Monday, December 6, 2021

The Importance of Examining the Original Language Texts: A Recent Personal Experience

I am currently doing research into the “Ancient of Days” in Dan 7 and finding commentators who do not believe the figure to be God, or at least, not only God (sometimes, a commentator will argue it is the Father and, by means of divine investiture, Jesus).

 

While searching for various terms (in this instance, “Michael” and “Ancient of Days”), I came across the following from The Gospel of Nicodemus (AKA Acts of Pilate):

 

CHAP. 9 (25)—And the Lord, holding the hand of Adam, delivered him to Michael the archangel: and all the saints followed Michael the archangel, and he led them all into the glorious grace of paradise. And there met them two men, ancient of days. The saints asked them: Who are you, that have not yet been dead along with us in the regions below, and have been placed in paradise in the body? One of them answered, and said: I am Enoch, who by the word of the Lord have been translated hither; and he who is with me is Elias the Thesbite, who was taken up by a fiery chariot. Here also even until now we have not tasted death, but have been reserved to the coming of Antichrist, by divine signs and wonders to do battle with him, and, being killed by him in Jerusalem, after three days and half a day to be taken up alive again in the clouds. (ANF 8:452)

 

This stood out as it makes reference to plural “Ancient of Days.” Perhaps if one just stopped there, one could argue that there was a strand of thought, reflected in this work, of there being more than one “Ancient of Days,” and perhaps it was understood as a title that more than one person could hold. However, appealing to the Greek of this passage does not support such. The Greek of this text from The Gospel of Nicodemus (B) simply reads "two old/elderly men":

 

. . . δυο πρεσβυται ανθρωποι . . . (Bart D. Ehrman and Zlatko Pleše, The Apocryphal Gospels: Texts and Translations [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011] 486; on p. 487 Ehrman and Pleše provide the translation: “two elderly people”)

 

So the passage is not appealing to/reworking Dan 7 and the “Ancient of Days”; instead, it is speaking of simply two elderly men.

 

The point of this post? Where one can, always examine the original language texts and primary sources. By looking up the original language texts in this case, I saved myself from having to eat crow in the future if a critic were to examine this text and call me up on relying on English translations!

 

Our critics often do not demonstrate intellectual honesty and integrity; does not mean we should not strive our best to demonstrate such, however.