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Echoes of Revelation
Revelation never quotes the Old Testament outright, yet no New Testament book refers to it more. See both texts side by side, why they don’t match, and what John does with them.
Revelation 1:14, hair white like wool, white as snow
The white hair belongs in Daniel 7 to the Ancient of Days, God on his throne; John gives it to Jesus, the son of man.
Revelation 1:14, in every translation this tool compares.
If an actor playing the prince walks on wearing the king's crown, the audience notices. In Daniel 7 two figures stand apart. The Ancient of Days, God on the throne, has hair like pure wool and clothing white as snow. The son of man comes to him. John's son of man has the hair of the Ancient of Days. He gives God's look to Jesus.
Hair white like wool, and the whiteness of snow. In the Greek, wool (erion) and snow (chion) appear in both verses.
In Daniel the snow describes the clothing and the wool describes the hair. John puts both on the head and the hair. And the person changes. In Daniel these features belong to the Ancient of Days, not to the son of man who comes before him. John blends the two figures.
This is the boldest move in the vision. John gives Jesus a feature that Daniel reserved for God. Beale reads it as showing Jesus' divine right to judge and his eternal life. Wright puts it simply: looking at Jesus, you see the Father.
Not a sign of old age. White hair in Daniel marks the dignity and wisdom of the eternal judge (Keener, the ESV Study Bible), not frailty.
Beale says the head and hair are taken from the Ancient of Days in Daniel 7:9, and that the transfer of the judge's attributes to Christ shows his role as the end-time divine judge and his eternal life. In the vault's Greek Daniel, 7:9 reads to endyma autou hosei chion leukon, his garment as white snow, and he thrix … hosei erion katharon, the hair as pure wool. Beale notes a variant in the old Greek of Daniel 7:13 in which the son of man comes as the Ancient of Days, and suggests it may reflect a tradition that helped John. Keener, the NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, the ESV Study Bible, the CSB Study Bible and the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible all trace the hair to Daniel 7:9. The grade is drawn here: the words are nearly the same and the source is one passage.
Heiser stresses that in Daniel 7 the white hair belongs to the Ancient of Days, not to the son of man. John gives it to Jesus anyway: "he blurs the distinction between them". Heiser reads this as John's view of Jesus as Yahweh in the flesh, written by the end of the first century at the latest. He ties the Ancient of Days' fiery wheeled throne to Ezekiel 1.
The study Bibles differ on what white hair means: wisdom (ESV Study Bible, NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible), dignity of age (Keener), or wisdom and purity, joined with the transfiguration (CSB Study Bible). Beale stresses judgment and eternal life. None doubts the source.
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- G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (New International Greek Testament Commentary), comment on 1:13-15 and Summary of 1:12-20
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Revelation 1:13-15
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Revelation 1:14
- ESV Study Bible, note on Revelation 1:14
- CSB Study Bible, note on Revelation 1:14
- NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, note on Revelation 1:14
- N. T. Wright, Revelation for Everyone, comment on Revelation 1:9-20
- Septuagint, Daniel 7:9, Interlinear Greek-English Septuagint
- Michael S. Heiser, Revelation 1: The Revelation of Jesus Christ and the Glorified Son of Man, video lecture (Naked Bible Revelation series)
