The interpretation timeline

Ps 49:12

How this passage has been read — the sources, oldest to newest.

From the early Church Fathers to now.

3 Patristic · 1 Catholic

Ps 49:12 · Douay-Rheims
“If I should be hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.”
Patristic before A.D. 750
220
A.D.
Tertullian Patristic
c. A.D. 150–220
“Although he had respect to the offerings of Abel and smelled a sweet savor from the whole burnt offering of Noah, yet what pleasure could he receive from the flesh of sheep or the odor of burning victims? And yet the simple and God-fearing mind of those who offered what they were receiving from God, both in the way of food and of a sweet smell, was favorably accepted before God, in the sense of respectful homage to God, who did not so much want what was offered as that which prompted the offering.”
Source
187 years pass — nothing from this stretch is hosted yet
407
A.D.
John Chrysostom Patristic
A.D. 347–407
“Though I am Lord and Master of everything, I am ready to accept from you what is mine so as to win you over to love of me.”
430
A.D.
Augustine of Hippo Patristic
A.D. 354–430
“Who can explain, who expound that which is said to Him in another Psalm, "For my goods You need not"? He has said that He needs not from us any necessary thing. "If I shall be hungry, I will not tell you" [Psalm 50:12]. He that keeps Israel shall neither hunger nor thirst, nor be weary, nor fall asleep. But, lo! According to your carnality I speak: because you will suffer hunger when you have not eaten, perhaps you think even God does hunger that He may eat. Even though He shall be hungry, He tells not you: all things are before Him, whence He will He takes what is needful for Him. These words are said to convince little understanding; not that God has declared His hunger. Though for our sake this God of gods deigned even to hunger. He came to hunger, and to fill; He came to thirst, and give drink; He came to be clothed with mortality, and to clothe with immortality; He came poor, to make rich. For He lost not His riches by taking to Him our poverty, for, "In him are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden." [Colossians 2:3] "If I shall be hungry, I will not tell you. For Mine is the whole world, and the fullness thereof." Do not then labour to find what to give Me, without whom I have what I will.”
Source
844 years pass — nothing from this stretch is hosted yet
Scholastic c. 1100 – 1500
1274
A.D.
Thomas Aquinas Catholic
1225–1274
“"If I should be hungry, I would not tell you." He concludes through an impossibility: if I needed them, I would not tell you, that is, I would not ask them of you. Why? "Because the world is mine and its fullness." Ps. 23: "The earth is the Lord's," etc.”
Modern · 1953 →

The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.