The Messiah, Son of David
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The Messiah, Son of David An Inquiry into Mark 12:35-37 MASTER THESIS PRESENTED TO PROF. A. B. MERZ AND PROF. M. J. J. MENKEN UTRECHT UNIVERSITY (DEPARTMENT OF THEOLOGY) By Evert-Jan Prins 0200700 PREFACE An important motif within the Gospel of Mark is the motif of ‘the way’. Like ‘a way’, that is how I have experienced the writing of this thesis. It has been quite a long way. Sometimes, it has been a way of joy, other times it was a way of troubles and reluctance. To start with the troubles: there were moments in which my head was spinning. Deciding between different positions within the debate sometimes gave me the feeling: what do I know about these things? How can I decide which position is right? The joy of the way was the interest in the Gospel of Mark this thesis aroused. The study of Mark sometimes filled me with admiration for the way he has construed his Gospel as a revelation of Jesus’ identity. I would like to thank the professors who have supervised my thesis. In the first place, prof. G. C. M. van Oyen, who has been my supervisor during the first period of my thesis and who has helped me to find a (more or less demarcated) subject for my thesis. Furthermore, I would like to express my gratitude to prof. A. B. Merz for the instructive tutorials and the critical remarks to the manuscript she has made. I appreciate that she was willing to take over the supervision of prof. Van Oyen. Thanks too are due to prof. M. J. J. Menken, the ‘second supervisor’, and to Gert Sollie, who has checked my English idiom. Finally, I would like to thank my friends, family, and fellow students who have shown interest in the progress of my thesis and with whom I could share the joys and troubles of writing a thesis. Evert-Jan Prins Houten, August 2009 2 CONTENTS PREFACE 2 INTRODUCTION 5 The Pericope 5 Interpretation in Modern Scholarship 6 Structure of the Thesis 9 1. IMAGES OF THE ‘SON OF DAVID’ IN JUDAISM 11 1.1. Introduction 11 1.2. Old Testament Background 11 1.2.1. Divine Promises about the Davidic Dynasty 11 1.2.2. The Future Davidic King 13 1.2.3. King and Messiah 14 1.3. The Expectation of a Davidic Messiah in Early Judaism 15 1.3.1. The Psalms of Solomon: the Royal Messiah 15 1.3.2. The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs 18 1.3.3. The Fourth Book of Ezra 19 1.3.4. Qumran: the Messiah as Aaronite and Davidide 20 1.4. ‘Son of David’ as a Solomonic Healer 24 1.5. Conclusion 27 2. THE INTERPRETATION OF PSALM 110 IN JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN EXEGESIS 30 2.1. The ‘Original Meaning’ of Psalm 110:1 30 2.2. Interpretation of Psalm 110 in Jewish Exegesis 31 2.2.1. Non-Rabbinic Interpretations 32 2.2.2. Later Jewish Interpretations 35 2.3. Interpretation of Psalm 110 in Early Christian Exegesis 37 2.4. Conclusion 39 3. MARK 12:35-37 WITHIN THE NARRATIVE OF MARK 41 3.1. The Structure of the Gospel of Mark 41 3.2. Jesus in Jerusalem (Mark 10:46-12:44) 45 3.2.1. Mark 10:46-52 45 3 3.2.2. Mark 11:1-12:12 45 3.2.3. Mark 12:13-44 46 3.2.4. The Structure of Mark 10:46-12:44 51 3.3. Occurrences of ‘Son of David’ in the Gospel of Mark: 10:47-48 and 11:10 51 3.3.1. Mark 10:47-48 51 3.3.2. Mark 11:9-10 55 3.4. Mark 12:35-37 58 3.4.1. The Structure of Mark 12:35-37 58 3.4.2. Jesus Teaching in the Temple (12:35a) 59 3.4.3. The Question about the Messiah (12:35b-37b) 60 3.4.4. “And the Great Throng Heard Him with Joy” (12:37c) 64 3.5. Conclusion 64 4. MARK AND THE OLD TESTAMENT 66 4.1. Mark’s Use of Old Testament Quotations 66 4.1.1. Mark within the Parameters of Scripture 66 4.1.2. Text Form of Mark’s Old Testament Quotations 68 4.1.3. Jewish Background of Mark’s Use of Old Testament Quotations 68 4.1.4. Explicit Quotations and Allusions 70 4.1.5. Function of the Old Testament Quotations in Mark 71 4.1.6. Conclusion 75 4.2. Mark’s Use of Psalm 110:1 76 4.2.1. Text Form of Mark 12:36 76 4.2.2. The Function of Psalm 110:1 in Mark 12:35-37 77 5. THE CHRISTOLOGY OF MARK 80 5.1. Introduction 80 5.2. Christological Titles in Mark 82 5.2.1. Messiah (cristo,j) 82 5.2.2. Son of God (ui`o.j tou/ qeou/) 86 5.2.3. Lord (ku,rioj) 91 5.2.4. Son of Man (ui`o.j tou/ avnqrw,pou) 93 5.3. Conclusion 97 CONCLUSION 99 Position 99 Further Inquiry 104 BIBLIOGRAPHY 106 4 INTRODUCTION The Pericope Mark 12:35-37 is often designated with the German title ‘die Davidssohnfrage’. Jesus is asking a question about the Davidic sonship of the Messiah. In this question, he quotes Ps 110:1. The Greek text (Nestle-Aland27) of the pericope is as follows: 35 Kai. avpokriqei.j o` Ivhsou/j ev,legen dida,skwn evn tw/| i`erw/\ pw/j le,gousin oi` grammatei/j o`,ti o` cristo.j ui`o.j Daui,d evstin* 36 auvto.j Daui.d ei=pen evn tw|/ pneu,mati tw/| a`gi,w|\ ei=pen ku,rioj tw/| kuri,w| mou\ ka,qou evk dexiw/n mou( e[wj a.vn qw/ tou.j evcqrou,j sou u`poka,tw tw/n podw/n souÅ 37 auvto.j Daui.d le,gei auvto.n ku,rion kai. po,qen auvtou/ evstin ui`o,j* Kai. Îo`Ð polu.j o;cloj h;kouen auvtou/ h`de,wjÅ My own, quite literal, translation of Mark 12:35-37: 35 And answering, Jesus said, teaching in the Temple: “How can the scribes say that the Christ/Messiah is the/a son of David? 36 David himself said in the Holy Spirit: The Lord said to my lord: ‘Sit at my right hand till I put your enemies under your feet.’ 37 David himself calls him ‘lord’, why/how is he his son?” And the great throng heard him with joy. This is only a first translation. Later in this thesis I will pay attention to the translational problems within this pericope. The kind of reasoning in the question about the Son of David sounds puzzling. Jesus does not speak directly about his view on the Son of David. It is not clear what he means by this designation. Is he talking about the descent of the Messiah? Or does ‘Son of David’ have more than just a 5 genealogical meaning? The pericope seems to suggest that ‘Son of David’ was used in combination with or with reference to the Messiah in the circles of the scribes. Is it a messianic title then? And what does Ps 110:1 mean in this context? Why is Jesus quoting this psalm? These questions occurred to me after a first reading of Mark 12:35-37 and brought me to write my MA-thesis about the Davidssohnfrage. Interpretation in Modern Scholarship An overview of the research on Mark 12:35-37 has been given by Christoph Burger,1 Gerhard Schneider,2 and Jean-Gaspard Mudiso Mbâ Mundla.3 In this paragraph, the most important scholarly interpretations of Mark 12:25-37 will be discussed. In general, one could say that until the 1960’s there were three main interpretations of Mark 12:35-37.4 The first kind of interpretations understands Jesus’ question only as a sophistic question (‘Vexierfrage’) by which he wants to embarrass his opponents. Jesus does not give his own opinion about the subject but asks this question to keep off his opponents. This interpretation of the Davidssohnfrage was proposed by Robert Paul Gagg.5 To clarify his view, Gagg reconstructs an introductory question of Jesus’ opponents, like: “You are (also) teaching that the Messiah is a son of David, aren’t you?”6 Gagg’s interpretation of Mark 12:35-37 is in short: “Jesu Wort zum Davidssohn enthält keine betont lehrhafte Zuspitzung, sondern hat seinen Zweck in der Abwehr einer verführerischen Zumutung.”7 Neither does Mark 12:35-37 contribute to a theology or Christology of the New Testament.8 Gagg’s interpretation does not have many followers, although in the nineties of the last century Robert H. Gundry also defended that “Jesus is exposing the scribes, not answering christological questions.”9 However, most scholars have criticised this interpretation.10 In my opinion, Gagg’s interpretation is not right, because it is arbitrary to assume a question before Jesus’ own question. Gagg’s claim that this pericope does not contribute to a theology of the New Testament is not very convincing. The Davidssohnfrage contains titles such as ‘Lord’ and ‘Messiah’, titles that play an important role within the Christology of the New Testament. It seems that the Davidssohnfrage is connected to Jesus’ identity, which is also one of the central themes in the Gospel 1 Christoph Burger, Jesus als Davidssohn. Eine Traditionsgeschichtliche Untersuchung. FRLANT 98 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1970), 52-57. 2 Gerhard Schneider, “Die Davidssohnfrage (Mk 12,35-37),” Bib 53 (1972): 66-81.