| J. D. G. Dunn has proposed that the "one like a son of man" of Dan 7.13 was not interpreted as an individual or a messiah in pre-Christian Judaism (JSPSup 26, pp. 198--210). While his proposal may rightly serve to check claims that the pre-Christian period bears witness to an individualistic and messianic interpretation of Dan 7.13 as explicit as that found in the gospels, Dunn does not elaborate as to how such an individualistic interpretation could have arose. This thesis argues that the literature of early Judaism includes texts with imagery similar to or dependent on Daniel 7; many of these texts refer to individuals and this may be suggestive of a milieu that facilitated later individualistic and, in some cases, messianic interpretations of Daniel 7, including the "son of man.". |
