22:42a

What do you think about the Christ?: This is the first of two questions that Jesus asked om 22:42. The words What do you think introduce the topic of Jesus’ questions. The topic is the Christ. The real part of the two questions is actually in the second question (in 22:42b).

Here are some other ways to translate this first question:

What do you think concerning the Christ?
-or-
What do you think in regards to the Messiah?

the Christ: Here the Christ refers to the person whom God promised to send. The Christ is another name for the Messiah. Jesus asked the Pharisees to speak from their general understanding about the Messiah. He was not referring to himself.

If you translated the Christ as “the Messiah” in 16:16a, you should also use “the Messiah” here. For example:

the Messiah (God’s Word)

22:42b

Whose son is he?: The Greek word that the English Standard Version translates as son can also mean “descendant.” This question is about the male parent/ancestor of the Messiah.

Here are some other ways to translate this question:

Whose descendant is he? (Good News Translation)
-or-
Who is his ancestor?

22:42c

They said to him: The pronoun They refers to the Pharisees. Here is another way to translate this clause:

They answered

The son of David: Some words from 22:42b are implied here but not repeated. The complete answer would be:

⌊He is⌋ the son of David

This refers to King David. In some languages, it may be good to make this explicit. For example:

He will be a son of King David. (Contemporary English Version)

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