Psalms 110:1 - A Classic Case of Traditional Error in Christian Teaching

Matthew 22:42-46 records the following exchange between Yeshua and some Pharisees with whom he was in conversation.

Many Christians do not realize Yeshua is here referring to the Psalms 110:1 passage in the Tanakh (irreverently called the "Old" Testament within Christianity).

Psalms 110:1 is a verse of particular importance.  Yeshua used it as evidence he was superior to David and thus the ultimate Messiah.  Unfortunately, due to intentional mistranslation in Psalms from the original Hebrew, sincere Traditional Christians are often lead to an understanding of this crucial verse that is incorrect.

Psalms 110:1 is one of the most referenced verses of the Tanakh in the New Testament.  It is also an unambiguous proof passage that Yeshua (David's lord) is not the Eternal God. Below, I will quote this passage from Psalms with the Hebrew words shown in parentheses following the correct English translation, including the correct capitalization.

Psalms 110:1
¹ The LORD (YHWH) said unto my lord (Adon), Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.

As you can see, the Hebrew uses 2 entirely different words for "LORD" (YHWH) and "lord" (Adon).  Since few Christians ever devote time to reading the Holy Scripture Yeshua and all his followers used (Tanakh), they miss this entirely.  The term lord (Hebrew - Adon) is used numerous times to refer to men - not to the Creator God.  It is often used in reference to kings, captains, angels, husbands, a proprietor of a hill of Samaria, princes, governors, household superintendent, and basically anyone of superior rank. However, the term LORD (Hebrew - YHWH) is used exclusively for the One and Only Creator God.

How many of you ladies out there consider your husband God?  I suspect some of your husbands may sometimes try to act like God, but they will answer for that in due time.  If we followed the methods or translation used by Christians who promote the Trinity or other man-God doctrines Psalms 110:1, husbands could literally claim to be God since the word (Adon) that is sometimes used in Scripture to refer to a husband is often claimed by Christian man-god promoters to be referring to God. There are some who actually imply this verse reads, "YHWH said unto YHWH" and translate it as "LORD said to my LORD." That is not what it says!

Such butchery of Scripture is necessary for "proof" that Yeshua is YHWH; however, the actual Scripture (unedited by teachers of error) shows quite clear distinction between YHWH (LORD) and Adon (Yeshua Messiah).  Frankly, this one verse goes a long way to defeating the teachings of those that claim Yeshua is YHWH.  If Yeshua is YHWH the Hebrew would clearly show it, but it doesn't.  Instead it shows Yeshua to be the anointed One (Messiah) of YHWH - the "lord" of David as suggested in Messiah's conversation with the Pharisees.

Some basic and important points can be learned from this passage in Matthew.

1. Psalms 110:1 is one of the most frequently referenced Tanakh passages within the New Testament.
2. The frequency of its reference, even by Yeshua, proves it to truly be the pure Word of God since they (including Yeshua) considered it so.
3. The use of it in Matthew 22 shows the common and mistaken understanding of it within Judaism (even today) was that it applied to King David's son in such a way as to make that son inferior or equal to David, who was a Messiah (anointed), but not the Messiah.  Although Yeshua is a literal descendant of King David, he is not - as was and still is supposed within Judaism - inferior or equal to David.  Instead the Messiah is superior to David - David's Adon (lord), but not David's God (YHWH).
4. Some antisemites and anti-Hebraic individuals may present the ridiculous argument that the Hebrew used today for this verse is corrupt; however, the common understanding of the time, shown in the previous point, proves the Hebrew could not possibly have used the Hebrew term, YHWH, in both words.

The Pharisees with whom Messiah was speaking would have obviously known the Hebrew words being used and also known that the term YHWH is reserved uniquely and only for God. That would have implied David's physical descendant in the minds of Jews then and now was (is) YHWH, which was not even hinted at as a belief from the Hebrew reading they were obviously accepting as true.  Had that been the reading, they would not have considered David's descendant inferior or equal to him! So it is a sure fact that the Hebrew of Messiah's day for this verse is precisely the same as what we have today.

5. So, the usage of the verse proves the Hebrew just discussed to be irrefutably correct - that 2 separate Hebrew words were used - (YHWH) and (Adon).
6. Therefore, instead of this verse suggesting that Messiah is God as Trinitarians wish us to think, it actually suggests the exact opposite! This verse provides evidence that Yeshua is not God, since one of the two beings in this prophetic verse is YHWH, who is speaking to a separate being that is Messiah Yeshua!

Those claiming Yeshua is YHWH using this passage from Psalms cannot possibly do so unless they reject the verse's unambiguous meaning.  It is very clear that in this verse that the Messiah is shown to not be YHWH!  This is absolutely irrefutable unless an outrageously mystical argument is used in an attempt to completely destroy the clear implication of the Scripture.  Unfortunately, that is precisely the tactic taken by all those that cleave to mysticism and mystery for their alleged evidence that Yeshua is YHWH.  In order to find proof, they must either shred context, add additional mystical meanings to clear passages, play word games with Hebrew words such as echad and elohim, or base their shaky arguments on a very few passages that may support them yet have other interpretations which are just as applicable and require no "mystery" gyrations to prove so.

Many Bibles and most preachers totally miss the simple and concrete points shown above regarding Psalms 110:1.  One reason is the failure of translators to properly render the verse in the New Testament Greek and sometimes even intentionally false renderings by capitalizing the English translation of the second term (Adon) in Psalms as LORD or Lord, instead of lord.  It should properly be translated as "lord" without any capitalization.

Check your Bible.  Odds are it is rendered incorrectly in Psalms; however, it appears later translations are begrudgingly correcting this error.  Most have at least ceased capitalizing the entire second "lord" (LORD) in Ps 110:1 and are now simply capitalizing the first letter of the word (Lord).  However, even this is false since the Hebrew word for "Lord" with the "L" capitalized is Adonay, which is a completely different word used to refer the Lord God (Adonay Elohim).

Thus, with Psalms 110:1 it is possible to show proof-positive that historically there has been an intentional effort to mislead Christians into accepting Yeshua as YHWH through biased and blatantly false translating of Hebrew into English by Christian Bible translators.  Either that or the translators were of low intelligence.  Either way the picture isn't pretty for them.

Psalms 110:1 (the Hebrew version) was used then by Yeshua to show his Messiahship.  Today, the same passage must be used to prove an entirely different fact of Scripture - that Yeshua (lord - Adon) and YHWH (LORD - YHWH) are not the same.  This passage is hard for those promoting Yeshua as God to get around since it so clearly shows the Father and the "lord" Yeshua as separate and distinct both in the actual Hebrew word and the fact the LORD (YHWH) was speaking to the lord (Yeshua).  The one speaking and the one being spoken to infers clear distinction between them.

I can envision a conversation today between Yeshua and the false prophets of the Christian world:

"What think ye of Christ? Is he God?" The Theologians say unto him, "Yes Lord God." ⁴³ He saith unto them, "How then doth David in spirit clearly distinguish him from LORD God, saying, ⁴⁴ YHWH (LORD) said unto my Adon (lord), Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool? ⁴⁵ If David then did not refer to him as God (or YHWH), how is he God (or YHWH)? ⁴⁶ And no Trinitarian was able to answer him a word, neither durst any prophets of the Beast from that day forth ask him any more questions."

Indeed, when the erroneous translation is corrected, Trinitarians are left unable "to answer him a word".