That Ps llQi was taken in the Messianic sense by the .Jews of the time of our Lord is evident from Mt 22'*2f., where His oppo- nents did not deny that the writer was speaking of the Christ ; and in many of their older exegetical writings this interpreta- tion was adopted. Jennings and Lowe (The Psalim) quote the following passage which occurs in the Midrash Tillim on Ps 183« : ' R. Yoden said in the name of R. Chama, In the time to come the Holy One, Blessed be He, causes the King Messiah to sit at His right hand, according as it is said, " The utterance of Jehovah to my Lord, Sit Thou on My right hand," and Abraham on His left. And the face of Abraham grows pale, and he says, " The son of my son sits on the right hand, but I on the left " ; and the Holy One, Blessed be He, appeases him, and says, " The son of thy son is at My right hand, but I am at thy right hand " : and this is implied by (SiD'a), " Jehovah upon thy right hand." ' Later Jewish writers seek to explain the words as referrmg to Abraham (Rashi), David (Aben Ezra, Mendels- sohn), Hezekiah, or Zerubbabel, with regard to which interpre- tations see Jennings and Lowe, op. cit.; Pearson, On the Creed, Art. VI. ; and Edersheim, Life and Times of Jestis the Messiah, II. 405. Kautzsch in his art. ' Religion of Israel ' (Hastings' DB, Extra Vol. p. 727), thinks the primary reference was to a Macca- b<ean priest-prince, possibly Simon, who in the year 141 B.C. became by a popular resolution hereditary high priest and pnnce of the people. Delitzsch considers this Psalm the only one which is directly Messianic, in the sense that it contains
prophecy immediately pointing to the person of a coming Anointed One, who was fully to set up God's Kingdom on earth. On the whole question of interpretation consult Davison's art. ' Psalms ' in Hastings' DB, vol. iv. p. 160.
Accordingly the Session forms a distinct article (' ascendit in ccelos, sedet ad dexteram Patris ') in the old Roman Creed as represented in the Greek confession of Marcellus and in the Latin of Rufinus, of which Harnack writes : ' We may regard it as an assured result of research that the old Roman Creed . . . came into existence about or shortly before the middle of the second century.' It is found also in a form of creed given by Ter- tuUian {de Prcescr. Hmret. c. L3), 'in ccelos ereptum .sedisse ad dexteram Patris,' and in another [de Virg. Vcl. 1), ' receptum in ccelis sedentem nunc ad dexteram Patris.' Its importance is equally marked in the formulae of the Eastern Church, Kadiaavra iK Se^iwv tov Harpds (early Creed of Jeru- salem collected from Cyril), Kadeadevra iv Se^ta tov Ilarpos (Creed of the Apostolic Constitutions, vii. 41), Kade^o/xevov ^k 8e^iwv tou HaTpos (Creed of Con- stantinople).
In NT the reference is sometimes to the act of taking a position ; cf. He 1^ ' sat down (eKdOiaev) on the right hand of the Majesty on high,' which describes the solemn assumption of the .seat of authority, which rightly belongs to One whose dignity is expressed in such unique terms as are used in the preceding clauses ; and ' throughout the Epistle to the Hebrews (except V', KdOov from LXX) the reference is uniformly to the act of taking the royal seat ' (Westcott on lO^^^ cf. also Rev 321) ; in 122 ^\^q Perfect (KeKddiKev), found in the best MSS, denotes the entrance on a per- manent state. In Mt 19^8 25^^ the reference is to taking the throne of His glory for judgment. The verb is twice used transitively to describe the action of the Father in raising Christ from the dead and making Him to sit at His right hand (Eph P" and Ac 2^" RV). Elsewhere the Session is described rather as a state ; cf. Mt 266'*, jj^ 22«9 (RV 'shall be seated,' Vulg. 'erit sedens'), Col 3^ (oS 6 XpicTTos icTTLv . . . Kadrj/j-evos, ' where Christ is seated,' RV), and Ro 8^^ 1 P 3^2 where 6's ia-Tiv iv 8e^ia TOV deov has the same meaning; in Ps 110^ KdOov (LXX) also marks continuous session as dis- tinct from assumption of place.
The Session is spoken of as ' at the right hand of God' (Mk 16^8, Col 3^ ct al. ; cf. Eph 12" and Ac 2^^ RVm), elscAvhere variously, 'at the right hand of power' (Mt 26®^), 'of the power of God' (Lk 22'5»), ' of the Majesty on high ' (He P), ' of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens' (8^), 'of the throne of God' (122). The Greek is either iK de^iQv, which is the uniform phrase in the Synoptics and in quota- tion of Ps llQi (Ac 2^, He P»), or iv de^ia, which is used in the Epistles (Ro 8^\ Eph l-" et al. ; cf. Ac 233 ^- g^^^^^ . at the right hand,' RVm). It is diffi- cult to determine what is the exact force of the expression. God is Spirit, He has no body, and He is omnipresent, consequently the right hand of God is everywhere [dextera Dei ubique est). Therefore its use as referring to the Father is to be taken as a necessary accommodation to our limited minds, which can think only in terms of time and space, and which can have no conception of pure spirit. Among men, to be set on one's right hand has a well-defined meaning : it signifies to be in the highest place of honour, to be recognized as a sharer in rule ; cf. 1 K 2i«, Ps 45^ Mt 2021 ; Jos. Ant. VI. xi. 9 (wapaKadeadevTiov avTi^, tov fiev iraidbs 'Iwddov [1 S 2025] ^^ Se^iwv). Thus ' Hiempsal . . . dextra Adherbalem adsedit . . . quod apud Numi- das honori ducitur' (Sallust, J^igurtha, xi. 3). See art. ' Symbol' in Hastings' D£,'Extra Vol. p. 172. This is the sense in which the Fathers interpret the words ; as Westcott points out in his notes on