The Son of Man Riding on the Clouds as Possible Polemic in the Book of Daniel

The idea that God rides on the clouds like a chariot has a long history in the ancient Near East and the Bible.

It appears in Daniel 7 in reference to the Son of Man, who will take over the world when he receives his kingdom from the Ancient of Days, shattering all of the existing nations before him.

It is worth pursuing the question of Daniel's audience in terms of this imagery since it is likely polemical.

On the one hand, it could be just an adoption of the previous polemic used throughout the OT that pitted YHWH against Baal, the storm god, who rode on the clouds. In that regard, it would only carry the idea of supremity in general.

However, it is significant that Marduk is also the supreme deity in Babylonian religion (albeit with some coregency with Nabu), and is also the storm god who rides on the clouds. This would fit the setting of Daniel as one that is written in the Babylonian period. However, even for the traditional date of Daniel this is not the setting of the composition, as it would have to be written at the very earliest in the Persian period, since the book covers some of this period.

However, the Persians don't worship a specific storm god, so there would be no polemic at the time of the composition. The reign of the storm is divided between two lesser gods, Vayu and Tishtrya, who are not the supreme deity in Persian religion.

Still, it is possible for this view to take the text as a prophecy written down in the Babylonian period. The text does set it up as being received in the Babylonian kingdom. One could, therefore, argue that it is a polemic against the Babylonian god Marduk. The problem is that the polemic of YHWH riding the clouds as a chariot instead of Baal exists because there is a real threat to Israel assigning some sovereignty to Baal, and so the polemic is created. At the time of supposed composition during the Persian period, however, there is no threat of Jews falling into Marduk worship. Marduk is a failed god by then. Babylon is fallen to the Persian god Ahura-Mazda. Why would anyone be tempted to follow Marduk?

However, there is a real threat that Judah would worship Zeus in the time of Antiochus IV. I would suggest that since the last kingdom in view throughout the book is the Seleucid Empire, that the book's polemics are aimed there. The god of Antiochus IV, the real antagonist of the book worships Zeus, again, the supreme god who is the storm god. He rides the clouds and has ultimate power. It is likely for this reason that the Son of Man is viewed as riding on the clouds of heaven. The same type of polemic is then later used by John against Zeus/Jupiter in the Book of Revelation. Many Jews, in an effort to become Hellenized, had forsaken YHWH for (or at least identified Him as) Zeus with Antiochus Epiphanes as his manifestation on earth.

It would make sense that the polemic in Chapter 7 would present the Son of Man, the Kingdom/Empire of God, as headed up by a divine king that sovereignly rules over the domain that is being falsely assigned to Zeus at the time of Antiochus. As the earthly kingdom that has been incorrectly assumed to belong to pagans will be given over to Israel and its King, the heavenly kingdom that has been incorrectly assumed to belong to a pagan god belongs to both the Ancient of Days and His king. In this way, the Son of Man imagery both refers to Israel (i.e., the human in contrast to the beasts that describe the pagan nations) and to Israel's Divine King (since the nations at the beginning and end of the inclusio in the text are often characterized by a particular king that rules them, e.g., Nebuchadnezzar and Antiochus IV).

This is yet another piece of the puzzle that shows that the Book of Daniel is likely addressing a situation not during the time of the Babylonian captivity, but rather during the reign of the Seleucids.