whose son?
This is part of our gospel reading for Sunday, the "Question about David's Son" - -
Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them this question: “What do you think of the Messiah (τοῦ χριστοῦ, the Christ)? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” He said to them, “How is it then that David by the Spirit calls him Lord, saying,
Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them this question: “What do you think of the Messiah (τοῦ χριστοῦ, the Christ)? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” He said to them, “How is it then that David by the Spirit calls him Lord, saying,
‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
until I put your enemies under your feet”’?
If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?” No one was able to give him an answer, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions. MT 22:41-46 NRSV
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Sounds like a riddle, doesn’t it, a play on words. They aren’t speaking English. Matthew has Jesus quoting Psalm 110:1, from the Septuagint (in the LXX Psalm 109:1), the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible; the verse begins, ΕΙΠΕΝ ὁ Κύριος τῷ Κυρίῳ μου, Kyrie says to my kyrie. The Hebrew reads נְאֻם יְהוָה, לַאדֹנִי saith Yahweh to my lord, which in writing clears away any riddle or play on words. Although if Jesus and the Pharisees are speaking Hebrew (likely Aramaic), God's printed name יְהוָה would not be spoken aloud as Yahweh but as Adonai, so it would be spoken Adonai said to my adonai, thus still sounding out the intended riddle play on words.
But I’m wondering, for Matthew and his church, with Matthew’s genealogy and nativity narrative, does it also become somewhat christological, playing back to Jesus’ original question, “What do you think of the Messiah (τοῦ χριστοῦ, the Christ)? Whose son is he?” Matthew (1:1f) begins Jesus Christ back beyond David, charting him from son of Abraham, through David, to Joseph of Nazareth. Continuing, Matthew's birth story, which focuses on Joseph, Matthew makes Jesus Christ, son of Abraham, David, Joseph, son of the Holy Spirit.
Son of David, perhaps Son of Man, but the Pharisees and others in the Temple would not have had a sense of the Messiah as son of God. However, it’s about 85 or 90 AD and Matthew is writing for his audience Jewish-Christian church: is Matthew playing with his church, with us? What do we think of the Christ, whose son is he?
Son of David, perhaps Son of Man, but the Pharisees and others in the Temple would not have had a sense of the Messiah as son of God. However, it’s about 85 or 90 AD and Matthew is writing for his audience Jewish-Christian church: is Matthew playing with his church, with us? What do we think of the Christ, whose son is he?
Matthew gets this story from Mark (12:35-37), who doesn’t have Jesus arguing with the Pharisees but delighting the crowds in the Temple (nor does Mark have a nativity narrative). Maybe there was talk going round, debate of sorts, or maybe it's part of Mark's messianic secret: who is this Jesus, and why don't those around him recognize who he is, and is the Messiah a son of David, or a son of Abraham, or perhaps the Son of Man (Daniel 7), or (in some manuscripts Mark (1:1) says it), the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God --
Sorry, this isn’t meant to be cute or clever. It’s just my mind wandering outside its usual compound.
DThos+