Mark 12:35

And Jesus answered and said, while he taught in the temple, How say the scribes that Christ is the Son of David?

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(35) While he taught in the temple.—The locality is named by St. Mark only, but it is all but implied in the other two Gospels.

Benson Commentary

Mark 12:35-37. See the note on Matthew 22:41-46, where this paragraph is explained. And the common people heard him gladly — They heard him with great attention and pleasure; for the clear and solid answers which he returned to the insnaring questions of his foes, gave them a high opinion of his wisdom, and showed them how far he was superior to their most renowned rabbis; whose arguments to prove their opinions, and answers to the objections that were raised against them, were, generally speaking, but mean and trifling in comparison of his. Besides, the common people were neither so much prejudiced in behalf of the commonly received opinions, nor so much interested, as the scribes or other teachers.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

12:35-40 When we attend to what the Scriptures declare, as to the person and offices of Christ, we shall be led to confess him as our Lord and God; to obey him as our exalted Redeemer. If the common people hear these things gladly, while the learned and distinguished oppose, the former are happy, and the latter to be pitied. And as sin, disguised with a show of piety, is double iniquity, so its doom will be doubly heavy.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

See the notes at Matthew 22:41-46.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

35. And Jesus answered and said, while he taught in the temple—and "while the Pharisees were gathered together" (Mt 22:41).

How say the scribes that Christ is the son of David?—How come they to give it out that Messiah is to be the son of David? In Matthew (Mt 22:42), Jesus asks them, "What think ye of Christ?" or of the promised and expected Messiah? "Whose son is He [to be]? They say unto Him, The son of David." The sense is the same. "He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call Him Lord?" (Mt 22:42, 43).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Ver. 35-37. See Poole on "Matthew 22:41", and following verses to Matthew 22:46. Matthew saith that Christ spake this to the Pharisees, who were very far from acknowledging Christ God man, or indeed expecting a Messiah that should be so. Had they owned Christ, and the hypostatical union of the two natures in him, the answer had been easy.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And Jesus answered and said,.... To the Pharisees that were gathered together about him; See Gill on Matthew 22:41.

While he taught in the temple; Whilst he was in the temple, and as he was teaching the people there; among other things in his doctrine, he put this question,

how say the Scribes, that Christ is the son of David? Not that Christ meant to deny or invalidate the truth of this; for the Messiah was certainly to be the son of David, and was; but he wanted to know, inasmuch as they commonly said, and instructed the people to believe, and it was in general believed by them, that he was David's son, how they could reconcile this to his being the Lord of David: or how they could give out, that he was only and merely the Son of David, when he was David's Lord. Matthew relates the matter thus; that Christ first put these questions to them, what they thought of the Messiah, and whose son he was; and that they immediately replied, he was the son of David: wherefore this question seems to be put upon that, with another along with it,

how then doth David in spirit call him Lord? See Gill on Matthew 22:42, Matthew 22:43.

Geneva Study Bible

{5} And Jesus answered and said, while he taught in the temple, How say the scribes that Christ is the Son of David?

(5) Christ proves his Godhead even out of David himself, from whom he came according to the flesh.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Mark 12:35-37. See on Matthew 22:41-46. Comp. Luke 20:41-44.

Mark is distinguished from Matthew in this respect, that the latter represents Jesus as laying the theological problem before the assembled Pharisees, and then relates that they were thereby brought to silence, so that they put no further questions to Him; whereas Mark relates that the conversation as to the most important commandment had had this result, and thereafter Jesus had thrown out before the people, while He was teaching (Mark 12:37; Mark 12:35), the question respecting the Son of David.

ἀποκριθείς] The following question to the people is a reply—publicly exposing the theological helplessness of the scribes—to the silence, to which they had just seen themselves reduced by the very fact that one of their number had even given his entire approval to Jesus. The scribes are still present. But it is not to themselves that Jesus puts His question; He utters it before the people, but in express reference to the γραμματεῖς. They may therefore give information also before the people, if they can. If they cannot, they stand there the more completely vanquished and put to shame. And they cannot, because to them the divine lineage of the Messiah, in virtue of which as David’s descendant He is yet David’s Lord, remained veiled and unperceived;—we may conceive after πόθεν υἱὸς αὐτοῦ ἐστιν the pause of this silence and this confusion. So peculiar is this whole position of the matter in Mark, that it appears to be (in opposition to Hilgenfeld and Baur) original.

πῶς] how then? “Quomodo consistere potest, quod dicunt,” Grotius.

The twofold emphatic αὐτὸς Δαυ. places the declaration of David himself in contrast to the point held by the scribes.

καὶ πόθεν] breaking in with surprise. Comp. Luke 1:43. πόθεν is the causal unde: whence comes it that.[152] Comp. Plat. Phaedr. p. 269 D.; Dem. 241, 17; Wolf, ad Lept. p. 238.

ὁ πολὺς ὄχλ.] the multitude of people, which was present.

ἢκουεν αὐτοῦ ἡδέως] a triumph over those put to silence.

[152] In opposition to the whole N. T., the question is, according to Schenkel (comp. Strauss), intended to exhibit the Davidic descent of the Messiah as a phantom. This descent in fact forms of necessity the presupposition of the words καὶ πόθεν κ.τ.λ., the concessum on the part of Jesus Himself. And it is the postulate of the whole of the N. T. Christology, from Matthew 1:1 to Revelation 22:16. Comp., moreover, the appropriate remarks of Beyschlag, Christol. d. N. T. p. 61 f. But the pre-existence of Jesus, which certainly must have been in His consciousness when He asked the question, is not expressed (in some such way as in John 8:58), nor is the recognition of it claimed for the Psalmist by ἐν πνεύματι. The latter merely asserts that David, as a prophet, designated his Son as his Lord.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Mark 12:35-37. David’s Son and David’s Lord (Matthew 22:41-46, Luke 20:41-44). On the aim and import of this counter-question vide notes on Mt.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

35–37. Our Lord’s Counter-Question

35. And Jesus answered and said] He seemed to have turned to a number of the Pharisees (Matthew 22:41) who had collected together, to converse probably over the day’s discomfiture. The great counter-question is brought forward by St Matthew in all its historic importance as the decisive concluding interrogation addressed to the Pharisees. St Mark points out by the words “Jesus answered” that the statement contained a reply to some question already put.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 35. - Our Lord was now in the temple, and he took the opportunity for instructing the scribes and Pharisees concerning his person and his dignity. Thus, as ever, he returned good for evil. He here taught them that the Messiah was not a mere man, as they supposed, but that he was i both God and man, and that therefore they ought not to wonder or to be offended because he called himself the Son of God. St. Matthew (Matthew 22:42) more fully gives their answer first, namely, that "Christ is the Son of David." They should have said that, as God, he was the Son of God, according to those words, "Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee;" but that, as man, he was the Son of David. Their answer was very different from that of Peter: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." But they wanted the Divine knowledge which the disciples had gained. Mark 12:35