This same God hath fulfilled to our children, raising up Jesus, as in the second psalm also is written: Thou art my Son: this day have I begotten thee.
ως και εν τω ψαλμω τω δευτερω γεγραπται υιος μου ει συ εγω σημερον γεγεννηκα σε
7 Church Fathers comment on this verse
"You are My Son; today I have begotten You." Understand these words with reference to Christ's becoming man, which took place in time. For the expressions "today" and "tomorrow" contain the meaning of days. But the Son is begotten of the Father timelessly, as even the heretics acknowledge.
The Only One who knows the Father, and whom only the Father knows, His Wisdom and Word, the Angel of Great Counsel (Is 9:5), according to the word of the prophet, beautifully explains to us the mystery of the Incarnation.
Being Son by nature and in truth, and having shone forth from the very essence of God the Father, He became flesh, that is, man, according to the word of John (see Jn 1:14).
He called Himself the brother of those who dwell on earth. Together with us, He accepted birth according to the flesh.
Though He is pre-eternal and abides with Him who begot Him, nevertheless He became flesh. The Father knew Him as His own Son and said, "You are My Son; today I have begotten You" (Ps 2:7).
You clearly see the acknowledgment, or proclamation. He set down "You are" to show His pre-eternity, for He was not created in time.
He was always the same, that is, the Son. And He added, "today I have begotten You," to show His unusual birth in the flesh.
He willingly accepted this birth through the Holy Virgin. For this reason she is called Theotokos.
This example from the psalm should not be thought to refer to Christ's Resurrection, which has just been mentioned, but to His Incarnation itself, of which he spoke above. The following line clearly bears witness to the Resurrection.
When he had spoken above of His Incarnation, Passion, and Resurrection, he wished to confirm these equally by testimonies from the psalm.
Therefore, "You, the eternal Son, who live before the ages, will now be shown to have been born in time."
In some codices it reads, "As it is written in the first psalm." This is explained as follows. Among the Hebrews, the first and second psalms are joined into one psalm, which begins with blessedness and ends with blessedness.
Paul's preaching in the synagogue there gives us the first example of the apostle's wisdom and skill in acting upon the hearts of his hearers.
Wishing to gain their attention and trust, he first points out how God chose them as a people set apart for Himself. Then he briefly surveys all that God did for His people up to David.
From David's seed, in fulfillment of the promises, the Messiah was to come. After this preparation, the apostle turns to the chief aim of his speech.
He speaks of the manifestation of the Messiah and of what He accomplished for the salvation of the human race.
Now, Paul said, addressing the Jews and proselytes present, this preaching of salvation is appointed for you. Those whom this good tidings first reached, the Jews of Jerusalem and their rulers, would not receive it.
They did not recognize the Messiah. They did not understand the prophecies read every Sabbath in the synagogue.
Yet by condemning the Messiah to death, they could not destroy the promises. Without their own knowledge or expectation, they only served their fulfillment.
For He endured all that He had to suffer according to the predictions of the prophets, and He rose from death.
You did not see Him, but through faith in Him you can receive forgiveness of sins and justification, which the law could never provide. Having proclaimed this promise, the apostle added a threat against unbelief.
From Paphos, Paul and his companions sailed to the peninsula of Asia Minor and came to Perga in Pamphylia. From there John Mark returned to Jerusalem.
Paul, with his other companions, continued his journey and went deeper into the interior regions of Asia Minor. He came to Pisidian Antioch.
There the Apostle Paul's preaching about Christ made a powerful impression on the city's inhabitants. It converted many Jews and Gentiles to Christ.
Yet the majority of the Jews remained deaf to the apostles' preaching. They even stirred up a disturbance against Paul and Barnabas and drove them from the city.
Therefore the apostles went on, shaking off the dust from their feet against them, according to Christ's commandment (Mt 10:14).
The apostle points to one such promise of God in the words of the second psalm: "You are My Son," and so forth.
That this psalm refers to Christ is beyond doubt from the testimony of the apostles themselves (Acts 4:25-26). Applied to Him, the cited words mean: You are My Son as Messiah.
"Today I have begotten You" means: through Your Resurrection from the dead I have manifested You as My true Son, the true Messiah.
The Resurrection of the Lord is the actual divine certification of the sonship of Jesus Christ to God the Father (cf. Rom 1:4).
Through the Lord's Resurrection from the dead, after His abasement and death, God made His Son from eternity to be His Son in time (Acts 2:36).
"Understand these words in relation to Christ's becoming man, which took place in time, since the expressions 'today' and 'tomorrow' contain the indication of days.
But the Son is begotten of the Father beyond time, as even the heretics acknowledge" (Theophylact).
Thus the psalmic saying is at one and the same time a promise concerning the Resurrection of the Messiah and its fulfillment in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Compare Ps 2:7, Is 55:3, and Ps 15:10. The prophecies cited by the apostle in confirmation of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ are not of equal force.
One of them refers directly to the Resurrection of Jesus Christ (cf. Acts 2:25-32; Heb 3:5). Another, from the prophet Isaiah, refers to it remotely.
The third does so through a deeply mysterious understanding of its relation to Jesus Christ as the Son of God. He is begotten before the ages from the Father according to the Godhead (cf. Acts 4:25-26).
In time He was manifested as such, that is, as the Only-begotten Son who cannot die forever, according to His humanity.
"Understand these words in relation to Christ's becoming man, which took place in time," writes Theophylact, "since the expressions 'today' and 'tomorrow' contain the indication of days.
But the Son is begotten of the Father beyond time."
"The Resurrection of the Lord is the actual divine certification of the sonship of Jesus Christ to God the Father (cf. Rom 1:7).
Through the Lord's Resurrection from the dead, after His abasement and death, God made His Son from eternity to be His Son in time."
"Since they, the Jews, were possessed by fear as those who had killed Christ, and since conscience condemned them, the apostles do not speak to them as Christ-killers.
They present the teaching to them not as an alien good, but as their own. The name of David was greatly desired by the Jews.
Therefore Paul brings him forward, so that by this means at least they may acknowledge Christ. He speaks as though saying: His Son will reign over you, therefore do not reject His authority."
The whole context of Psalm 2 shows this. In its opening words the apostles already saw a prediction of New Testament times (see Acts 4:25-27), namely the Crucifixion of Christ.
Therefore in the final words, in which the Lord addresses His Anointed, one must see a prediction of the Resurrection.
Or, more in keeping with the psalmist's line of thought, one must see the full acknowledgment by God the Father of Christ's filial dignity through His Resurrection from the dead.
It is, as it were, the birth of the Messiah through the Resurrection. The Resurrection is the actual divine certification of the sonship of Jesus Christ to God the Father (see Rom 1:4).
In the Epistle to the Hebrews, the apostle cites this saying twice (Heb 1:5; Heb 3:5). He grounds in it the kingly and high-priestly dignity of Jesus Christ.
Both began only in the Resurrection.
The final words of verse 34 are taken from the book of the prophet Isaiah (Is 55:3). The apostle cites them according to the Septuagint, with a slight alteration.
In these words the prophet expresses the promise of the coming of the messianic times. He speaks of them directly in the first three verses of chapter 55.
To certify this, instead of his usual forms of assurance, the prophet sets forth the unfailing fulfillment of the mercies promised to David. By these are meant all the mercies of messianic salvation.
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 27 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS