James B. Jordan (1949-), a Reformed Protestant theologian, “ is director of Biblical Horizons ministries, a think tank in Niceville, Florida that publishes books, essays and other media dealing with Bible commentary, Biblical Theology, and liturgy” (source).
Interestingly, in his commentary on the book of Daniel,
Jordan, a Trinitarian, does not believe that the “Ancient of Days” to be God
the Father. Commenting on Dan 7 and Ezek 1 being the background thereof, Jordan
notes the following:
Ezekiel and the Chariot
The prophecy of Ezekiel
begins with that prophet’s ordination, in the thirtieth year (Ezekiel 1–3).
Since this is not the thirtieth year after any preceding event, it must mean
the thirtieth year of his own life, the year in which priests were ordained to
service (Numbers 4). (Numbers 4 speaks of Levites, and the priests were
Levites.) Ezekiel was not ordained to be High Priest in the Temple, since he
was in exile. Nor was he ruler over other priests. He was, however, put in a
position similar to the High Priest, in that he was given three visions in
which he sees the Chariot of the Cherubim, which resided in the Holy of Holies
(Ezekiel 1–3; 8–11; 43). It was only the High Priest who ever went into the
Holy of Holies (Hebrews 9:1–7). As the High Priest was spiritual ruler of
Israel, so Ezekiel is spiritual ruler of the exilic community.
Beginning
in Ezekiel 1:4, Ezekiel is given a vision of the Chariot of Cherubim upon which
God sits enthroned (Psalms 18:10; 104:3). The Chariot was placed at rest in the
Holy of Holies (1 Chronicles 28:18). In the Holy of Holies were four cherubim,
two of them originally made in the Mosaic era and attached to the Ark-Cover
(“mercy seat” in English Bibles) on either side. In the Tabernacle, God was
conceived as enthroned above the Cover, supported as it were by the wings of
these two cherubim. In the Temple, two more cherubim were made, very large ones
standing on either side of the Mercy Seat. Their outstretched wings touched
each other to form a canopy over the throne (1 Kings 6:27), so that God sat
enthroned in the midst of four cherubim, two beneath and two above. (Exodus
25:20 says that the wings of the cherubim on the Mercy Seat “covered” it,
implying that these wings were also touching one another.) When this vertical
configuration is turned on its side, so that the Chariot is no longer parked,
it becomes what Ezekiel saw.
The
Chariot in the Holy of Holies was uniquely associated with that throne room.
The Chariot in Ezekiel 1, however, embraces not only the Holy of Holies but
also the Holy Place and the Courtyard with its Altar. The Chariot in Ezekiel 1
displays the entire sanctuary of God in all three of its zones, but because it
is displayed as a Chariot it is particularly associated with the Holy of
Holies. After all, the Holy of Holies (the highest heaven) is the archetype of
the Holy Place (the lower heavens), and also of the entire Tabernacle-Courtyard
area (representing the earth with the altar-mountain raised up in it). (On this
symbolism, see James B. Jordan Through New Eyes: Developing a Biblical View
of the World (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, [1988] 1999); and Vern S. Poythress,
The Shadow of Christ in the Law of Moses (Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian
& Reformed, 1991).)
As the
Chariot draws near in God’s cloud, the first thing Ezekiel encounters are the
four “living beings,” the cherubim, who form four corners of an altar with fire
inside of it, and whose outstretched wings form the sides of this altar
(Ezekiel 1:1–14). In Daniel 7, the first thing Daniel sees are the four
“beasts,” who like the cherubim are composite animal-human beings. We must not
let our translations confuse us: “Living being” and “beast” are identically the
same word.
Next to
the four cherubim are four double wheels, that move north and south, and east
and west, the north-south wheel inserted into the east-west wheel (Ezekiel
1:15–21).
Following
this (Ezekiel 1:22–25), the prophet sees a firmament over the heads of the
Cherubim. A literal translation of verse 22 is important for out purposes: “And
over the heads of the beast [singular]: something like a firmament, like the
gleaming eye [look] of awesome ice, extended over their heads.” Notice that the
“beast” or “living being” is singular here: The four cherubim are considered as
one beast. The icy firmament refers to the waters taken up above the firmament
in Genesis. It also refers to the blue veil that separated the Tabernacle from
the Altar.
Then
Ezekiel sees the Charioteer riding in this Chariot (Ezekiel 1:26–28). He sees a
blue (lapis lazuli) throne, the color of heaven, above the firmament. The
person enthroned has the “appearance of a man.” He is divided in half: “And I
saw from the appearance of his loins and upward something like the gleaming
look [eye] of electrum [silver + gold] with the appearance of fire housing it
all around, and from the appearance of his loins and downward I saw something
with the appearance of fire; and a radiance around him” (1:27). The upper part
of this personage corresponds to the highest heavens, and to the Holy of
Holies, or Most Holy. The lower part corresponds to the intermediate heavens,
and to the Holy Place.
Now,
Ezekiel was a contemporary of Daniel. His book had been finished before the
events of Daniel 7. Daniel and his friends, thus, were thoroughly conversant
with this vision, and they would have instantly recognized that the vision of
Daniel 7 is building on it.
Daniel 7
first presents four composite beasts. These are not presented all at once, as
in Ezekiel 1, but they are presented first in the order of the vision, as in
Ezekiel 1. They are one beast, for each beast incorporates the previous, just
as the statue of Daniel 2 had four sections or historical phases, but was one
statue. The cherubim guard God’s throne, and also with their wings form a
boundary for the Chariot. Similarly, Daniel’s beasts, as some kind of earthly
form of cherubim, are to guard God’s earthly people (the Jews) and form the
boundaries of His Oikumene kingdom.
Ezekiel’s
beasts came down from the sky; Daniel’s come up from the great sea. The great
sea is not the Mediterranean, because Babylon and Persia did not come from
there. Nor is it some kind of mythological sea. Rather, in accordance with
Biblical symbolism, the sea represents the Gentile world. These beasts are
Gentile empires that are to act as guardian cherubim.
Some
modern interpreters point to great “chaos beasts” as part of the ancient
religions of the Near East, and assume that such dangerous and threatening
beasts are in view. While educated Jews, like Daniel and his friends, would
certainly know about such “chaos-monster myths,” they would also realize that
this vision came from the same God who had revealed His chariot and His four
beasts to Ezekiel. With their Jewish background, and with Ezekiel clearly in
mind, Daniel and his friends would not have been drawn off by the red herring
of “chaos-monsters,” but would have recognized the beasts of Daniel 7 as
cherubic figures. Just as Satan was a fallen cherub, so these beasts might
fall; but as Satan was created good at the beginning, so were these beasts.
Daniel’s beasts
come in an historical order, each replaced in turn when it becomes evil and
moves against God’s people in a climactic way (compare Daniel 5–6). When the
fourth beast and his Little Horn sidekick turn against God’s people, the fifth
and final kingdom, that of a man and not a beast, replaces it—just as the
“stone cut without hands” replaced the statue in Daniel 2.
Then,
following the order of Ezekiel 1, Daniel sees the throne and the person on the
throne, the Ancient of Days. As in Ezekiel 1, the throne is surrounded by fire
and angels. As in Ezekiel 1, it is a Chariot, with wheels. The Person enthroned
in Ezekiel 1 is not God in general, but specifically Yahweh, the ruler of
Israel, also called the “messenger” of Yahweh. We know from the New Testament that
this Person became incarnate as the man Jesus Christ.
With Ezekiel 1 in mind, we can see that the Ancient of Days is not God
in general, nor is He God the Father. As John 1:18 says, “No man has seen God
at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has
revealed Him.” From this statement it is clear that Daniel did not see God the
Father in Daniel 7, and that the “one like a son of man” who comes to the
Ancient of Days cannot be Jesus at His ascension. Rather, the Personage called the Ancient of Days is
the preincarnate Jesus, and it is someone else who comes to Him to receive the
kingdom from Him.
Ezekiel 1
is not partly in the background of Daniel 7, nor is it merely glanced at, but
is fully in the background. Daniel 7:2–10 is another version of the vision of
Ezekiel 1, and would have been recognized as such instantly by Daniel himself. (James B. Jordan, The
Handwriting on the Wall: A Commentary on the Book of Daniel [Powder
Springs, Ga.: American Vision, 2007], 331-335, emphasis in bold added)
Note that, for Jordan, who is a Trinitarian, he must interpret
Dan 7 as presenting the preincarnate Jesus (who he believes to be the “Ancient
of Days”) as being numerically distinct from the incarnate Jesus. This
is nothing short of Nestorianism—there being two persons composing Jesus (one
human; one divine).
Elsewhere, Jordan is open to the theory that Daniel himself
was unaware of the full meaning of this passage, though modern Christians have
no such excuse(!):
Now, Daniel would not have been
aware that the Messiah would be the incarnate Yahweh. Hence, he might well have
seen the one like a son of man as the Messiah coming to Yahweh to receive the
kingdom . . . We, however, cannot be confused. The Ancient of Days is Yahweh,
and taking his seat must be the ascension of Jesus . . . (Ibid., 340)
Latter-day Saints will find this to be interesting, as Jordan
would agree with us that the “Ancient of Days” is not God the Father.
Further, in an attempt to argue that it was the preincarnate Jesus/YHWH, Jordan
engages in Christological heresy (even from a Trinitarian perspective) by
presenting the preincarnate Jesus (the “divine nature” and “divine will”) as
being a numerically distinct person from the incarnate Jesus (Nestorianism), an
issue the Latter-day Saint belief does not fall into.
