Saturday, December 4, 2021

The “Ancient of Days” Being a “distinguishable manifestation of God as a high angel” for the Author of the Book of Revelation

  

If the form of Dan 7:13 known to the author of Revelation is ως παλαιος ημερων, how did he understand this phrase in context and in relation to Christ? It is likely that the author of Revelation interpreted both the ancient of days and the one like a son of man as hypostatic manifestations of God. In other words, the ancient of days it not actually God, but a distinguishable manifestation of God as a high angel. The ancient of days and the one like a son of man from this point of view are angelic beings, and thus creatures, but creatures of a special kind. (Adela Yarbro Collins, "The 'Son of Man' Tradition and the Book of Revelation," in James E. Charlesworth, ed., The Messiah: Developments in Earliest Judaism and Christianity [Minneapolis, Minn.: Fortress Press, 1992], 536-568, here, pp. 557-58)