Journal: Bulletin for Biblical Research
Volume: BBR 21:4 (NA 2011)
Article: Old Greek Daniel 7:13–14 And Matthew’s Son Of Man
Author: H. Daniel Zacharias

BBR 21:4 (2011) p. 453

Old Greek Daniel 7:13–14 And Matthew’s Son Of Man

H. Daniel Zacharias

Acadia Divinity College

The earliest witnesses to Old Greek Dan 7 equate the Son of Man with God and represent a perspective of Dan 7 that likely existed in the first century A.D. This throne vision coheres with the Son of Man sayings in Matthew and indicates that the evangelist was familiar with a similar textual tradition. The evangelist has the Son of Man coming on (not with) the clouds, puts the angels in his charge, and places him on the glorious throne where he judges the nations. All of this coheres with Dan 7 as represented by the Old Greek.

Key Words: Daniel, Gospel of Matthew, Old Greek, Theodotion, LXX, Son of Man

Introduction

There are three ancient versions of Daniel—the Masoretic Text (MT), the Old Greek (OG), and the Theodotion (Θ) versions. Besides the obvious additions to Daniel present in the Greek versions, Θ-Dan is otherwise a pedantic translation of the Semitic version. This is not the case with the OG version of Daniel—at several places the OG can be understood quite differently. One such passage, and a favorite of the synoptics and presumably Jesus, is the vision of Dan 7 and the one like a “Son of Man” (SM). It is recognized by Matthean scholars that the evangelist preferred the LXX1 or a comparable Greek text. At times, the LXX version is unique, and “from time to time the point Matthew wants to make depends on a form of text preserved in the LXX.”2 This may be the case when the OG version of Dan 7:13–14 is placed alongside Matthew’s discussion of the SM. The purpose of this article is to show that the evangelist likely knew a textual tradition very similar to the throne vision preserved in OG-Dan 7, and the peculiarities of the OG tradition helped to shape Matthew’s portrait of the SM3 and

BBR 21:4 (2011) p. 454

Table 1. Daniel 7:13 in Θ, MT, and OG