9th Century Assyrian Bishop, Psalm 110:1 & God's Name

Sam Shamoun

29 Apr 2026

In this post I quote the commentary of Mar Ishodad of Merv (Mari Ishoʿdaḏ Maruzaya), who was the bishop of Hdatta (circa 850 AD), which is near current-day Mosul, Iraq. Ishodad is considered a very important and prominent theologian of the Assyrian Church of the East, who wrote some very influential commentaries on the Syriac version of the Holy Bible.

Here I quote what this Assyrian Bishop wrote in respect to our Lord’s citation of Psalm 110:1 to prove that David acknowledged the Christ as his Lord. All emphasis is mine.

When our Lord asked the Jews, What say ye about the Christ? whose Son is He? and they replied, The Son of David. And our Lord answered them, How can He be his Son, for the Lord said unto my Lord, etc. Why was their mouth shut? They ought to have answered, that he is called Lord, as Eleazar calls Abraham "My Lord," and Elisha Elia, etc. Those who talked impiously that our Lord did not take manhood, were henceforth armed, saying, Behold! He also said to the Jews that He is not the son of David; and the erring ones did not understand, that our Lord did not say according to the abrogation of His Humanity, How is He his Son? but to shew, that He was not only a man, according to their supposition, but also God, and He was not concealing that He was not a man; but was teaching that in His humanity He was the son of David, but in His divinity [He was] David's Lord; but their tongue was shut, because both names, that is to say, the Lord, and my Lord, were written as ineffable names, that is to say, by the name of Jehovah; but the ineffable name was established by Moses as a law, that it would be written with special characters, and that they should not roll it about with their tongue, according to the honour of God; and it was written in the middle lines יהוה, that is to say, Jehovah, whose name is secret, they wrote above in honour, Adonai, that is to say, My Lord; and when they came to that ineffable name, that is to say, the name of the Hidden One, they did not roll about these four signs at all with their mouth; and they did not write anything else with them, except the name of God; but they read Adonai or some other name which was written in honour above; but after Symmachus, the changer of both these names that had been written in an ineffable name, interchanged them, and put the Lord and my Lord to be read, that is to say, sware Adonai to Adoni, sit at the right hand, and also this, "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bring forth, he changed to "a young girl," and [he changed] "God" to "the strong One of the Ages"; and instead of "the Messiah shall be put to death," "the oil shall be cut off," etc. Such things he established. (The commentaries of Ishodad of Merv, bishop of Hadatha (c. 850 A.D.) in Syriac and English, edited and translated by Margaret Dunlop Gibson [Cambridge at University Press, 1911], Volume 1, p. 88; emphasis mine)