The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit on my right hand, till I make your enemies your footstool?
All Commentaries on Matthew 22:44 Go To Matthew 22
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
Saying, The Lord said, &c. From this verse Christ clearly proves that the Messiah was not a mere Prayer of Manasseh , as the Pharisees believed, but that He was David"s God, and therefore his Lord. The meaning therefore is as if David said, "The Lord God hath said to my Lord, even Christ, Sit on My right hand, in that after the Death and Resurrection of Christ He will raise Him up, and exalt Him above all powers and principalities, and will set Him next to Himself in Heaven, that He may reign with the most perfect happiness, glory, and authority over all created things."
The Heb. for said is × ××, neum, i.e, pronounced, spoken prophetically, decreed by the Lord concerning David"s Lord, and therefore something fixed, certain, immutable. For neum Isaiah , by metathesis, the same as Amen, or sure and faithful. And the meaning Isaiah , that "God the Father from eternity hath firmly and inviolably decreed concerning Christ His Song of Solomon , not as He is God, but in that He became Incarnate and was made man (for this is the force of the Heb. ××“×•× ×³, Adoni), that He Isaiah , by virtue both of the Hypostatic Union and of the Redemption which He accomplished on the Cross, of all men, and therefore of David, the Lord." He hath said, interiorly in His own mind, from all eternity. But He said also, in the sense that He will say at the time of the Ascension of Christ in triumph into Heaven, "Come and sit on My right hand; reign and triumph in the glory of My majesty." So S. Jerome, Theodoret, and others. For this110th Psalm , Psalm 110:1-7 celebrates the most "glorious Kingdom of Christ both in Heaven and earth—that kingdom in which Christ, after His Ascension, began from Zion and Jerusalem to reign over all nations, and by His Apostles to bring them to His faith and worship, until He shall put down all His enemies, that Isaiah , all the wicked, under His feet in the day of judgment."
Thy footstool. This means, reign with Me in glory, until I make all Thine enemies subject unto Thee. Thus it is said that Sapor, king of Persia, made use of the Emperor Aurelian, whom he had taken captive in battle, to mount upon his horse, placing his foot upon the back of the emperor, as upon a kind of footstool.
The expression until here does not signify end or conclusion, but continuation and amplification of sitting and reigning. Reign even in the time which seems contrary and opposed to Thy Kingdom, even when Thine enemies shall seem to reign rather than Thee. Reign even in the midst of crosses, persecutions, and the tumults of Satan and his ministers.
And no one was able to answer Him a word; Syr. to give Him a reason; because, as I have said, they believed Messiah to be a mere man. "They were silent," says S. Chrysostom, "being smitten with a mortal blow." "They preferred," says S. Augustine, "to be broken to pieces in their swelling taciturnity, rather than to be instructed by lowly confession."
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