Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

THE QUESTION OF JESUS SELF-UNDERSTANDING
§15.3
the issue of messiahship was raised at the hearing before Caiaphas and that the
outcome of the hearing turned on that issue. 102 Moreover, since royal Messiah
translated readily enough as 'king of the Jews', the obvious deduction is that Jesus
was 'handed over' to Pilate's jurisdiction on the charge of claiming to be David's
royal successor, in the full knowledge that one who claimed to be a king
was likely to receive short shrift from the prefect. And so it proved. There are
other questions to which we must return in regard to Jesus' trial and execution.
But for the moment it is sufficient to have demonstrated the high historical probability
that the issue of Jesus' messiahship was the decisive (legal) factor in (or,
should we say, excuse for) Jesus' execution.
b. The Question about David's Son
Mark 12.35-37a pars, is one of the most difficult Synoptic passages to evaluate in
historical terms. But its relevance is so clear that it cannot be ignored.
Matt. 22.41-45
41 Now while the Pharisees
were gathered together, Jesus
asked them a question,
42 saying, 'What do you think
of the Christ? Whose son is he?'
Thev said to him. 'The son of
David'. 43 He said to them,
'How is it then that David,
inspired by the Spirit,
calls him Lord, saying, 44
"The Lord said to mv Lord. Sit
at mv right hand, till I put vour
enemies under vour
feet"? 45 If David thus
calls him Lord, how is he his
son?'
Mark 12.35-37a
35 And as Jesus
taught in the temple,
he said, 'How can the scribes
say that the Christ
is the son of
David?
36 David himself,
inspired by the Holy Spirit,
declared,
"The Lord said to mv Lord. Sit
at mv rieht hand, till I put vour
enemies under your
feet." 37 David himself speaks
of him as Lord; so how is he his
son?'
Luke 20.41-44
41 But he said to
them, 'How can they say that
the Christ
is David's son?
42 For David himself
says in the Book of Psalms,
"The Lord said to mv Lord. Sit
at mv right hand, 43 till I put
vour enemies a stool for vour
feet." 44 David thus
calls him Lord; so how is he his
son?'
The central feature is Jesus' quotation of Ps. 110.1, and the assumption that the
text was generally taken to be messianic. However, there is no clear evidence that
Ps. 110.1 was interpreted messianically in pre-Christian Judaism, 103 whereas the
evidence that Ps. 110.1 played a key role in the development of earliest christological
understanding is beyond dispute. 104 The passage is therefore usually
102. Wright argues more directly: 'If Jesus has been doing and saying things against the
Temple, the natural implication is that he thinks he is the anointed one, the Messiah' (Jesus
523). See also Stuhlmacher, Biblische Theologie 1.115-17.
103. Texts cited by Davies and Allison, Matthew 3.254 n. 23.
104. See particularly M. Hengel, '"Sit at My Right Hand!" The Enthronement of Christ
at the Right Hand of God and Psalm 110:1', Studies 119-225.
634