Hippolytus,
Fragmenta in Danielem (PG 10:684)
One of the earliest commentaries
on the Book of Daniel is by Hippolytus (ca. 170–ca. 236), who discusses the
identities of both the Ancient of Days and a figure named “One Like the Son of
Man,” who appears in Dan 7.13–14. Two separate editions of this text by
Hippolytus exist, and each offers a different identification of the Ancient of
Days. The Greek text provided by Migne states that the Ancient of Days was a
revelation of “the Lord and God and Master of All, [who is] Christ
himself" (PG 10:684). However, Migne’s text was based on an edition by
Mai, who did not
consult all of the extant
manuscripts of Hippolytus’ Daniel commentary (A. Mai, Scriptorum veterum
nova collectio, I.2 (Rome: n.p., 1825), 166–221. Important among his
omissions were the manuscripts in the Vatican). As a result, the word “πατηρ”
(“Father”) is missing from Migne’s text. This omission makes it seem that
Hippolytus identified the Ancient of Days as Christ.
In a later edition of Hippolytus’
commentary, Bonwetsch corrected Mai’s errors and provided an emendation based
on all the extant copies of Hippolytus’ work. In Bonwetsch’s edition,
Hippolytus writes that the Ancient of Days “is, for Daniel, nothing more than
the Lord, God and Master of All, the Father of Christ himself.”6 Hippolytus
also comments on the meaning of the name “Ancient of Days” by explaining that
it refers to one who makes the days old, one who is the creator of time but is
not made old by the passage of time. This idea, first expressed by Hippolytus,
so far as we know, will be echoed by several other writers. (Gretchen
Kraehling, "The Eastern Christian Exegetical Tradition of Daniel's Vision
of the Ancient of Days," Journal of Early Christian Studies 7, no.
1 [Spring 1999]: 140-41)
