Third, kings and heirs/vice-regents. A
coin minted in Rome ca. 13 BCE depicts Augustus seated with his son-in-law
Marcus Agrippa to indicate shared authority and his intention for succession.
In addition, somewhat blurring the second and third categories, a Roman coin
ca. 55 CE depicts the divine Claudius seated at the right hand of the divine
Augustus on a chariot pulled by four elephants.
Ps 110 indicates that ancient
Israelite religion shared this tradition of throne sharing between a deity and
a monarch. The motif of throne sharing develops in the post-exilic and Second
Temple eras. The Chronicler makes it clear that the throne of Israel’s king is
the throne of Yahweh. It is repeated that Solomon sits on the throne of the
kingdom of Yahweh over Israel (1 Chr 28.5; 1 Chr 29.23; 2 Chr 9.8) to the point
that the kingdom of Israel is coterminous with the kingdom of God (2 Chr 13.8).
The Enochic “Chosen One” is seated upon the Lord of Spirit’s throne, and one
can detect in this language a composite allusion to Dan 7.9-14 and Ps 110.1 in 1
En. (51.3; 55.4; 61.8; 62.2). In early Christianity, Ps 110 was the default
text for explaining Jesus’ exaltation and session at God’s right hand. Despite
the paucity of messianic interpretations of Ps 110 in pre-70 CE texts, the best
explanation for widespread use of Ps 110:1 in earliest Christianity is that
because of royal and imperial temple and throne sharing the sharing of a god’s
temple and throne were cross-cultural rewards for pious, beneficent, and
divinely approved rulers,” says Burnett.
Importantly, throne sharing implies
co-rule, a form of vice-regency, so the king, co-enthroned with a deity, shares
in the sovereignty of the deity. The position at a deity’s right hand suggests
not only a conferral of superlative honor, but a close association between the
deity and his royal servant. The theological significance of throne sharing is
the equality that it presumes between those who share such a throne.
Consequently, Israel’s king was not
only enthroned by Yahweh (Ps 2.7; 89.20, 35-36; 132.11-12) but also was
enthroned with Yahweh (Ps 80.1; 110.1). Accordingly, Pss 2 and 10, with the
acclamation of the king as a divine son and co-enthroned “lord,” the highest
office humanly attainable, loomed large in early Christology and invited
assimilation with other texts and traditions that would place Jesus beyond a
human office and into the orbit of divine functions and nature. In addition, Ps
45 is a royal wedding psalm where the king is acclaimed with a divine title:
“Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever; a scepter of justice will be
the scepter of your kingdom” (Ps 45.6), with a tacit echo of Gen 49:9-10 about
Judah’s scepter. In Isaiah, the coming Davidide is heralded as “mighty God”
(Heb) or “angel of the great counsel” (LXX) in Is 9.6 (5).
Casting the king’s origins back into a
primordial history and among the stars of the heavens appears frequently in the
literature. The Greek psalter presages the preexistence and heavenly origins of
a messianic figure. In Psalm 72 (Heb)/71 (LXX) it is said in v. 17, “May his
name endure forever, his fame continue as long as the sun” (Heb) and “Let his
name be blessed forever. Before the sun his name will remain” (LXX). The Greek
text provides an explicitly temporal sequence so that the king’s name exists “before”
(pro) the sun. Added to that, in Ps 110 (Heb)/109 (LXX) v. 3, the
ambiguity of the Hebrew (lit., from womb-dawn-dew-childhood) is translated into
Greek as “from the womb, before the morning star, I begat you” with obvious
influence from Ps 2.7 (begotten you) and perhaps from Isa 14.12 (morning star).
Note too in Greek Micah that the coming Davidide’s “entrance has its beginning
from the days of the ages” (Micah 5.1 LXX). (Michael F. Bird, Jesus Among
the Gods: Early Christology in Greco-Roman World [Waco, Tex.: Baylor
University Press, 2022], 322-24)
