Thursday, December 2, 2021

James D.G. Dunn on the Merging of the "Son of Man" and the "Ancient of Days"

  

Particularly intriguing for an interest in the Danielic son of man is, of course, the combined influence of Dan 7:9 and 13 in Rev 1:13-14 - that is, the use of elements of Daniel's description of the Ancient of Days ("his head and his hair were ... as white wool, '"like a flame of fire") in Revelation's description of the "one like a son of man." This suggestion that the figures of the Ancient of pays and the "one like a son of man" were in some way merged in John's vision has stimulated considerable discussion in NT scholarship. It has also posed various issues: whether it strengthens the case that the reading of Dan 7: 13 LXX was current ("as the Ancient of Days," rather than "to the Ancient of Days"); how it correlates with the issue of angel christology that is also addressed in Revelation;  and whether, as with the talk of "the lamb in the midst of the throne" (Rev 7: 17; cf. 22: 1,3), it amounts simply to a merging of symbolical descriptions, or was intended to provide something more in the nature of an ontological statement about the relationship between Christ and God. (James D.G. Dunn, "The Danielic Son of Man in the New Testament," in John J. Collins and Peter W. Flint, eds., The Book of Daniel: Composition and Reception, 2 vols. [Supplements to Vetus Testamentum LXXXIII,II; Formation and Interpretation of Old Testament Literature II, 2; Leiden: Brill, 2001], 2:537)