John Kilgallen, «Jesus’ First Trial: Messiah and Son of God (Luke 22,66-71)», Vol. 80 (1999) 401-414

Luke, according to the Two-Source Theory, read Mark. At the first trial of Jesus, that before the Sanhedrin, Mark has together, "Messiah, Son of God". Luke has intentionally separated the two titles. The present essay finds the explanation for separating Son of God from Messiah in the Annunciation scene of the Gospel. It is Luke’s intention that the reader understand Son of God in a way that admittedly the Sanhedrin did not. The laws of narratology indicate that Luke 1,35, a part of the Lucan introduction, be used by the reader to interpret Son of God at Luke 22,70.

to concentrate on the crucial words it knows to be from the Psalm, namely that "my lord (David’s lord)" was "to be seated at the right hand of the Lord". The Sanhedrin, upon hearing this reference from Jesus, would sense that Jesus was claiming to be the "David’s lord" called to sit at the Lord’s right hand. Aware that Jesus is making an elliptical claim to be this "lord of David, to be seated at the Lord’s right hand", the Sanhedrin knows that Jesus is thereby claiming to be Messiah of Israel. How they know of a connection between Messiah and David’s lord is most immediately and simply explained by Luke’s Gospel. The dispute read in Luke 20,41-44, mirroring Mark 12,35-37, reveals that the common teaching of the time ("they say", v. 41) had identified the "lord" who was to sit at the Lord’s right hand as the Messiah of Israel. Thus, the Sanhedrin thinks it hears, in Jesus’ referring Psalm 110 to himself, a claim that Jesus is Messiah.

        But where in the Sanhedrin’s understanding of Psalm 110 and Jesus’ claim to be its "lord" arises the term "Son of God"? The usual answer¹⁰ would likely be to note that the Messiah (David’s lord, according to the Psalm) was understood to be God’s son elsewhere in Tradition: such did God call David’s royal descendant at 2 Samuel 7,14; (in part Psalm 89,27). But one can add that Psalm 110 itself suggests that "David’s lord" is son of God. At verse 3 it is said (admittedly an unclear text in the standard Hebrew version, and made clearer through the Septuagint translation)¹¹: "Yours is