Exegesis and Theology

The Blog of Brian Collins

Who is the man dressed in linen in Daniel 10?

by Leave a Comment

When Daniel 10:5–6 is read in light of Rev 1:12–17 (cf. Acts 9:4, 7; 22:9; 26:14), it is hard to deny a messianic identification of the man clothed in linen. However, when verse 13 records the speaker saying that the “prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days” and that the angel Michael “came to help me,” it is hard to see how the divine Son could be in view. Note that if this figure is the Son, he would not be the incarnate Son, for this precedes the incarnation.

Stephen Miller (NAC) and Tanner (EEC) cut the knot by proposing that there are two beings in view: the divine Son in verses 5–9 and an angel in verses 10–21. Steinmann (ConcC) and Chase (ESVSC), however, argue strongly that the text does not clearly distinguish two persons. Instead, in both cases there is a “man” who speaks to Daniel and touches Daniel.

And yet without Miller and Tanner’s solution, I don’t see a way forward. The intertextual connections are too strong to deny a messianic identification in verse 5, and verse 13 cannot be reconciled with the person being the divine Son.

Perhaps, despite Steinman and Chase’s arguments, there is a way to justify the Miller/Tanner position. Daniel 10 begins a section that concludes with Daniel 12:13. Note that in Daniel 12:5–6 the man clothed in linen is still standing above the waters. Note also that there are two other figures present. These are not Daniel’s companions because they ran away (10:7). These are likely angelic beings. If we come back to chapter 10 with the understanding that the man clothed in linen remained positioned above the waters and that there were also angels present, then it becomes more plausible that the hand that touches Daniel in 10:10 is of an angelic being.

This can be further substantiated by a close reading of chapter 10. The figure who touches Daniel is identified in Daniel 10:16 as “one in the likeness of the sons of men” (LSB). Steinmann wants to link this phrase with the Daniel 7 vision of the Son of Man, but the plural “sons” points in a different direction. This is a being with “human likeness” (CSB) in contrast to the theophanic appearance of the man clothed in linen. This identification is reinforced in Daniel 10:18, where it is stated that the one who touched Daniel had the “appearance of a man.” With verse 18’s connection to Daniel 10:20 and verse 20’s allusion back to Daniel 10:13, the text may draw a distinction between the man clothed in linen (the divine Son) and the one in the likeness of the sons of man (an angel).

Revelation 1:1 – “the things that must soon take place”

by

The words “the things that must soon take place” (ἃ δεῖ γενέσθαι ἐν τάχει) (Rev. 1:1) are probably an allusion to Daniel 2:28-29, 45 in Greek translation: the Lord “made known to King Nebuchadnezzar things that must take place at the end of days [ἃ δεῖ γενέσθαι ἐπʼ ἐσχάτων τῶν ἡμερῶν], and he who reveals mysteries showed to you things that are necessary to take place [ἃ δεῖ γενέσθαι.] (Dan. 2:28-29, LES) (Ladd 1972: 21; Thomas 1992: 53; Beale 1999: 137, 153; Osborne 2002: 54; Smalley 2005: 27; Boxall 2006: 24; Leithart 2018: 71; Fanning 2020: 74-75).

G. K. Beale and Peter Leithart argue that the allusion to Daniel 2:28-29, 45 indicates that John’s visions refer to events that began in John’s own time (Beale 1999: 137, 153; Leithart 2018: 71).

However, there are good reasons for understanding the allusion to support yet future referents (generally speaking) to John’s visions.

a. The earliest commentator on Daniel distinguished between the legs of iron, symbolizing ancient Rome, and the ten toes of iron mixed with clay, which he related to future entities (Hippolytus 2017: 78; cf. Hippolytus 1886: 186). The basic correctness of his interpretation is confirmed by the parallel with the ten horns on the fourth beast in Daniel 7:24-27. These horns relate to the fourth beast but represent a distinct eschatological stage of his activity (see below).

b. The stone, representing Christ’s kingdom, smashed the image, not upon the iron legs of the fourth kingdom (Rome), but upon the iron and clay mixture that represented the divisions that followed the Rome of Jesus’s day (Miller 1994: 100).

c. The stone destroyed not only the feet but all the previous parts of the image as well. The utter destruction of the image symbolized the complete replacement of human kingdoms with the Messianic kingdom (Miller 1994: 101; Greidanus 2012: 76, n. 51). The destruction of “every rule and every authority and power” comes at “the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father” (1 Cor. 15:24). Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Hippolytus, and Theodore of Cyrus all connected the crushing of the statue with the second advent. Irenaeus taught that the ten toes referred to kings existing in “the last times,” that is in the time of Antichrist. He concluded, “they shall be destroyed by the coming of our Lord” (Irenaeus, AH 5.26.1-2). Theodoret wrote, “Clearly, this teaches about that which will occur at the end, that is, the coming of the kingdom of heaven that is without end.” And, “The stone that was cut without hands and grew into a great mountain and fills the whole earth is the second advent” (Stevenson and Gluerup 2008: 171). Hippolytus taught that the stone crushes “the kingdoms of this world” when Christ “comes from the heavens” that he “might set up the heavenly kingdom of the saints which shall never be destroyed” (Hippolytus 2017: 78 [2.12.7, 2.13.2]; Hippolytus 1886: 209-10 [§27]).

d. Psalm 110 provides a paradigm for understanding the two stages of the coming of Christ’s kingdom. At present the kingdom is coming in salvation, and Christ reigns in the midst of his enemies. In the future, the kingdom will come in judgment, and Christ will scatter kings in the day of his wrath. This vision clearly displays the latter.

e. This eschatological reading finds confirmation in Daniel 7. Interpreters of diverse perspectives recognize that the vision in Daniel 7 elaborates on the vision of chapter 2 (Steinmann 2008: 328; Tanner 2020: 396-97). The same four kingdoms found in Daniel 2 reappear in Daniel 7, symbolized as beasts (cf. Dan. 7:17, 23). Notably, even commentators who denied an eschatological referent to the feet of the statue in Daniel 2 see an eschatological culmination in Daniel 7. Young, along with interpreters from the church fathers onward, identifies the little horn with the Antichrist (7:8, 20, 24) (Young 1949: 150; cf. Hippolytus 136-37 (4.5.3; 4.7.1); Jermone 1958: 77; Wood 1973: 188; Miller 1994: 202-3; Steinmann 2008: 348-49; Tanner 2020: 413; note, however, that these interpreters have different views on Antichrist and his appearing). Young concludes, “Thus, in one remarkable picture, the entire course of history is given from the appearance of the historical Roman Empire until the end of human government” (Young 1949: 150). Steinmann similarly says, “It seems that the vision given Daniel in 7:9–14, which is interpreted in 7:15–28, pictures in one scene the entire sweep of salvation history that includes Christ’s first advent, the church age, and Christ’s second advent” (Steinmann 2008: 329-30).

f. The opposition of the little horn to the saints will only end when the Ancient of Days comes to put an end to it (Dan. 7:22) and when the Son of Man comes to the Ancient of Days (Dan. 7:13-14).

h. Since Daniel 2 is a prophecy about the establishment of the kingdom of God coming in eschatological judgment, the things that must soon take place which John will see in his visions are about the future coming of the kingdom in judgment.