The King Arrives

Restoring the Foundations · Article 8 of 14

Jesus of Nazareth is the son of David the prophets promised, conceived by the Holy Spirit in Mary, anointed by God, and sent to announce God’s Kingdom to Israel. Gabriel told Mary, “The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever.” (Luke 1:32-33).

Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB), current eBible.org edition, checked word for word. The WEB prints God’s name as Yahweh. Notes on the Hebrew and Greek are at the end.

A Fair Question

The last article closed with the prophets waiting. Israel was back in the land but called itself “servants” in it (Nehemiah 9:36), and no son of David sat on a throne. Then the New Testament opens with this: “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” (Matthew 1:1).

Matthew starts with David and Abraham, the two men God made promises to, and he arranges the family tree around the exile: “from David to the exile to Babylon fourteen generations; and from the carrying away to Babylon to the Christ, fourteen generations.” (Matthew 1:17).

So here is the question for this article: Who is this son of David, and what kingdom did he announce?

Part 1: Who He Is, in the Text’s Own Words

Son of David, son of Abraham

Paul writes of God’s “Son, who was born of the offspring of David according to the flesh” (Romans 1:3), and tells Timothy, “Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, of the offspring of David” (2 Timothy 2:8). The crowds knew the Scripture: “Hasn’t the Scripture said that the Christ comes of the offspring of David, and from Bethlehem, the village where David was?” (John 7:42). Joseph went to Bethlehem “because he was of the house and family of David” (Luke 2:4). When the wise men came, the scribes answered from Micah: “for out of you shall come a governor who shall shepherd my people, Israel.” (Matthew 2:6).

All of this is explicit. The Messiah is David’s descendant, born in David’s town, to shepherd David’s people.

Born of a woman, conceived by the Holy Spirit

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was like this: After his mother, Mary, was engaged to Joseph, before they came together, she was found pregnant by the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18)

The angel told Joseph, “that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 1:20). Luke tells it from Mary’s side. Gabriel says, “Behold, you will conceive in your womb and give birth to a son” (Luke 1:31). Mary asks, “How can this be, seeing I am a virgin?” (Luke 1:34). The answer:

The angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore also the holy one who is born from you will be called the Son of God. (Luke 1:35)

Look closely at the word “Therefore” (Luke 1:35). Luke gives the reason this child will be called God’s Son: the Holy Spirit coming on Mary, the power of the Most High overshadowing her. The title is tied to the conception. Paul puts it simply: “God sent out his Son, born to a woman, born under the law” (Galatians 4:4).

That Luke grounds the title in the conception is explicit. That the Son therefore began at his conception is our conclusion, and the full case, including John 1 and John 17:5, belongs to the tenth article.

Heir to David’s throne, over named people

He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. There will be no end to his Kingdom.” (Luke 1:32-33)

Every element of God’s oath to David is here: a son, David’s throne, a kingdom without end. The people are named, “the house of Jacob” (Luke 1:33). When that reign begins, now or at his return, the tenth and thirteenth articles take up. Here we keep only what Gabriel promised.

A real man who grew

“The child was growing, and was becoming strong in spirit, being filled with wisdom” (Luke 2:40). “Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.” (Luke 2:52). He was “in all points tempted like we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15). Peter called him “Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved by God to you by mighty works and wonders and signs which God did by him among you” (Acts 2:22). Paul: “there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). God did the works “by him” (Acts 2:22). All of this is explicit.

Part 2: Anointed

What “Christ” means

“Christ” is not a surname. Andrew told his brother, “We have found the Messiah!” and John adds, “(which is, being interpreted, Christ).” (John 1:41). Both words mean anointed one. In Israel, kings were anointed. David would not harm Saul, “since he is Yahweh’s anointed.” (1 Samuel 24:6). Psalm 2 speaks of rulers who stand “against Yahweh, and against his Anointed” (Psalm 2:2). To call Jesus “The Christ of God.” (Luke 9:20), as Peter did, is to call him God’s anointed king.

The Jordan

Jesus, when he was baptized, went up directly from the water: and behold, the heavens were opened to him. He saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming on him. Behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:16-17)

The voice echoes the royal psalm, “You are my son. Today I have become your father.” (Psalm 2:7), and Isaiah’s servant, “my chosen, in whom my soul delights: I have put my Spirit on him.” (Isaiah 42:1). Matthew cites neither, so these are canonical connections by shared wording. The pattern is clear: the king is named God’s son, and God’s Spirit is put on him.

Nazareth

Jesus “returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee” (Luke 4:14). In his hometown synagogue he read from Isaiah:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim release to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, to deliver those who are crushed, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” (Luke 4:18-19)

Then he said, “Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:21). That is a canonical connection by quotation, made by Jesus himself. He stopped before Isaiah’s next words, “the day of vengeance of our God” (Isaiah 61:2). Luke records the stopping point without explaining it. That the day of vengeance waits for a later time is our conclusion.

Peter summed up the whole ministry: “how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.” (Acts 10:38). God anointed him; God was with him. That is explicit.

Part 3: The Kingdom He Announced

The message

Mark gives Jesus’ first preaching: “The time is fulfilled, and God’s Kingdom is at hand! Repent, and believe in the Good News.” (Mark 1:15). Matthew gives the same moment: “Repent! For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17). Matthew usually says “Kingdom of Heaven” where Mark and Luke say “God’s Kingdom”, and he uses both in one breath (Matthew 19:23-24). They are one kingdom. “Of Heaven” tells us whose it is and where it comes from, not that it is located in the sky.

To whom first

Sending the twelve, Jesus said, “Don’t go among the Gentiles, and don’t enter into any city of the Samaritans. Rather, go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Matthew 10:5-6). To a Canaanite woman he said, “I wasn’t sent to anyone but the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Matthew 15:24). The order is explicit: the King came first to his own people, as the covenants promised.

What the Kingdom is, in his words

Put his sayings side by side:

• It involves the earth: “Let your Kingdom come. Let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10).
• Its heirs receive the earth: “Blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.” (Matthew 5:5). It echoes “the humble shall inherit the land” (Psalm 37:11), a canonical connection by shared wording; the Hebrew for land also means earth.
• The patriarchs are there: “many will come from the east and the west, and will sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 8:11).
• Israel’s tribes are there: “in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on the throne of his glory, you also will sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” (Matthew 19:28; compare Luke 22:30).
• It is still to come in full: “I will not drink at all again from the fruit of the vine, until God’s Kingdom comes.” (Luke 22:18).

Jesus told one parable “because he was near Jerusalem, and they supposed that God’s Kingdom would be revealed immediately.” (Luke 19:11). “A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return.” (Luke 19:12). He came “back again, having received the kingdom” (Luke 19:15). The king goes away, receives the kingdom, and comes back.

After the resurrection Jesus spent forty days “speaking about God’s Kingdom.” (Acts 1:3). Then the disciples asked, “Lord, are you now restoring the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). He answered, “It isn’t for you to know times or seasons which the Father has set within his own authority.” (Acts 1:7). Forty days of Kingdom teaching had not taught them to stop expecting a kingdom for Israel. As the last article said, he corrected their timing, not their hope; that is our conclusion.

The prophets behind his words

Daniel had promised that “the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed” (Daniel 2:44), and saw “one like a son of man” to whom “Dominion was given him, and glory, and a kingdom” (Daniel 7:13-14). Jesus’ name for himself, “the Son of Man”, and his words to the high priest, “you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of the sky.” (Matthew 26:64), draw on that vision, a canonical connection by shared wording.

Part 4: Signs of the Kingdom

From prison, John the Baptizer sent to ask, “Are you he who comes, or should we look for another?” (Matthew 11:3). Jesus answered with works:

“Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. (Matthew 11:4-5)

Isaiah had said that when God comes to save, “the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame man will leap like a deer” (Isaiah 35:5-6). That Jesus was pointing John to it is a canonical connection by shared wording.

Jesus also said, “But if I by the Spirit of God cast out demons, then God’s Kingdom has come upon you.” (Matthew 12:28). Yet he taught his disciples to pray “Let your Kingdom come.” (Matthew 6:10). Both are explicit; Scripture holds them together without explaining how. Our conclusion is that the Kingdom was present in the King and his works, while the Kingdom itself, with the throne, the tribes, and the inherited earth, was still ahead.

The people who needed healing knew what to call him: “Have mercy on us, son of David!” (Matthew 9:27). A Canaanite woman: “Have mercy on me, Lord, you son of David!” (Matthew 15:22). Then he rode into Jerusalem, and Matthew quotes Zechariah: “Tell the daughter of Zion, behold, your King comes to you, humble, and riding on a donkey” (Matthew 21:5). The crowds shouted, “Hosanna to the son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” (Matthew 21:9), and in Mark they name the kingdom: “Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is coming in the name of the Lord!” (Mark 11:10). The Gospels record this without correcting it.

Part 5: Hard Questions

“Isaiah 9:6 calls him Mighty God and Everlasting Father”

For a child is born to us. A son is given to us; and the government will be on his shoulders. His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)

This is one of the texts most often cited for the Trinitarian reading. The Hebrew behind “Mighty God” (Isaiah 9:6) is the same phrase Isaiah uses a chapter later of Israel’s God: “the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.” (Isaiah 10:21), and elsewhere God is “the great God, the mighty” (Deuteronomy 10:17). Read plainly, the argument goes, the child is God.

Now read the whole sentence. These are what “His name will be called” (Isaiah 9:6). Hebrew names often say something about God rather than about the one who carries them. Jeremiah gives the coming Branch of David the name “Yahweh our righteousness.” (Jeremiah 23:6), and later gives Jerusalem the same name: “This is the name by which she will be called: Yahweh our righteousness.” (Jeremiah 33:16). No one thinks the city is Yahweh. Scripture can also give the title God to a human representative without making him Yahweh: “Behold, I have made you as God to Pharaoh” (Exodus 7:1). And “Everlasting Father” fits poorly with the Trinitarian reading too, which holds that the Son is not the Father.

The next verse says who acts: the child reigns “on David’s throne” and “The zeal of Yahweh of Armies will perform this.” (Isaiah 9:7). Our conclusion, with Isaiah 10:21 in view, where the same words are used of Yahweh: Isaiah 9:6 gives David’s heir a throne name that proclaims what God will do through him; it does not say the child is Yahweh.

“Immanuel means God with us, so he is God”

“Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall give birth to a son. They shall call his name Immanuel,” which is, being interpreted, “God with us.” (Matthew 1:23)

The argument: if his name means “God with us” (Matthew 1:23), he is God with us in person. But Isaiah’s sign was first given to King Ahaz: “before the child knows to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you abhor shall be forsaken.” (Isaiah 7:16). It meant something in Ahaz’s lifetime, and Isaiah 8:10 ends, “for God is with us.” (Isaiah 8:10). Matthew sees a fuller fulfillment in Jesus, a canonical connection by quotation. And Joseph named the boy “Jesus” (Matthew 1:25), so Immanuel works like the names in Isaiah 9:6, a name that declares something.

When Jesus raised a widow’s son, the crowd said, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and, “God has visited his people!” (Luke 7:16). Our conclusion, which the context supports: Immanuel means God present with his people through his Messiah.

“Who can forgive sins but God alone?”

The scribes asked it: “Why does this man speak blasphemies like that? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Mark 2:7). Jesus answered their question: “the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” (Mark 2:10). Authority is given. Matthew records how the crowd understood it: “they marveled and glorified God, who had given such authority to men.” (Matthew 9:8). Jesus said God “gave him authority to execute judgment, because he is a son of man.” (John 5:27), and he told his disciples, “If you forgive anyone’s sins, they have been forgiven them.” (John 20:23). That God gave this authority to a man is explicit.

“How can David’s son be his Lord?”

Jesus asked: “Therefore David himself calls him Lord, so how can he be his son?” (Mark 12:37). Some read it to mean the Messiah existed before David, or is God. Psalm 110:1 reads, “Yahweh says to my Lord” (Psalm 110:1). In Hebrew the first is God’s name, and the second is the word for my lord used of human superiors, the word David used of Saul in 1 Samuel 24:6 (see the Notes). So the question is how David’s descendant can outrank David. Peter answered it after the resurrection: “God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” (Acts 2:36). The tenth article makes that case in full.

“My Kingdom is not of this world”

Jesus answered, “My Kingdom is not of this world. If my Kingdom were of this world, then my servants would fight, that I wouldn’t be delivered to the Jews. But now my Kingdom is not from here.” (John 18:36)

Many read this as a heavenly or inward kingdom only. But Jesus says where his Kingdom comes from and how it works (his servants do not fight), not where it will be. He used the same words of the disciples: “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” (John 17:16). They stayed on the earth. Next he accepted that he is a king: “You say that I am a king.” (John 18:37). Our conclusion: the Kingdom is not from this world, but it is for this world.

“The Kingdom is within you”

Being asked by the Pharisees when God’s Kingdom would come, he answered them, “God’s Kingdom doesn’t come with observation; neither will they say, ‘Look, here!’ or, ‘Look, there!’ for behold, God’s Kingdom is within you.” (Luke 17:20-21)

Many read this as an inward kingdom. But Jesus is answering Pharisees who asked when it would come, and the Greek can mean within you or among you (see the Notes). Two chapters later he tells the nobleman parable because people thought the Kingdom “would be revealed immediately” (Luke 19:11), and later he says, “when you see these things happening, know that God’s Kingdom is near.” (Luke 21:31). Our conclusion: the Kingdom was in their midst in the person of the King, and it will appear openly later.

“The Kingdom came invisibly in 1914, and Jesus is Michael”

Many of us were taught both: that Christ began ruling invisibly in heaven in 1914, and that he is “Michael, the archangel” (Jude 1:9), partly because the Lord descends “with the voice of the archangel” (1 Thessalonians 4:16), and Michael is “the great prince who stands for the children of your people” (Daniel 12:1) who leads “Michael and his angels” (Revelation 12:7).

On the first, Jesus warned against an unseen coming: “If therefore they tell you, ‘Behold, he is in the wilderness,’ don’t go out; or ‘Behold, he is in the inner rooms,’ don’t believe it. For as the lightning flashes from the east, and is seen even to the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.” (Matthew 24:26-27). Witnesses render the word for coming as presence; even so, Jesus compares it to lightning that “is seen” (Matthew 24:27). The nobleman receives the kingdom and comes back (Luke 19:12, 15). And “It isn’t for you to know times or seasons” (Acts 1:7). The seventh article showed that the 1914 chronology rests on links the text does not make.

On the second, 1 Thessalonians 4:16 says the Lord comes with an archangel’s voice, not that he is one, and Daniel calls Michael “one of the chief princes” (Daniel 10:13), one among several. Hebrews asks, “For to which of the angels did he say at any time, ‘You are my Son’” (Hebrews 1:5), and says “he doesn’t give help to angels, but he gives help to the offspring of Abraham.” (Hebrews 2:16). The birth texts describe a son conceived in a woman (Luke 1:31, 35), not an angel taking on flesh. No verse names Jesus Michael; that he is not Michael is our conclusion.

“They worshiped him”

The magi “fell down and worshiped him” (Matthew 2:11). In the boat the disciples “worshiped him, saying, “You are truly the Son of God!”” (Matthew 14:33). The women “took hold of his feet, and worshiped him.” (Matthew 28:9). Jesus himself said, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and you shall serve him only.” (Matthew 4:10), so many read these scenes as worship due only to God. The Greek verb in all three is proskyneo, to bow down or pay homage. Jesus uses the same verb when he promises the church in Philadelphia that its opponents will “come and worship before your feet” (Revelation 3:9), and Israel “prostrated themselves before Yahweh and the king.” (1 Chronicles 29:20). An angel refuses such bowing because he is a “fellow bondservant” (Revelation 22:9); Jesus is the king, and Israel bowed to Yahweh’s king beside Yahweh (1 Chronicles 29:20). Our conclusion: Matthew shows homage to the king God sent, with the confession that he is “the Son of God” (Matthew 14:33).

A note on Coniah

The last two articles left this verse unreconciled: of King Coniah, “no more will a man of his offspring prosper, sitting on David’s throne and ruling in Judah.” (Jeremiah 22:30). Matthew’s genealogy runs through him: “After the exile to Babylon, Jechoniah became the father of Shealtiel.” (Matthew 1:12). Luke’s runs through “Nathan, the son of David” (Luke 3:31).

What the texts say: Matthew says Jesus was born from Mary, with a feminine pronoun (see the Notes): “Joseph, the husband of Mary, from whom was born Jesus” (Matthew 1:16). Luke calls Jesus “the son (as was supposed) of Joseph” (Luke 3:23). And Haggai tells Coniah’s grandson, “I will take you, Zerubbabel my servant, the son of Shealtiel... and will make you like a signet ring” (Haggai 2:23), the image Jeremiah used when God plucked off Coniah (Jeremiah 22:24). Our conclusion: Jesus holds the throne because “The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David” (Luke 1:32); he is counted in Joseph’s royal line, “the son (as was supposed) of Joseph” (Luke 3:23), yet Matthew does not make him Coniah’s descendant in the flesh, and Haggai shows God himself choosing Coniah’s grandson as his signet. Luke’s line also names “Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the son of Neri” (Luke 3:27), so there Shealtiel is Neri’s son, not Jechoniah’s. Scripture does not say more about how the two genealogies relate.

Where We Stand

What Scripture says explicitly: Jesus is the son of David and of Abraham, born in David’s town (Matthew 1:1; Romans 1:3; Luke 2:4). He was conceived by the Holy Spirit in Mary, a virgin, and “Therefore” called the Son of God (Matthew 1:18; Luke 1:34-35). God will give him David’s throne over the house of Jacob (Luke 1:32-33). He grew in wisdom, was tempted, and is “the man Christ Jesus” (Luke 2:52; Hebrews 4:15; 1 Timothy 2:5). God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and power (Acts 10:38). He announced God’s Kingdom, first to Israel (Mark 1:15; Matthew 10:5-7), spoke of the earth inherited, the patriarchs present, and twelve thrones over Israel’s tribes (Matthew 5:5; 8:11; 19:28), and said the Kingdom had come upon them in his works (Matthew 12:28). Asked about restoring the kingdom to Israel, he withheld only the timing (Acts 1:6-7).

Canonical connections: The Jordan voice echoes Psalm 2:7 and Isaiah 42:1. Jesus reads Isaiah 61 as fulfilled (Luke 4:21). His sayings draw on Psalm 37:11, Isaiah 35:5-6, and Daniel 7:13-14. Matthew quotes Isaiah 7:14 and Zechariah 9:9.

Our conclusions: The Son began at his conception (Article 10 makes the case). The Kingdom was present in the King and his works and is still ahead in full. Jesus corrected the disciples’ timing, not their hope. Isaiah 9:6 is a throne name, not an identity statement (our conclusion; see The Hard Texts, Article 3). The Kingdom is not from this world but for it. Jesus is not Michael. Luke 17:21 means the Kingdom was in their midst. The day of vengeance waits. Immanuel means God present through his Messiah (our conclusion). On Coniah, God gives Jesus David’s throne (Luke 1:32), counted in Joseph’s line (Luke 3:23), and not Coniah’s offspring in the flesh.

What Scripture does not say: It does not say the Kingdom is only inward or only in heaven. It does not say the house of Jacob means another people. It does not say Jesus came invisibly, or date the Kingdom. It does not call Jesus an angel. It does not say “Mighty God” or “Immanuel” makes the child Yahweh. And it does not explain how the two genealogies fit together.

What This Means for Us

So, who is this son of David, and what kingdom did he announce? He is Jesus of Nazareth, a real man from David’s line, conceived by the Holy Spirit, named God’s Son, anointed by God, and approved by God through the works God did by him. The Kingdom he announced is the one the prophets promised: God’s rule over the earth, with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the table, Israel’s tribes judged, and David’s throne filled forever.

His first message still asks something of every reader: “The time is fulfilled, and God’s Kingdom is at hand! Repent, and believe in the Good News.” (Mark 1:15). The apostles spelled out that response: repent, believe, confess him as Lord, be baptized in his name, and walk by God’s Spirit. The eleventh article takes that up.

For Study

Questions

1. What two names open Matthew’s Gospel, and why do they matter?
2. What reason does Luke 1:35 give for calling Jesus the Son of God?
3. What do Matthew 5:5, 8:11, and 19:28 say about the Kingdom?
4. What did the disciples ask in Acts 1:6, and how did Jesus answer?

Verify it yourself

• Luke 1:26-38: Gabriel’s announcement. Underline “Therefore.”
• Luke 4:16-21 with Isaiah 61:1-2: note where Jesus stopped reading.
• Luke 19:11-27: the nobleman who receives a kingdom and returns.

Notes on the Text

Where the Hebrew or Greek bears on the argument (WEB verse numbers):

• John 1:41: Messias (from Hebrew mashiach) and Christos both mean anointed one. Mashiach is the word in 1 Samuel 24:6 and Psalm 2:2.
• Luke 1:35: Therefore also renders dio kai, which introduces a consequence.
• Matthew 1:16: from whom renders ex hes, a feminine singular pronoun. It refers to Mary, not Joseph.
• Matthew 24:27: coming is parousia, which can mean presence or arrival.
• Matthew 4:17; 19:23-24: Matthew’s phrase is literally kingdom of the heavens (basileia ton ouranon); Mark 1:15 has basileia tou theou, kingdom of God.
• Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23: Isaiah’s Hebrew is almah, a young woman of marriageable age; Matthew’s Greek is parthenos, virgin, the word the old Greek translation of Isaiah also used. Matthew states Mary’s virginity in his own narrative (Matthew 1:18, 25).
• Matthew 2:11; 14:33; 28:9; Revelation 3:9: prosekynesan / proskynesousin, from proskyneo (SBLGNT).
• Isaiah 9:6 (Hebrew 9:5): Mighty God is el gibbor, as in Isaiah 10:21. The plural of the same two words, ele gibborim, describes fallen warriors in Sheol: “The strong among the mighty” (Ezekiel 32:21). So el alone does not settle the question. The verb phrase, literally and he calls his name, is the ordinary naming expression. In Exodus 7:1 the word is elohim, not el; the point there is the title, not the form.
• Psalm 110:1: the first title is God’s name, YHWH. The second is adoni, my lord, the form used of human superiors and of Saul in 1 Samuel 24:6. The form reserved for God is Adonai. In the Hebrew consonants they are spelled alike (אדני); they differ only in vowel marks (compare Psalm 110:1 and 110:5). Mark 12:36 and Acts 2:34 use Greek kyrios for both.
• Luke 17:21: entos hymon, with plural you. Entos means inside (Matthew 23:26, the inside of the cup) and can also mean among, in the midst of. Translations differ.
• John 18:36; 17:16: of this world and of the world render ek tou kosmou, with ek meaning out of, from. From here is enteuthen.

Looking Ahead

The crowds shouted “Hosanna to the son of David!” (Matthew 21:9). Within a week the charge over his head read, “THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS.” (Matthew 27:37). Two disciples walking home afterward said what many felt: “But we were hoping that it was he who would redeem Israel.” (Luke 24:21). The next article, The Cross, asks: Why did the promised King die, and what did his death accomplish?

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© 2026 Elvis Lucas, Open the Text. Original: https://openthetext.com/series/restoring-the-foundations/08-the-king-arrives/
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