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 Isho'dad of Merv, 3 vols. [trans.
Margaret Dunlop Gibson; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1911], 1:88)
