One throne, and the King upon it
The Son of Man Given Dominion
Daniel's night vision does not end when the Ancient of days takes his seat and the boastful beast is destroyed. The courtroom of fire opens onto a second and stranger sight. While the beasts came up out of the churning sea, one now comes with the clouds of heaven, from above rather than below, and he is described not as a beast but as one like a Son of man. He is led into the presence of the Ancient of days, and there he is given dominion, glory, and a kingdom. This kingdom is unlike the four that preceded it. The empires of the beasts rose and fell, each devouring and then devoured, their dominion taken away. The dominion given to the Son of man is everlasting, a rule that shall not pass away, a kingdom that shall not be destroyed. All peoples, nations, and languages are to serve him. And centuries later a carpenter's son from Galilee would take Son of man as his most frequent way of naming himself, drawing this very scene around his own head.
“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.”Daniel 7:13
“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.”Daniel 7:14
The throne in Scripture
In the seventh chapter of Daniel, immediately after the judgment of the beasts, the prophet says he saw in the night visions one like the Son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. This is verse thirteen. The phrase like the Son of man simply means one having the appearance of a human being, and it stands in sharp contrast to the beasts that filled the earlier vision. Where they came up out of the sea, images of chaos and predatory power, this figure comes down with the clouds, a form of arrival Scripture reserves for the presence and prerogative of God. He is brought near before the Ancient of days, and there, in verse fourteen, he is given dominion, glory, and a kingdom, so that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. The verbs matter. The dominion is given, received from the hand of the Eternal One, not seized by force as the beasts seized theirs. And the reach of the rule is total, embracing every people and tongue, a universal sovereignty granted in the heavenly court. Daniel then states the quality that sets this kingdom apart from all the others in the chapter. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. Every preceding empire had its dominion removed; that was the pattern of the beasts. This one alone is exempt from the pattern. It does not rise to fall in turn. It endures, and its endurance is the point toward which the whole vision has been climbing. The later interpretation within the same chapter adds a communal dimension, for the saints of the Most High are said to receive the kingdom and possess it forever. Faithful readers have long held these together: a kingdom given to a singular Son of man, and shared with the people who belong to him. We should read with due humility, not pretending to resolve every question the chapter raises, but the central shape is clear. Over against the transient violence of the beasts stands a human figure who receives from God an unshakable and universal reign.
What it comes to mean
The first meaning of this scene is the reversal of the whole logic of the beasts. The empires of the vision embodied power that takes, that tramples, that comes up out of chaos and imposes itself. The Son of man embodies power that is given, that arrives from heaven, that is granted rather than grasped. This is a different vision of dominion altogether, authority held as a gift from the Ancient of days and exercised under his verdict, not the self-made mastery of the boastful horn. The second meaning is the humanity of the figure. In a chapter dominated by monstrous forms, the one who receives the everlasting kingdom looks like a human being. There is a quiet dignity restored here, an echo of the mandate given to humanity at creation to have dominion, now fulfilled in a representative man who rules on God's behalf. The beasts had degraded and devoured; the Son of man bears the true human vocation to reign under God, and to reign for the good of all peoples rather than against them. The third meaning is permanence. The chapter has shown kingdom after kingdom stripped of dominion, and against that backdrop it insists on one kingdom that cannot be destroyed. For a people who had watched their own nation fall and had lived under a succession of foreign powers, this was a word of endurance. The last kingdom is not another beast waiting for the next predator. It is the final and lasting order, and it belongs to a human king who received it from the throne of fire. We should hold the vision with reverence and not overclaim its details. Daniel's imagery reaches beyond his own century, and its full meaning unfolds only over time. But the enduring truth stands regardless of how one traces every symbol. History is not an endless cycle of beasts. It moves toward a court in which one like a Son of man is given an everlasting dominion, and toward the day when peoples of every nation and language will serve him.
How it points to Christ, seated on the throne
This is the passage Jesus reached for more than any other when he named himself, and the fact is explicit in the Gospels. Son of man was his favorite self-designation, spoken from his own lips again and again, and it is drawn straight from the seventh chapter of Daniel. By choosing this title he claimed the scene as his own: the figure who comes with the clouds of heaven and receives an everlasting kingdom from the Ancient of days. He named himself in a way that was humble on the surface, a man among men, yet freighted with the highest claim in the vision. The claim became unmistakable at his trial. When the high priest put him under oath, Jesus answered that they would see the Son of man seated at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of heaven, quoting Daniel directly. The court condemned the words as blasphemy, precisely because they understood him to be claiming the throne and the everlasting dominion of the vision. The bound prisoner told his judges that he was the one to whom all peoples, nations, and languages would be given to serve. And the church confesses that the vision has begun to be fulfilled. In his resurrection and ascension the crucified Son of man came to the Father and received the kingdom, seated now at the right hand of power, his dominion already declared and not yet fully seen. The everlasting kingdom that shall not pass away is his, and it is shared with the saints of the Most High who belong to him. Daniel saw from far off what Christian faith names by his name. The Son of man is enthroned.
Questions people ask
Why does it say one like the Son of man rather than simply the Son of man?
The word like signals appearance. The figure has the form of a human being, in deliberate contrast to the beasts that came up from the sea. In Daniel's setting it marks him as human rather than monstrous, one who comes with the clouds of heaven, and the New Testament identifies this figure with Christ.
Did Jesus really connect himself to Daniel's Son of man?
Yes, and openly. Son of man was his most frequent self-title, and at his trial he answered the high priest by quoting this vision, speaking of the Son of man seated at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds. His judges heard it as a claim to Daniel's everlasting dominion.