On the Sophistry of Jesus “What is your opinion about the Messiah? Whose son is he?” “The son of David,” they replied. “How then is it,” he asked, “that David by inspiration calls him ‘Lord’? For he says, ‘The LORD said to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.’’ If David calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be David’s son?”
The exegetical argument here is on Psa. 110, which was prefaced by the writer or compiler as “A Psalm of David.” Jesus assumes the popular interpretation, that this means “A Psalm by David,” as opposed to “A Psalm about David.” The descriptive prefix should, however, be understood in the light of the psalm, not vice-versa. Its author was in the service of David and, therefore, refers to him as “lord” (master). Besides, unless Jesus is suggesting that a son cannot be greater than his father, and that, therefore, the Messiah cannot be the son of David, then his question serves no teaching purpose. In fact, however, what Jesus has given us is not an argument at all. Rather, it is a riddle, and its only purpose is to make the speaker appear clever at the expense of his audience. 1. Francis William Newman, Phases of Faith, in The Works of Francis William Newman on Religion: A Critical Edition, 10 vols., ed. Tod E. Jones (Charlottesville: The Philosophy Documentation Center, 2009), 3: 156. 2. “A paradox,” wrote Baltasar Gracian, “in essence is a species of pious fraud, which is admired because of its freshness and piquancy. But later, when its trickery is discovered, it fares so badly that it is scorned” (The Art of Worldly Wisdom [1647], trans. Martin Fischer [New York: Barnes and Noble, 2008], 48).
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