Shalom. Some interpreters assert that Psalm 110:4 is
not Messianic in nature (contrary to many rabbinic interpretations), but simply
a statement being made to David. These interpreters assert that the word 'cohen' does not mean 'priest'
in this instance, and merely a man of authority. I have never heard the word cohen
being used in this simple a manner. Also, they state that the words 'al
dibrati Malki-tzedek' simply means 'upon my word, my righteous king'.
I thought 'Malki-tzedek' meant 'my king is righteous', but I
cannot remember the grammatical pattern for an adjective modifying a declined
noun. In other words, they are stating the verse literally means "You
will be a man of authority forever, upon my word my righteous king",
and that Christians and Messianic Jews, by applying it to the Messiah are
misguided at best, and deliberately deceptive at worst. Do you have any
thoughts?
Response
I had not heard about this before,
but I must say that the argument would be more compelling to someone who is either
not familiar with this psalm or does not know more than a few words of Hebrew.
To
begin with, the superscription reads לדוד מזמור. Syntactically, this could mean 'a song for
David'; however, similar superscripts occur in 96 out of 150 psalms (by
rough quick count) to attribute authorship.
It is highly unlikely that this type of construction has a different meaning in just this
one case. If one accepts this interpretation for the superscription, then the first three words of
the psalm נאם יהוה לאדני indicate that the entire text is written about
someone superior to David. The person
addressed as 'adoni' could not be David himself, Solomon, nor any of the
subsequent descendants that we know about from Kings and Chronicles. If the psalm does not address any of the
historical descendants that we know about, then who does it address? The second choice is to either reject the
superscription or start doctoring the text.
If one starts doctoring the text, then one can make it mean anything one
wants. This is eisegesis, the opposite
of exegesis.
כהן
According
to the standard lexicons, this root is widely attested within the Semitic
language family as a noun; the root also forms a denominative verb (piel stem
only in Hebrew) meaning to function as a cohen. In all of these languages, the root
designates a person who is a leader in the society but not just a civil leader. Depending on the culture and the time frame,
such a person might have a sacrificial-cultic role or an oracular-cultic role,
but it was always a leadership role within the cultus. In the Hebrew bible, the three dominate
leadership roles were prophet, priest, and king. Occasionally, but not often, one person might
function in two of these roles. Moses
functioned in all three, but I do not think that can be said of any other
historical figure in ancient Israel. However, if Messiah is to be a prophet like
Moses, then he must also function as prophet, priest, and king. In addition, there are two passages that need
to be addressed in this regard:
2 Sam
6:14 David was dressed in an ephod as
he danced before the ark when it was being brought into Jerusalem. Properly, the ephod was a garment that was to
be worn only by priests as they approached God's presence. At very least, David here recognized his role
as being beyond that of just king. Since
he took over the Jebusite town, they may have retained the tradition of
priest-kings dating back to the time of Abraham nearly 1000 years before. David was anointed, he was king, and the New Testament writings assert that his psalms were prophetic; but there is no record that he ever functioned in the cultus as a priest.
2 Sam
8:18 The NASB translates the second
half of the verse as … and David's sons were chief ministers. The the Hebrew text is ובני דוד כהנים היו – and David's sons were (became) priests. The term cohen occurs 750 times in the
Hebrew bible, and I believe this is the only place that the English translation
renders it as 'chief minister'. According to BDB, the term cohen never
takes the meaning chief minister, but the use in 2 Sam 8:18 is not
listed in the article for this word. The
evidence from ancient translations is mixed.
The LXX and the Peshitta both use a term that could be translated chief
minister, but the Vulgate has the Latin term for priest. Nevertheless, I have found no evidence that
the term cohen was ever actually used in antiquity for any other meaning than that of a priest.
על דברתי מלכי-צדק
First,
divrati is a feminine singular noun (divrah) meaning 'cause,
manner, reason' according to BDB p 184.
The suffix is understood as the archaic genitive case ending that
continued to be preserved in Ugaritic and Ethiopic as well as in Arabic. Nominative, genative, and accusative case endings continue to be used in both Ethiopic and Arabic to this day.
In contrast, davar is a masculine noun, so the meaning 'according
to my word' is not a possible translation.
Second,
the combination מלכי-צדק occurs just twice in the Hebrew bible –
Gen 14:18 and here – and clearly it is intended to be understood as either a
name or a title. Again the suffix should
be understood as the archaic genitive case ending. The meaning of the name is then correctly King-of-righteousness
as translated in the book of Hebrews. Ztedek
is a noun, not an adjective, so the translation 'my righteous king' is
not possible. The intent of the psalm is
clearly to refer to the priest-king that met Abraham in Genesis. There is no other reference to him in the
Hebrew bible, but he is mentioned with some frequency in some of the Qumran
literature. (See Israel's Messiah in the Bible and the Dead Sea
Scrolls - Richard S. Hess, M. Daniel Carroll R. – 2003.)
Conclusion
I think that
the linguistic considerations above are sufficient to dismiss the anti-messianic claim made about this particular psalm. In
addition, the content of the psalm goes beyond anything experienced by David or
any of the historic Davidic kings – it also goes beyond what has
occurred in the case of Yeshua during his life in the first century CE. The day for his return may be close, but it
still remains future. When that occurs,
we can expect that the details of the psalm will be lived out.
