very word implies oversight by a superior.

I suggest that the revised translation tells us how much the author learned from his elders, and as a result he further recognized this education as the oversight of God Himself, so much so that it has become a consistent element of his normal conversation.  And this tells us something critical about our educational process versus the ancient Hebraic one.  Hebrew education was mentorship.  I learned from another.  This is the consistent command of the Mosaic code.  At no time is there any suggestion that I should discard the insights of my elders.  In fact, just the opposite it true.  I might eventually surpass them, but it is not because their instruction was old or useless.  Today we make a tragic mistake of thinking that those who are old have nothing left to teach us.  We think the “black-haired” are the sources of wisdom.  We have forgotten what it means to have the experience of stumbling over the Torah.  Our preoccupation with “new” will drown us is the sea of forgetfulness.

Topical Index: piqqûdîm, precepts, bîn, understanding, from the aged, elders, Psalm 119:100

^[1] Goldberg, L. (1999). 239 בִּין. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 103). Moody Press.

^[2] Ibid.