What does Luke 20 verse 44 mean?

Answer 1

Luke 20 41And he said unto them, How say they that Christ is David's son? 42And David himself saith in the book of Psalms, [Jesus here quoted Psalm 110] The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, 43 Till I make thine enemies thy footstool. 44 David therefore calleth him Lord, how is he then his son? In talking to the scribes of the Sadducee sect, Jesus asked the rhetorical question, "How say they that Christ is David's son?" He then asked, "David therefore calleth him Lord, how is he then his son [ descendant]?

In the context of the previous section, where the Sadducees were trying to trap Jesus with a question they thought he could not answer, He then asked them a difficult question, which they could not answer without understanding The Bible. Christ is paradoxically, a descendant of King David ( his 'son'), and His Lord, the Messiah. The Saduccees did not understand that.

It was at the time commonly believed that in "the LORD said unto my Lord" "my Lord" referred to the expected Messiah. The Messiah was to be a descendant of David, as well as his God.

Answer 2

In Luke 20:44, Jesus is referencing Psalm 110:1 which speaks of the Messiah being exalted by God to His right hand. Jesus is asserting his divinity and authority as the Messiah, who is not only a descendant of David but also his Lord. This verse emphasizes Jesus' superiority over earthly kingship.

Answer 3

In talking to the scribes of the Sadducee sect, Jesus asked the rhetorical question, "How say they that Christ is David's son?" He then said that, if David, in Psalm 110, called Christ 'Lord', then he could not be his son (or descendant).

We do not really know who the 'Lord' (or Lords) was that Psalm 110 referred to, but this was an opportunity for Luke to tell his audience that the 'Lord' referred to Jesus. The Hebrew word translated here as 'my Lord' is Adonai, the plural form of Adoni. Just as the plural form of Eloh, which is Elohim, usually refers to God but can, depending on context and grammar, refer to gods (in the plural), so Adonai should either refer to God or ('Lords') in the plural. Wikipedia explains that many modern critical scholars see Adonai as a remnant of a polytheist past and that the meaning of the word only later came to refer to The One God.

Judaic tradition says that Psalm 110 was written by King David. This was long before there were any Messianic expectations in Judaism.