The Christ (Good News Translation “the Messiah”): see comments at 1.1, 17; 2.4.

What do you think is a familiar question form in Matthew’s Gospel (see 17.25; 18.12; 21.28; 22.17; 26.66). In each case the question is asked either by Jesus himself or about Jesus very crucial points in the Gospel. Here it may be expressed “What is your opinion about the Messiah?” or “What is your opinion about who the Messiah is descended from?”

Whose son is he?: obviously son is here used in the extended sense of “descendant” (Good News Translation), a meaning which it frequently has in the Old Testament. The two questions (What do you think of the Christ? Whose son is he?) are actually one, which means “Whose descendant will the Messiah be?” Both Mark (12.35) and Luke (20.41) have only one question.

The son of David is shorter in Greek than the translation implies; the Greek text simply has “the of David,” a construction in which “son” is left implicit. Other languages will require even more detail than Revised Standard Version; for example, “The Messiah will be a descendant of King David.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .