Son of Man is a title bestowed upon "the Perfect Man" to indicate his origin (Apoc. 1:13-16). Son expresses the idea of emanation; hence, that seen in the midst of the lightstands, as their stem or shaft, as it were, was an emanation from the race of Adam -- the Son of Man. "Israel is my Son, my First-born." In this declaration to Pharaoh, a nation of some three millions of people, is styled the First born Son of Yahweh; hence the reader will find no difficulty in comprehending that the Son of Man in the midst of the lightstands was the form of a man representing a multitude of individuals taken by some certain process from the human race. This is indicated by the symbol itself; for John speaking of its voice loud as a trumpet, says, "his voice was as a sound of many waters"; and the apocalyptic waters are defined as importing "peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues" (17:15). His voice was the voice of an election from these, saying, "thou hast purchased us for the Deity with thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation; and made us for our Deity kings and priests, and we shall reign over the earth" (5:9-10).
This idea of a multitudinous Son of Man is clearly exhibited in Daniel 7:13, in the words, "I was seeing in the vision of the night, and behold there was coming with the clouds of heavens like a Son of Man, and he came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before him; and to him was given dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and tongues, should serve him: his dominion is a dominion of Olahm which shall not pass away; and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed." Here the clouds of heaven constitute the Son of Man, who is brought before the Ancient of Days, when "they" who compose him, themselves come into His presence. The Ancient of Days is "the Lord the Spirit," the "Quickening Spirit," the Logos in David's Flesh, who is the Head of this Son of Man. In the fourteenth verse, the kingdom is said to be given to the Son of Man; and in verses 18, 22 and 27, it is said to be given to the Saints of the Elyonin, Most High Ones; as "the Saints of the Most High Ones shall receive the kingdom, and shall possess the kingdom for the Olahm even during an Olahm of Olahms," or during the Millennium. And as in verse 22, the Horn prevailed against the Saints "until that the Ancient of Days came; and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High Ones, whose kingdom is the kingdom of the Olahm (the Millennium) and all the dominions shall serve and obey him." If a kingdom be given to A, and the same kingdom at the same time be given to Z: then A and Z are one and the same, though called by different letters of the alphabet. This is the argument of the texts before us -- the Millennial kingdom is given to the Son of Man; it is also given at the same time to the Saints; therefore, "the Son of Man" and "the Saints" are but different phrases for one and the same thing.
Daniel and John both introduce a Son of Man as a similitude; they tell us that what they saw was a thing like to a Son of Man. It had the exterior form of a man; but from the description of parts anything than the exact counterpart of a man. The only place where the same similitude is again introduced is in the Apocalypse 14:14, where John says, he saw "a white cloud"; and then, in order to show what the cloud represented, he tells us he beheld "upon the cloud sitting like to a Son of Man, having upon his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle." This is the similitude of the cloud of saints ready to reap the harvest of the earth, and to tread the winepress without the city; they are styled "a white cloud," because white is the raiment with which they are everywhere invested as the apocalyptic emblem of conquest and righteousness. The head of the similitude is crowned to indicate that the Son of Man similitude is a Body Politic of Kings.
The similitude exhibited to Daniel (7:9-10) had reference to the same subject as John's. Daniel was attracted principally to the Head, the rest of the body being concealed by "a garment white as snow." The head of the similitude represents "the Ancient of Days"; "the hair of the head being like pure wool." Daniel and John's symbols agree in this. White as snow, and pure wool, are emblems of purity: scarlet and crimson redness are representative of sin. Thus it is written, "though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool" (Isa. 1:18). The wool of the symbol connects it with the Lamb of the Apocalypse 5:6, "as it had been slain" in which are the Seven Eyes of Deity. The other particulars of John's Son of Man are merged in the following scenery of Daniel's vision: "His throne the fiery flame, his wheels burning fire. A stream of fire flowing and issuing before him; a thousand thousands served him, and a myriad myriads stood before him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened." The white garment indicates the priestly and righteous character of the body clothed thereby; all of which are justified, and priests as well as conquering kings for God.
When it was revealed to Daniel (8:14) that the holy should be avenged " after 2,300 years" had passed away; he fell into the death-state and revived, to signify that the vengeance would be after the resurrection. At that time also he says, "Behold, there stood before me as the Appearance of a Man; and I heard a man's voice between the banks of Ulai, which called, and said, Understand, 0 Son of Man; for at the time of the end the vision is." Here Daniel is made to personate the Son of Man. He was lying on his face in a deep sleep at the time, but when touched, he stood up as the Son of Man raised from the dead, ready to hear about the breaking of the Little Horn at the epoch of vengeance by the Prince of princes.
Again, the apocalyptic Son of Man appears to Daniel by the side of the great river, which is Hiddekel (10:5). In the English Version, he is said to have beheld "a certain man." This phrase in the original is ish-ekhad, Man of One. It was not a real man he beheld; but, as he styles it in verse 18, "the Appearance of a Man"; and in verse 16, "like the Similitude of the Sons of Adam." It was a symbolical, or shadowy representation of the Man of the One Eternal Spirit. It was, therefore, truly "a certain man," not an uncertain, or indefinite, one. John, the Baptizer, "saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a Dove"; and Daniel, and John, the apostle, beheld the same Spirit, "like the similitude of the Sons of Adam," or, "like to a Son of Man."
Now, the description Daniel gives of this symbol, or Spirit-Form, is that "He was clothed in linen, and his loins girded with fine gold of Uphaz. His body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightening, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in color to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude." He saw this in Eden, by "the third" of its rivers, "the Hiddekel," where "the Cherubim and devouring fire" were originally located (Gen. 2:14; 3:24). The reason why the locality of the vision is specified, is to acquaint the reader with the region of the earth where the glory of the Spirit Man is to be revealed.
(By Dr. John Thomas)