Three false friends

Psalm 2:1 Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?

On January 11, 2024, Mark Ward posted a so-called false friends video titled “Three False Friends in One Important Verse.” I ran across it around the first part of February, listened to it, and made a comment. It was a polite pointing out of his failure to engage the New Testament commentary concerning the verse under consideration, Psalm 2:1. I observed how the record indicates that the early church interprets “people” in this verse as the people of Israel.

In the video Mark claims that “rage,” “imagine,” and “people” are false friends in Psalm 2:1.[i] At about 7:04 he begins to discuss the word “people” and spends a lot of time on it. Mark goes into a long drawn-out explanation of why “people” is a false friend. He notes that the Hebrew word is plural while the English word people is singular. Then (using the Oxford English Dictionary, OED) he explains that this was common usage of that period of English – people is plural “peoples.”[ii] He further thinks this significantly impacts the interpretation of Psalm 2:1, that heathen and people(s) represent the nations, the Gentiles. With the so-called false friend he “some readers might think this is referring to the people of Israel.”

Enter the readers of the New Testament church at Jerusalem! Mark looks at several examples of the use of the word “people” – but fails to notice the one New Testament example in which the text is mentioned and interpreted.

First, at a Jerusalem Church prayer & praise meeting, they refer to this Psalm.

Act 4:25 who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things?

Next they make some application of it.

Acts 4:26-27 The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ. For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together...

See the ways they relate the understanding of it.

“For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate [kings & rulers], with the Gentiles [heathen, nations], and the people of Israel [people], were gathered together,” They understand “people” to be the people of Israel, just what Mark was afraid the “false friend” would lead people to think! Acts 4:27 [some versions, oddly in my estimation, translate this “peoples of Israel.”]

To the comments I made under his YouTube video, Mark replied:

“I really like this comment, Robert—very perceptive example. But I’m not yet sure what you think it’s proving. What conclusion are you coming to here about Psalm 2 or about the argument I made about ‘peoples’ from the OED?

“This does seem to be a place where ‘people’ is expected, not ‘peoples.’ And without native-speaker-level knowledge of Greek, I’m not sure what to make of the choice of λαοῖς. I’d want to look at some commentaries.”

I make four observations:

• 1. A discussion of the meaning of words in the Old Testament should take into consideration any inspired New Testament reference or references.
• 2. λαοὶ in verse 25 (specific reference to Psalm 2:1) and λαοῖς in verse 27 are plural. In number this agrees with the Hebrew in Psalm 2:1.
• 3. They identify the “people” (λαοῖς) with Israel (Ἰσραήλ). My understanding of Acts 4:25-28 teaches me to believe the “people” in Psalm 2:1 is Israel. The original language in both places (OT Hebrew & NT Greek) is plural, but it seems odd to say in English “the peoples of Israel” (even though one might call for it in a wooden literalness, I suppose).
• 4. Speaking of commentators, one commentator who speaks of “people” as Israel in both places is John Gill. (Psalm 2:1; Acts 4:25) “by ‘the people’ are meant the people of Israel” By the way, John Gill was very proficient in Hebrew.

Later, I noticed that I had failed to address his question about the OED. The long drawn out explanation from the OED is unnecessary if one simply acknowledges addresses the NT reference in Acts 4:25-27. Mark needs the argument from the OED coupled with the plural interpretation to turn the word “people” in Psalm 2:1 into a so-called false friend. The NT reference to the verse questions his whole roughly ten-minute point. Obviously, that hinges on the interpretation of Acts 4:25-27 being correct.  However, I am not out on some rotten KJVO limb with this interpretation. In teaching through the book of Acts, I have found this to be the common understanding. Notice this one example:

“In the prayer of the church two matters of theological interest stand out. First, there is a ‘pesher’ treatment (cf. comments on 2:16) in which the groups enumerated in the psalm are equated with the various persons and groups involved in Jesus’ crucifixion…‘the nations’ with the Gentile authorities; and ‘the people’ with ‘the people of Israel.’” Richard Longenecker, Acts (The Expositor’s Bible Commentary with the New International Version), page 104

Mark put in a lot of work preparing for and making this video. He did not put in enough. Perhaps in his excitement to make a new false friend, he completely overlooked the facts that Psalm 2:1 is quoted and applied in the New Testament. Any work that proceeds without factoring that in is incomplete, falling short of its goal.

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[i] Mark complained of modern translations such as CSB, ESV, MEV, NKJV (as well as LSB, NCB, OJB, TLB, WEB) continuing to use the word “rage.” A a note in the NET Bible might help indicate the thinking that goes into modern translations keeping “rage.” Though NET went with “rebel” in Psalm 2, they kept “rage” in Acts 4:25, noting “The Greek word translated rage includes not only anger but opposition, both verbal and nonverbal.”

[ii] “the Hebrew here is plural people and yet the King James chose to render this word as a singular people there’s no textual variant in the Hebrew the ancient Greek Septuagint is plural too as is the Latin Vulgate … why would the King James and the Geneva Bible ... translate a plural word with a singular; there’s a reason, one based in language change just look at this the OED says that there was a time in English when the apparently singular word people could be used with plural agreement it meant Nations plural that’s just what we have in Psalm 2:1.”