Mark 12:35-37 Question

[AdoroTeDevote]

Okay exegetes,
I have a question for you.
In all Gospels, Romans, Revelation, etc. Jesus is described as a descendant or David. Even in Gospel according to St. Mark He is in the scene with Bartimaeus. But in Mark 12:37-37, it seems Jesus is saying that He is not the “Son of David” to a couple of atheists I read online. Anyone want to clear it up for me?
Thanks
+AMDG

 

[Thom18]

Jesus is David’s “son” as far as He is counted amongst David’s descendants due to His adoption by Joseph. This gives Jesus the “pedigree” needed to be the Messiah. This is what is meant by “Son of David”. However, Jesus is trying to stress here that He isn’t simply a man. He is David’s “son” as far as being a legal descendant goes, but He is (more importantly) David’s Lord, or God.

 

[BartholomewB]

This dialogue in Mark, like the similar passage in Luke 20:41-44, is found in a more extended version in Matthew 22:41-46

41 Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, 42 saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” 43 He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying,

44 “‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
until I put your enemies under your feet”’?

45 If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?” 46 And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.

Joachim Jeremias comments on this episode, “Jesus resists the political idea of Messiah, appealing to Ps. 110; at no point do we find Jesus denying his Davidic origin” (Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus, p. 291). True, but at no point do we find him asserting it, either. Rather, he seems to be arguing that Davidic descent is irrelevant to messiahship, sidestepping the (unasked?) question of whether he is or is not of the house of David himself.

Jeremias argues that, “Nowhere, during the lifetime of Jesus and his apostles, can we find the Jews ever questioning the Davidic origin of Jesus. Jewish polemic would scarcely have ignored such a powerful argument against Jesus’ messianic claims.”

 

[De_Maria]

Mark 12:37-37

*Mark 12:33 And ‘to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself’ is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 And when Jesus saw that [he] answered with understanding, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And no one dared to ask him any more questions. *

*The Question About David’s Son.[a] *

35 As Jesus was teaching in the temple area he said, “How do the scribes claim that the Messiah is the son of David? 36 David himself, inspired by the holy Spirit, said:

‘The Lord said to my lord,
“Sit at my right hand

• until I place your enemies under your feet.”’*

37 David himself calls him ‘lord’; so how is he his son?” [The] great crowd heard this with delight.

Jesus is giving the people the first inkling that the Messiah, the Son of David, is God made flesh.