Editing Ancient of Days (section)

== Christianity ==
===Eastern Christianity===
[[File:Damian. The Ancient of Days.jpg|thumb|''The Ancient of Days'', a 14th-century fresco from [[Ubisi]], [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]]]]

In [[Eastern Orthodoxy|Eastern Orthodox]] Christian hymns and icons, the Ancient of Days is sometimes identified with [[God the Father]] or occasionally the [[God the Holy Spirit|Holy Spirit]]; but most properly, in accordance with Orthodox theology he is identified with [[God the Son]], [[Jesus Christ]].

Most of the eastern church fathers who comment on the passage in Daniel (7:9–10, 13–14) interpreted the elderly figure as a prophetic revelation of the Son before his physical incarnation.<ref name="McKay">{{Cite journal|url = http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_early_christian_studies/summary/v007/7.1mckay.html|title = The Eastern Christian Exegetical Tradition of Daniel's Vision of the Ancient of Days|last = McKay|first = Gretchen K.|date = 1999|journal = Journal of Early Christian Studies|volume = 7|pages = 139–161|doi = 10.1353/earl.1999.0019| s2cid=170245894 }}</ref>

Eastern Christian art will sometimes portray Jesus Christ as an old man, the Ancient of Days, to show symbolically that he existed from all eternity, and sometimes as a young man, or wise baby, to portray him as he was incarnate. This iconography emerged in the 6th century, mostly in the Eastern Empire with elderly images, although usually not properly or specifically identified as "the Ancient of Days."<ref>Cartlidge and Elliott, 69–72</ref> The first images of the Ancient of Days, so named with an inscription, were developed by iconographers in different manuscripts, the earliest of which are dated to the 11th century. The images in these manuscripts included the inscription "Jesus Christ, Ancient of Days," confirming that this was a way to identify Christ as pre-eternal with the God the Father.<ref>The manuscripts that include an image of the Ancient of Days are discussed in the unpublished dissertation by Gretchen Kreahling McKay, "Imaging the Divine: A Study of the Representations of the Ancient of Days in Byzantine Manuscripts," University of Virginia, 1997.</ref> Indeed, later, it was declared by the [[Russian Orthodox Church]] at the [[Great Moscow Synod|Great Synod of Moscow]] in 1667 that the Ancient of Days was the Son and not the Father.<ref>''The Tome of the Great Council of Moscow (1666–1667 A.D.)'', Ch. 2, 43-45; tr. [[Hierodeacon]] Lev Puhalo, ''Canadian Orthodox Missionary Journal''</ref>

===Western Christianity===
In the Western Church similar figures usually represent only God the Father. [[Thomas Aquinas]], for example, identifies the Ancient of Days with God the Father, quoting [[Hilary of Poitiers]]' comment that "eternity is in the Father".<ref>Summa Theologica III.59.1 obj 2, ad 2</ref>

The Book of Daniel also contains a reference to "someone like a son of man", who is brought up close before the Ancient of Days, and to whom are given "rulership and dignity and kingdom, that the peoples, national groups and languages should all serve even him" (Daniel 7:13–14). Some Christian commentators have understood this to describe God the Father bestowing rulership over an everlasting kingdom upon Jesus (who is often called "the [[Son of man (Christianity)|Son of man]]"), which would suggest that the Ancient of Days is not identical with Jesus. It has been noted that "Daniel's vision of the two figures is the only one in which the two divine persons are seen face to face".<ref name=McKay/>

Among ancient Jewish [[pseudepigrapha]], the [[Book of Enoch]] states that he who is called "Son of man," who existed before the worlds were, is seen by Enoch in company with the "Ancient of Days".<ref>{{cite web|title=Book of Enoch|url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/deane/pseudepig.iv.html|work=Pseudepigrapha: An Account of Certain Apocryphal Sacred Writings of the Jews and Early Christians|publisher=Christian Classics Etherial Library|access-date=2 July 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The Book of Enoch, Chapter XLVI |url=https://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/boe/boe049.htm |publisher=Sacred Texts.com |access-date=10 May 2021}}</ref>

In the hymn "[[Immortal%2C_Invisible%2C_God_Only_Wise|Immortal, Invisible, God only Wise]]" (lyrics Walter C. Smith, 1867), the last two lines of the first verse read:

{{Poem quote|Most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,
Almighty, victorious, Thy great Name we praise.}}

In the hymn "O Worship the King" (lyrics Robert Grant, 1833), the last two lines of the first verse read: 

{{Poem quote|Our shield and defender, the Ancient of Days,
pavilioned in splendor and girded with praise.}}

===Latter-day Saints===
In [[the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]], the title ''Ancient of Days'' belongs to [[Adam and Eve (Latter Day Saint movement)|Adam]], the oldest and earliest man, who is also identified with the [[archangel]] [[Michael (archangel)|Michael]].<ref name="D&C27">{{Mormonverse|D&C|27:11}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last= Millet |first= Robert L. |author-link= Robert L. Millet |title= The Man Adam |journal= [[Liahona (magazine)|Liahona]] |date= February 1998 |url= https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/liahona/1998/02/the-man-adam?lang=eng }}</ref>