Wednesday, December 15, 2021

John E. Goldingay on the פלח plḥ (cultic service) the Son of Man Receives in Daniel 7

Commenting on the פלח plḥ, cultic service, the Son of Man receives in Dan 7:13-14, John Goldingay wrote that:

 

The humanlike figure comes in order to be invested as king (v 14). The sovereignty he is given is like God’s own (cf. 3:33 [4:3]; 6:27 [26]). The rule the first symbolic dream spoke of (2:44-45). He is given the power Nebuchadnezzar once exercised (2:37; 5:19; cf. 6:26 [25]). In serving him, people indirectly serve God, like the foreigners pictured as serving Israel in Isa 60:7, 10; 61:6. (John E. Goldingay, Daniel [Word Biblical Commentary 30; Dallas, Tex.: Wordbooks, 1989], 168)

 

Interestingly, Nebuchadnezzar, in the book of Judith (LXX) is the recipient, not simply of δουλευω but λατρευω:

 

Yet he [Holofernes] demolished all their shrines and cut down their sacred groves; for he had been commissioned to destroy all the gods of the land, so that all nations should worship (λατρευω) Nebuchadnezzar alone, and that all their dialects and tribes should call upon (επικαλεω [cf. Paul in Rom 10:9 and ‘calling upon’ Jesus—another act of cultic worship] him as a god. (Judith 3:8 NRSV)

 

For more, including a discussion of LXX Dan 7:14, see:

 

Is Jesus Given λατρευω?

 

I mention this as John Dehlin will be interviewing John Larsen on the Mormon Stories podcast on the Gospel of Mark. My guess is that he will argue that it evidences a low Christology and perhaps an adoptionistic Christology (a la Bart Ehrman), ignoring [1] contemporary texts such as Hebrews teaches Jesus pre-existed and was the agent of the Genesis creation and [b] Mark 14, where Jesus is the Son of Man and was understood in the LXX and Jesus' contemporaries to be a divine figure (e.g., he receives cultic worship), not, as many think, simply a mortal empowered by God's spirit.

 

On these issues, see:

 

Thomas Farrar, You, Lord, in the beginning: Hebrews 1:10-12 and Christology

 

and

 

Darrell L. Bock, Blasphemy and Exaltation in Judaism: The Charge against Jesus in Mark 15:53-65