In the Reformation Commentary series on Daniel and Ezekiel, we learn from Carl L. Beckwith that Reformation-era
commentators are divided
on the identity of the Ancient of Days. Some understand here God the Father;
others see this as a reference to Christ, particularly his divine nature. A
third opinion is that this is a reference to the everlasting Trinity: Father,
Son and Holy Spirit. If it is God the Father, then some exegesis is required to
account for Christ’s statements in John 5 that all judgment has been given to
him by the Father. All are agreed that Son of Man is a clear reference to
Christ. He is said to be “like” a Son of Man because he had not yet assumed flesh. Therefore Daniel saw him in figure and not in substance. Daniel ends with
a description of the kingdom of the saints and Christ’s eternal reign. Our
commentators reflect on the significance of this vision of the future kingdom
of Christ and how we are to cherish it and not seek to go beyond what God has
revealed. As Daniel says, “Here is the end of the matter” (Dan 7:28).
7:9–12 Ancient of Days
The Ancient of Days. John Calvin: Daniel now relates how he saw another
figure, namely, God sitting on his throne to exercise judgment. We shall see it
afterwards concerning Christ, but Daniel now teaches only the appearance of God
in his character of a judge. This was the reason why many persons extend this
prophecy to the second advent of Christ—an interpretation by no means correct,
as I shall show more copiously in the proper place. But first it is worthwhile
to consider here why he says the Ancient of Days, meaning the eternal Deity himself,
ascended the throne of judgment. This scene seems unnecessary, because it is
the peculiar office of God to govern the world; and as we know this cannot be
done without upright judgment, it follows that God has been a perpetual judge
from the creation of the world. Now, even a moderate acquaintance with the
Scriptures shows how well this passage suits us by appealing to our senses, for
unless God’s power is made conspicuous, we think it either abolished or
interrupted. Hence those forms of expression that occur elsewhere, as, “How
long are you silent, O Lord, and how long will you cease from us?” (Ps 13:1; Ps
9:7, and elsewhere), and God ascends his throne—for we should not acknowledge
him as a judge unless he really and experimentally proved himself such. This
then is the reason why Daniel says God himself was seated in judgment. Commentaries on Daniel. (CTO [Calvin's
Commentaries, Calvin Translation Society] 25:31 (CO [Ioannis Calvini Opera
Quae Supersunt Omnia] 19:53))
Christ, the Ancient of
Days.
Johannes Oecolampadius: Christ is introduced as the Ancient of Days, who is called the lamb
that was slain from the beginning of the world, and who in the beginning was
with God, so that you would become acquainted with the prophets who acknowledge
Christ as God and man. Commentary on
Daniel. (In Danielem prophetam libri duo (1553), 93–94.)
Who is the Ancient of
Days? Andrew Willet: Some
understand here the person of the Father because mention is made (Dan 7:13) of
the Son of Man, which approached the Ancient of Days (Polanus). So also the Glossa Ordinaria takes it. But Christ is
there called the Son of Man in respect of human nature. As he is God, he is the
Ancient of Days from all eternity, as God the Father is, as he is called the everlasting father (Is 9:6).
Some by the Ancient of Days understand Christ the
mediator; Christ is brought in as the Ancient of Days, who is the lamb that was
slain from the beginning of the world (Oecolampadius). But Christ as the
mediator, God and man, is described afterward (Dan 7:13) where he is called the
Son of Man and approaches the Ancient of Days. The Son of Man, then, and the
Ancient of Days are not all one.
Wherefore by the Ancient of Days, the everlasting God
is signified (Junius), the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who were from all
eternity. For concerning the person of the Father, our Savior says, My Father judges no one but has committed
all judgment to the Son (Jn 5:22). So, the everlasting God shall judge
(Hugo), not God the Father only by his Son (as Osiander). But although the
person of the Son only shall appear, yet there shall not be wanting both the
Father and the Holy Ghost (Vatablus). Sixfold
Commentary upon Daniel. (Sixfold Commentary (1610), 221. The Glossa
Ordinaria is a medieval commentary on the Bible with marginal and
interlinear glosses from the Fathers. Francis Vatablus (1485–1547) was a noted
Hebrew professor at the University of Paris.)
The Ancient of Days
and the Son of Man. Heinrich Bullinger: The judge who is seated on his throne is the Ancient
of Days, God the Father. Without doubt the future divine and most just judgment
of Christ is shown under this person. For the Father does not judge in any
other way, but he gives all authority to judge also to the Son of Man: he who
judged with the most just judgment judges as he receives from the Father. And
the Lord Jesus in the Gospel of John says, “The Father judges no one but has
given all judgment to the Son that all may honor the Son as they honor the
Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him”
(Jn 5:22–23). And next he says, “As the Father has life in himself, so he has
granted that the Son has life in himself and has given him authority to execute
judgment also because he is the Son of Man” (Jn 5:26–27). And this is without
doubt about whom Daniel speaks.
Therefore the persons of the Father and the Son are
most excellently distinguished one from the other and are not confounded. The
one is the Father and the other truly the Son, both having equal authority
because they are coequal, coessential and coeternal. Indeed, elsewhere the Lord
says, “I and the Father are one” (Jn 10:30). We just heard that the Son is to be
honored as the Father; that the Son has life in himself as the Father.
Therefore, although we heard that the Son received something and the Father
gave something to the Son, it is not to be held that they are unequal and that
the Son has not this authority from eternity, which he receives in time from
the Father. What is more clear than what the Lord himself says: “And now
glorify me, Father, with your own self with the glory that I had with you
before the world was” (Jn 17:5). Therefore, we assign to the divine economy
what we hear the Son receives and the Father gives, as they are no less coequal
and coeternal and possessing the same authority. Therefore, when we hear the
most just judgment of the Father represented here, we understand by true faith
that this is the judgment of Christ. Daniel
the Most Wise Prophet of God. (Daniel Sapientissimus, 81)
7:13–14 The
Son of Man
The Ancient of Days Is the Son of God. John Mayer: Here by the Ancient of Days Lyra understands Christ in his divinity, and by the Son of Man brought to him Christ in his humanity, but Polanus by the first God the Father and God the Son incarnate by the second. I rather prefer Lyra, because God the Father has never taken to him any similitude, but the Son as a “prelude” of his incarnation, and Ezekiel 1, where one sitting on a throne above the cherubim appeared like the Son of Man, it was undoubtedly God the Son; and here is a representation of a judge, which office is by the Father deputed to the Son. There is something said like this in Revelation 20:12 where the proceedings at the day of judgment are set forth, and as there, so here the opening of the books are spoken of, but here nothing else is meant, but that it should be justly proceeded against the kings before spoken of, as when a judge now goes according to plain evidence in condemning malefactors. Commentary upon All the Prophets (Prophets, 543.)
Son of Man. Johann Wigand: At the final judgment, the Son of Man will
appear; that is Christ, who establishes the limits of all the kingdoms of this
world and whose kingdom alone will stand for eternity, with the Father and the
Holy Spirit.
… The Ancient of
Days seems to be a periphrasis for God the Father. To be sure this is not
said exclusively because the Son and the Holy Spirit are coeternal with the
Father. No space of time is to be conceived by the mind when the Son was not
with the Father. Rightly condemned was Arius, who said there was a time when
the Son of God was not.
And was presented before
him. Here the glorification
of Christ after the resurrection is described. Below Daniel says, Christ will
be slain. Here mention is made of the final judgment. Brief Exposition of the Prophet Daniel. (Explicatio
Brevis (1571), 266–67.) (Carl L. Beckwith, ed., Ezekiel,
Daniel: Old Testament [Reformation Commentary on Scripture 12; Downers
Grove, Ill.: IVP Academic, 2012], 338-40)