Monday, April 4, 2022

Trinitarian Ray M. Lozano on Human and Angelic Figures having Thrones in Heaven

  

Various figures, both human and angelic, may have thrones in heaven, but typically such thrones are spatially distanced from God and his throne, clearly signifying God’s unique sovereignty. (Ray M. Lozano, The Proskynesis of Jesus in the New Testament: A Study on the Significance of Jesus as an Object of “Proskuneo” in the New Testament Writings [Library of New Testament Studies 609; London: T&T Clark, 2020], 45)

 

See, for example, 1 En. 108:12; 2 En. 20:1-3 (J); T. Ab. 11-13 (A); T. Levi 3:4-8; 5:1; L.A.E. 15:3; 47:3; Rev 4; Ascen. Isa. 7:13-10:6; 11:32-33. These few exceptional cases are less remarkable than is sometimes through. In 2 En. 24:1 (J), God invites Enoch to sit at his left hand but only temporarily. Ultimately, he is made to stand before God forever (2 En. 67:2). In T. Job 33:3, with regards to Job’s heavenly throne, it is best to understand η τουτου δοξα και η ευπρεπεια εκ δεξιων του πατρος as signifying that its glory and majesty comes from the right hand of God (Bock, Blasphemy, 160). And in Ezek. Trag. 74-76, it is clear from the context that Moses’s enthronement on God’s throne is meant to be understood figuratively . . . The only two relevant contemporary parallels to Jesus’s heavenly session alongside God are those of the Enochic son of Man and divine Wisdom, who are both depicted as sharing a seat with God on the divine “throne of glory” (1 En. 45:3; 51:3; 55:4; 61:8; 62:2-5; 69:29; Wis 9:4, 10; 1 En. 84:2-3[?]). (Ibid., 45 n. 49)

 

On Rev 3:21

 

. . . it is not without significance that this throne-sharing idea is ultimately portrayed in different ways for the various figures involved. For Christians, the fulfillment of this text is met in 20:4 . . . there they reign with Jesus, but on multiple separate thrones. For Jesus, on the other hand, the language of 3:21 is not loosened, as can be seen in 22:1, 3 which speak of the one “throne of God and of the Lamb.” Just as with the honor of προσκυνησις, Christians do not share the honor of a throne in precisely the same way that God and Jesus do. (Ibid, 165 n. 105)