. . .Dr. appears to be
alone in remarking that the orig. term merely means an 'old man'; only the
process of the vision reveals who is referred to. The phrase means exactly
'advanced in days,' = Lat. aetate prouectus (Cicero, De senect.,
iii, 10), English 'advanced in years.' It is identical with the Heb. phrase
'come-on in years,' Gen. 241 (EVV erroneously 'stricken in years');
and our phrase appears fairly often in Syr. literature . . . (James A. Montgomery,
A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Book of Daniel [The
International Critical Commentary; Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1927], 297)
In a note
for the above about the “Ancient of Days”:
The correspondent πεπαλαιωμενε ημερων κακων appears in Sus.52,
while the identical phrase occurs in Syr.; e.g, Wis. 210,
Ecclus. 255 (translating 'old man'); also the pl. freq. in Aphraates,
e.g., Dem., xxii, 8, while Torrey adduces a case from John of Ephesus;
Sa. tr. by šaiḫ, 'old man.' The adj. did not primarily mean 'old,' requiring
a specifying addition; but it appears with that mng. in 1 Ch. 422
and also in JAram., Syr. I note Arab. musinnu s-samâ'i, 'the ancient of
heaven,' and the 'Aghânî, Lammens, Riwâyât al-Aghânî, 1, 105, l.
7. The term is cited at times in Talm., s. Lexx. It becomes 'the head of days,'
in Enoch, e.g. 461. While Re. identifies the Ancient with God, Jeph.
finds in him an angel, and AEz. Michael. (Ibid., 300)
Montgomery
references the work of “Dr.” (i.e., S.R. Driver, of the Brown, Driver, Briggs, Hebrew
and English Lexicon [AKA BDB]). In his commentary, Driver what the
following about Dan 7:9:
the Ancient of days] The expression does not mean what the English word seems to
imply, one who had existed from the days of eternity; it means simply an aged
man; and the R.V., one that was ancient of days, it means to
indicate this. Exactly the same expression occurs in the Syriac version of
Wisd. ii. 10 for an 'old man,' and in Ecclus. xxv. 4 (in the plural) for
'elders.' 'What Daniel sees is not the eternal God Himself, but an aged man, in
whose dignified and impressive form God reveals Himself: cf. Ez. i. 26' (Keil).
(S.R. Driver, The Book of Daniel [The Cambridge Bible for Schools and
Colleges; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1905], 85)
As an aside,
here is how BDB (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1907) defines “עַתִּיק”:
11289 ] עַתִּיק11291) [Aramaic) (page 1108) (Strong 6267-68,6275(
† עַתִּיק adj. advanced,
aged )BH
)as
Aramaism(, ðעתק, q.v.(;—cstr. מַיָּא)-ע׳
יוֹמִין (: one advanced, aged, in days Dn
7:9, 7:13, 7:22 (cf. Syr. Áatiyq yawmotoÀ Ecclus 25:4 al., PS:3011).