to sit
kathemai denotes being seated, from ordinary bodily posture to occupying a marked or symbolic position.
The term most often marks a person or group as seated in an ordinary setting—beside a road, at a booth, in a house, or around a teacher. It also occurs for occupying a designated position at a right hand, on a throne or judgment-seat, and within symbolic scenes such as darkness, waters, or a queenly claim.
Senses in use
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Ordinary seated posture in a setting · dominant
Present middle participles and imperfect indicatives describe people already seated in specific places: a man by the road begging in Luke 18:35, Levi at the tax booth in Mark 2:14, and a crowd around Jesus in Mark 3:32. In Mark 4:1, the present middle infinitive occurs when he gets into a boat and the APB renders that he “sat in the sea.”
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Occupying an honored or judicial position · common
The form identifies a position at the right hand in Acts 2:34, Colossians 3:1, and Luke 22:69; the APB renders the clauses with “Sit” or “seated.” In Luke 22:30, the future middle form concerns sitting on thrones while judging the twelve tribes, and Matthew 27:19 places someone upon the judgement-seat.
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Seated within symbolic imagery or a claimed station · occasional
The participial clauses place people in darkness and the shadow of death in Luke 1:79 and a woman upon many waters in Revelation 17:1; Revelation 17:15 explains those waters as peoples, crowds, Gentiles, and tongues. In Revelation 18:7, the first-person present form occurs in the queenly claim that the APB renders, “I sit a queen.”
In the Anselm Project Bible: Across the verses, the APB commonly uses “sitting,” “sat,” and “seated,” as in Acts 8:28, John 6:3, and Colossians 3:1. It also renders the symbolic claim in Revelation 18:7 as “I sit a queen”; these are clause-level renderings rather than definitions.