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Wednesday, December 30, 2020

Who is the Son of God in Psalm 2?

PROF. MARC ZVI BRETTLER, PROF. AMY-JILL LEVINE: Psalm 2: Is the Messiah the Son of God? (TheTorah.com).
YHWH declares to the Davidic king, “You are my son; today I have begotten you” (Psalm 2:7). For the New Testament, this verse is a prooftext for Jesus’s divinity, but what did it mean in its original context, and how did Jewish interpreters understand it?
This is an excellent, comprehensive review of the history of interpretation.

I have one small criticism. Isaiah 42:14 is not a good example of metaphorical imagery. The image of a woman in labor is a simile, not a metaphor. But the point is valid. A better example would be Psalm 91:4:

he will cover you with his pinions,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness is a shield and buckler. (RSV)
The language is metaphorical. The writer was not saying that God had wings.

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