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Answer: Psalms 110:1 states: "A Psalm concerning David.
HaShem says to my master: 'Sit at My right hand, until
I make your enemies your footstool.'" There is no problem
with accepting that one's descendants can rise to a
more exalted position than we possess at present. There
is no problem with David accepting that the Messiah
will be greater than he is. But, there is nothing in
this verse to show that David is referring to the Messiah
when he writes 'adoni, "my master," "my lord." Moreover,
there is nothing in David's words to indicate that the
individual he refers to as "my master" is a divine being.
David "concerning" himself wrote Psalm 110 poetically
in the third person. Christians explain this verse based
on New Testament exegesis. The Marcan Jesus says:
How is it that the scribes say that the
Christ is the son of David? David himself said by the
Holy Spirit; "The Lord [kyrios] said to my Lord [kyrio
mou], 'Sit at My right hand, until I put your enemies
beneath your feet.' David himself calls him 'Lord,'
how is he then his son? (Mark 12:35-37).
Mark's rendering uses the Greek word kyrios, "lord,"
twice in the sentence, and the Christian translations
into English capitalize the initial letter of the word
to read "Lord" in both instances. Jesus' discourse is
only possible if he and those he spoke to were conversing
in Greek. The exegetical problems that Mark's Jesus
refers to are only apparent in the Greek rendering and
renderings from the Greek into other languages. In the
Greek text, the initial kyrios is a reference to "the
Lord," that is, God, and translates the Tetragrammaton
(Y- H-V-H, the four letter name of God often referred
to in Hebrew as HASHEM--THE NAME). The second kyrios,
renders 'adoni, "my master," "my lord" (which according
to Mark's understanding refers to "the Christ"). That
is, the Greek, kyrios, is used to render two separate
and distinct Hebrew words in the Greek translation.
The confusion it creates in Greek does not exist in
the Hebrew original. As a result, the Marcan Jesus'
exegesis is non-existent in the Hebrew and incorrect
in its understanding of the Greek rendering. |