The doctrine of original sin holds that every person is born in sin. Psalm 58:3 is often used as proof of the doctrine. Let us examine the passage.

 

The text says, "The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies."

 

1. The text says, "they go astray." It does not say "born astray."

2. It also says, "…speaking lies." Do infants speak lies or otherwise?

 

3. Verses 4 and 5 show they refuse to hear: "…stoppeth her ear; Which will not hearken…" Newborns are not embraced in this description.

4. Verse 6 speaks of "their teeth." Do infants have teeth?

5. The Psalmist said, "Break their teeth, O God…" (v. 6). Was he praying for the destruction of babies?

6. Verse 10 states, "The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath." Is that infant damnation?

7. Job said, "Did not he that made me in the womb make him? and did not one fashion us in the womb?" (Job 31:15). Did the Lord make and fashion us in sin?

 

8. Job further said, "If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail; Or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof; (For from my youth he was brought up with me, as with a father, and I have guided her from my mother's womb;)" (Job 31:16-18). Did Job, while an infant, bring up the orphan and guide the widow?

 

9.The Psalmist said, "I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother's belly" (Ps. 22:10). And again, "By thee have I been holden up from the womb; thou art he that took me out of my mother's bowels: my praise shall be continually of thee" (Ps. 71:6). Did he trust and praise God as an infant?

 

10. Mr. Albert Barnes, the Presbyterian commentator, in his commentary on the passage, conceded that it cannot be adduced to prove the doctrine of original sin, but that it must be proved elsewhere.

 

John Isaac Edwards

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