Though sometimes thought to rule
out an identification with Jesus, the angels’ raising his right hand to heaven
and swearing by the ever-living Creator (10:5-6; cf. Dan 12:7) suits well the
element of subordination to God in Johannine Christology (cf. the implication
of “our Lord and his Christ” in 11:15). According to Deut 32:40 God lists his
hand to heaven and says, i.e., swears, “As I live forever . . .”; and in Heb
6:13 God even swears by himself, so that neither swearing itself nor swearing
by God implies less than deity in the swearer. The fact that earlier in
Revelation John has referred four times to the right hand of Jesus (1:16, 17,
20; 2:1), the only exception being the right hand of God his Father (5:1, 7),
also lends some support to an identification of an angel with Jesus. In view of
the many parallels in Johannine Christology between Jesus the Son and God his
Father (in Revelation, for example, they share the same throne, kingdom, and
authority—3:21; 5:13; 6:16; 7:9-11, 15-17; 11:15; 12:5, 10; 20:6; 22:1, 3), the
two earlier references to God’s right hand add to this support (the imprint of
the mark of the Beast on the right hand of his worshippers has yet to appear
[13:16]; and inasmuch as the Beat parodies Christ, that later reference hardly
damages a reference to the right hand of Christ in John’s mention of the
angel’s right hand). (Robert Gundry, “Angelomorphic Christology in the Book of
Revelation,” in The Old Is Better: New Testament Essays in Support of
Traditional Interpretations [Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen Zum Neuen Testament
178; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2005; repr., Eugene, Oreg.: Wipf and Stock, 2010],
382-83)
Such refutes how some absolutise Matt 5:34 against all oaths, swearing, etc.
