P. Derek Overfield PhD Thesis - Research@StAndrews:FullText

In Jewish sources the messianic interpretation
of Ps 110 is also evident, although it was
also frequently applied to Abraham l05 and David~106
but these references are not earlier than the second
or third decade of the second century.
The difficulty
of the messianic references is that they are all without
exception much later even than this, not being
clearly attested before the latter half of the third
cen t ury. 107 Th e ear l' 1es t avoca d t· es 108 0 f th' 1S meSS1an1C "
interpretation are usually identified as R. Chama b.
Charnina (c. 260 AD) R. Eleazar b. Pedat (c. 270),
R. Levi (c. 300), R. Abbahu (c. 300) and R. Huna
b. Abbin Hakohen (c. 350). But this difficulty is
in itself not conclusive.
As we have seen, the
psalm was certainly interpreted messianically in the
NT, a fact easily, though not necessarily best,
explained if that was the standard Jewish interpretation
of the psalm.
Mk 12:35-37, and more particularly,
the parallel Mt 22:41-46, seems to present the contemporaries
of Jesus as accepting the messianic
interpretation of the psalm as the norm of exegesis.
Even if these passages belong to the authors of the
respective gospels (as opposed to reporting the actual
belief of the contemporaries of Jesus) they still
offer some support to the argument.
Billerbeck l09 argues very vigorously that R. Ishmael's
application of the psalm to Abraham was devised as a
Strack­
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