This is part 2 of our 4 part series.
What makes the “Son of Man” figure so astonishing is that He does things which, according to the Hebrew Scriptures, only God does. Most notably, He rides on the clouds, a symbolic act consistently associated with divine appearance and authority throughout the Old Testament.
Daniel writes:
“I was watching in the night visions,
And behold, One like the 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.”
(Daniel 7:13–14, NKJV)
The image of coming “with the clouds of heaven” strongly echoes multiple Old Testament texts where God Himself rides the clouds, symbolizing divine kingship, authority, and glory:
“Sing to God, sing praises to His name; extol Him who rides on the clouds, by His name YAH, and rejoice before Him.” (Psalm 68:4, NKJV)
“The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked. The LORD has His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet.” (Nahum 1:3, NKJV)
“Behold, the LORD rides on a swift cloud, and will come into Egypt…” (Isaiah 19:1, NKJV)
“There is no one like the God of Jeshurun, who rides the heavens to help you, and in His excellency on the clouds.” (Deuteronomy 33:26, NKJV)
Clearly, the “Son of Man” is more than just a human figure—He is participating in divine prerogatives.
John J. Collins
This imagery draws on old mythic traditions that can be traced back to the Canaanite texts from Ugarit but that are also reflected in the Hebrew Bible. In the Ugaritic myths, the Sea, Yamm, is a monster who challenges the authority of the god Baal and is crushed by him. In ancient Israel, YHWH, not Baal, is the God of life, and there are numerous allusions to a battle between him and the Sea and a monster that is called Rahab or Leviathan. According to Job 26:12-13, YHWH “stilled the sea, by his power he smote Rahab.” Isaiah 51:9-11 asks: “Was it not you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the dragon? Was it not you who dried up the sea?” In Isa 27:1 the battle is projected into the future: “On that day the LORD with his cruel and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will kill the dragon that is in the sea.” In this myth, which is quite different from the account of creation in Genesis but very similar to creation myths of the ancient Near East, the work of creation involves subduing the sea and killing its monsters. In Daniel 7 the beasts rise up again. The four kingdoms are portrayed as manifestations of primeval anarchy let loose upon the world.
In Dan 7:9 thrones are set up and a white-haired “Ancient of Days” appears, surrounded by thousands of servants. This figure is evidently God. It is surprising, then, when another figure appears “with the clouds of heaven.” In the Hebrew Bible, the figure who rides on the clouds is YHWH, the God of Israel (cf. Pss. 68:5; 104:3). Yet in Daniel 7 this figure is clearly subordinate to the Ancient of Days. The juxtaposition of two divine figures can be understood against the background of the Canaanite myth. There the high god was El, a venerable figure with a white beard. The young fertility god was Baal, who is called the “rider of the clouds” in the Ugaritic texts. In the Hebrew Bible, YHWH usually combines the roles of El and Baal. In Daniel 7, however, they are separated. The influence of the Canaanite mythic tradition is clearly evident in the pattern of relationships between the Ancient of Days, the rider of the clouds, and the beasts from the sea. We do not know in what form the author of Daniel 7 knew this tradition. Some of it is reflected in biblical poetry, but the author probably had sources that are no longer available to us. Of course he adapted the tradition. The rider of the clouds does not attack the Sea as Baal had attacked Yamm. The conflict is resolved by a divine judgment. And of course the Jewish author would not have identified the Ancient One and the rider of the clouds as El and Baal.
John Goldingay
The statements of this next liberal commentator highlight the struggle and bafflement that Daniel 7 has aroused in those who reject the inspiration of the Holy Bible:
“… The description compares with the coming of God to earth in, e.g., Isa 19:1; Ps. 18:9-12 [10-13]. But the figure who comes is ‘one in human likeness.’ As ben adam literally means ‘a human being’ (cf. 8:17)… bar enosh literally means a ‘human being.’ ‘Son of man’ is literalistic Semitism… In the case of ‘one like a human being’ there is no qualification, unless it lies in the preceding phrase ‘among the clouds of the heavens.’ The expression rather parallels the varied, though more complex, ke phrases in 8:15; 10:16, 18. Like the figures who appear there, the one here resembles a human being; it is not partly animal. It is not partly animal, like the sphinxes in Ezek 1. The ke does add mystery to the description, in a way appropriate to a vision. In Dan 7 the four creatures together, the fourth creature, and the one advanced in years are described without the ke; there is comparable variation within Eek 1, and it would be hazardous to infer that this was more than a matter of stylistic flexibility. The idea is not that the creatures and the one advanced in years exist, in a sense in which the human being does not, though it might be that the preposition clarified that the ‘human being’ is not actually human… Yet the humanlike figure does come in order to be invested as king (v. 14). The sovereignty he is given is like God’s own (cf. 4:3; 6:26), the rule described in the first symbolic dream (2:44-45). He is given the power Nebuchadnezzar once exercised (2:37; 5:19; cf. 6:25). In serving him, people indirectly serve God, like the foreigners pictured as serving Israel in Isa 60:7, 10; 61:6… The verses describe the appearing, presentation, and investiture of someone notable and imposing, not the exaltation of a previously lowly figure… As the animals stand for gentile kings who also represent their peoples, the humanlike figure could refer to a leader of Israel who at the same time presents Israel as a whole, as happens in some other OT passages (see Form)…
“Jewish and Christian tradition has commonly understood the humanlike figure to be the hoped for future Davidic king of Israel who would fulfill the hopes expressed in OT prophecy–the Messiah. One of the thrones mentioned in v. 9 might then be meant for him, so that the scene parallels Ps 110:1; cf. 80:17 [18]. For the Messiah to be a heavenly figure would be a novel idea; by definition, he is an earthly descendant of David. But the portrayal of him coming with the clouds of the heavens might simply signify that he comes by God’s initiative and as his gift, without suggesting that he is other than human. Psalm 2 describes the anointed king as begotten by God and installed by God without implying he is other than human. Nevertheless, if the humanlike figure is the messiah, he has a transcendent dimension. If the idea of the Messiah moves between a God pole and a human pole, this humanlike figure is at the former. Seeing the humanlike figure as the fulfillment of Israel’s hopes of a coming king draws attention to links between Dan 7 and 1-6 in the latter’s focus on God’s reign. As the one whom God commissions to exercise his kingly authority, the humanlike figure fulfills the role of the anointed one, whether or not he is an earthly Davidide. Daniel 7 is concerned with God’s reign in the world rather than with God’s temple in Jerusalem–a concern of chs. 8-9. Whether or not the human figure is royal, he is not priestly. But the grounds for identifying the humanlike figure as the Davidic anointed one are circumstantial. There are no direct pointers to this idea in the text. While Daniel later refers to an anointed leader (nagid, 9:25 mashiach, 9:26), that anointed leader is not a ‘Messiah’ (see Comment).
“… In Dan 7, where the humanlike figure balances the creatures, it would not be surprising if it had both individual and corporate reference, like them (in connection with a vision, there is no need for appeal to the idea of corporate personality in this connection).
“Describing the figure as humanlike implies a contrast over against the four animals, but it need not imply the figure is human, still less that its extra-visionary referent is human, any more than the animal figures refer to animals. In isolation from the context v. 13a would most naturally denote God himself: he characteristically appears with the clouds of the heavens (Baal’s entourage in myths) and characteristically appears humanlike (cf. Ezek 1:26). Thus the humanlike figure has been taken as a hypostatized manifestation of God like the figure of Wisdom in Prov 8, or as taking up the portrayal of God as humanlike in Ezek 1, a hypostatized image of God, embodying his lordship, or as a heavenly being with honors and powers normally predicated of God, or as standing for a divine figure who suggests the deification of Israel at the End. But it is a long step from a belief in a renewed and celestial Israel, such as the interpretive vision may envisage, to the deification of Israel, and given that the one advanced in years stands for God, it is difficult to attribute divine significance to this second figure.
“The scene’s pointers toward the likely conclusion that it envisages two divine beings reflect its background in mythic material concerning the installation of a junior god by a senior god, and the OT often pictures the heavens as having the same hierarchy as the ancient Near Eastern material but with the place of lesser gods being taken by the one God’s heavenly but nondivine aides. Further, humanlike figures are regularly celestial beings in subsequent visions in Daniel (8:15-16; 9:21; 10:5 [?], 16, 18; 12:6-7). Human beings over against animals in apocalypses such as 1 En. 89-90, too, suggest supernatural (but not divine) beings over against human beings. To speak of a scheme of symbolism in the apocalypses, whereby God is represented by light, fire, and cloud, celestial beings by stars or human beings, the righteous by clean animals, the wicked by unclean animals and predators, demons by hybrids, is to overschematize the presentation. But the parallels are suggestive, and they add to hints that the humanlike figure has a celestial rather than a human referent. Celestial beings other than God do not appear in or on the clouds of the heavens elsewhere in the OT; ONLY God comes on the clouds (Isa 19:1; Ps 104:3). But it then may be significant that the humanlike figure comes with/among them, not on them. Moses enters the theophanic cloud in Exod 24:18, and the cloud comes to collect Moses in Josephus (Ant 4.4.48 [4.326]; cf. Yoma 4a; Pesiq Rab. 20:4), to collect Jesus in Acts 1:9, to collect believers in 1 Thess 4:17, and to carry Israel in targums to Exod 19:4.
“The humanlike figure might thus be a celestial being who represents Israel in the heavens. Elsewhere in Dan 7 celestial beings appear simply as attendants and interpreters (vv. 10, 16), but in v. 13 one of them might have a more substantial function… He might be equated with the further unnamed awesome and mysterious man dressed in linen of 10:15-12:13, who is also described in quasi-divine terms, linking him with Michael and the Metatron of 1 Enoch, though this identification seems to explain one enigma with another. A less opaque possibility is Gabriel, though he is supremely the heavenly interpreter (8:16-26; 9:21-27), and if he appears in ch. 7, it is as the one who fulfills this role in vv. 16-23…
“The role of the humanlike figure is closer to that of Michael in 10:13, 21; 12:1. Michael (mika’el, ‘who is like God’), is an ordinary OT name (e.g., Ezra 8:8), but Michael, like Gabriel, is one of the senior celestial beings in 1 Enoch (e.g., 9:1; 20:5; 71:9). In Daniel 10-12 he is one of the supreme celestial leaders who is especially identified with Israel and is committed to standing by them and standing firm on their behalf against celestial leaders identified with other peoples. The authority he exercises in heaven parallels that bestowed on the humanlike figure in 7:14, who appears at a similar moment to the one when Michael appears in ch. 12, the moment when evil power overreaches itself and God’s final intervention comes. The Qumran War Scroll (1QM 17:5-8) promises the overthrow of the leader of the wicked kingdom as the kingdom of Michael is exalted in the midst of the gods and the realm of Israel is exalted in the midst of all flesh, though the humanlike figure is not a combatant in Dan 7 as Michael is in chs. 10-12. But this difference may reflect the fact that the present scene takes place on earth; Michael’s battles take place in the heavens. That the same celestial person could have different roles in different contexts, as would be envisaged for Michael, is indicated by the portrait of Melchizedeq in 11QMelchizedeq… ‘Even if the humanlike one is originally a collective symbol for the angels, the subsequent visions in Daniel reinterpret this figure with increasing specificity, as a leader of the host (8:11) and as Michael (10:21; 12:1).’…”John Goldingay, Daniel (World Biblical Commentary), Volume 30, pp. 364-370
Conclusion: A Divine Mystery Revealed
The vision of the “Son of Man” in Daniel 7 is nothing short of astonishing. He is not merely a symbolic representation of Israel, an angelic intermediary, or a mythological holdover; rather, He is depicted as a divine figure sharing in the authority, worship, and eternal reign of the Ancient of Days. This image is made all the more striking when we recall that in the Hebrew Bible, only God comes on the clouds (Isaiah 19:1; Psalm 104:3), and yet here, someone “like a Son of Man” comes with the clouds of heaven and is given a kingdom that shall never be destroyed (Daniel 7:13–14, NKJV).
John J. Collins notes that this imagery echoes ancient Near Eastern myths, particularly the Canaanite tradition in which Baal, the “rider of the clouds,” defeats the chaotic sea god Yamm. While the author of Daniel may draw from such symbolic background, he reconfigures the imagery in a way that glorifies Israel’s God alone. The beasts in Daniel 7, rising from the sea, are representations of worldly empires—manifestations of chaos and anarchy. But rather than the Son of Man slaying these beasts like Baal did in the myths, God resolves the cosmic conflict through divine judgment. The Son of Man enters the scene not as a warrior, but as a kingly figure granted dominion by the Ancient of Days.
John Goldingay, reflecting the difficulty that critical scholars face, admits the challenge in pinning down the figure’s identity. He entertains possibilities ranging from an exalted celestial being like Michael or Gabriel, to a messianic representative of Israel, to a hypostatized form of God’s presence. Yet even Goldingay concedes that the Son of Man comes in divine fashion, shares in God’s rule, and occupies a throne. Such exalted status, he acknowledges, borders on a divine identity.
The consistent biblical pattern is this: only God rides the clouds, only God receives worship from all peoples, and only God reigns forever. In Daniel 7, the Son of Man does all three.
Despite efforts to reduce this figure to mythology, symbolism, or metaphor, the text speaks with a powerful clarity. The Son of Man is not just like God—He acts as God, reigns with God, and receives the honor of God. For those who read Daniel within the whole counsel of Scripture, it becomes increasingly clear: this is a vision of the Divine Messiah—one who will later identify Himself as the very “Son of Man” before the high priest and declare:
“Hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
(Matthew 26:64, NKJV)
The mystery of Daniel 7 finds its resolution not in ancient myth, but in the person of Jesus Christ—God’s eternal King, who comes not merely to conquer empires but to establish a kingdom of righteousness that shall never pass away.