Thursday, February 10, 2022

Peter R. Carrell on Ezekiel 1, Daniel 7, 8, and 10 and the Relationship between the Son of Man and Ancient of Days

Commenting on the work of another scholar, Christopher C. Rowland (The Open Heaven) on Ezekiel, Daniel, and the relationship between the Ancient of Days and Son of Man, Peter Carrell noted that

 

Ezekiel 1.26-28, 8.2-4, and Daniel 10.5-6 disclose a trend whereby the human form of God (Ezek. 1.26-8) is separated from the divine throne-chariot and functions as ‘a quasi-angelic mediator’ (Ezek. 8.2-4) similar to the angel in Daniel 10.5-6. On the one hand, the form of the angel in Daniel 10.5-6 appears to have been influenced by Ezekiel, especially the theophany in chapter 1. On the other hand, the figure in Ezekiel 8.2-4 may be compared with ‘one like a son of man’ in Daniel 7.13: both are heavenly figures who are spoken of in ‘quasi-divine terms.’ The divine status of the Danielic son of man figure, which speaks of the figure coming ‘as the Ancient of Days’ rather than ‘unto the Ancient of Days.’ The LXX variant was probably responsible for the identification of the risen Jesus with the Ancient of Days in Apocalypse 1.14. (Peter R. Carrell, Jesus and the Angels: Angelology and the Christology of the Apocalypse of John [Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series 95; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997], 5)