The Son of Man and the Resurrection
At the heart of Daniel’s visions rises the greatest prophecy of the book. After seeing four monstrous beasts come up from the sea, images of the empires of violence, the prophet contemplates a wholly other figure: one who comes on the clouds of heaven, like a son of man, and who receives an everlasting kingship. This vision, joined to the announcement of the awakening of the dead, opens the Old Testament onto the highest hope, the one Christ will come to fulfil by giving himself this very name: the Son of Man.
The four beasts
Daniel first sees rise from the troubled sea four frightening beasts, one after another, more terrible each time. They figure the empires that follow one another and dominate the world by force, cunning, and cruelty. The sea from which they come is, in the Bible, the image of chaos and of the forces hostile to God; the beasts are power become monstrous, which devours and tramples. This vision says plainly the truth of the persecuting empires: under their apparent greatness, they have something bestial, for they rise against God and grind men. But their reign is numbered, and a judgment is coming that will take dominion from them. On the last beast grows an insolent little horn, which speaks with arrogance, makes war on the saints, and claims to change even the sacred times. The first readers recognized in it the persecutor of their age, the king who profaned the Temple and forbade the Law. But the vision does not stop at him: a heavenly tribunal is set up, the Ancient of Days takes his seat, and the proud horn is broken. Every power that blasphemes and oppresses may believe itself eternal: its hour is numbered before the throne of God.
The Son of Man on the clouds
Then, in absolute contrast with the beasts come up from below, appears a figure come from above: “on the clouds of heaven came one like a son of man; he advanced as far as the Ancient of Days.” Daniel 7:13 Where the beasts surged from the abyss, this one descends from heaven; where they devoured, he peacefully receives the reign from the hand of God. And this reign, unlike all the empires, will not end: “His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which will not pass away, and his reign will never be destroyed.” Daniel 7:14 A man, and yet more than a man, receives over all peoples a kingship that God alone can give. The vision left the question open: who is this Son of Man?
The name Christ gave himself
The answer, it is Jesus who gives it, by making this vision his most frequent title. All through the Gospel, he names himself the Son of Man, taking up Daniel’s figure to say at once his real humanity and his divine glory. And at the decisive moment of his trial, ordered to say whether he is the Messiah, he answers by citing Daniel: “you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Almighty and coming with the clouds of heaven.” Mark 14:62 The high priest sees in it a blasphemy, and it is this word that has him condemned to death. Daniel’s Son of Man is therefore Christ: the one who, after being judged by men, will return on the clouds as judge of all history, to receive the reign that does not pass. This title of Son of Man had for Jesus a double advantage. It was veiled enough not to impose itself as a political claim to kingship, and yet, for whoever knew Daniel, it said everything: the one who bore it received from God an everlasting dominion over all peoples. Humble in appearance, since it means simply a man, it hid the highest of glories. Jesus chose this name to say together what he was: true man among men, and Lord come from heaven.
The awakening of those who sleep
The vision of the Son of Man ends on a promise the Old Testament had never yet said so clearly: the resurrection of the dead. “many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to eternal life.” Daniel 12:2 For the first time, hope openly crosses the frontier of death: the righteous are not lost, they will rise again. And to those who have stood firm in the trial, a glory is promised: “Those who have been wise will shine like the brightness of the firmament.” Daniel 12:3 This text, written for martyrs, assures them that death undergone for God is not the end, but the threshold of life. The Church reads in it the announcement of the resurrection that Christ will inaugurate on the morning of Easter, and that will raise all those who sleep. This verse of Daniel is the clearest of the whole Old Testament on the resurrection; with the testimony of the Maccabee brothers, who face death confessing that God will raise them, it marks the moment when the hope of Israel openly crosses the threshold of the tomb. For a long time it had been believed that the dead went down to an abode of shadow without return. Now God promises the awakening, eternal life for the righteous. This seed of hope, sown in persecution, will blossom fully in the Resurrection of Christ.