Got curious about the whole “right hand of God” phrase.

I discovered some history, its impact, and a serious lack of critical thinking.

© Jane Isley

I got curious about the phrase “right hand of God” for two reasons. It came up one night in a Bible study, and my dad is left-handed and has alluded to a few things in his past.

So, my curiosity led me down a few late-night rabbit holes, and boy, was I not disappointed in my quest for information. I knew some historical information on the matter, but admittedly not as much as I know now.

This goes further back than I realized, to pre-Christian civilizations.

My first thought when reading through everything was that being right-handed is simply more common than being left-handed. (The online consensus is 90%-ish of the population) This originates ultimately as a “people problem” right from the start.

Ok, I can get my head around that. Simply put, people can be downright judgmental, biased, and critical in general to anyone “different” and cause problems where there were none to begin with. But that shouldn’t be a shocker for anyone reading this article.

What does the Bible say about the “right hand?”

There are countless references to the “right hand.” To me, this makes sense, it’s symbolism and one we would and should have understood because there was already that established cultural meaning and deference to the right hand.

Symbolically, being on the right hand of God means being in His favor, it’s where Jesus sits beside God in equal power; it means authority, a place of honor, and strength.

Then, of course, things were taken way too literally and abused.

I won’t make this article heavy on theology or break down verses by translation, we all know being left-handed by now is not a sin. We have multiple factors that led to left-handed people getting a bad rap and going through abuse for it.

There was a combination of cultures already being biased, superstitions, a serious lack of critical thinking, misreading of Scripture, and abuse of Scripture to perpetuate these injustices.

This is an excellent example of bad theology that we should learn from.

This horrible history in Christianity is an example of bad theology and people taking things too far simply because they thought they had an authoritative right to do so.

I decided it was time to talk to my dad, I knew a little history just from an occasional comment here or there. What he told me surprised me; in 2nd and 3rd grade, he went through hell for being left-handed.

No one stopped him or tried to retrain him, but he got picked on so badly by his teacher that he ended up despising school. He never went to college and still cringes at the thought of school.

He told me the teacher was a “staunch Lutheran” and back then and in his area the Lutheran church saw being left-handed as being “retarded and mentally ill.” I don’t like that first word at all and debated using it, but ultimately, it’s the truth. That and more was what was taught by a Christian church in his area.

I have no idea if this article is about what my dad went through, a history lesson, or an article demonstrating the severity of what happens when people refuse to read all of the Bible and only use certain verses as an excuse to abuse and persecute.

Maybe it’s simply an article about all three things.

Before I leave you with this odd article, I want to share two things.

1. God created us in His image, and Jesus was born with a left hand and a right hand, hence why this is a symbolic reference, not a literal one. I think Jesus would have been born with two right hands if this was indeed an actual concern God had.

2. This is what was conveniently ignored in the Bible.

   
   

“in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left;” 2 Corinthians 6:7

“Among all these soldiers there were seven hundred select troops who were left-handed, each of whom could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.” Judges 20:16

“Ehud reached with his left hand, drew the sword from his right thigh and plunged it into the king’s belly.” Judges 3: 21

“they were armed with bows and were able to shoot arrows or to sling stones right-handed or left-handed; they were relatives of Saul from the tribe of Benjamin):” 1 Chronicles 12:2

Thanks for reading my rather odd article, I do appreciate it! 💜

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First Published in Never Stop Writing on Medium.

© Jane Isley

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