Vision imagery
The Son of Man and the heavenly court
Both visions place a human-like figure in a heavenly setting associated with an aged figure, authority and judgement. Enoch's interpreting angel explains the figure's relationship to righteousness and the overthrow of rulers; Daniel's vision describes the granting of dominion.
Read these as distinct passages with their own references. The columns compare a relationship between works; they do not align equivalent verses or highlight translation differences.
Ethiopian collection
R. H. Charles
1 Enoch 46:1–6
1 And there I saw One, who had a head of days, And His head was white like wool, And with Him was another being whose countenance had the appearance of a man, And his face was full of graciousness, like one of the holy angels.
2 And I asked the angel who went with me and showed me all the hidden things, concerning that Son of Man, who he was, and whence he was, (and) why he went with the Head of Days?
3 And he answered and said unto me: This is the Son of Man who hath righteousness, With whom dwelleth righteousness, And who revealeth all the treasures of that which is hidden, Because the Lord of Spirits hath chosen him, And whose lot hath the pre-eminence before the Lord of Spirits in uprightness for ever.
4 And this Son of Man whom thou hast seen Shall †raise up† the kings and the mighty from their seats, [And the strong from their thrones] And shall loosen the reins of the strong, And break the teeth of the sinners;
5 [And he shall put down the kings from their thrones and kingdoms] Because they do not extol and praise Him, Nor humbly acknowledge whence the kingdom was bestowed upon them.
6 And he shall put down the countenance of the strong, And shall fill them with shame. And darkness shall be their dwelling, And worms shall be their bed, And they shall have no hope of rising from their beds, Because they do not extol the name of the Lord of Spirits.
Biblical passage
World English Bible
Daniel 7:9–14
9 I saw until thrones were placed, and one who was ancient of days sat: his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames, [and] the wheels of it burning fire.
10 A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him: thousands of thousands ministered to him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened.
11 I saw at that time because of the voice of the great words which the horn spoke; I saw even until the animal was slain, and its body destroyed, and it was given to be burned with fire.
12 As for the rest of the animals, their dominion was taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.
13 I saw in the night-visions, and, behold, there came with the clouds of the sky one like a son of man, and he came even to the ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.
14 There was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and languages should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.
Editorial reading aids
Context for the comparison
Keep the wording and setting of each vision visible before making theological identifications. The comparison itself does not settle whether every author or later community understood the figures in the same way.
Questions for close reading
- What is shown in the vision, and what is explained afterwards?
- Who grants authority, and over whom is it exercised?
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Text sources and editorial treatment
R. H. Charles's translation, reprinted in 1917 from his 1912 edition. Public-domain translation text, transcribed by Project Gutenberg. We retain his textual brackets and uncertainty marks, join poetry into verse paragraphs, omit editorial headings and footnotes, and arrange verses by their reference numbers. Where chapters 22, 27 and 32 print Ethiopic and Greek readings side by side, this reader uses the Ethiopic column. Lettered subverse portions are grouped under their verse number, with their labels retained. The misprinted second label 5 in chapter 60 is restored to 25, following Charles's 1913 edition. This historic scholarly edition is not an official English translation of the Ethiopian Church. See the source for the critical notes and typographic distinctions.
Charles's Enoch: edition and full source · About World English Bible and the other Bible editions
Each panel displays the stored source text without rewriting it to resemble the other passage. Verse labels belong to that edition. The observations above describe these selected passages; they are not ancient text or a claim that all scholarly interpretations agree.