Question: Who is the Ancient of Days in Daniel 7?
This passage is a fantastic one in the Old Testament for clarifying the Trinity regarding the distinction between the Father and the Son. Without assuming anything, read the text plainly. A glorious figure is seen sitting on the throne and worshipped by angels. So far so clear. This is God because only God is worthy of worship. Especially the worship of angels. Then after the Ancient of Days is introduced, a separate figure described as “like a Son of Man” approaches the throne and is worshipped the same way as the Ancient of Days. This is where some clarification is needed. The term Son of Man is used to describe humans. It’s not necessarily a divine title, unless the context suggests otherwise. This individual that looks like a human is worshipped as God, yet distinct from the Ancient of Days. Hopefully it is clear that the Son of Man is Jesus. And with the process of elimination applied that leaves the Father and the Spirit. Going to other passages in the Old Testament for clarity, we see that when the Spirit is mentioned as a deity, there are no examples of titles apart from the Spirit or Spirit of God. If we also compare this to the New Testament, we see in Revelation 4 that a similar picture is shown to John the Apostle that he identifies as the Father. Therefore the Ancient of Days in this passage would most reasonably be identified as the Father, since the Spirit isn’t mentioned and the Son is recognized by another title separate from this Ancient of Days yet still worthy of the worship that only belongs to God.
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