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Luke 20:43

in Luke 20

until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”’

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV

ASV

Till I make thine enemies the footstool of thy feet.

KJV

Till I make thine enemies thy footstool.

This verse in Luke 20

Commentary

14 notes on this verse

A commentator

Ambrose of Milan

Catena Aurea by Aquinas · Written before 397.

We must believe then that Christ is both God and man, and that His enemies are made subject to Him by the Father, not through the weakness of His power, but through the unity of their nature, since in the one the other works. For the Son also subjects enemies to the Father, in that He glorifies the Father upon earth. (John 17:6.)

This site's exposition

How say they that Christ is David’s son

on Luke 20:41-44

He turns from defense to a question of his own, how say they that Christ is David's son, then quotes Psalm 110:1, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou on my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool, a verse David wrote of one he calls Lord even though the Messiah was also to be his own descendant. David therefore calleth him Lord, how is he then his son, a puzzle the scribes' Messianic expectation could not resolve on its own terms, since a mere human descendant would never be his ancestor's superior. The bench reads the question as pressing toward the two natures the rest of the New Testament will state plainly, true son of David by descent and true Lord of David by deity, without Jesus here spelling out the answer for hearers not yet ready to receive it.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers4 voices

A commentator

Cyril of Alexandria

Catena Aurea by Aquinas · Written before 444.

proposed

Or, that He sits on the Father's right hand proves His heavenly glory. For whose throne is equal, their Majesty is equal. But sitting when it is said of God signifies a universal kingdom and power. Therefore He sitteth at the right hand of the Father, because the Word proceeding from the substance of the Father, being made flesh, putteth not off His divine glory. We then likewise in answer to the new Pharisees, who neither confess the Son of the holy Virgin to be the true Son of God, nor to be God, but divide one son into two, put the like objections: How then is the Son of David David's Lord, and that not by human lordship, but divine?

A commentator

Cyril of Alexandria

COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 137 · Written before 444.

proposed

We also will ask the Pharisees of today a similar question. They deny that he who was born of the holy Virgin is very Son of God the Father and himself also God. They also divide the one Christ into two sons. Let these people explain to us how David's Son is his Lord, not so much as to human lordship as divine. To sit at the right hand of the Father is the assurance and pledge of supreme glory. Those who share the same throne are equal also in dignity, and those who are crowned with equal honors are understood of course to be equal in nature. To sit by God can signify nothing else than sovereign authority. The throne declares to us that Christ possesses power over everything and supremacy by right of his substance. How is the Son of David David's Lord, seated at the right hand of God the Father and on the throne of Deity? Is it not altogether according to the unerring word of the mystery that the Word as God sprung from the very substance of God the Father? Being in his likeness and equal with him, he became flesh. He became man, perfectly and yet without departing from the incomparable excellence of the divine dignities. He continued in that state in which he had always been. He still was God, although he became flesh and in form like us. He is David's Lord therefore according to that which belongs to his divine glory, nature and sovereignty. He is his son according to the flesh.

A commentator

Cyril of Alexandria

COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 137 · Written before 444.

proposed

The Pharisees did not answer Christ's question. They did this in spitefulness, or rather against their own selves, for perhaps being convicted by the inquiry the word of salvation would have shined in them. They did not wish to know the truth, but sinfully seizing for themselves the Lord's inheritance, they denied the heir, or rather wickedly murdered him. They rejected the faith because of their love of leadership, greed for profit, and for their shameful gains.…To remove from them the habit of thinking and speaking of him in a derogatory and scornful manner, he asked them, "How do they say that Christ is David's Son, etc.?" As I have already remarked, they were silent from malicious motives and thereby condemned themselves as unworthy of eternal life and of the knowledge of the truth.

A commentator

Cyril of Alexandria

COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 137 · Written before 444.

proposed

The Savior asked them, "How do they say that Christ is David's son? David himself says in the book of Psalms, 'The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit on my right hand until I place your enemies as a footstool under your feet." ' David therefore calls him Lord, and how is he his son?" The beginning of understanding is faith. He says, "If you will not believe, you cannot understand." The examination of important truths leads to salvation. Emmanuel is the Son and the Lord of David. If anyone would learn in what way he is to understand this, he must certainly begin the exact and blameless examination of his mystery. This was kept in silence from the foundation of the world but has been revealed in the latter ages of the world.

The Medieval Church1 voice

A commentator

Bede

Catena Aurea by Aquinas · Written before 735.

proposed

And since they had been defeated in argument, they ask Him no further questions, but seize Him, and deliver Him up to the Roman power. From which we may learn, that the poison of envy may indeed be subdued, but it is a hard thing to keep it at rest.
7 more voices on this verse

The Medieval Church2 voices

A commentator

Theophylact of Ohrid

Catena Aurea by Aquinas · Written before 1107.

proposed

He manifests then that He is not opposed to the Father, but agrees with Him, since the Father resists the Son's enemies, Until I make thine enemies thy footstool.

A commentator

Bonaventure

Commentary on Luke, Chapter 20 · Written in the 13th century.

proposed

He expresses nonetheless the universal dominion of the Son of God himself, when he adds: Until I make thine enemies the footstool of thy feet: The Psalm: "Thou hast subjected all things under his feet," etc., because by his almighty power he both governs the …

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

Until I make thine enemies thy footstool. Which words are a continuation of the citation out of the above Psalm Psa 110:1; and for the application of these words, with the preceding, to the Messiah; see Gill on Mat 22:44.

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

If he be his Lord, why do we call him his Son? This he left them to consider of, but they could not reconcile this seeming contradiction; thanks be to God, we can; that Christ, as God, was David's Lord, but Christ, as man, was David's Son. He was both the root and the offspring of David, Rev. xxii.

The Nineteenth Century3 voices

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

Thy footstool - Literally, the footstool of thy feet. They shall not only be so far humbled that the feet may be set on them; but they shall be actually subjected, and put completely under that Christ whom they now despise, and are about to crucify.
Let us observe in this passage — what striking testimony to Christ's divinity, the book of Psalms contains. We read that after patiently replying to the attacks of His enemies, our Lord in turn propounds a question to them. He asks them to explain an expression in the hundred and tenth Psalm, where David speaks of the Messiah as his Lord. To this question the Scribes could find no answer.
Let us observe in this passage — what striking testimony to Christ's divinity, the book of Psalms contains. We read that after patiently replying to the attacks of His enemies, our Lord in turn propounds a question to them. He asks them to explain an expression in the hundred and tenth Psalm, where David speaks of the Messiah as his Lord. To this question the Scribes could find no answer. They did not see the mighty truth — that Messiah was to be God as well as man; and that while as man , He was to be David's son — as God , He was to be David's Lord. Their ignorance of Scripture was thus exposed before all the people. Professing themselves to be instructors of others and possessors of the key of knowledge — they were proved unable to explain what their own Scriptures contained. We may well believe that of all the defeats which our Lord's malicious enemies met with — none galled them more than this. Nothing so abashes the pride of man — as to be publicly proved ignorant of that which he imagines is his own particular department of knowledge. We have probably little idea how much deep truth is contained in the book of Psalms. No part of the Bible perhaps is better known in the letter — and none so little understood in the spirit . We err greatly, if we suppose that it is nothing but a record of David's feelings, of David's experience, David's praises, and David's prayers. The hand that held the pen was generally David's — but the subject matter was often something far deeper and higher than the history of the son of Jesse. The book of Psalms, in a word, is a book full of Christ — Christ suffering — Christ in humiliation — Christ dying — Christ rising again — Christ coming the second time — Christ reigning over all. Both of Christ's advents are here: the advent in suffering to bear the cross — and the advent in power to wear the crown.

The words behind it

10 Greek words

Every Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Psalms 110:1

    The LORD said to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”

    it leads to

    • Hebrews 10:12–13

      But when this Priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God.

    • 1 Corinthians 15:25

      For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet.

    • Luke 20:42–43

      For David himself says in the book of Psalms: ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand

    • Hebrews 1:13

      Yet to which of the angels did God ever say: “Sit at My right hand until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet”?

    • Mark 12:35–37

      While Jesus was teaching in the temple courts, He asked, “How can the scribes say that the Christ is the Son of David?

  • Through

    Luke 19:27

    And these enemies of mine who were unwilling for me to rule over them, bring them here and slay them in front of me.’”

    it leads to

    • Psalms 21:8–9

      Your hand will apprehend all Your enemies; Your right hand will seize those who hate You.

    • Luke 19:14

      But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We do not want this man to rule over us.’

    • Luke 21:22

      For these are the days of vengeance, to fulfill all that is written.

Where this verse is studied

About Luke

The Return of the Prodigal Son, Gustave Doré. Public domain.
The Return of the Prodigal Son, Gustave Doré. Public domain.
This page draws on 12 works. Open the list of works

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Gospels; Ambrose of Milan, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; Bede, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; Bonaventure, Commentary on Luke, Chapter 20; Cyril of Alexandria, Catena Aurea by Aquinas; Cyril of Alexandria, COMMENTARY ON LUKE, HOMILY 137; J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels: Luke (lightly modernized text, Grace Gems edition); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Theophylact of Ohrid, Catena Aurea by Aquinas.