NOTES for Dan 7:13-14

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).

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.