‘Mountains Moved into the Sea’: The Western Reception of Psalm 46:1 and 3 [45:1 and 3 LXX] From the Septuagint to Luther

Abstract

Abstract When Martin Luther wrote his famous hymn Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott in the 1520s, it was uncommon to understand Ps. 46:1–3 [45:1–3 LXX] as a celebration of the peace available to those taking refuge in God amidst raging hostility—as the earth shook and mountains moved into the heart of the sea. Instead, for over a millennium, Augustine’s allegorical interpretation of verse 3 held sway. These verses contained ‘hidden’ truths made known when Christ came, so the shaking earth was the Jews, the mountains were Christ and his apostles, and the sea was the Gentiles in 46:3. According to Augustine, then, 46:1–3 celebrates God’s being a refuge amidst the working out of his plan to redeem the Gentiles through the mission of Christ and his apostles. This essay recounts the reception of 46:1–3 from the Septuagint to the time of Luther in a way that demonstrates the influence of the Septuagint’s translation of the superscription (verse 1), the dominance of Augustine’s allegorical interpretation of 46:1–3 for over a millennium, and how Luther’s growing appreciation of the historical sense shifts his interpretation of 46:1–3 away from Augustine to align with most interpreters in the early church and Nicholas of Lyra.