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From: Daniel 7:2-14

Daniel’s Vision

[2] Daniel said, “I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of hea-
ven were stirring up the great sea. [3] And four great beasts came up out of the
sea, different from one another. [4] The first was like a lion and had eagles’ wings.
Then as I looked its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted up from the ground
and made to stand upon two feet like a man; and the mind of a man was given
to it. [5] And behold, another beast, a second one, like a bear. It was raised up
on one side, it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth; and it was told,
‘Arise, devour much flesh.’ [6] After this I looked, and lo, another, like a leopard
with four wings of a bird on its back and the beast had four heads, and dominion
was given to it. [7] After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast,
terrible and dreadful and exceedingly strong; and it had great iron teeth; it de-
voured and broke in pieces, and stamped the residue with its feet. It was diffe-
rent from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns. [8] I considered
the horns, and behold, there came up among them another horn, a little one, be-
fore which three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots; and behold, in
this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things.
[9] As I looked,
thrones were placed
and one that was ancient of days took his seat;
his raiment was white as snow,
and the hair of his head like pure wool;
his throne was fiery flames,
its wheels were burning fire.
[10] A stream of fire issued
and came forth from before him;
a thousand thousands served him,
and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him;
the court sat in judgment,
and the books were opened.

[11] I looked then because of the sound of the great words which the horn
was speaking. And as I looked, the beast was slain, and its body destroyed and
given over to be burned with fire. [12] As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion
was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. [13] I
saw in the night visions,
and behold, with the clouds of heaven
there came one like a son of man,
and he came to the Ancient of Days
and was presented before him.
[14] And to him was given dominion
and glory and kingdom,
that all peoples, nations, and languages
should serve him;
his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
which shall not pass away,
and his kingdom one
that shall not be destroyed.

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Commentary:

7:1-12:13. Up to the end of chapter 6, Daniel has been the interpreter of kings’
dreams; now his own dreams are interpreted for him by an angel or heavenly be-
ing: the interpreter explains dreams (chaps. 7-8), the meaning of Scripture (chap.
9), and a vision (chaps. 10-12); and Daniel himself notes it all down.

Daniel had announced to Nebuchadnezzar the end of time as part of the interpre-
tation of his dream (cf. 2:28); now Daniel is told when it will happen (cf. 12:5-12);
for him (cf. 2:28); he is given a more specific revelation in which the figure of the
tyrannical Antiochus IV (described here symbolically) is depicted as the epitome
of evil and his death will mark the end of the present age (cf. 11:45-12:1). Earlier,
Daniel’s wisdom was seen as a divine gift to be used for the benefit of foreign
kings; now it is depicted as coming from a revelation in which God speaks to
Daniel through heavenly messengers and tells him about the meaning of human
history—a revelation that he must commit to writing, as a source of comfort and
hope for the chosen people. “Revelation has set within history a point of refe-
rence which cannot be ignored if the mystery of human life is to be known. Yet
this knowledge refers back constantly to the mystery of God which the human
mind cannot exhaust but can only receive and embrace in faith. Between these
two poles, reason has its own specific field in which it can enquire and under-
stand, restricted only by its finiteness before the infinite mystery of God” (Bl.
John Paul II, “Fides Et Ratio”, 14).

7:1-28. This chapter marks the end of the part of the book written in Aramaic;
in it we again find elements seen in chapter 2 (where the Aramaic part began);
these include: the arrangement of history into four periods (symbolized there by
metals, here by beasts) and the establishment of an everlasting kingdom at the
end. Thus, the chapter closes the Aramaic section and acts as a kind of intro-
duction to the chapters (in Hebrew) in which Daniel receives and writes down di-
vine revelations. Chapter 8 is written in Hebrew and it explains chapter 7; and
this pattern continues: chapter 9 is explained by chapter 10; and 11 by 12. Da-
niel first outlines his dream or vision, and it is then interpreted by an angelic
being. In this chapter the content of the dream is given in vv. 1-14, and its inter-
pretation in vv. 15-28. Vision and interpretation constitute a single event, an ac-
count of which Daniel writes down, as he mentions at start (cf. v. 1) and finish
(cf. v. 28). Daniel’s “signature” at beginning and end confirms the truth of his vi-
sion and the truthfulness of what he has written for the reader.

7:1-14. In chapter 5 the picture drawn of Belshazzar suggested that he stood fi-
guratively for the sacrilegious King Antiochus IV. It is not surprising, then, that
this dream of Daniel’s is set in the first year of Belshazzar’s reign, given that the
climax of the prophecy (the little horn) concerns Antiochus IV. God is going to
intervene definitively when irreligion is at its worst. There are two scenes in the
vision — the beasts coming out of the sea (vv. 2-8) and the divine court and judg-
ment (vv. 9-14).

7:2-8. The Great Sea (the Mediterranean: v. 2), out of which the beasts arise,
stands for the world of gloom and chaos. Although earlier prophets did use ani-
mals as symbols for empires (a crocodile for Egypt, cf. Ezek 32; an eagle or a
monster for Babylon, cf. Ezek 17:3; Jer 51:34), the winged beasts of Daniel’s
vision are reminiscent of Mesopotamian statues. The lion with eagle’s wings
stands for Nebuchadnezzar a proud man, he was brought low and later given
back his reason (4:16, 34); the empire of the Medes is depicted as a bear ready
to attack, and that of the Persians as a leopard, fleet of foot. The fourth beast re-
sembles no animal, but its teeth of iron show it to be the Greek empire of Alex-
ander the Great and his successors (cf. 2:40). Of those successors, (symbo-
lized by the horns), attention is focused on Antiochus IV, the horn with eyes that
speaks blasphemy (cf. vv. 8, 25). The gravity of those challenges to God’s autho-
rity will be underlined in Revelation 13:5 in its description of the beast that is gi-
ven power by the dragon. The worst sin of the powers of the world is their oppo-
sition to God and his laws. Interpreting the words of this passage as a prophecy
in the strict sense, that is, as a prediction of something that will happen in the
future, some Fathers read the last of the horns as being the Antichrist of whom
the Revelation to John will have much to say (cf. Rev. 13:11-18; 17:16; 19:19-21).

7:9-14. Divine judgment is passed on the kingdoms in this scene. God is depic-
ted as being seated on a throne in heaven, his glory flashing out and angels all
around. Judgment is about to take place, and it will be followed by execution of
the sentence. The books (v. 10) contain all the actions of men (cf. Jer 17:1; Mal
3:16; Ps 56:8; Rev 20:12). The seer is shown history past (not laid out according
to chronology: all the empires are included in one glance), and he notes that a
more severe sentence is passed on the blasphemous horn than on the other
beasts. They had their lives extended (v. 12), that is, their deprivation of power
did not spell the end; but the little horn is destroyed forthwith. “Following in the
steps of the prophets and John the Baptist, Jesus announced the judgment of
the Last Day in his preaching (cf. Dan 7:10; Joel 3-4; Mal 3:19; Mt 3:7-42)”
(”Catechism of the Catholic Church”, 678).

The one “like a son of man” who comes with the clouds of heaven and who, after
the judgment, is given everlasting dominion over all the earth, is the very antithe-
sis of the beasts. He has not risen from a turbulent sea like them; there is no-
thing ferocious about him. Rather, he has been raised up by God (he comes with
the clouds of heaven) and he shares the human condition. The dignity of all man-
kind is restored through this son of man’s triumph over the beasts. This figure, as
we will discover later, stands for ‘the people of the saints of the Most High’ (7:27),
that is, faithful Israel. However, he is also an individual (just as the winged lion
was an individual, and the little horn), and insofar as he is given a kingdom, he is
a king. What we have here is an individual who represents the people. In Jewish
circles around the time of Christ, this “son of man” was interpreted as being the
Messiah, a real person (cf. “Book of the Parables of Enoch”); but it was a title
that became linked to the sufferings of the Messiah and to his resurrection from
the dead only when Jesus Christ applied it to himself in the Gospel. “Jesus ac-
cepted Peter’s profession of faith, which acknowledged him to be the Messiah,
by announcing the imminent Passion of the Son of Man (cf. Mt 16:23). He un-
veiled the authentic content of his messianic kingship both in the transcendent
identity of the Son of Man ‘who came down from heaven’ (Jn 3:13; cf. Jn 6:62;
Dan 7:13), and in his redemptive mission as the suffering Servant: ‘The Son of
Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for ma-
ny’ (Mt 20:28; cf. Is 53:10-12)” (”Catechism of the Catholic Church”, 440).

When the Church proclaims in the Creed that Christ is seated at the right hand
of the Father, she is saying that it was to Christ that dominion was given; “Being
seated at the Father’s right hand signifies the inauguration of the Messiah’s king-
dom, the fulfillment of the prophet Daniel’s vision concerning the Son of man; ‘To
him was given domination and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and
languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall
not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed’ (Dan 7:14). Af-
ter this event the apostles became witnesses of the ‘kingdom [that] will have no
end’ (Nicene Creed)” (”Catechism of the Catholic Church”, 664).

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.