Luke 20:42-44

20:42 For David himself says in the book of Psalms,

The Lord said to my lord,

Sit at my right hand,

20:43 until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”’

20:44 If David then calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?”


sn The Lord said to my Lord. With David being the speaker, this indicates his respect for his descendant (referred to as my Lord). Jesus was arguing, as the ancient exposition assumed, that the passage is about the Lord’s anointed. The passage looks at an enthronement of this figure and a declaration of honor for him as he takes his place at the side of God. In Jerusalem, the king’s palace was located to the right of the temple to indicate this kind of relationship. Jesus was pressing the language here to get his opponents to reflect on how great Messiah is.

sn A quotation from Ps 110:1.

tn Grk “David thus calls him ‘Lord.’ So how is he his son?” The conditional nuance, implicit in Greek, has been made explicit in the translation (cf. Matt 22:45).