“
As I was watching, thrones were set up,
And the Atik Yomin took His seat.
His clothing as snow was white,
And the hair of His head was like pure wool.
His throne was flames of fire, its wheels burning fire.
A river of fire was flowing and and came forth from before Him;
A thousand thousands were ministering to Him,
And ten thousand times ten thousand were standing before Him.
The judgment sat, and the books were opened.”
As far as I know, the title
Ancient of Days was applied to both the Father and the Son by the Early Church Fathers. One example of the use this double application is St. Cyril of Jerusalem in two different works:
The Son of Man shall come to the Father, according to the Scripture which was just now read, “
on the clouds of heaven,” drawn by a stream of fire, which is to make trial of men. Then if any man’s works are of gold, he shall be made brighter; if any man’s course of life be like stubble, and unsubstantial, it shall be burnt up by the fire. And the Father “
shall sit, having His garment white as snow, and the hair of His head like pure wool”. But this is spoken after the manner of men; wherefore? Because He is the King of those who have not been defiled with sins; “
for,” He says, “
I will make your sins white as snow, and as wool,” which is an emblem of forgiveness of sins, or of sinlessness itself. But the Lord who shall come from heaven on the clouds, is He who ascended on the clouds; for He Himself has said, “
And they shall see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.”
-Catechetical Lectures, Lecture XV
Let the earth bow down, let every tongue sing, chant, and glorify the Child God, forty-day old and pre-eternal, the small Child and Ancient of Days, the suckling Child and Creator of the ages.
-
Homily on the Presentation of our Lord in the Temple
Even so, as time passed, the “
Ancient of Days=Father” identification became more predominant in the West, while in the East, the identification of the Ancient of Days with Christ is more common. There were even icons which show Christ with the attributes of the Ancient of Days (7th century example
here; another one
here, which explicitly has the inscription
O Paleos Himerōn, “The Ancient of Days” just below
IC XC, “Jesus Christ”!); but there is one 15th-century Russian icon
which depicts the Father (?) with the attributes. Still, in the Synod of Moscow in 1667 (which finally forbade depictions of the Father in human form), the Russian Church declared that, “
although Daniel the prophet says that he beheld the Ancient of Days sitting on a throne, this should not be understood to refer to the Father, but to the Son, who at His second coming will judge every nation at the dreadful Judgment.”
“
I was watching in the visions of the night, and behold!
With the clouds of the heavens like a son of man was one arriving;
And to the Ancient of Days He came, and before Him they brought Him near.
And to Him was given sovereignty, and honor, and kingdom;
And all peoples, tribes, and tongues were serving Him.
His sovereignty is an eternal sovereignty which will not pass away,
And His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.”
Apparently, one explanation I’ve heard as to how the ‘Ancient of Days’ and the ‘One like a Son of Man’ could both be Jesus is that the vision is a symbolic depiction of the Incarnation, the union of the pre-eternal Word and flesh - with the
Ancient of Days representing Christ’s divine nature, and the
Son of Man representing His human nature. The Ancient of Days ‘accepting’ the Son of Man prefigures the Word of God ‘accepting’ human nature and becoming flesh.
