Source Text: Daniel 7:13-14
Target Text(s):
Source: G.K. Beale, A New Testament Biblical Theology (Baker, 2011), ch. 6
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): Longitudinal Theme + Redemptive-Historical Progression
Anchor Text: Dan 7:13-14 — The Son of Man Receiving Dominion
Significance: Genesis 1:26-28 grants the first man, made in God's image, dominion over "the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, and over all the earth" — a universal, royal rule that Adam forfeits at the Fall. Daniel 7:13-14 re-vests that forfeited dominion in "One like the Son of Man" (כְּבַר אֱנָשׁ, kəbar ʾĕnāš), to whom "was given dominion, glory, and kingship, that the people of every nation and language should serve Him." The vocabulary echoes the creation mandate: a representative human figure receives rule over all the peoples of the earth, now escalated to an everlasting dominion "that will not pass away." Beale argues that Daniel 7 is the apocalyptic restoration of Genesis 1:26-28's mandate — the dominion lost in Adam is regained in the Son of Man. The connection is longitudinal and redemptive-historical rather than strictly typological: the same theme of human dominion-under-God advances across the canon, from the garden to the heavenly court. Its telos is not a generic call to "exercise dominion" but the enthroned Son of Man Himself — the desirable King who alone is fit to bear the glory Adam could not keep, and who, having received the kingdom, shares it with "the saints of the Most High" (Dan 7:18, 27). To behold Him reigning is to see what humanity was made for and to long to be His.