Christ's Enthronement at God's Right Hand and Its Greco-Roman Cultural Context

by D. Clint Burnett

Overview

Given the dearth of non-messianic interpretations of Psalm 110:1 in non-Christian Second Temple Jewish texts, why did it become such a widely used messianic prooftext in the New Testament and early Christianity? Previous attempts to answer this question have focused on why the earliest Christians first began to use Ps 110:1. The result is that these proposals do not provide an adequate explanation for why first century Christians living in the Greek East employed the verse and also applied it to Jesus’s exaltation. I contend that two Greco-Roman politico-religious practices, royal and imperial temple and throne sharing—which were cross-cultural rewards that Greco-Roman communities bestowed on beneficent, pious, and divinely approved rulers—contributed to the widespread use of Ps 110:1 in earliest Christianity. This means that the earliest Christians interpreted Jesus’s heavenly session as messianic and thus political, as well as religious, in nature.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783110691887
Publisher:	De Gruyter
Publication date:	01/18/2021
Series:	Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft , #242
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	244
File size:	5 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

D. Clint Burnett, Johnson University, Knoxville, TN, USA.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements IX

List of Tables XI

List of Figures XIII

Abbreviations XV

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 "Sit at My Right Hand" Psalm 110:1 in the Second Temple Period and Earliest Christianity 17

Chapter 2 "That They Might Share the Temple or Throne" Temple Sharing and Throne Sharing in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods 35

Chapter 3 "Beside the Gods in Their Temples" Royal and imperial Temple Sharing 52

Chapter 4 "Beside the Gods on their Thrones" Royal and Imperial Throne Sharing 94

Chapter 5 "God Highly Exalted Him" Phil 2:9-11, Ps 110:1, and Jesus's Share in God's Temple and Throne 111

Chapter 6 "Where the Messiah Is" Col 3:1-4, Ps 110:1, and Jesus's Share in God's Temple and Throne 157

Conclusion 180

Bibliography 185

Index of Ancient Sources 208

Index of Modern Authors 220

Index of Subjects 225