Many assume that the image of Jesus being seated on God’s throne, or at the right hand of God, is evidence that a claim is being made about Jesus’ divinity. After all, the logic goes, who can sit on God’s throne but God himself? But this is a misunderstanding of ancient royalty language. For instance, in the book of Chronicles it is said that “Solomon sat on the throne of Yahweh, succeeding his father David as king” (1 Chron 29:23). This did not mean that Solomon shared in God’s divine identity in any ontological sense; but it expresses the belief that the authority of the king is granted by God himself.

In the Similitudes of Enoch, we see the same idea, this time however applied to the eschatological Messiah, the Son of Man figure.

And there was great joy amongst them,
And they blessed and glorified and extolled
Because the name of that Son of Man had been revealed unto them.
And he sat on the throne of his glory. (1 Enoch 69:26-27)

From this throne, the eschatological Son of Man is said to judge the nations, a function that is properly God’s, but one which God extends to his preeminent agent:

And the sum of judgment was given unto the Son of Man,
And he caused the sinners to pass away and be destroyed from off the face of the earth,
And those who have led the world astray.
With chains shall they be bound,
And in their assemblage-place of destruction shall they be imprisoned,
And all their works vanish from the face of the earth.
And from henceforth there shall be nothing corruptible;
For that Son of Man has appeared,
And has sat down on the throne of his glory,
And all evil shall pass away before his face,
And the word of that Son of Man shall go forth
And be strong before the Lord of Spirits. (1 Enoch 69:27-29)

The word of judgment issued by the Son of Man is said to “be strong before the Lord of Spirits,” which means that God approves and affirms the judgment passed by his agent. In other words, the Son of Man judges on the authority granted to him by God.

And thus the Lord commanded the kings and the mighty and the exalted, and those who dwell on the earth, and said:
“Open your eyes and lift up your horns if ye are able to recognize the Elect One.”
And the Lord of Spirits seated him on the throne of His glory,
And the spirit of righteousness was poured out upon him,
And the word of his mouth slays all the sinners,
And all the unrighteous are destroyed from before his face.
And there shall stand up in that day all the kings and the mighty,
And the exalted and those who hold the earth,
And they shall see and recognize how he sits on the throne of His glory,
And righteousness is judged before him,
And no lying word is spoken before him. (1 Enoch 62:1-3)

Note above that it is God (the “Lord of Spirits”) who seats the Son of Man upon God’s throne of glory. The Son of Man does not establish himself upon God’s throne: it is an agentive authority granted to him by God. This is the ancient view of royalty. It is stated more clearly a few chapters earlier, “And the Elect One shall in those days sit on My throne, and his mouth shall pour forth all the secrets of wisdom and counsel: for the Lord of Spirits has given them to him and has glorified him” (1 Enoch 51:3).

And all who dwell above in the heaven received a command and power and one voice and one light like unto fire.
And that One [the Elect One] with their first words they blessed,
And extolled and lauded with wisdom,
And they were wise in utterance and in the spirit of life.
And the Lord of Spirits placed the Elect One on the throne of glory.
And he shall judge all the works of the holy above in the heaven,
And in the balance shall their deeds be weighed
And when he shall lift up his countenance
To judge their secret ways according to the word of the name of the Lord of Spirits,
And their path according to the way of the righteous judgment of the Lord of Spirits,
Then shall they all with one voice speak and bless,
And glorify and extol and sanctify the name of the Lord of Spirits. (1 Enoch 61:6-9)

You mighty kings who dwell on the earth, you shall have to behold Mine Elect One, how he sits on the throne of glory and judges Azazel, and all his associates, and all his hosts in the name of the Lord of Spirits. (1 Enoch 55:4)

Notice above, again, that it is God who grants the Son of Man figure the right to sit on his throne. Notice also that the Son of Man not only judges the nations of men, but also “all the works of the holy above in the heaven.” In other words, this exalted human agent is given the authority to judge angels, but only “in the name of the Lord of Spirits.” Bear in mind that in the ancient world, “heaven” wasn’t the name of the place where the good angels lived, and “hell” the abode of the fallen angels. “Hell” was a place of punishment after the eschatological age, but “heaven” was the abode of all the angelic beings, both good and evil. It was believed that the wars between nations on earth were mirrored by wars between the gods in heaven.

On that day Mine Elect One shall sit on the throne of glory
And shall try their works,
And their places of rest shall be innumerable.
And their souls shall grow strong within them
When they see Mine elect ones,
And those who have called upon My glorious name:
Then will I cause Mine Elect One to dwell among them.
And I will transform the heaven and make it an eternal blessing and light
And I will transform the earth and make it a blessing:
And I will cause Mine elect ones to dwell upon it:
But the sinners and evil-doers shall not set foot thereon. (1 Enoch 45:3-5)

After the judgment, the exalted Son of Man is sent to dwell among the humans forever. In other words, in the words of Paul:

Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed every ruler and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For ‘God has put all things in subjection under his feet.’ But when it says, ‘All things are put in subjection,’ it is plain that this does not include the One who put all things in subjection under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to the one who put all things in subjection under him, so that God may be all in all. (1 Cor 15:24-28)

In both the Similitudes and in Paul’s thought, the messiah functions as a temporary agent of God’s judgment who is granted access to God’s throne for the purpose of bringing all enemies into subjection to the will of God. It is apparently important in this sort of apocalyptic thought that God use a human agent, in order to restore humanity to God’s original intention. In both the Similitudes and in Paul, once this is accomplished and God’s agent has fulfilled his task, the authority is given back to God. Paul makes this explicit. In the Similitudes this is displayed by the fact that the Elect One leaves God’s throne in order to return to the new earth to dwell among his people forever. He is still God’s king and viceroy on earth, but his temporary access to God’s throne of glory and judgment is no longer necessary. In both texts, a clear distinction is made between God and his agent. That God is called “the Father” and the Messiah is called “the Son” in 1 Cor 15 does not imply any proto-trinitarian figuration. It is simply the standard Hebrew (and more broadly ancient) language used to describe the relationship between God and the king, who functioned as a mediator between heaven and earth (see again 2 Sam 7:14).

To disabuse ourselves of any lingering fancies that the “preeminence” ascribed to the son of man (son of Adam) implies divinity, a passage from Philo is in order:

And with great beauty Moses has attributed the giving of names to the different animals to the first created man, for it is a work of wisdom and indicative of royal authority, and man was full of intuitive wisdom and self-taught, having been created by the grace of God, and, moreover, was a king. And it is proper for a ruler to give names to each of his subjects. And, as was very natural, the power of domination was excessive in that first-created man, whom God formed with great care and thought worthy of the second rank in the creation, making him his own viceroy and the ruler of all other creatures. Since even those who have been born so many generations afterwards, when the race is becoming weakened by reason of the long intervals of time that have elapsed since the beginning of the world, do still exert the same power over the irrational beasts, preserving as it were a spark of the dominion and power which has been handed down to them by succession from their first ancestor. (On the Creation 148)¹

This helps to clarify an important point about the notion of the Messiah’s dominion over all creation: the Messiah is not figured as divine when he described this way, but as a new Adam figure. This corresponds to Paul’s thought exactly, as evinced in multiple places throughout his corpus. The Messiah fulfills the role God always intended for humankind. In the created order, humanity is second only to God, and as the representative human, the Messiah restores the dignity of humankind and delivers humankind from subjection to hostile forces who long ago usurped humanity’s rightful place in the hierarchy. This is why, in Pauline thought, it is not just Jesus who is exalted and seated in heaven, but all those who are in him (Eph 2:6), and it is not just Jesus who is given authority to judge angels, but restored humanity itself (1 Cor 6:3). Similarly, the book of Revelation asserts that the dominion of the Messiah will not be his alone, but will be shared with his fellow human beings—those who follow him in the way of true humanity:

To everyone who conquers and continues to do my works to the end,
I will give authority over the nations;
to rule them with an iron rod,
as when clay pots are shattered—
even as I also received authority from my Father. (Rev 2:26-28a)

The authority is conferred upon redeemed humanity in the same way that it was conferred upon their representative Jesus: from God. That such authority belongs to Jesus can hardly be said to be evidence of his divinity, unless we take it to be evidence of our own divinity as well. Similarly, with the question of who has the authority to forgive sins, a question we will deal with in a later post. If forgiving sins is something that only God can do, then Jesus must have been making a statement about his disciples’ rightful place in the Godhead when he gave them the authority to forgive sins, or even to withhold forgiveness of sins (John 20:23). But we are getting ahead of ourselves.

1. Also relevant is The Testament of Abraham, a Jewish work from the latter part of the first century CE. Chapter 11 speaks of Adam’s enthronement: “So Michael turned the chariot and brought Abraham to the east, to the first gate of heaven; and Abraham saw two ways, the one narrow and contracted, the other broad and spacious, and there he saw two gates, the one broad on the broad way, and the other narrow on the narrow way. And outside the two gates there he saw a man sitting upon a gilded throne, and the appearance of that man was terrible, as of the Lord. And they saw many souls driven by angels and led in through the broad gate, and other souls, few in number, that were taken by the angels through the narrow gate. And when the wonderful one who sat upon the golden throne saw few entering through the narrow gate, and many entering through the broad one, straightway that wonderful one tore the hairs of his head and the sides of his beard, and threw himself on the ground from his throne, weeping and lamenting. But when he saw many souls entering through the narrow gate, then he arose from the ground and sat upon his throne in great joy, rejoicing and exulting. And Abraham asked the chief-captain, My Lord chief-captain, who is this most marvelous man, adorned with such glory, and sometimes he weeps and laments, and sometimes he rejoices and exults? The incorporeal one said: This is the first-created Adam who is in such glory, and he looks upon the world because all are born from him, and when he sees many souls going through the narrow gate, then he arises and sits upon his throne rejoicing and exulting in joy, because this narrow gate is that of the just, that leads to life, and they that enter through it go into Paradise. For this, then, the first-created Adam rejoices, because he sees the souls being saved. But when he sees many souls entering through the broad gate, then he pulls out the hairs of his head, and casts himself on the ground weeping and lamenting bitterly, for the broad gate is that of sinners, which leads to destruction and eternal punishment. And for this the first-formed Adam falls from his throne weeping and lamenting for the destruction of sinners, for they are many that are lost, and they are few that are saved, for in seven thousand there is scarcely found one soul saved, being righteous and undefiled.” [BACK]