. . . I would stress something else often missed in
discussions of Jesus and Dan 7: the “One like a son of man” of Dan 7 is only
one of several images from that passage, and related portions of Daniel, to
emerge in the Jesus tradition. One should highlight the following: (1) Luke
12:32 (“do not be afraid, little flock, because your Father is well pleased to
give [δουναι] you the kingdom [την βασιλειαν]”) draws on the transfer scenes of Dan
7, using the same verb and absolute form of “the kingdom” (as in Dan 7:18, 27);
(2) Q 22:28-30 (par. Matt 19:28) has Jesus speak of his disciples on “thrones” “judging”
or “ruling” (κρινοντες)
the twelve tribes, which draws on Dan 7’s description of the placement of “thrones”
(plural” and, likely, the giving of judgment (MT: דינא, LXX has την κρισιν, and Θ has το κριμα) to
the “holy ones of the Most High”; (3) the request of James and John to sit at
Jesus’s “right and left in glory” (see Mark 19;35-45; Matt 20:20-28)
presupposes the enthronement scenario in Dan 7, confirmed by the fact that
Jesus’s reply draws on the same: he says he does not have the authority “to
give” (δουναι
[cf. Dan 7:14]), and Jesus actually subverts the image of the son of man being “served”
by others (7:13-14) by saying “even” (και)
“the son of man” came to “serve”; (4) the comparison by the kingdom of God to a
“great tree” where birds nest in its branches (Mark 4:30-32 [though here,
ironically, “shrub”]; cf. Matt 13:31-32 and Luke 13:18-19) probably draws on an
earlier eschatological vision of Daneil about the coming kingdom (4:10-12,
19-27); (5) Q 10:22 (cf. Matt 11:25-27) has Jesus exclaim that “all things have
been handed over [παρεδουη] to
me by my Father” (cf. Dan 7:14); (6) the apocalyptic discourse in Mark 13 and
parallels is riddled with phrases drawn from Dan 7:7-12 that have to do with
suffering, persecution, and the temple.
To these two examples must be added two further facts:
(1) Paul himself drew on Daniel where he reminded that Corinthians that the “holy
ones” “will judge the world” (1 Cor 6:2) and when making sense of the eschatological
timetable of Jesus’s resurrection, reign, parousia, and “the end” (1 Cor 15:20-28)
. . . (2) the Gospels themselves not only draw on Daniel but they presuppose readers
(at least some of them) who were making sense of the Jesus story with the
prophecies of Daniel near to hand. Daniel, in other words, is central to the
Gospels’ “encyclopedia of reception.” (Tucker S. Ferda, Jesus and His
Promised Second Coming: Jewish Eschatology and Christian Origins [Grand
Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2024], 289-91)
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