Kiss the Son Controversy

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Christians use Psalm 2 :12 to prove that Yahweh God has a Son.

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12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him. KJV Psalm 2:12

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https://outreachjudaism.org/psalm-212-kiss-the-son/

Jewish Rabbi Tovia Singer’s argument

Although only one word in Psalm 2:12 was changed, the alteration was sufficient to portray the Psalmist as instructing the faithful to kiss Jesus.
How could such a strange suggestion find itself in Christian translations of the Jewish Bible? Rabbi Singer reveals how an Aramaic interpolation created a very bizarre Christological text.

Conclusion: “Arm with Purity” not ‘Kiss the Son.

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A more conservative Jewish interpretation

https://aish.com/psalm-2-gods-son-and-kiss-the-son/

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Question

What is the Jewish thought concerning God’s son in light of Psalm 2? It describes someone as the King of Zion, a world leader, and says that God calls him His son, whom He gave birth to (v. 7).

Further, verse 12 states,

“Kiss the son, lest he angers and you will lose the way.”

Isn’t it thus clear that God has a Divine Son?

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The Aish Rabbi Replies

Thank you for your important question.

The term son of God appears a number of times in the Torah where it clearly does not refer to a biological relationship.

See for example Deuteronomy 14:1:

"You [Israel] are sons to the Lord your God,"

as well as Exodus 4:22, where God tell Moses to tell Pharaoh

"My son, My firstborn Israel" (Exodus 4:22).

The meaning is that God has a special relationship with His nation, but clearly the bond is emotional and not physical.

The Torah likewise uses this expression for other great individuals. See for example Psalms 89:27-28 in reference to King David, and II Samuel 7:14 in reference to Solomon:

“I will be to him as a Father and he will be to Me as a son.”

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Son can be King David or Messiah:

In this verse, the commentators understand God’s “son” as referring to King David himself (or possibly the future Messiah (Ibn Ezra)), who serves God with the filial devotion of a son honoring his father (Ibn Ezra, Radak), who represents and protects a nation known collectively as God’s son (Rashi, Metzudat David), or who leads the world as an (inheriting) son who controls his father’s property (Malbim).

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The notion of God giving birth to him is that when David was appointed king, he acquired a divine spirit and close relationship with God, as a child of a parent (see I Samuel 16:13; Rashi, Radak), or that David was as precious to God as a newborn son (Metzudat David).

(The Hebrew word in question – “yalad” – does not always mean to literally give birth, but is occasionally used figuratively (as in English), meaning to create or bring about. See for example Deut. 32:18, Job 15:35, Zephaniah 2:2, Isaiah 33:11, 55:10.)

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Son most likely King David

In terms of “kiss the son” of verse 12, especially based on the commentators that the subject is King David himself, the phrase really does not impute any divine powers to David or to the Messiah.

It just means that the nations should cherish and embrace the king – or risk God’s wrath.

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In truth, however, almost all the commentators understand that phrase differently. The phrase in the Hebrew is “nashku var” (var is a variant of bar).

The Hebrew word bar either means “grain” (such as the grain Joseph stored up in Egypt (Genesis 41:35,49)) – or “purity” (see e.g. Psalms 19:9, 24:4, Song of Songs 6:9-10).

The commentators accordingly translate that phrase to mean “gird yourselves with purity of heart” (Rashi), “desire purity” (Rashi alternate, Metzudat David), or “kiss (i.e. cherish, cleave to) me because I am pure of heart” (Radak, Malbim).

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Kiss or arm yourselves?

(Note that the first word of the phrase – nashku – can mean either kiss or arm yourselves – both interpretations appearing in the choices above.

There is even one interpretation which relates bar to grain – that the nations should cleave to the king as chaff is adjacent to (“kisses”) the grain (see Malbim).)

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Use of the word “bar”

Note that in Hebrew, bar does not mean son, and thus almost none of the commentators (save Ibn Ezra) translate the phrase as “kiss the son.” The reason for the confusion is that in Aramaic “bar” does mean son.

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Bar vs ben. Both used in Psalm 2

However, it is never used in that sense in the Torah. (And in fact Psalm 2 itself uses the Hebrew term “ben” in verse 7, which we discussed above.)

Bar appears a few times in the Books of Ezra and Daniel (e.g. Ezra 5:1-2, 6:14, Daniel 3:25, 5:22, 7:13) – but all in the parts of those books written in Aramaic.

The one exception is Proverbs 31:2, where the word bar does appear meaning son:

“What, my son, and what, the son of my womb…”

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However, Rabbi Tovia Singer suggests that King Solomon was quoting the advice his mother would give him, very likely using the language she employed.

Thus, that verse uses a more colloquial term for son, possibly based on the Aramaic, but not used anywhere else in (the Hebrew portions of) the Torah.

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Marianne’ thoughts

Here is the verse in context

10 Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth.

11 Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.

12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.

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David is speaking to the kings of the earth. It is an early psalm, when David was still battling surrounding people groups.

He could either be telling them to arm themselves with purity in an act of reconciliation with Yahweh god, or to kiss the son (King David), in an act of peace with King David.

Alternatively, he could be prophetically describing future time of Messiah, and the relationship of the nations with him.

But as ancient and modern Hebrews consider the Messiah a son of David and also a son/ child of Yahweh God, like the rest of them, the son ship here implied is most likely natural, not divine..

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