Journal: Southern Baptist Journal of Theology
Volume: SBJT 25:3 (Fall 2021)
Article: Psalm 110:3 And Retrieval Theology
Author: Peter J. Gentry

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Psalm 110:3 And Retrieval Theology

Peter J. Gentry

Peter J. Gentry is Senior Professor of Old Testament at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Distinguished Visiting Professor of Old Testament and Senior Research Fellow of the Text & Canon Institute at Phoenix Seminary as well as Director of the Hexapla Institute at Phoenix Seminary. He has served on the faculty of Toronto Baptist Seminary and Bible College and also taught at the University of Toronto, Heritage Theological Seminary, and Tyndale Seminary. Dr. Gentry is the author of many articles and book reviews, co-author of Kingdom through Covenant, 2nd ed. (Crossway, 2018) and God’s Kingdom through God’s Covenants (Crossway, 2015), and author of How to Read and Understand the Biblical Prophets (Crossway, 2017). He recently published a critical edition of Ecclesiastes for the Göttingen Septuagint (2019). Dr. Gentry and his wife Barb have two children: Stewart and Laura (Stephen) and three grandchildren: Joseph, Emma, and Sophie.

Introduction

In a recent treatment on the birth of the doctrine of the Trinity, Matthew Bates appeals to Jesus’ treatment of Psalm 110 in Mark 12:35–37. He describes Jesus’ interpretation as employing prosopological rhetorical technique. This is best presented in his own words:

The best explanation is that Jesus, as he is portrayed in Mark 12:35–37, is interpreting Psalm 109:1 LXX prosopologically, pointing out a conundrum in the text and then encouraging the audience to identify the speaker and the addressee correctly. More precisely, Jesus seems to believe that the Holy Spirit had inspired David to slip as an actor into what we might term “a theodramatic vision” and from within the visionary world to make a speech in the character (prosōpon)

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of someone else. As such, the Spirit is really speaking the words through David (“David himself said while speaking by means of the Holy Spirit”—Mark 12:36), so the Spirit is supplying the script. For Jesus the role in the theodrama that David adopts here is God, and God’s theodramatic addressee is a person David himself calls “my Lord.” We might paraphrase Mark’s depiction of Jesus’ reading and the persons assigned to the words thus:

David Himself (reporting the setting): The Lord [God] said to my Lord,

David in the prosopon of God (spoken to My Lord, the Christ): Sit at m...