In this episode of the Enter the Bible podcast, hosts Kathryn Schifferdecker and Katie Langston are joined by Assistant Professor of New Testament at  Luther Seminary, Kristofer Phan Coffman, to explore the question: Does anyone sit at God’s left hand? 

Together, they examine the biblical and cultural symbolism of the right and left hands, with insights from figures like Martin Luther and the Midrash. Discover how these seating positions convey power and presence in scripture.

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Kathryn Schifferdecker: Hello and welcome to the Enter the Bible podcast, where you can get answers or at least reflections on everything you wanted to know about the Bible but were afraid to ask. I'm Kathryn Schifferdecker and.

Katie Langston: I'm Katie Langston, and today on the podcast, we are delighted to have our friend and colleague, Kristofer Phan Coffman. Uh, Kristofer is an assistant professor of New Testament here at Luther Seminary. And I think you're a returning guest, aren't you? Kristofer, you've been on here before? Yeah, it's been a.

Kristofer Phan Coffman: While, but I'm glad to be back.

Katie Langston: Yeah, yeah. Well, welcome. We're glad you're here. So today. Yes. It's always wonderful to have you. Um, so today we're tackling a listener submitted question, which I found very interesting and something I hadn't ever really thought about. And of course, dear listener, if you would like to submit a question, you may also do so by going to enter the Bible.org and clicking on the little ask a Question button in the in the main navigation menu, and there's a form you can fill it out, and we read all of them and try to get to as many of them as we can. So here is the question. Um, so we always hear about people, about Jesus. Right? Sitting at the right hand of the father. Um, does anyone sit at God's left hand? Does God have a left hand?

Kristofer Phan Coffman: Yeah.

Kristofer Phan Coffman: I found this to be a really fascinating. I did too.

Katie Langston: I was like, I'm. That's a great one. I don't I've never thought of that. So. Yeah.

Kristofer Phan Coffman: Yeah. And it's interesting partially because we just don't hear about lefties in the Bible very often or in the ancient world. And so I think to begin to answer that question, we have to start thinking about right hands and left hands. And the way that these are viewed in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, especially in the New Testament. One of the things that we see. Is that your left hand is considered quite unlucky. It is a hand of ill omen. So they have.

Katie Langston: The lefties in my life.

Kristofer Phan Coffman: I come from a family full of left handers, so they might be disappointed to hear this.

Katie Langston: Oh oh.

Katie Langston: Let them know I was just kidding.

Kristofer Phan Coffman: But one of the things that this means is that the right hand becomes a symbol of strength, that becomes a symbol of sort of importance, and the left hand is relegated to sort of a secondary importance. One of the things is that the left hand, in Greek at least, is so unlucky that they don't even have a word for left handed. They. Yeah, they instead have all these little, um, euphemisms that they use to refer to it. So you call it your, For instance, you're well named hand or your better hand. Even though people are right handed. So again, it's just it means that we don't have a lot of references to it in the Greek New Testament. And this is the same in the Old Testament as well. The about the only reference we have to a left handed person in the Old Testament is Ehud, who is one of the judges and judges. Three and I was looking at the Hebrew text there. And it's funny, even he is not really called left handed. The phrasing is they use this word eater from atar to be constricted or bound or something. And so he's called bound in his right hand, meaning he is not as good with his right.

Katie Langston: He can't use his right hand as well as he uses his left. Wow. That's interesting.

S4: Yeah.

Kathryn Schifferdecker: But he's the one who, like, stabs the king in the belly. And. Yeah, with his left hand. With his left hand, which is unexpected. So he's kind of. Yeah. Yeah.

Kristofer Phan Coffman: Exactly.

Kristofer Phan Coffman: He catches him by surprise.

Kathryn Schifferdecker: Right.

Kristofer Phan Coffman: And this is. This is part of why the left hand is considered unlucky. Yeah. One of the things that we we know about this is that a left handed person is considered untrustworthy, because when you're shaking their right hand, they may be able to, as this guy does, use their left hand to stab you or to hurt you. And so there is that association as well. But the real question, this whole phrasing about being seated at somebody's hand. Yeah. It really centers around Psalm 110 and both in the Old Testament and the New Testament, which in at the beginning of this Psalm in 110 one it begins, the Lord said to my Lord, be seated at my right hand, until your enemies are made your footstool.

Kathryn Schifferdecker: Mhm.

Kristofer Phan Coffman: And this becomes in the New Testament period, a very important messianic verse. And we get the interesting thing in Mark 12, where Jesus uses it as a sort of, uh, a sort of trick question in his disputes with the Pharisees and the Sadducees in Jerusalem, because he asked them, well, if David writes this psalm and David says that the Lord said to my Lord to sit at his right hand. How can David's descendant also be David's Lord? And we get the get the reminiscence from Mark that this delights the crowd. And so there's a lot of question about this. Who holds this position of preeminence at God's right hand? But then when we get to the question of like, who sits at God's left hand, we have many fewer references. About the only one that we have is the request of James and John. So as they're on their way to Jerusalem, James and John asked Jesus to grant them a request, and he says, um, let's hear it. And their request is that one of them? And they don't specify, which I think is very funny. They don't specify, but one of them gets to sit at Jesus's right hand, and one gets to sit at his left hand in glory. And so again, this idea that they're occupying two prominent positions. Of course, the right hand being the preferred one, but then the left hand also being close to Jesus in terms of this, um, this coming and glory. And so notice again, it's very much a, a sort of kingship being enthroned metaphor. So it's this idea of Jesus is sitting in glory. You want to be sitting close to him and again, preferably on his right hand. But the this is the only reference we have to sitting on Jesus's left hand in the New Testament.

Katie Langston: Yeah.

Kristofer Phan Coffman: And Jesus. Um, Jesus, of course, gives the sort of non-answer in that he says that to grant these things is not up to me. And so we don't really know whether James or John gets the left hand or not.

Kathryn Schifferdecker: Yeah. So in that.

Kristofer Phan Coffman: Oh keep going.

Kathryn Schifferdecker: Well, just in that instance, it's not a sinister kind of position. It's like second, second best, second place.

S4: Right.

Kathryn Schifferdecker: To sit at the left hand. Which which makes some sense.

Katie Langston: Right.

Kathryn Schifferdecker: I'm thinking about some of the icons of the Trinity. Right. Where, um, I, you know, perhaps it's the Holy Spirit, right? Sitting at the at the left hand of God or Holy Spirit. Yeah. Right. But but, you know, uh, if there's three of them, someone has to sit on the left. But no, I don't know. I mean, that's not particularly biblical, but.

Kristofer Phan Coffman: Yeah, well, there's a fun. Speaking of extra biblical sources, there's a delightful little story in the Midrash on Psalm 18. So, as I said, um, Psalm 110, very often associated with David and the Messiah sitting at God's right hand. But there's also a prominent set of interpretations that sees Abraham as the one who sits at God's right hand as sort of the father of the faith. And this is much past the biblical period. This is in the third or fourth century, though there is a midrash that brings these two together. And the story that they tell is that when in glory the Messiah is given the seat at God's right hand, and Abraham is given the seat at God's left hand, and Abraham is. Abraham is dismayed at this. And he says to God, how is it that my descendant, the Messiah, gets to sit at your right hand? Of course, implying that since Abraham is his ancestor, he should be more honored.

Katie Langston: Yeah. Yeah.

Kristofer Phan Coffman: And and God's response is, well, the Messiah sits at my right hand so that I may sit at your right hand.

Kristofer Phan Coffman: Abraham. That's how I.

Kristofer Phan Coffman: Think that's a.

Kristofer Phan Coffman: Delightful.

Kristofer Phan Coffman: Little story. But again, about how these sorts of honor and the the associations with these, um, these seatings are so very important. But when I read that, I was really chuckled.

Kathryn Schifferdecker: That is that is really good. Just to note, I think many of our readers, probably our listeners, probably know this, but midrash is a kind of creative biblical interpretation by the rabbis, by by Jewish rabbis in the centuries after Jesus. And they are often like this. They're sometimes very humorous, sometimes really poignant. Yeah. Just just really fun to read.

Kathryn Schifferdecker: Yeah, yeah.

Kristofer Phan Coffman: Very much so.

Kathryn Schifferdecker: So, Kristofer, before we started recording you, you mentioned another interpretation of sitting at the right hand by our, our own, uh, ancestor in in the Faith, Martin Luther. Uh, what what did Luther say about that?

Kristofer Phan Coffman: Yeah. So interesting as we think about these right hand metaphors, especially in the New Testament, they are associated with the Second Coming. So that is the idea. And this goes back to Daniel and the vision that he sees of the Ancient of Days and the coming of the Son of Man. And in Mark 14, this is where we very prominently get this imagery in the Gospels, where at his trial, Jesus, in response to the question, are you the son of the Blessed One, says, I am. And you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven. And so again, this very it's a it's an apocalyptic image. It is an end times image. And again associated with the Second coming. Luther, interestingly enough, though, takes this image in a very different way in his debates with Zwingli over the real presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper. And he speaks about Jesus being seated at the right hand of God, and especially using this phrasing at the right hand of power as a sign of Jesus's omnipresence. That this does not indicate a particular spatial location. It doesn't mean that God is somewhere up in the heavens, and that Jesus is physically located at his right hand, right? But because in the Old Testament, the right hand is again the hand of power. It talks about the presence of God. God saves Israel with his right arm. And so this then becomes the way in which Luther talks about Christ is able to be present everywhere in the Lord's Supper, because he is seated at the right hand of power. That this right hand of power is an image and a sign of Jesus's ability to be omnipresent and to save his people through the Lord's Supper. And so this becomes very important for Luther in his debate with Zwingli and for for our listeners who are not familiar with Zwingli. Zwingli saw the Lord's Supper as a symbol, that is, it stands in for Jesus's presence. But is not actually Jesus's presence, right? It is just bread and wine. And so Luther, uh, forcefully argues, using this image of God's right hand for Jesus's presence in the bread and in the wine.

Kathryn Schifferdecker: Yeah, I that's unexpected. Like when I think when I think of all the biblical references and there's not a huge number of them, but I think you've mentioned most, if not all of them. Sitting at the right hand has to do with power, not so much presence. So I find that an interesting move theologically on Luther's part. But I suppose that, yeah, I suppose it can be that as well. So the power.

Katie Langston: To be present.

Kathryn Schifferdecker: Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah I think okay.

Katie Langston: So yeah. Go ahead. Go ahead. Kathryn.

Kathryn Schifferdecker: Well, no I'm thinking about images like a throne room too, right? Like there's, there's the, the the ruler's, uh, throne. And then whoever is seated next to. And. Yeah, particularly at the right hand, whether that's a king or a queen, you know, whether it's a king ruling with the queen at his side or the queen ruling with her consort. You know, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, there is there is a kind of a symbolism there of of power and of relationship that is pretty evident. So the idea that Jesus sits at the right hand of the father, the right hand of God the Father, uh, is is a pretty is a high Christology, right? A high standing of who who Jesus is.

Katie Langston: Yeah. So we have, um, that's wonderful insight into what what the right hand means. And I guess we're just left to say we don't know who sits at his left hand. We don't know who sits at the left hand of God. Maybe you don't want to, you know, maybe that maybe it's Abraham. Or maybe you don't want to be there, I don't know. What do you think? Do we have any sort of supposition about who might be at the left hand?

Kristofer Phan Coffman: Yeah. And I think that this is the very difficult thing. And this is partially why Luther takes it as a non-spatial metaphor, but as this metaphor kind of of power or this image of power is that as, again, as we go back and forth, the left hand, on the one hand, the good thing about the left hand is that you get to sit close to God. But there's also some negative associations with the left hand, most most notably in the parable of the sheep and the goats in Matthew. Oh, the flocks are separated.

Kathryn Schifferdecker: And the the.

Kristofer Phan Coffman: Saved are placed at Jesus's right hand and the damned at his left. And so there are these negative associations with the left hand, which is probably part of the reason why we don't get, uh, get as much discussion of who gets to sit at your right hand. There's also an interesting and I you know, as I was reading about this, we have a little bit of a mixed metaphor as well, in that we have both this enthronement metaphor as we talked about, like with Queen Elizabeth or with, um, people sitting on the throne. But there's also a table metaphor here, in the sense of you sit at somebody's right hand when you're eating right. And one of the interesting things about that is in a Roman banquet, you don't sit at a table, you lie down and you lie always on your left side so that you can eat with your right hand. And so at a Roman banquet, literally no one sits at anybody's left hand and there are only right hands at the table, so to speak, because you're lying on your left side on a couch, and so you can have somebody at your right hand and somebody can attend to you at your right hand, but you can't have somebody sit at your left hand because you're leaning on it. And so I think that also probably contributes to the fact that we don't think of people being seated at the left hand, because in some ways, you physically can't do it within this kind of context of a Roman banquet.

Katie Langston: Yeah, that's that's really interesting. Um, lots of good. Lots of good food for thought there. No pun intended, since you're talking about a Roman banquet. Um, yeah. Thanks, Kristofer. Um, yeah, it's sort of an unanswerable question, which might feel a little, uh, disappointing to our listener, but hopefully, you know, hopefully there's some more rich context here for maybe why no one is there. Or if you are there, maybe you're bummed out that you are.

Kristofer Phan Coffman: Yeah.

Katie Langston: Um, yeah. So thank you so much. Lots. Lots of good stuff to think about. Thank you to the listener who submitted the question. And of course, thank you to you, dear wonderful listeners, for being with us today on this episode of the Enter the Bible podcast. And if you go to our website, enter the Bible.org. You can find all kinds of, um, more stuff just like this. Um, uh, resources, uh, podcasts, videos, courses, commentaries, anything you could hope to learn about the Bible is all right there. And of course, uh, one of the best ways you can help us out is to rate and review this podcast on your favorite podcast app, or like and subscribe on YouTube, uh, or share the podcast with a friend. That's always our highest compliment. Uh, thanks so much for being with us. Until next time.