Anti-Missionary Arguments

Tampering with the Text: Psalm 110

The Anti-missionary’s charge:

PSALM 110:1 - "How then does David in spirit call him Lord, saying [the Lord said unto my Lord]". Jesus continues, "if David then call him Lord, how is he his son? And no man was able to answer him" (Matthew 22:42-46). The New Testament then quotes Psalm 110:1 to back up this claim. The issue here is the phrase, "The Lord said to my Lord." Notice, the New Testament capitalized both "L's" in Lord.

The correct Hebrew translation is; "my master" or "my lord" in small letters: "The Lord God said to my master. The Hebrew word "adonee" never refers to God by itself, anywhere in the Jewish Bible. It is only used to describe a person, or a title of a person, not a deity. The Hebrew dictionary defines "adonee" as; sir or my master. Even the Christian Revised Standard Version and the New English Bible correctly render the Hebrew word adonee as "my lord" (small "l") in Psalm 110:1, thus indicating that it is not speaking of God. The Jewish Bible reads, "The Lord said to my lord" meaning master.

HaDavar response

The question in Matt 22:41-46 is this: if David called the Messiah lord how could the Messiah be David's son. The idea is that David, the progenitor of the Davidic Dynasty would experience priority over any descendent. Therefore, if the Messiah were merely human, since he is a descendant of David, the Messiah would defer, in respect, to David. However, in Psalm 110 we see David deferring to the Messianic person. Why?

(Before I go any further, when reading Psalm 110 it is very important to know exactly who is talking, and to who. It is crystal clear in the Hebrew, as you know. In an attempt to avoid confusion in English I am going to represent the Tetragrammaton in this manner Y--H, where Y stands for Yod and H stands for Heh. Jacob, I do not know the depth of your convictions on the use of God's personal name, if this is upsetting to you, let me know and I will use whatever substitution you are comfortable with.)

Psalm 110 begins with David recording a conversation for us. He is an onlooker to a conversation between Y--H and the Messianic person. David repeats a conversation he heard between Y--H and the Messiah. He says in verse one "An Oracle, Y--H to my lord: Sit … ." David has just called the Messianic person his lord (his master). You are quite correct regarding the rendering of the verse.

First, let me establish that Psalm 110 is Messianic. Here is some of my research:

Midrash Rabbah (to Genesis 18:1): In the future God will let the Messiah sit at His right hand, as it is written (Psalm 110:1): "the Lord saith unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand."

Artscroll Tenach Commentary "Tehillim:"

Sforno says that this Psalm is dedicated to the future king Messiah. He is on God's right hand and the ministering angels are on the left. The armies of Gog and Magog will attack, but HaShem will subdue them until they come crawling to the feet of the Messiah.

In reference to the staff or scepter of verse 2; Midrash Yelamdeinu perceives this as a reference to the wooden staff which participated in many wondrous events through out the course of Jewish history. This rod was first used by Jacob when he split the Jordan River (Genesis 32:11). Moses and Aaron used the same staff to perform wonders in Egypt before the eyes of Pharaoh (Exodus 4:3, 7:10). David held this staff in his hand when he went forth to battle Goliath (1 Sam. 17:40). It served as a scepter in the hands of each king of David's dynasty until the Temple was destroyed; then, the staff was hidden. In the future, it will be revealed to the Messiah, who will use it to conquer all the nations of the world.

In reference to Verse 3: The Messiah too, will inspire the masses to enlist in his cause.

In reference to verse 5: Yalkut Shimoni states, "in the future, God will place the Messiah at His right hand and Abraham at his left."

In reference to verse 7: According to the Targum, this verse describes the ultimate victory for which all men of faith yearn, because Abraham, David, and the Messiah do not seek blood but truth.

Alfred Edersheim (Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah; Appendix 9): "Verse 7 is also applied in Yalkut to Messianic times, when streams of the blood of the wicked should flow out, and birds come to drink that flood."

David's master is the Messianic person. Why would he defer to the Messiah? One reason, in the context, is the fact that He sees the Messiah at God's right hand. The right hand was the place of honor and equality. This implies that the Messiah is more than a mere human, rather He is a God/man. Whether you accept that idea or not, we have to admit, that David sees the Messiah as his superior, at the very least. I think we agree on a good number of points. However, the question remains, are the New Testament translations trying to imply something that simply is not there?

For that, let us deal with the area of capitalizations (sometimes a confusing convention). The convention you are concerned about is carefully explained in Preface or Forward of the translation. For example:

NASB-The Proper Name of God in the Old Testament: In the Scriptures, the name of god is most significant and understandably so. It is inconceivable to think of spiritual matters without a proper designation for the Supreme Deity. Thus, the most common name for the deity is God, a translation of the original Elohim. One of the titles for God is Lord, a translation of Adonai. There is yet another name for which is particularly assigned to God as His special or proper name, that is, the four letters YHWH (Exodus 3:14 and Isaiah 42:8). This name has not been pronounced by the Jews because of reverence for the great sacredness of the divine name. Therefore, it has been consistently translated LORD. The only exception to this translation of YHWH is when it occurs in immediate proximity to the word Lord, that is, Adonai. In that case it is regularly translated GOD in order to avoid confusion.

The NASB very clearly tells the reader that God's personal name will be rendered capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. The word Adonai will be rendered Capital L, small o, small r, small d. The convention is explained. What is also explained is the reason why they chose to follow that convention-out of respect for us. This is an attempt to honor and defer to Jewish religious convictions. After all, this convention was our idea to begin with.

NIV-In regard to the divine name YHWH, commonly referred to as the Tetragrammaton, the translators adopted the device used in most English versions of rendering that name as "Lord" in capital letters to distinguish it from Adonai, another Hebrew word rendering "Lord," for which small letters are used.

THE LORD says to my Lord:-NASB

The LORD says to my Lord:-NIV

The LORD says to my lord-RSV

Jehovah saith unto my Lord,-ASV

The LORD said unto my Lord,-KJV

I do not know what translation(s) you have. Perhaps it is not one of the standard works? All I can say is that the standard works make the distinction between Y--H and adonee. I do not see deception here. If you have one of the standard translations, perhaps a careful review of your text is in order. No one is tinkering with the text. They are simply following a convention that was started by the Jewish community to begin with and out of respect for the Jewish community.