Luke 20:44

David therefore calleth him Lord, how is he then his son?

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

20:39-47 The scribes commended the reply Christ made to the Sadducees about the resurrection, but they were silenced by a question concerning the Messiah. Christ, as God, was David's Lord; but Christ, as man, was David's son. The scribes would receive the severest judgement for defrauding the poor widows, and for their abuse of religion, particularly of prayer, which they used as a pretence for carrying on worldly and wicked plans. Dissembled piety is double sin. Then let us beg of God to keep us from pride, ambition, covetousness, and every evil thing; and to teach us to seek that honour which comes from him alone.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

See the notes at Matthew 22:41-46.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

Lu 20:41-47. Christ Baffles the Pharisees by a Question about David and Messiah, and Denounces the Scribes.

41. said, &c.—"What think ye of Christ [the promised and expected Messiah]? Whose son is He [to be]? They say unto Him, The son of David. He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit [by the Holy Ghost, Mr 12:36] call Him Lord?" (Mt 22:42, 43). The difficulty can only be solved by the higher and lower—the divine and human natures of our Lord (Mt 1:23). Mark the testimony here given to the inspiration of the Old Testament (compare Lu 24:44).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

See Poole on "Luke 20:43"

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

David therefore called him Lord,.... Or, "my Lord", as the Syriac and Ethiopic versions read; or, "his Lord", as the Arabic version. This is the inference from the words before cited Psalm 110:1, upon which the following question is asked,

how is he then his son? how can these things be reconciled? in what sense can he be both his Lord and son? See Gill on Matthew 22:45.

Geneva Study Bible

David therefore calleth him Lord, how is he then his son?

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

44. how is he then his son?] To a Jew it was inconceivable that a father, or ancestor, should call his son “Lord.” The only possible solution—that the Messiah was only “made of the seed of David after the flesh” (Romans 1:3) was one which they had never chosen to accept. They, like the Ebionites, expected for their Messiah a mere ‘beloved man.’ And thus, for the second time on this day, they had drawn on their own heads, by their hypocritic craft, the humiliating necessity of publicly confessing their ignorance respecting matters of primary importance before the people, whose absolute reverence they claimed. They ‘did not know’ whether the Baptist was an Impostor or a Prophet; they ‘could not answer a word’ to a most obvious question as to the

Messianic hope which they put forward as the very centre of their religion ! Comp. Luke 14:6.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 44. - David therefore calleth him Lord, how is he then his Son? That Jesus was the acknowledged descendant of David during his earthly ministry, is indisputable; we need but refer to the cries of the populace on Palm Sunday, the words of the woman of Canaan, of blind Bartimaeus, and others. History bears its witness to the same fact. The Emperor Domitian, it is well known, summoned the kinsmen of Jesus, the sons of Jude, his so-called brother, to Rome as "the sons of David," Luke 20:44