Thursday, December 2, 2021

Klaus Koch on the Old Greek of Daniel 7 and the Son of Man Probably Denoting the Archangel Michael

  

The message of the Old Greek version differs in some important respects from the Aramaic-Hebrew version . . .Whereas in the Vorlage the eschatological Son of Man probably denotes the archangel Michael who is authorized for the coming kingdom of God by the Ancient of Days (See Collins [Daniel, 304-10]), the Old Greek identifies the coming savior with the Ancient of Days himself and apparently interprets him as the Messiah, "whose origin is from old, from ancient days" (Micha 5:2). As a consequence of this, the holy ones of chapter 7, originally angels, (Collins, Daniel, 313-17) were seen as "the holy people of the Most High" on earth (7:27). (Klaus Koch, "Stages in the Canonization of the Book of Daniel," 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], 2:426-27)

 

As Collins notes in his commentary on Daniel,

 

Third, a considerable number of authors have remained persuaded that the “one like a human being” is individual but understand him as a heavenly, angelic being rather than the messiah. We have seen above reason to expect that the “one like a human being” be understood as a realistic symbol, representing a being who was believed to exist, and that a human figure in a vision represent an angel or divine being. Within the Book of Daniel the individual who is singled out as the heavenly counterpart of Israel is the archangel Michael, “the great prince who stands over your people.” The view that Michael is the “one like a human being” was put forward by Nathaniel Schmidt in 1900. Schmidt was followed by several scholars, but his view gained wide support only in recent years, in the wake of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which threw new light on the prominence of angelic forces in the religion of the Hellenistic period. The identification of the “one like a human being” with Michael is greatly strengthened by the arguments below that the holy ones of the Most High are the angelic host.291 We return to the identification below, in connection with the holy ones. (John Joseph Collins, Daniel: A Commentary on the Book of Daniel [Hermeneia—a Critical and Historical Commentary on the Bible; Minneapolis, Minn: Fortress Press, 1993], 310)

 

A variant of the angelic interpretation would identify the “one like a human being” with Gabriel rather than Michael. Ziony Zevit has offered the ingenious argument that Dan 9:21, “the man Gabriel whom I had seen in the vision at first,” must refer back to the “one like a human being” in Daniel 7. It is more plausible, however, to trace this reference to 7:16, where Daniel asks “one of the attendants” for an interpretation. Gabriel serves as interpreter in 8:15 and 9:21, so he was probably identified as the interpreter in chap. 7 too. Michael, the prince of Israel, is the more appropriate recipient of the kingdom. (Ibid.)