Saturday, December 4, 2021

James B. Jordan (Reformed Protestant): The "Ancient of Days" is Not God the Father

James B. Jordan (1949-), a Reformed Protestant theologian, “ is director of Biblical Horizons ministries, a think tank in Niceville, Florida that publishes books, essays and other media dealing with Bible commentary, Biblical Theology, and liturgy” (source).

 

Interestingly, in his commentary on the book of Daniel, Jordan, a Trinitarian, does not believe that the “Ancient of Days” to be God the Father. Commenting on Dan 7 and Ezek 1 being the background thereof, Jordan notes the following:

 

Ezekiel and the Chariot

 

The prophecy of Ezekiel begins with that prophet’s ordination, in the thirtieth year (Ezekiel 1–3). Since this is not the thirtieth year after any preceding event, it must mean the thirtieth year of his own life, the year in which priests were ordained to service (Numbers 4). (Numbers 4 speaks of Levites, and the priests were Levites.) Ezekiel was not ordained to be High Priest in the Temple, since he was in exile. Nor was he ruler over other priests. He was, however, put in a position similar to the High Priest, in that he was given three visions in which he sees the Chariot of the Cherubim, which resided in the Holy of Holies (Ezekiel 1–3; 8–11; 43). It was only the High Priest who ever went into the Holy of Holies (Hebrews 9:1–7). As the High Priest was spiritual ruler of Israel, so Ezekiel is spiritual ruler of the exilic community.

 

Beginning in Ezekiel 1:4, Ezekiel is given a vision of the Chariot of Cherubim upon which God sits enthroned (Psalms 18:10; 104:3). The Chariot was placed at rest in the Holy of Holies (1 Chronicles 28:18). In the Holy of Holies were four cherubim, two of them originally made in the Mosaic era and attached to the Ark-Cover (“mercy seat” in English Bibles) on either side. In the Tabernacle, God was conceived as enthroned above the Cover, supported as it were by the wings of these two cherubim. In the Temple, two more cherubim were made, very large ones standing on either side of the Mercy Seat. Their outstretched wings touched each other to form a canopy over the throne (1 Kings 6:27), so that God sat enthroned in the midst of four cherubim, two beneath and two above. (Exodus 25:20 says that the wings of the cherubim on the Mercy Seat “covered” it, implying that these wings were also touching one another.) When this vertical configuration is turned on its side, so that the Chariot is no longer parked, it becomes what Ezekiel saw.

 

The Chariot in the Holy of Holies was uniquely associated with that throne room. The Chariot in Ezekiel 1, however, embraces not only the Holy of Holies but also the Holy Place and the Courtyard with its Altar. The Chariot in Ezekiel 1 displays the entire sanctuary of God in all three of its zones, but because it is displayed as a Chariot it is particularly associated with the Holy of Holies. After all, the Holy of Holies (the highest heaven) is the archetype of the Holy Place (the lower heavens), and also of the entire Tabernacle-Courtyard area (representing the earth with the altar-mountain raised up in it). (On this symbolism, see James B. Jordan Through New Eyes: Developing a Biblical View of the World (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, [1988] 1999); and Vern S. Poythress, The Shadow of Christ in the Law of Moses (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian & Reformed, 1991).)

 

As the Chariot draws near in God’s cloud, the first thing Ezekiel encounters are the four “living beings,” the cherubim, who form four corners of an altar with fire inside of it, and whose outstretched wings form the sides of this altar (Ezekiel 1:1–14). In Daniel 7, the first thing Daniel sees are the four “beasts,” who like the cherubim are composite animal-human beings. We must not let our translations confuse us: “Living being” and “beast” are identically the same word.

 

Next to the four cherubim are four double wheels, that move north and south, and east and west, the north-south wheel inserted into the east-west wheel (Ezekiel 1:15–21).

 

Following this (Ezekiel 1:22–25), the prophet sees a firmament over the heads of the Cherubim. A literal translation of verse 22 is important for out purposes: “And over the heads of the beast [singular]: something like a firmament, like the gleaming eye [look] of awesome ice, extended over their heads.” Notice that the “beast” or “living being” is singular here: The four cherubim are considered as one beast. The icy firmament refers to the waters taken up above the firmament in Genesis. It also refers to the blue veil that separated the Tabernacle from the Altar.

 

Then Ezekiel sees the Charioteer riding in this Chariot (Ezekiel 1:26–28). He sees a blue (lapis lazuli) throne, the color of heaven, above the firmament. The person enthroned has the “appearance of a man.” He is divided in half: “And I saw from the appearance of his loins and upward something like the gleaming look [eye] of electrum [silver + gold] with the appearance of fire housing it all around, and from the appearance of his loins and downward I saw something with the appearance of fire; and a radiance around him” (1:27). The upper part of this personage corresponds to the highest heavens, and to the Holy of Holies, or Most Holy. The lower part corresponds to the intermediate heavens, and to the Holy Place.

 

Now, Ezekiel was a contemporary of Daniel. His book had been finished before the events of Daniel 7. Daniel and his friends, thus, were thoroughly conversant with this vision, and they would have instantly recognized that the vision of Daniel 7 is building on it.

 

Daniel 7 first presents four composite beasts. These are not presented all at once, as in Ezekiel 1, but they are presented first in the order of the vision, as in Ezekiel 1. They are one beast, for each beast incorporates the previous, just as the statue of Daniel 2 had four sections or historical phases, but was one statue. The cherubim guard God’s throne, and also with their wings form a boundary for the Chariot. Similarly, Daniel’s beasts, as some kind of earthly form of cherubim, are to guard God’s earthly people (the Jews) and form the boundaries of His Oikumene kingdom.

 

Ezekiel’s beasts came down from the sky; Daniel’s come up from the great sea. The great sea is not the Mediterranean, because Babylon and Persia did not come from there. Nor is it some kind of mythological sea. Rather, in accordance with Biblical symbolism, the sea represents the Gentile world. These beasts are Gentile empires that are to act as guardian cherubim.

 

Some modern interpreters point to great “chaos beasts” as part of the ancient religions of the Near East, and assume that such dangerous and threatening beasts are in view. While educated Jews, like Daniel and his friends, would certainly know about such “chaos-monster myths,” they would also realize that this vision came from the same God who had revealed His chariot and His four beasts to Ezekiel. With their Jewish background, and with Ezekiel clearly in mind, Daniel and his friends would not have been drawn off by the red herring of “chaos-monsters,” but would have recognized the beasts of Daniel 7 as cherubic figures. Just as Satan was a fallen cherub, so these beasts might fall; but as Satan was created good at the beginning, so were these beasts.

 

Daniel’s beasts come in an historical order, each replaced in turn when it becomes evil and moves against God’s people in a climactic way (compare Daniel 5–6). When the fourth beast and his Little Horn sidekick turn against God’s people, the fifth and final kingdom, that of a man and not a beast, replaces it—just as the “stone cut without hands” replaced the statue in Daniel 2.

 

Then, following the order of Ezekiel 1, Daniel sees the throne and the person on the throne, the Ancient of Days. As in Ezekiel 1, the throne is surrounded by fire and angels. As in Ezekiel 1, it is a Chariot, with wheels. The Person enthroned in Ezekiel 1 is not God in general, but specifically Yahweh, the ruler of Israel, also called the “messenger” of Yahweh. We know from the New Testament that this Person became incarnate as the man Jesus Christ.

 

With Ezekiel 1 in mind, we can see that the Ancient of Days is not God in general, nor is He God the Father. As John 1:18 says, “No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has revealed Him.” From this statement it is clear that Daniel did not see God the Father in Daniel 7, and that the “one like a son of man” who comes to the Ancient of Days cannot be Jesus at His ascension. Rather, the Personage called the Ancient of Days is the preincarnate Jesus, and it is someone else who comes to Him to receive the kingdom from Him.

 

Ezekiel 1 is not partly in the background of Daniel 7, nor is it merely glanced at, but is fully in the background. Daniel 7:2–10 is another version of the vision of Ezekiel 1, and would have been recognized as such instantly by Daniel himself. (James B. Jordan, The Handwriting on the Wall: A Commentary on the Book of Daniel [Powder Springs, Ga.: American Vision, 2007], 331-335, emphasis in bold added)

 

Note that, for Jordan, who is a Trinitarian, he must interpret Dan 7 as presenting the preincarnate Jesus (who he believes to be the “Ancient of Days”) as being numerically distinct from the incarnate Jesus. This is nothing short of Nestorianism—there being two persons composing Jesus (one human; one divine).

 

Elsewhere, Jordan is open to the theory that Daniel himself was unaware of the full meaning of this passage, though modern Christians have no such excuse(!):

 

Now, Daniel would not have been aware that the Messiah would be the incarnate Yahweh. Hence, he might well have seen the one like a son of man as the Messiah coming to Yahweh to receive the kingdom . . . We, however, cannot be confused. The Ancient of Days is Yahweh, and taking his seat must be the ascension of Jesus . . . (Ibid., 340)

 

Latter-day Saints will find this to be interesting, as Jordan would agree with us that the “Ancient of Days” is not God the Father. Further, in an attempt to argue that it was the preincarnate Jesus/YHWH, Jordan engages in Christological heresy (even from a Trinitarian perspective) by presenting the preincarnate Jesus (the “divine nature” and “divine will”) as being a numerically distinct person from the incarnate Jesus (Nestorianism), an issue the Latter-day Saint belief does not fall into.