Are we Wicked from the Womb?
Ps. 58:9
In the musical Wicked, Glinda the witch asks “Are people born wicked, or do they have wickedness thrust upon them?”
It’s an important question, always, and during these difficult days. In the face of so much violence and terror - there are those who implicate and blame entire populations for the deeds of some. How do we transcend these total and brutal attacks on the nuances of human behavior?
Are we humans fundamentally good or evil, or neither - and what are the repercussions for how we should run our lives and govern our world? This debate is centuries old, and continues to matter even if most of us don’t pause to ponder it. St. Augustine came up with the doctrine of original sin - blaming it on Eve and Adam and that fruit - he brought this claim of intergenerational blame into the Christian and the Western world. Jewish views are not quite so conclusive and continue to debate this issue in the larger culture vs. nature scheme of things.
Whoever wrote Psalm 58 had a strong opinion about this question and it is worthwhile exploring it as so much hangs on basic behaviors and public policies pending our views of this debate.
Psalm 84 includes a lot of painful reminders of what it’s like to be on the victim side of life - oppressed by enemies, persecuted by evil. Now, as always, we know that these are not illusions but real facts that shatters lives and trusts in homes and streets and battlefields each and every day. For the poet who penned these words, there is yet hope that justice will prevail and that those who have mistreated others will be avenged, or punished, and the good guys will win. There are multiple metaphors used in this chapter to illustrate the future fate of those who have done wicked things, including, oddly, the only time a snail is mentioned in the Bible. It is a stark image, coupled with another harsh and painful metaphor for what does not get to be worthy of life. The poets imagine the demise of their enemies:
כְּמ֣וֹ שַׁ֭בְּלוּל תֶּ֣מֶס יַהֲלֹ֑ךְ נֵ֥פֶל אֵ֝֗שֶׁת בַּל־חָ֥זוּ שָֽׁמֶשׁ׃
“like a snail that melts away as it moves;
like a woman’s stillbirth— they never see the sun”
Ps. 58:9
We can condemn these words for their insensitivity to loss, and suffering - and yet know that they come from pain and from the deepest wish for healing justice and, yes, even for revenge.
These are all traits that we are born with, part of our human spectrum of desires and demands, dreams and deeds. And for the author of this psalm - we were born this way, and some of us are wicked from the womb:
זֹ֣רוּ רְשָׁעִ֣ים מֵרָ֑חֶם תָּע֥וּ מִ֝בֶּ֗טֶן דֹּבְרֵ֥י כָזָֽב׃
The wicked are defiant from birth;
the liars go astray from the womb.
Ps. 58:4
So which is it? Are we born this way? Was Hitler a good baby but then culture got him so? There are so many ways to consider this question.
One famous study carried out by researchers at Yale University tried a range of imaginative experiments to determine that babies have a real sense of right and wrong, and more importantly — they instinctively prefer good over evil.
However we approach this important question, it is fair to conclude that for the authors of this psalm, some 2,500 years ago, life’s reality was often tough and harsh conditions left one hoping for some sort of justice at the end of days, however that justice will be executed. The psalm ends with a plea for final balance. And it’s interesting to notice that the original Hebrew of this psalm ends with the words ‘Adam will say’ - referring to the first human, and the fruit, in perhaps a prescient nod to what will become a perennial human debate and discussion:
וְיֹאמַ֣ר אָ֭דָם אַךְ־פְּרִ֣י לַצַּדִּ֑יק אַ֥ךְ יֵשׁ־אֱ֝לֹהִ֗ים שֹׁפְטִ֥ים בָּאָֽרֶץ׃
Adam will say,
“There is, then, a reward for the righteous - fruit that will yield -
there is, indeed, divine justice on earth.”
Ps. 58:12
And ultimately, wherever we come from and whatever we aspire to happen - it’s about how we handle it now. As Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn famously wrote -
“The battle-line between good and evil runs through the heart of every human.”
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