on the day He addressed him, after David had already been created; therefore, this temporal incident offers no proof for the existence of that eternal being.

Fourth: If, in their idiom, “father” means the Lord who nurtures His servant more completely than a human father raises his son, then the term “beget” must take on a meaning that fits such fatherhood. Its sense would be: “Today I have made you an object of mercy, a chosen and preferred one.”

The Christians often treat a passage whose pronoun refers to someone other than the Messiah as though it were meant for the Messiah. They will say, “This verse is about the Messiah.” That claim is baseless, for the wording does not support it; and even if it were granted, it would still show only that the Messiah is the created human nature—the very being they call “the Son”—because the text states, “Today I have begotten you.” Yet, according to them, the divine nature was begotten before all ages. Thus, if the reference is to the day of his birth, the meaning is, “I created you,” and if it is to the day of his selection, the meaning is, “Today I have chosen you and loved you”—as though He were saying, in their own language, “Today I have made you a child, a son.”