Psalms 8:2: “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies that thou mightest still the enemy and avenger.

Matthew 21:16: “And he said unto them, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus said, yea, have you not read: Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise.”

John 3:2:  “The same came to Jesus by night and said: Rabbi we know that thou art a teacher come from God for no man can do the miracles that thou doest except God be with Him.”

I tend to reject the Christian explanation that Nicodemus came to Jesus at night because he was afraid to approach Jesus by day. Nicodemus was a member of the Sanhedrin and served in an official capacity during the day and at night he would have spent his time studying Torah.  They did not work eight hour days as we do in the West.  They served from sunup to sundown. Sundown or night did not mean dark, in fact sundown or night usually began right after twelve o’clock noon. They did not have watches in those days so time was determined by the position of the sun. Often the members of the Sanhedrin meet from 10:00 in the morning to 2:00 in the afternoon and spent their remaining time studying Torah.  Torah study was not to be done alone and nobody would have thought anything unusual that he would have met with a master teacher like Jesus to study Torah, no matter how controversial he was.  As a member of the Sanhedrin he would have had the Torah memorized word for word and would have been fluent in Oral Tradition so the give and take could have easily taken place in the dark or by candle light.  Another reason for this after hours visit was privacy as Nicodemus expected Jesus to reveal some hidden knowledge he had to perform miracles.  The Jews of that day believed that if you knew how to properly use the names of God, you could perform miracles. This was esoteric knowledge which Nicodemus, as a leader of the Pharisees, felt he had a right to know because he lived such a righteous and holy life. I mean he deserved it, he earned it so why would not Jesus reveal the secrets of working miracles to him. No doubt he approached Jesus at sundown when his official duties ended and he and Jesus sat down under some tree to carry on a rabbinical discussion.  In true rabbinical fashion Nicodemus opened the discussion on the topic of miracles or the kingdom of God.  The kingdom of God was just another expression for God’s knowledge.

Jesus pretty well put this old boy in his place when he said that you do not enter into this knowledge of miracle working unless you are born again.  In other words you do not get this knowledge of miracles by being righteous, but only by being born again. Jesus being from the North spoke a colloquial form of Aramaic and Nicodemus from the South spoke a more formal form of Aramaic so Nicodemus would have taken Jesus literally when He said born again where Jesus, using a more colloquial language, would have implied something spiritual.

Jesus is teaching that if you want to enter into the deep things of God, it will not be accomplished by living a righteous life, it is only accomplished through the finished work of the cross.  Thus it is out of the mouth of babes and sucklings, those born again that the knowledge and power of God will flow.  In the Aramaic, babes is the word yalia which could mean young men but has also been used to mean rebellious children. The word sucklings is yeluda which could mean babies and it could also mean parasites. Yeluda in its Semitic root means to feed off of someone else like a baby feeds off its mother.  In other words even out of mouth of those who are rebellious or not righteous but know that they must feed off of God and not their own righteousness can enter into this knowledge. In other words you are saved only through the grace of God not of works lets any man should boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).

It sounds like Jesus misquoted Psalms 8:2 which really says “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise.”  Yet Jesus said that out of the mouth of babes and sucklings “thou hast ordained strength?   The word for strength that is used in Psalms 8:2 in Hebrew is oz which is a strength to enter into something.  A sword is just a piece of metal until a power is given to it. We are just a piece of metal and it is the power of God that makes us into a weapon.  The word used in my Greek New Testament for strength is ainos which is a word for praise. Yet, the Septuagint sometimes will use the word ainos for the Hebrew word oz. In the Aramaic Bible the Aramaic word used is shavach which means a praise which creates or strengthens a relationship. It is sometimes rendered as flattery as flattery is used to strengthen a relationship with someone.  This, the word oz as it is used in Psalms 8:2 in that particular context could mean a form of praise in giving acknowledging that what was accomplished was not by your own might, but someone else. It is a praise of giving credit where credit is due.  There is a strength in oz that comes from binding yourself with God and utilizing His power and then giving God the credit. In other words if you perform a miracle, you do not say “I healed this person, but you praise God for what He did.”  This would fit the  Aramaic word that Jesus used, shavach which is a form of praise and would not be in conflict with the Hebrew word oz.

So Jesus did not really misquote Psalms 8:2 in Matthew 21:6, He was speaking to the religious leaders and he was saying pretty much what He told Nicodemus.  Unless you are born again you cannot enter the kingdom of God. It would seem that Jesus using the words babes and sucklings would suggest that the unrighteous have a greater capacity for faith.  In other words God will demonstrate his power through the unrighteous for they know the power is of God and not of themselves and that they are undeserving of this power.  Whereas the righteous, like the Pharisees, pretty much think they deserved that power and have a right to it.  Thus true praise comes for those who can give God all the credit for the demonstration of power and not from those who feel their good works had something to do with it.

I find myself so much like Nicodemus and the other religious leaders of Jesus day.  I need a miracle in my life, so I live a righteous life, keeping my sins well confessed, reading my Bible, praying and living as good a life as possible and then I sit back and literally tell God, “Well, God, now I really deserve that miracle because I have been so good. I’ve earned it.” Yet both David and Jesus keep reminding me that it is not my goodness, not my righteousness, not all my time in Bible study and prayer that will produce the miraculous. It will not come if I pray hard enough or long enough.  The miraculous comes only from the goodness of God. Matthew 5:45, the rain falls on the just as well as the unjust. It is up to God not us.