The Son of Man Coming on Clouds
“Who is the "one like a son of man" in Daniel 7:13-14? Is this a divine figure, an angel, corporate Israel, or the Messiah? And does the figure come to God (enthronement) or from God (second coming)?”
"I was watching in the night visions, and behold, one like a Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him. Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed." — Daniel 7:13-14 (NKJV)
The Aramaic phrase bar enash simply means "a human being," yet this figure rides clouds (divine imagery), receives worship (pelach, used elsewhere in Daniel only for God), and is granted an everlasting kingdom. Is this a divine being, an angel like Michael, a corporate symbol for Israel, or a specific messianic individual? The direction of movement is critical: the figure comes TO the Ancient of Days (upward, enthronement), not FROM heaven to earth.
Hard verses are where our biases and assumptions do the most damage. Before diving into scholarly perspectives, consider which thinking patterns might be shaping how you read this passage.
Many critical scholars identify the "one like a son of man" as a corporate symbol for faithful Israel ("the saints of the Most High" in Daniel 7:18, 22, 27). The weakness is that the figure is an individual coming on clouds, divine imagery not used for communities.
John Day and Christopher Rowland identify the son of man as Michael, Israel's patron angel (Daniel 10:13, 12:1). The Canaanite El/Baal pattern underlies the vision: a younger cloud-rider receives kingship from an aged enthroned deity.
Alan Segal's "Two Powers in Heaven" (1977) shows pre-Christian Judaism contained traditions of a second divine figure, with Daniel 7 as primary source. The pelach (worship) language suggests divine-level honor. Daniel Boyarin argues "the highest Christology was Jewish before it was Christian."
The Parables of Enoch (1 Enoch 37-71) expand Daniel's son of man into a pre-existent, enthroned messianic judge. 4 Ezra 13 describes a figure who flies on clouds and is called "my Son." These pre-Christian Jewish texts confirm the messianic reading was not a Christian invention.
The Aramaic kevar enash uses an ordinary idiom meaning "a human being." The ke- ("like") is significant: the figure resembles a human, contrasting with the four beasts. Geza Vermes showed bar nasha could function as a circumlocutional self-reference in Galilean Aramaic.
Daniel 7:13-14 is in Aramaic, not Hebrew. The key phrase kevar enash (כְבַר אֱנָשׁ) means "like a human being." Cloud-riding (im ananei shemayya) is exclusively divine imagery (Psalm 68:4, Deuteronomy 33:26). The Aramaic pelach in 7:14 is used elsewhere in Daniel only for deity worship.
The son of man comes TO (ad) the Ancient of Days, not FROM heaven. This is an enthronement scene. The chapter is the apocalyptic counterpart to Nebuchadnezzar's statue dream in Daniel 2.
The Canaanite El/Baal pattern from Ugarit explains the cloud imagery.
Sources: Published scholarship View all →
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