Passage

Daniel 7.13-14

Book: Daniel · NASB95

Verse

"I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man (kebar enash) was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed." (Daniel 7:13-14, NASB95)

Immediate context (vv. 9-14, the throne-room scene)

"I kept looking until thrones were set up, and the Ancient of Days took His seat; His vesture was like white snow and the hair of His head like pure wool. His throne was ablaze with flames, its wheels were a burning fire. A river of fire was flowing and coming out from before Him; thousands upon thousands were attending Him, and myriads upon myriads were standing before Him; the court sat, and the books were opened. Then I kept looking because of the sound of the boastful words which the horn was speaking; I kept looking until the beast was slain, and its body was destroyed and given to the burning fire. As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but an extension of life was granted to them for an appointed period of time." (Daniel 7:9-12, NASB95), the divine-court judgment scene; the four-beast cycle of empires (Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Greek, Roman per classical Christian reading) is being adjudicated; the boastful horn (Antiochus IV / antichrist-type) is destroyed. Then vv. 13-14: "I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming...", the climax of the night-vision: a human-shaped figure approaches the divine throne and receives universal-eternal kingship.

Setting

Speaker: Daniel reports his own apocalyptic-prophetic night-vision (first-person narration; cf. v. 1, "Daniel saw a dream and visions in his mind as he lay on his bed").
Audience: Daniel's first audience is the post-exilic Jewish community to whom the book is transmitted; the canonical-form audience is the people of the covenant across all time.
Location: Babylon during the reign of Belshazzar (v. 1 dates the vision to "the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon", c. 553 BC if the conservative date for Belshazzar's co-regency stands).
Genre: apocalyptic prophecy in the strict sense, symbolic vision, divine interpretation (Dan 7:15-27 gives the angelic interpretation of the vision), eschatological-cosmic-historical scope. Daniel 2 (Nebuchadnezzar's image) and Daniel 7 are the two foundational visions; Daniel 7 is the more theologically-loaded.
Language note: Daniel 2:4-7:28 (including this passage) is in Aramaic, not Hebrew, the language-shift signals a gentile-addressed portion of the book; the Daniel 7 vision is "for the nations," appropriate to its universal-Son-of-Man content.
Date and authorship: the classical Christian (and pre-modern Jewish) reading dates Daniel to the 6th-c. BC, traditionally Daniel himself; the Maccabean-date hypothesis (Porphyry c. 270 AD → Spinoza → modern critical-academic consensus) dates the book to c. 165 BC under Antiochus IV. The dating dispute is engaged below under "Position readings."

Theological reading

The Daniel 7 Son-of-Man vision is the most theologically loaded Christological passage in the OT for three convergent reasons: (1) it depicts a human-figured being receiving divine prerogatives reserved for YHWH; (2) Jesus cites it self-referentially at His Sanhedrin trial; (3) it is the textual anchor of the Two-Powers-in-Heaven tradition that pre-Christian Judaism recognized and the post-Christian rabbinic tradition condemned (cf. Michael Heiser §Two-Powers and Old Testament Witness to the Deity of Christ §Two-Powers).

Three load-bearing features

1. Coming with the clouds of heaven (Aramaic im-ananei shemayya). In the OT, only YHWH rides the clouds. The cloud-riding idiom is consistently divine-reserved across the canon:

Psalm 18:9-10, "He bowed the heavens also, and came down, with thick darkness under His feet. He rode upon a cherub and flew; and He sped upon the wings of the wind"
Psalm 68:4, "His name is YHWH... extol Him who rides through the deserts"; cf. v. 33, "Him who rides upon the highest heavens"
Psalm 104:3, "He lays the beams of His upper chambers in the waters; He makes the clouds His chariot; He walks upon the wings of the wind"
Isaiah 19:1, "Behold, YHWH is riding on a swift cloud and is about to come to Egypt"
Nahum 1:3, "In whirlwind and storm is His way, and clouds are the dust beneath His feet"

The Son of Man's coming with the clouds therefore signals divine arrival, not merely a human-figured being. The Daniel 7 vision applies the YHWH-cloud-riding idiom to the Son-of-Man figure. The literary-theological logic: Daniel is depicting another divine being, one with human form, who shares the cloud-riding divine prerogative.

2. Receives yiplach worship (Aramaic yiplechun, from p-l-ch, "to serve / worship"). The Aramaic root p-l-ch in Daniel is consistently used for worship reserved for God:

Dan 3:12, the three friends refuse to yiplach (worship) Nebuchadnezzar's golden image
Dan 3:17-18, "our God whom we serve (peylach)... is able to deliver us"; the worship-language is reserved for the true God
Dan 3:28, Nebuchadnezzar acknowledges that the three friends "served (peylachu) no other god" except their own
Dan 6:16, 20, Daniel peylach (worships / serves) his God in the lions'-den episode
Dan 7:14, 27, the Son of Man and "the people of the saints of the Most High" receive yiplach worship

The lexical pattern is decisive: the Aramaic p-l-ch in Daniel is divine-worship-reserved. The Son of Man in 7:14 receives the same worship-language that 3:12-28 says is owed only to the true God. The Daniel 7 vision is a divine-worship-receiving scene, not merely a human-figure-enthronement scene.

3. Everlasting dominion that will not pass away (Aramaic shaltan-eh shaltan alam di-la ye-eddeh u-malkhuteh di-la titchabbal). The kingdom received by the Son of Man has two distinctive features that distinguish it from every other ancient-near-eastern royal-kingdom claim:

Universal-scope, "all the peoples, nations, and men of every language" (Aramaic kol amemayya umayya wlishshanayya), the kingdom is trans-ethnic, trans-national, trans-linguistic. No earthly empire (Babylonian, Persian, Greek, Roman) genuinely achieves this universalist scope.
Eternal-duration, "His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away" (Aramaic shaltan alam di-la ye-eddeh); "His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed" (Aramaic malkhuteh di-la titchabbal). The kingdom is eschatologically-final, not subject to the succession-cycle that Daniel 7's four-beast vision frames as the pattern of human empires.

The combination, universal-scope + eternal-duration + human-figured-divine-recipient + cloud-riding-arrival + divine-worship-received, is the OT's most concentrated single-passage portrayal of a divine Messianic king.

The bar enash / kebar enash lexical question

The Aramaic phrase כְּבַר אֱנָשׁ (kebar enash, "one like a son of man") uses the prefix ke- ("like / as") + bar (son) + enash (man / Adam). The phrase is deliberately ambiguous:

The ke- prefix avoids equating the figure with merely a son of man; he is like one but is more, the construction grammatically signals human-formed-but-not-merely-human
The bar enash root is the Aramaic cognate of Hebrew ben adam, Ezekiel's preferred prophetic-address ("son of man" used ~107× in Ezekiel as YHWH's address to the prophet, signaling Ezekiel's creaturely-status before YHWH)
The Daniel 7 use inverts the Ezekielan pattern: in Ezekiel, ben adam is YHWH's address to a human (Ezekiel); in Daniel 7, bar enash is the human-figured-being who receives divine worship from the nations
See H1121 - ben for fuller lexical treatment

Jesus's most-frequent self-designation, "the Son of Man" (Greek ho huios tou anthrōpou), uses the definite-article construction (Aramaic-original presumed bar enasha, the son of man) and cites Daniel 7 self-referentially. The synoptic Gospels record approximately 82 Son of Man sayings on Jesus's lips; the phrase is almost exclusive to Jesus himself (only Acts 7:56 records a non-Jesus use, where the dying Stephen sees Jesus standing at the right hand). The pattern is structurally significant: Jesus uses the title without explaining it; the audience is expected to recognize the Daniel-7 reference; the recognition occurs decisively at his trial.

Jesus's trial-citation (Matt 26:64 / Mark 14:62 / Luke 22:69)

The most decisive deployment of Daniel 7:13-14 in the NT is Jesus's response to the high priest's adjuration at his trial:

Matt 26:63-65 NASB95: "But Jesus kept silent. And the high priest said to Him, 'I adjure You by the living God, that You tell us whether You are the Christ, the Son of God.' Jesus said to him, 'You have said it yourself; nevertheless I tell you, hereafter you will see THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER, and COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN.' Then the high priest tore his robes and said, 'He has blasphemed! What further need do we have of witnesses? Behold, you have now heard the blasphemy.'"

The high priest's response, tearing his robes + declaring blasphemy, confirms what Jesus is claiming. He is not saying I am a great prophet or I am the Davidic king; he is combining Psalm 110:1 + Daniel 7:13 to claim:

Psalm 110:1, seated at the right hand of God (a place of divine prerogative; cf. Psalms 110.1)
Daniel 7:13, coming on the clouds of heaven (the YHWH-cloud-riding idiom)

The Sanhedrin recognizes that the conjunction-claim makes Jesus more than human. The blasphemy charge in the Jewish-legal context requires claiming divine prerogatives (cf. Lev 24:13-16; Sanhedrin's Mishnaic-tractate definition); Jesus's combined Ps-110+Dan-7 citation triggers the charge precisely because it is heard as a divine-prerogative claim. Mark 14:62 has the same content; Luke 22:69 abbreviates with the Ps-110 reference, the Dan-7 component being assumed.

The trial-citation is the load-bearing NT evidence that Jesus understood the Daniel 7 Son-of-Man figure as referring to himself in his exalted-divine identity. See Liar Lunatic or Lord (syllogism) for the apologetic deployment.

NT reception beyond the Sanhedrin trial

Daniel 7:13-14 is among the most-frequently-cited OT texts in the NT, especially in apocalyptic-Christological contexts:

Matthew 24:30, the eschatological "sign of the Son of Man... coming on the clouds of the sky" (Olivet Discourse, second-coming context); see Two-Stage Messianic Prophecy §second-coming-cluster
Matthew 25:31, "when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne" (Olivet Discourse continuation; final-judgment scene)
Mark 13:26 / Luke 21:27, Synoptic parallels of the Matt 24:30 cloud-coming
Acts 7:55-56, Stephen sees "the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God", the only non-Jesus NT-use of the title; Stephen's vision interprets his martyrdom in Daniel-7 terms
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, the cloud-coming Lord descends; the redeemed are caught up "in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air", the cloud-coming is now a two-way phenomenon
Revelation 1:7, "BEHOLD, HE IS COMING WITH THE CLOUDS, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him", combining Daniel 7:13 with Zechariah 12:10 (cf. Failed Messianic Prophecy Objections §Zech-12 application)
Revelation 1:13, John sees "one like a son of man" (Greek homoion huion anthropou), directly citing Dan 7:13 LXX
Revelation 14:14, "And I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and sitting on the cloud was one like a son of man, having a golden crown on His head and a sharp sickle in His hand", Daniel-7 cloud-coming + harvest-judgment scene

The NT-reception pattern is dense and consistent: Daniel 7:13-14 is the OT-anchor for the high-Christological Son of Man identity, the cloud-coming Lord, and the final-judgment-and-eschatological-reign of Christ.

Apologetic significance

OT-deity-of-Christ case. Daniel 7:13-14 is the most concentrated single-passage OT evidence that the OT itself depicts a divine Messianic figure, not merely a human Davidic king. The cloud-riding + worship-receiving + everlasting-dominion combination is unambiguous in its Aramaic-grammatical force. Modern critical scholars (Larry Hurtado Lord Jesus Christ 2003; Richard Bauckham Jesus and the God of Israel 2008; Daniel Boyarin The Jewish Gospels 2012, Boyarin is an Orthodox Jewish Talmudist, his Daniel-7 high-Christology reading is non-Christian-confessional) all read Daniel 7 as evidence that high Christology is native to Second Temple Judaism, not a late Hellenistic-Christian innovation. See Christs Deity and Old Testament Witness to the Deity of Christ.
Anti-Jehovah's-Witnesses / anti-unitarian deity-of-Christ argument. The standard Watchtower / unitarian reading of Son of Man is humble human prophet who points to YHWH alone. The Daniel 7 context disconfirms this reading: the Son of Man (a) does what only YHWH does (cloud-riding); (b) receives what only YHWH receives (the yiplach worship); (c) reigns over a kingdom no human-prophet could plausibly claim (universal scope + eternal duration). The Daniel 7 context is the OT-Hebraic-Aramaic grammatical-textual evidence that Son of Man in Jesus's self-use is a divine-Messianic title.
Anti-Islamic apologetic. Islamic apologetics typically reads Jesus's Daniel-7 citation as a misreading or fabrication. The strength of the Daniel-7 reading is its pre-Christian grounding: pre-rabbinic Jewish tradition (1 Enoch's Son-of-Man parables; the Similitudes of Enoch 37-71; Boyarin's analysis of 4 Ezra 13 + the Mekhilta de-Rabbi Yishmael) reads Daniel 7 as messianic-figure prophecy. The Christian reading is the natural development of an existing Jewish reading tradition; the Islamic reading would have to argue that pre-Christian Judaism misread Daniel 7 and that Christianity inherited the misreading, which is structurally unlikely.
Anti-supersessionist correction. The Daniel 7:14 inclusion of "all the peoples, nations, and men of every language" serving the Son of Man (with the parallel "the people of the saints of the Most High" in v. 27 receiving the kingdom) reads in the NT as Jew-and-Gentile-in-Christ inclusion, not Gentile-replacement-of-Israel. The kingdom is expanded in Christ to include the nations; it is not re-assigned away from Israel. Rom 11's framework applies. See Two-Stage Messianic Prophecy §anti-supersessionism.
Two-Powers-in-Heaven framework anchor. Daniel 7's visual structure, two distinct divine figures (Ancient of Days + Son of Man), each enthroned, each receiving worship, is the most concentrated OT textual anchor for the Two-Powers tradition (Alan Segal 1977; Heiser; Boyarin). Pre-Christian rabbinic tradition recognized the Daniel-7 binitarian pattern; post-Christian rabbinic tradition (b. Sanhedrin 38b, b. Hagigah 14a, b. Berakhot 7a) declared the Two-Powers reading heretical precisely because of its Christian-apologetic use. The historical pattern is dialectically powerful, the rabbinic anathema confirms what Christians claim. See Trinity Invented at Nicaea Objection §Two-Powers-co-option and Michael Heiser.
Second-coming framework anchor. The Daniel 7 cloud-coming is the textual basis of the second-coming-on-the-clouds eschatological framework (Matt 24:30; Rev 1:7; 1 Thess 4:16-17). The "Davidic kingdom not yet here" objection (cf. Davidic Covenant §apologetic-significance; Two-Stage Messianic Prophecy) is partially answered by Daniel 7: the first-coming established Jesus's eschatological-divine-kingship invisibly at the resurrection-ascension (Acts 2:30-36); the second-coming will make it visible per the Daniel-7 cloud-coming pattern. The two stages interlock at the Daniel-7 textual point.

Position-readings table

Position	Reading of Dan 7:13-14	Date of book	Engagement
Classical Christian (Justin, Tertullian, Augustine, Aquinas, Reformed, mainstream-evangelical)	A divine Messianic figure receiving universal kingship and divine worship; fulfilled in Jesus Christ, eternal Son of God, vindicated at resurrection and to be consummated at second coming	Daniel-himself, 6th c. BC	The reading Jesus models at his trial (Matt 26:64) and the apostles deploy in Acts 7, Rev 1, 1 Thess 4
Two-Stage / Premillennial Christian	Same Christological reading; additionally posits a literal-political millennial Davidic kingdom centered in Jerusalem fulfilling the Dan 7:14 universal-scope clause visibly between the second coming and the final consummation (Rev 20:4-6)	6th c. BC	Christologically faithful; differs from amillennial reading on millennium-locus only
Reformed amillennial / postmillennial	The Dan 7:14 universal-scope kingdom is already established at Christ's resurrection-ascension; the second-coming completes the visible dimension; no literal-political millennial kingdom in Jerusalem	6th c. BC	Christologically faithful; differs from premillennial reading on millennium-locus only
Rabbinic traditional (Saadia Gaon, Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Maimonides line)	Son of Man = the people of Israel collectively (per the angelic interpretation in 7:18, 22, 27 that the saints-of-the-Most-High receive the kingdom); not an individual Messianic figure	6th c. BC traditionally; some modern Orthodox accept Maccabean date	Engaged via the Maccabean-Jewish-evidence (1 Enoch's Similitudes, 4 Ezra 13) that pre-Christian Jews DID read Daniel 7 as messianic-individual prophecy; the collective-Israel reading is post-Christian apologetic refinement, not the original Jewish reading. The angelic interpretation in 7:18-27 expands the Son-of-Man-figure's reign to include the people-of-the-saints, but does not equate the Son of Man with the people
Critical-academic Maccabean-date (Porphyry → Spinoza → modern critical consensus)	Daniel was written c. 165 BC during the Maccabean revolt; Daniel 7 is vaticinium ex eventu (prophecy-after-the-event) referring to the four successive empires culminating in Antiochus IV; the Son of Man = Israel-collective receiving Maccabean-era restoration	c. 165 BC	Engaged via the Dead Sea Scrolls Daniel manuscripts (8 copies, oldest c. 125 BC, suggesting circulation requires earlier composition); the LXX Daniel translation evidence (c. 200-150 BC translation requires earlier Hebrew/Aramaic original); the Aramaic-Hebrew bilingualism unusual for 2nd-c. BC composition (consistent with 6th-c. exilic-bilingual setting); the Onias III - Antiochus IV - high priest sequence (Dan 9:26) and "70 weeks" arithmetic remain difficult on the Maccabean date. The conservative-evangelical reading defends the 6th-c. BC date on (a) the Persian-period historical-detail accuracy, (b) the lack of Greek-period historical-detail anachronism, (c) the textual-transmission evidence, and (d) the early-LXX translation evidence

Key words

H1121 - ben, ben / "son"; Aramaic cognate bar in bar enash / ke-bar enash ("one like a son of man"), the Daniel-7 self-designation Jesus inherits
kebar enash (כְּבַר אֱנָשׁ) / bar enash, Aramaic "(like a) son of man"; no lexicon hub yet (theologically-loaded; consider future build)
yiplach / p-l-ch (פלח), Aramaic verb for "to serve / worship"; consistently divine-worship-reserved in Daniel (3:12, 17, 18, 28; 6:16, 20; 7:14, 27)
im-ananei shemayya (עִם־עֲנָנֵי שְׁמַיָּא), Aramaic "with the clouds of heaven"; the cloud-riding idiom reserved for YHWH in OT Hebrew (olam, anan); no separate lexicon hub
Atik Yomin (עַתִּיק יוֹמִין), Aramaic "Ancient of Days"; divine-elder-figure designation in Daniel 7:9, 13, 22; no separate lexicon hub
shaltan alam / malkhuta di-la titchabbal, Aramaic "everlasting dominion / kingdom-that-will-not-be-destroyed"; the eschatological-finality clause

Quoted in

Notes

Apologetic deployment patterns (live-debate ready):

Against "Son of Man" = merely-human-prophet (JW / unitarian / Islamic). Open with the Aramaic yiplach lexical evidence: the same verb that Dan 3:12-28 says is reserved for the true God is given to the Son of Man at Dan 7:14. Add the cloud-riding YHWH-reserved-idiom evidence (Ps 18, 68, 104; Isa 19; Nah 1). Add the universal-eternal kingdom evidence. The conjunction-evidence is what the Sanhedrin recognized at Matt 26:64-65 as blasphemy-claim. The "humble human prophet" reading cannot account for Daniel 7's Aramaic-grammatical content.
Against the rabbinic-collective-Israel reading. Grant the angelic interpretation's expansion to the saints-of-the-Most-High in 7:18-27, but show that the Son of Man is distinguished from the saints in the original vision (he appears before the Ancient of Days as a singular figure; the saints subsequently share in his kingdom). Cite the pre-Christian Jewish evidence (Similitudes of Enoch; 4 Ezra 13; pre-rabbinic Two-Powers-in-Heaven tradition) that read Daniel 7 as messianic-individual prophecy. The collective-Israel reading is post-Christian apologetic refinement.
Against the Maccabean-date hypothesis. Cite the Dead Sea Scrolls Daniel manuscripts (8 copies, oldest c. 125 BC, suggesting earlier composition); the early LXX Daniel translation evidence; the Persian-period historical-detail accuracy vs. lack of Greek-period anachronism. The Maccabean-date hypothesis is the dominant critical-academic view but is not load-bearing for the Christological reading, even on the Maccabean date, the content of Daniel 7 is what Jesus cites at his trial, and the apostolic-NT pattern of citation establishes the divine-Messianic reading independent of the date question.
For the high-Christology cumulative case. Daniel 7 is one of the strongest single passages, alongside Isa 9:6-7, Jer 23:5-6, Ps 110, Ps 45:6, establishing that high Christology is internal to the OT, not retroactively imposed by Hellenistic Christianity. The convergence of these passages is the cumulative-OT-deity-of-Christ argument. See Old Testament Witness to the Deity of Christ (synthesis treating all 8 passage-clusters).
For the second-coming framework. The Daniel-7 cloud-coming + universal-eternal-dominion is the OT textual anchor for the second-coming portion of the Two-Stage Messianic Prophecy framework. First-coming = Jesus established the kingdom invisibly at resurrection-ascension (Acts 2 Pentecost); second-coming = Jesus consummates the kingdom visibly per the Daniel-7 pattern (Matt 24:30; Rev 1:7).

Live-cite kit (debate-ready quotes):

Daniel 7:14 (NASB95): "And to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.", the universal-eternal kingdom clause
Matthew 26:64-65 (NASB95): "Jesus said to him, 'You have said it yourself; nevertheless I tell you, hereafter you will see THE SON OF MAN SITTING AT THE RIGHT HAND OF POWER, and COMING ON THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN.' Then the high priest tore his robes and said, 'He has blasphemed!'", the trial-citation
Revelation 1:7 (NASB95): "BEHOLD, HE IS COMING WITH THE CLOUDS, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen.", the Daniel-7 + Zech-12 NT-eschatological consummation

Cross-references in the codex: the OT-deity-of-Christ case is at Old Testament Witness to the Deity of Christ; the Christology synthesis at Christology; the Davidic-Covenant escalation context at Davidic Covenant / 2 Samuel 7.12-14; the two-stage hermeneutical framework at Two-Stage Messianic Prophecy; the Two-Powers tradition at Michael Heiser; the trial-citation apologetic at Liar Lunatic or Lord; the cumulative-prophecy case at Messianic Prophecy Probability; the failed-prophecy-objections engagement at Failed Messianic Prophecy Objections.