Are men born sinners?

A commonly abused "proof text" is Psalm 51:5. Although I cannot claim the following as a result of my own scholarship or research, the information is a culimination from many sources over the years, and, I feel, the best explanation of this particular text that I have come across.

Wm. P. Murray, Jr
wmjr@jersey.net

Psalm 51:5- "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." KJV

This is a Hebrew poetic parallelism, with the second line of the verse saying the same thing as the first line in a slightly different way.

The first verb, of which David is the subject, is in the Pulal tense (as is "made" in # Job 15:7 ), which is an idiom used to refer to creation or origins, and is the `passive’ form of Polel ("formed": # Ps 90:2 Pro 26:10 ). TWOT, #623, 1:270.

The subject of this verse is NOT the state or constitution of David’s nature as a sinner at, or before, his birth. The subject is, as the verse clearly states, the `circumstances’ of his conception- the sexual union which produced him was an act of sin, and addresses the unrighteousness of his mother’s act, not anything (such as a sin nature) inherent within himself.

The NIV’s version of this verse is an INTERPRETATION, not a translation: "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me."

David had two half-sisters (Zeruiah, Abigail)…..:

1CHR 2:13-16 13