Rashi's rationale on Daniel 7:13-14

By: Menachem

At first I would like to talk about Daniel 7:13-14and how it is applied. First let’s start with the quote.Daniel 7:13-14

“I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like a son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. 14. And there he was given dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

Now I will post the Aramaic to help explain a few things in this verse:

חזה הוית בחזוי ליליא וארו עם-ענני כבר אנש אתה הוה ועד- עתיק יומיא מטה וקדמוהי הקרבוהי: ולה יהיב שלטן ויקר ומלכו וכל עממיא אמיא ולשניא לה יפלחון שלטנה שלטן עלם די-לא יעדה ומלכותה די-לא תתחבך

First I want tell you about some of the popular thoughts about this verse.


1) Rashi says this verse is about King Messiah

2) Other commentators say this is about the Nation of IsraelI would first like to deal with the Christian claim of this being about jesus:


1) Now I would like to discuss what Rashi said. Rashi said this was about King Messiah. How would he have arrived to this conclusion. My thought is that he was not looking at the “like a son of man” part but rather the rest of the verse and comparing it to the Aramaic Targum Onkelos of Genesis 49:10. Rashi was taking the part of “14. And there he was given dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed."

He compared this to this:

Genesis 49:10(Targum Onkelos): “The ability to exercise dominion shall not pass away from the house of Judah, nor the sceptre from his children's children for ever, even when the Messiah comes to whom the kingdom belongs, and to him shall be the obedience of the nations (or, whom the peoples shall obey)."


The Aramaic text for Genesis 49:10:Genesis 49:10(Targum Onkelos)

י)לא יעדי עבד שלטן מדבית יהודה וספרא מבני בנוהי עד אלמא דייתי משיחא דדילה היא מלכותא ולה ישתמעון עממיא.

Here we can see Rashi was associating the words Dominion (שלטן) and Kingdom (מלכותא) and (מלכותה) and also the word for Nations/Peoples (עממיא) which is used in both Daniel 7:14and Genesis 49:10(Targum Onkelos).

That I believe is the rationale that Rashi was using when he was associating this with the King Messiah.

2) Many other commentators like to place this verse as to relating to the nation of Israel. For example they place the “Like a son of man” as personification of the Nation of Israel just as it has before (Exodus 4:22). In Exodus 4:22Israel is called “G-d’s first-born son” and is personified all through the Tanakh as a male child.

I can see Rashi’s point about how this can be about King Messiah once the reason and the association is outlined.