Matthew 22:35-46

22:35 And one of them, an expert in religious law, ¹  asked him a question to test ²  him: 22:36 “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” ³  22:37 Jesus ⁴  said to him, “‘Love ⁵  the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ⁶  22:38 This is the first and greatest ⁷  commandment. 22:39 The second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁸  22:40 All the law and the prophets depend ⁹  on these two commandments.”

The Messiah: David’s Son and Lord

22:41 While ¹⁰  the Pharisees ¹¹  were assembled, Jesus asked them a question: ¹²  22:42 “What do you think about the Christ? ¹³  Whose son is he?” They said, “The son of David.” ¹⁴  22:43 He said to them, “How then does David by the Spirit call him ‘Lord,’ saying,

22:44 ‘The Lord said to my lord, ¹⁵ 

“Sit at my right hand,

until I put your enemies under your feet”’? ¹⁶ 

22:45 If David then calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?” ¹⁷  22:46 No one ¹⁸  was able to answer him a word, and from that day on no one dared to question him any longer.

[22:35]  ¹ tn Traditionally, “a lawyer.” This was an expert in the interpretation of the Mosaic law.

[22:35]  ² tn Grk “testing.” The participle, however, is telic in force.

[22:36]  ³ tn Or possibly “What sort of commandment in the law is great?”

[22:37]  ⁴ tn Grk “And he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity. Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[22:37]  ⁵ tn Grk “You will love.” The future indicative is used here with imperatival force (see ExSyn 452 and 569).

[22:37]  ⁶ sn A quotation from Deut 6:5. The threefold reference to different parts of the person says, in effect, that one should love God with all one’s being.

[22:38]  ⁷ tn Grk “the great and first.”

[22:39]  ⁸ sn A quotation from Lev 19:18.

[22:40]  ⁹ tn Grk “hang.” The verb κρεμάννυμι (kremannumi) is used here with a figurative meaning (cf. BDAG 566 s.v. 2.b).

[22:41]  ¹⁰ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[22:41]  ¹¹ sn See the note on Pharisees in 3:7.

[22:41]  ¹² tn Grk “asked them a question, saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn) is somewhat redundant here in contemporary English and has not been translated.

[22:42]  ¹³ tn Or “Messiah”; both “Christ” (Greek) and “Messiah” (Hebrew and Aramaic) mean “one who has been anointed.”

[22:42]  ¹⁴ sn It was a common belief in Judaism that Messiah would be the son of David in that he would come from the lineage of David. On this point the Pharisees agreed and were correct. But their understanding was nonetheless incomplete, for Messiah is also David’s Lord. With this statement Jesus was affirming that, as the Messiah, he is both God and man.

[22:44]  ¹⁵ 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.

[22:44]  ¹⁶ sn A quotation from Ps 110:1.

[22:45]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “how is he his son?”

[22:46]  ¹⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.