Mark 12:36-38

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Mark 12:36 sn The Lord said to my lord. With David being the speaker, this indicates his respect for his descendant (referred to as my lord). Jesus was arguing, as the ancient exposition assumed, that the passage is about the Lord’s anointed. The passage looks at an enthronement of this figure and a declaration of honor for him as he takes his place at the side of God. In Jerusalem, the king’s palace was located to the right of the temple to indicate this kind of relationship. Jesus was pressing the language here to get his opponents to reflect on how great Messiah is.
2. Mark 12:36 sn A quotation from Ps 110:1.
3. Mark 12:37 tn Grk “David himself calls him ‘Lord.’ So how is he his son?” The conditional nuance, implicit in Greek, has been made explicit in the translation (cf. Matt 22:45).
4. Mark 12:38 tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
5. Mark 12:38 tn Or “for the scribes.” See the note on the phrase “experts in the law” in 1:22.
6. Mark 12:38 tn In Greek this is the only infinitive in vv. 38-39. It would be awkward in English to join an infinitive to the following noun clauses, so this has been translated as a gerund.
7. Mark 12:38 sn There is later Jewish material in the Talmud that spells out such greetings in detail. See H. Windisch, TDNT 1:498.
8. Mark 12:38 sn See the note on marketplaces in Mark 6:56.