Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yigal Levin <Yigal-Levin AT utc.edu>]

Dear Pastor Mark,

Despite my Jewish reading, I am capable of assuming, as do many critical
scholars, that the superscription "A psalm of David" may NOT be part of the
original text of Ps. 110. I don't KONW who the original author is - and I
only said that I assumed that "my lord: was a priest because of the
refference to "a priest after the order of Melchizedek". But even if it was
David, his calling a priest "my lord" would not bother me.
However, presuming to read a trinitarian godhead into this context does.
The use of this verse in Jesus' polemic with the Pharisees in Matt.
22:42-45/Mark 12:35-37/Luke 20:41-44 means nothing other than that "Mark"
(or his source), writing the story some decades after Jesus, already
assumed that Jesus was both "Lord" and "Son of David/Messiah/Christ". 
You will notice that the NT (I assume following the LXX) uses "Lord"
(KURIOS) for both the "YHWH" and "Adoni" of the Hebrew. Assuming that
"Mark" the Greek-speaking Gentile had no knowledge of the Hebrew, this
could even make sense. But WE are trying to understand the Hebrew - let's
do it without preconceptions.

Yigal


At 09:35 PM 2/13/2003 -0600, Pastor Mark Eddy wrote:
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Yigal Levin"
>
>> I'm not Walter, but the Hebrew MT of Ps. 110:1 says: "YHWH said to my lord"
>> (look at JPS), "Adoni", NOT using the plural form "Adonai", which is used
>> for "The Lord". In the Jewish tradition, YHWH is NOT speaking to a divine
>> figure, but to a human, whom the psalmist calls "my lord". From the
>> context, this would probably be a priest.
>
>I fail to find one instance in which a king (or anybody else) calls a
priest "my lord" or anything like
>it.
>
>I do find places where the leaders of Israel call a (divine) messenger
from YHWH "Lord." Joshua addresses
>the "commander of the army of the LORD" as "my lord." Since this
"commander" tells Joshua what the "Angel
>of the LORD" told Moses in Exodus 3:5 (take off your sandals, you are on
holy ground), and since the
>"Angel of the LORD" in Ex. 3:2 is also called YHWH in verses 4, 7, etc.,
the "commander" seems to be a
>theophany. So Joshua called YHWH "my Lord" (Adoni). This is what Moses
called YHWH in Ex. 4:10 & 13. (We
>have no way of knowing what vowels the original author intended . I know
that the MT points the word as
>Adonai in Ex. and Adoni in Josh. But not all translators agree with their
pointing. Since the Massoretes
>pointed the text long after Christians noted that Ps 110 referred to the
Messiah as Adoni or Adonai "my
>Lord" or "Lord", the Massoretic pointing can not be considered impartial
in such Messianic passages.)
>
>The context leads many translators to see YHWH called "my Lord" in Psalm
16:2; 109:21; 140:7 and perhaps
>141:8, despite the Massoretic pointing as Adonai. "My God" is called "my
Lord" in Psalm 35:23 (even in the
>LXX, though again it is Adonai in MT).
>
>In Ex. 32:21 (& Num. 12:11) Aaron, the priest, calls the national leader
Moses "my lord" (Adoni). This is
>the opposite of what you suppose that David did in Psalm 110. In 1 Sam.
22:12 the prist calls the king "my
>lord," not the other way around.
>
>When David was still Saul's subject, he called Saul, his king, "my lord"
in 2 Sam. 24:6,8,10 and 26:17-19.
>Abigail constantly calls the anointed king-in-waiting David "my lord" in 1
Sam. 25:24-41. When David was
>serving the Philistine lords, he called king Achish "my lord" (1 Sam.
29:8). The messenger in 2 Sam. 1:10
>calls his new king David "my lord." Abner calls king David "my lord" (2
Sam. 3:21). Others call king David
>"my lord" in 2 Sam. 4:8; 9:11; 11:11; 13:32f; 14:9-22; 15:21; 16:4,9;
18:28-32; 19:19-37; 24:3,21f; 1
>Kings 1:2-37. The same phrase was addressed to later kings e.g. Solomon (1
King 2:38; 3:17,26 and
>parallels in Chronicles). See also Jer. 37:20 and 38:9. Babylon's king is
called "my lord" in Daniel 1:10.
>
>The prophet Elijah is address as "my lord" in 1 Kings 18: 7-13. The term
was also used of the prophet
>Elisha in 2 Kings 2:13; 4:16,28; 5:3' and 8:12. Ahab became a vassal of
Syria's king Ben-Hadad in 1 Kings
>20 and called him "my lord." An officer and subject of Israel's king calls
him "my lord" in 2 Kings 6:12 &
>26 and 8:5.
>
>Some translations have people call Ezra "my lord" in Ezra 10:3, but the MT
points this to refer to God as
>"Adonai."
>
>In Daniel 10:16-19 in a vision Daniel sees someone in the likeness of a
son of Adam, a messenger from God,
>and Daniel calls him "my lord." This is no priest or king or prophet, but
it could be an angel or another
>theophany. See also Dan. 12:8 and Zech. 1:9; 4:4f,13; & 6:4 (all called an
"angel" in Zech.).
>
>In light of all this, how could anyone suggest that king David was
referring to a priest as "my lord" in
>Psalm 110?
>
>> The Christian tradition in Acts 2:34 (cf KJV of Ps. 110:1) read "my LORD",
>> since it assumed that the author was King David, and since the only one
>> whom GOD would address as "my LORD" could be Jesus.
>
>David addresses his Lord as "my Lord" in Psalm 110. The Christian church
did not just assume that David
>was the author. The MT itself says that this Psalm is "by David." God does
not address David's "Lord" as
>such. God's address begins with the words, "Sit at My right hand..."
Though, if David was writing by
>direction of God's Spirit, then through David God was addressing the
Messiah as David's "Lord."
>
>Furthermore, Christian tradition didn't begin referring Psalm 110 to
Jesus. Jesus Himself did that. He
>brought it up during his holy week disputes, recorded in Matt. 22:42-45
(also Mark 12:35-37 and Luke
>20:41-44). No one in His audience disputed His assertion that David called
the Messiah "my Lord" in Psalm
>110:1. So, that Messianic understanding of this Psalm seems to pre-date
Jesus.
>
>> Yigal
>> John N Carras wrote:
>> >Walter,
>> >Does it make sense to consider a difference of YHWH as opposed to Lord
>> >found in Hebrew at Psa. 110:1 and then quoted in Acts 2:34? Would not
>> >Hebrew word-language indicate a difference between YHWH and the second
>> >instance of Lord in the Psalm?
>> >John Carras
>
>Since Elohim is plural and YHWH is Elohim, one person of the Elohim could
be expected to speak to another
>person. See Genesis 1:26. So different persons of the Godhead could be
differentiated by David, calling
>one YHWH and the other Adon(a)i.
>
>Mark Eddy
>
>
Dr. Yigal Levin
Dept. of Philosophy and Religion
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
615 McCallie Avenue
Chattanooga TN 37403-2598
U.S.A.
>From VMedina AT cbcag.edu  Fri Feb 14 09:07:58 2003
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Greetings to all:

I have a question that I would like to submit to the collective wisdom
of the list. My question is this...

Is the Jewish mikveh the antecedent to Christian baptism? Though there
are similarities, I suspect that it is not. However, not being an expert
in Judaic studies, I would like some guidance. I understand that the
term mikveh means "pool" or "reservoir" or some such. However the NT
name for John "the Baptizer" does not seem to be related to that. The
UBS Hebrew NT translates it as Yochanan hammatbil, from a Hebrew verb
meaning "to dip." Is there any precedent in Judaism for someone who
administers the mikveh being described in this way? Any insight you can
give will be appreciated.

Vince Medina
Springfield, MO

Solo Deo Gloria