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NOTES for Dan 7:1-14

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1 In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upon his bed: then he wrote the dream, and told the sum of the matters.
2 Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea.
3 And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another.
4 The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man's heart was given to it.
5 And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh.
6 After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it.
7 After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.
8 I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.
9 I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire.
10 A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.
11 I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake: I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame.
12 As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time.
13 I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.
14 And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.
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In the seventh chapter of the Book of Daniel, its author is shown the very vision because of which this book came to be perceived by Christians as prophetic above all. It concerns the figure of the Messiah who appears there, the Messiah in the image of the Son of Man, who is brought to the One called in the book "the Ancient of Days" (so in the Synodal Translation; it would be more precise to translate "Ancient in days," one of the descriptive characteristics of God accepted in those times).

The matter is evidently a vision of the Throne of Glory, examples of which occur quite often in the Old Testament books. One of the most vivid may be considered the vision described in the sixth chapter of the Book of Isaiah. In such visions, YHWH appears to the visionary in the form of a figure resembling a human being, clothed in shining garments and seated on a shining Throne.

Of course, like every vision, the vision of the Throne of Glory is symbolic, but this symbolism is quite transparent: it speaks of YHWH as the King of the universe and of the world as His Kingdom, as the world was conceived from the beginning and as it was created. At the Throne of Glory, a person rediscovers the world as the Kingdom of God, the world that fallen humanity had already managed to forget quite thoroughly.

It is no accident that visions of the Throne of Glory formed an essential part of the spiritual experience not only of individual people, but of the YHWH-worshiping community as a whole, especially since this experience was directly connected with Temple worship. And now, at the Throne of Glory, something happens that becomes the center and chief meaning of world history, completely changing the course of events. Until now, earthly kingdoms on the earth, what today we would call civilizations in the sense in which people speak, for example, of the great civilizations of antiquity, had succeeded one another, following God's design for the world and its development.

But now authority over the world will come directly and immediately from the Throne, through the Messiah, the Son of Man, who receives His authority directly from God at this very Throne. It is no accident that during His earthly ministry Jesus so often called Himself the Son of Man: the vision described in the Book of Daniel reflects the meaning of His ministry more accurately than any other. And this one messianic vision in the Book of Daniel is truly enough to regard it as prophetic: for here there really is prophecy, prophecy about the coming of the Messiah, until which very little time remains.

Other notes

 
For Dan 7:1-14
1 In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upon his bed: then he wrote the dream, and told the sum of the matters.
2 Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea.
3 And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another.
4 The first was like a lion, and had eagle's wings: I beheld till the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man's heart was given to it.
5 And behold another beast, a second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side, and it had three ribs in the mouth of it between the teeth of it: and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh.
6 After this I beheld, and lo another, like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of a fowl; the beast had also four heads; and dominion was given to it.
7 After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns.
8 I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.
9 I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool: his throne was like the fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire.
10 A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.
11 I beheld then because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake: I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame.
12 As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time.
13 I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.
14 And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.
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The prophets always treated dreams with a certain degree of distrust. There is nothing surprising in this: in sleep...  Read more

The prophets always treated dreams with a certain degree of distrust. There is nothing surprising in this: in sleep, as a rule, a person is unable to distinguish revelation from images produced by his own subconscious. Yet there are exceptions, when a dream becomes a source of genuine knowledge just like any other way of communion with God. The second part of the Book of Daniel includes dreams of precisely this kind, dreams through which God spoke with the apocalyptic visionary. The author of the book did not preserve this person's name for us, hiding him behind the image of the main hero.

Like everything seen in a dream, a prophetic dream is usually marked by strange, and at times even grotesque, forms; but unlike an ordinary dream, it always contains a certain logic and sequence, even if these are not visible at first glance. In the case of the Book of Daniel, the meaning is easier to understand because of the explanations the dreamer receives during his vision. Still, the essence of what he sees becomes clear even without commentary, and it is plain enough: certain kingdoms, brought forth by the elements of this world, are replaced by another Kingdom, established not by earthly powers but by God and by the Messiah whom He sends.

Indeed, under any interpretation it becomes clear enough that the beasts the book's hero sees coming up out of the sea embody the forces of our world, still not transformed, a world that in its present condition always opposes God in one way or another (vv. 2-8). The especially vivid expression of this opposition is arrogant speech, which becomes a kind of symbol of the proud self-assertion of those who do not need God (v. 8). Then comes the day of Judgment, when the throne of God openly triumphs before all over those who tried to set themselves above God (vv. 9-11). After the Judgment, the Messiah begins to rule the world, and the messianic Kingdom, whose coming the prophets spoke of, replaces the earthly kingdoms (vv. 13-14).

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For Dan 7:13-14
13 I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.
14 And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.
Hide
God develops His relationship with humanity as a dialogue unfolding in time...  Read more

God develops His relationship with humanity as a dialogue unfolding in time. He allows the prophet Daniel to see the Son of Man receiving authority and glory from the Heavenly Father. Then the Son of God, having come in the flesh, calls Himself the Son of Man so that people can connect Him with Daniel's familiar prophecy. When a person responds and confesses the Son of Man as the Son of God, as Peter did, that person receives a new revelation: the Transfiguration of the Lord, which anticipates the coming Resurrection, so that the disciples may later meet and recognize the Risen One. The dialogue does not end there; it never ends. The fullness of Revelation is in Christ Jesus, but the unfolding of this fullness is a dynamic process taking place in the Church, which preserves everything it has received and guides all peoples toward a deeper relationship with God.

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For Dan 7:13
13 I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.
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An interesting historical fact: about the Book of Daniel, there are differences between the Jewish and Christian canon. The church inserted this book among the prophetic books, but the Synagogue does not consider it as such, referring it to the third part of the Jewish canon, which is called the Holy Scriptures. And indeed: the Book of Daniel belongs to...  Read more

An interesting historical fact: about the Book of Daniel, there are differences between the Jewish and Christian canon. The church inserted this book among the prophetic books, but the Synagogue does not consider it as such, referring it to the third part of the Jewish canon, which is called the Holy Scriptures. And indeed: the Book of Daniel belongs to the genre not such much prophetic, as apocalyptic texts. It was written according to the opinion common today among biblical scholars in the middle of the II s B.C., at the time of the persecutions of Antiochus Epiphany and in the wars of the Maccabees subsequent to the response to them. Practically all the events described in Daniel's visions are related, accordingly not in the future, but in the past, representing not perspective, but retrospective.

The only exception is the messianic prophecy, in which the Messiah appears in the image of the Son of Man, Who is brought to the Ancient of days, sitting on the Throne (calling Himself Son of Man, Jesus had in mind in particular this image of the Book of Daniel). What is the sense of the prophecy of the Book of Daniel? The image of the Ancient of days sitting on the throne is quite traditional, roots coming again from the pre-captivity period, to these visions of the Throne of glory, of which the remarkable example was the vision of the temple of Isaiah of Jerusalem.

The image of the One sitting on the throne was already then perceived by the visionaries in the context of this revelation of the Kingdom, which was given to the later prophets of the pre-captivity period; it revealed itself to them as a reality not politico-religious (that’s how the earlier prophets saw the Kingdom), but spiritual, descending in the world from the Throne of God. The Messiah had to become the center of this Kingdom, the righteous Ruler and perfect savant of God. It is not difficult to notice that the messianic vision of the Book of Daniel continues this tradition: the Messiah, belonging, unlike the angels surrounding the Throne, to the human race (that is why He is called Son of Man).

He approaches (more exactly, He is brought by the angels, the spirits playing at the Throne the role of servants) to God sitting on the Throne and receives from Him dominion over the world, bringing in Him [the Messiah] this Kingdom, about which had already spoken the pre-captivity prophets. Well then the old history, the history of the earthly kingdoms existing according to the laws and based on the power of the not transformed world, ends. And begins the history of the new Kingdom, the Kingdom living the breath and power of God and ruled by the Messiah sent by Him.

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