The story of Adam and Ps 8, which also develops the theme of Gen 1:26,
deal with man's dominion over the natural world. Later Jewish and Christian
traditions often understood Adam as the universal ruler of the entire world. We find a similar idea in Dan 7 — the Son of
Man is given universal dominion. It is especially interesting that the Son of
Man is also given authority over the animals that came out of the sea (Dan
7:12). The fact that the first three beasts remain alive after the execution of
the fourth beast has traditionally presented a problem for commentators. It
seems that in this case the author of Dan 7 referred to the realisation of
divine blessing to Adam — he wanted to stress Son of man’s dominion over the
“beasts of the field.” According to the interpretation of the vision the
“people of the saints of the Most High” symbolised by the Son of Man will also
receive universal dominion (Dan 7:27). It can be assumed that the idea of man's
dominion over animals, which can be traced back to Gen 1 and Ps 8, is here
allegorically interpreted as Israel's dominion over the Gentiles, which is
mentioned in Dan 7:27.
The Son of Man's acquisition of eternal kingship may also have
parallels in the theme of return of Adam or whole collective humanity to its
original status, which is described in some works of apocryphal literature.
Thus, in the Greek Life of Adam and Eve, we read that God tells Adam:
And I will restore you to your dominion, and I will seat you on the
throne (θρόνον) of the one who deceived you. And that one will be thrown into
this place so that he may see you seated upon it. Then he himself will be
condemned-and those who listened to him-and he will be grieved when he sees you
sitting upon his throne" (GLAE 39:2– 3).
Similar mentions of the throne of the one who deceived you/your
enemy's throne, on which Adam is to sit, appear in the Armenian and Georgian
versions of the apocryphon. Adam’s enemy here is either the serpent whose
throne should symbolise “the dominion of the wild beasts” (GLAE 11:1), which
began after Adam's expulsion from paradise or Satan, who acted through the
serpent according to the narrative of the Life of Adam and Eve (GLAE 16:5). The
passage referring to Adam's future enthronement is also interesting in light of
the mention of thrones (θρόνοι) in Dan 7:9, which already in antiquity were
often interpreted as thrones reserved for God and the Son of Man (En. 45:3;
62:3, 5; Matt 19:28; 25:31; b. Hag 14a, b. Sanh 38b). The idea of Adam’s
exaltation can also be found in the Testament of Abraham, where Abraham saw “a
man upon a seat of great glory” at the gates of heaven. When asked by Abraham
who this man is, Abraham's guide, the archangel Michael, replied that “this man
who sits between them, this is Adam, the first man whom the Lord created” (T.
Ab. 8). (Igor Bessonov, “The Image of the New Adam
in the Book of Daniel (Daniel 4 and 7): Origin, Context and Theological
Implications,” Old Testament Essays 37, no. 3 [2024]: 13-14, emphasis in bold added)
