Jesus as Son of man and a Corporate Representative King-Priest for His People as King-Priests

A. The Daniel 7 Background

We discussed in chapter 3 the Daniel 7 background for Jesus being the “Son of Man.” We saw that in Daniel 7 the son of man is both a representative for a community and also an individual. This means that what is true of the representative son of man is true of the saints he represents. The interpretive section in Daniel 7 refers to the son of man as the faithful nation Israel, presumably because he as the individual king of Israel representatively sums up the people in himself. Some of his actions become representative for them, and vice versa. Their general identity is the same. Both can be conceived of as Israel. Thus, since the kingly son of man, the end-time Adam, receives a kingdom, so his people (Israel) receive a kingdom and rule; and just as Israel goes through end-time tribulation, so the son of man, the end-time Adam, goes through tribulation. We saw that the same two realities are true of Jesus as Son of Man, the end-time Adam, and his followers who identify with him.

Nicholas Perrin has conducted new and provocative research showing that the Daniel 7 “son of man” is, in fact, not only a king but also a priest. First, he points out that the four beasts/kingdoms of Daniel 7 are obviously parallel to the four parts of the colossus in Daniel 2, which represent four kingdoms. And since the “stone” that destroys the colossus is a temple foundation stone, it would make sense that God’s temple forces via the son of man would have something to do with the destruction of the four kingdoms in Daniel 7. Perrin notes that such an identification of the stone with the son of man is facilitated by the apparent Hebrew pun of ‘eben (stone) with ben (son).

Second, he points out that the throne room scene in Daniel 7:9-10 is a heavenly temple scene:

Thrones were set up,

And the Ancient of Days took His seat. . . .

His throne was ablaze with flames,

Its wheels were a burning fire.

A river of fire was flowing

And coming out before Him;

Thousands upon thousands were attending Him,

And myriads upon myriads were standing before him;

The court sat

And books were opened.

The scene taps into the explicit temple-throne room scene of Ezekiel 1:15-21 (so likewise Ezek. 10), where “wheels” formed the base of God’s “throne,” in the midst of which were heavenly beings, and on the throne was “the appearance of a man” in the midst of “fire.” It is into this temple scene that “one like a son of man” steps in Daniel 7:13.

Third, Perrin recalls correctly that in Daniel 7 the “son of man” is certainly an Adamic figure, even with explicit allusions to Genesis 1:26, 28 and Psalm 8, especially with respect to the idea of kingly dominion over the beasts “on the earth.” This raises another parallel with Daniel 2:35, where the stone “filled the whole earth<” an allusion to Genesis 1:28. And it should not be surprising that, as an Adam figure, the son of man is also a priest, as Adam was (as noted earlier in this chapter).

Fourth, the priestly aspect of the son of man is reflected in his coming “with the clouds of heaven . . . up to the Ancient of Days” (Dan. 7:13). Many commentators have concluded that this portrays the divinity of the son of man, since elsewhere in the OT it is only God who rides on the clouds. While there may be such a nuance, Perrin shows intriguingly that in 70 percent of the occurrences of “cloud” in the OT (100x) the reference is to the clouds at the mountain temple of Sinai or to the Jerusalem temple. In particular, Israel’s high priest would repeatedly have to create an incense cloud as he entered into God’s presence in the holy of holies (e.g., Lev. 16:2, 11-13). “Clouds” were specially associated with high priests, as a second-century BC description attests about a high priest: he was “like the morning star among the clouds . . . like the rainbow gleaming in a splendid clouds . . . like a cypress towering in the clouds” (Sir. 50:5-11). Accordingly, the son of man coming “with the clouds” into a heavenly temple likely portrays a priest “coming” into the temple. Even the language of the son of man being “presented before Him [God]” (Dan. 7:13); in Aramaic/Hebrew: qrb) is typically used of the high priest “drawing near” to God in the holy of holies. Leviticus 16:1-13 portrays the high priest “drawing near” (qrb) to God in the temple, who “appears in the cloud [‘ānān].” The combination of these two words in Daniel 7:13 appears to allude to Leviticus 16 description, thus further identifying the son of man as a heavenly priest.