Ancient of Days is a name for God in the Book of Daniel: in the original Aramaic atik yomin עַתִּיק יֹומִין; in the Septuagintpalaios hemeron ; and in the Vulgateantiquus dierum. The title "Ancient of Days" has been used as a source of inspiration in art and music, denoting the creator's aspects of eternity combined with perfection. William Blake's watercolour and relief etching entitled The Ancient of Days is one such example.
In the Zohar, the seminal document of Kabbalah that emerged in 13th-century Spain, there is mention of the Ancient of Ancients, and the Holy Ancient One - Atika Kadisha, variably interpreted as synonymous with the En Sof, the unmanifested Godhead. The Ancient of Days is the manifestation of the Ancient of Ancients within Creation. It refers to the most primary source of creation in the divine will Keter. In 16th-century Lurianic Kabbalah, Atik Yomin is systemised as the uppermost Partzuf in the rectification of the World of Atzilut after the "Shattering of the sephirot Vessels". Keter of Atzilut acts as the guiding Divine motivation in creation, developing into two partzufim, Atik Yomin and Arich Anpin. Atik Yomin is the inner partzuf of Keter, synonymous with Divine Delight, that enclothes within and motivates Arich Anpin, the outer partzuf of Keter, synonymous with Divine Will. Arich Anpin is said to extend down all levels of Creation in ever more concealed mode as the divine substratum of everything. The Zohar goes into great detail describing the White Head of God and ultimately the emanation of its anthropomorphic personality or attributes. In the descending realms explained by Luria, the Gulgalta within Arich Anpin enclothes the Chesed of Atik Yomin, becoming the origin of the lights of the world of Atzilut; the Mocha Stima'ah within Arich Anpin enclothes the Gevurah of Atik Yomin, becoming the origin of the vessels of the world of Atzilut. The Dikna of Arich Anpinconstricts the infinite light originating from Atik Yomin in 13 channels of rectification to lower, relatively finite reality. The Merkabah text Re’ uyot Yehezkel identifies the Ancient of Days as Metatron.
Christianity
In Eastern Orthodox Christian hymns and icons, the Ancient of Days is sometimes identified with God the Father or occasionally the Holy Spirit; but most properly, in accordance with Orthodox theology he is identified with God the Son, or Jesus. Most of the eastern church fathers who comment on the passage in Daniel interpreted the elderly figure as a prophetic revelation of the son before his physical incarnation. As such, 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." 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. Indeed, later, it was declared by the Russian Orthodox Church at the Great Synod of Moscow in 1667 that the Ancient of Days was the Son and not the Father. In the Western Church similar figures usually represent only God the Father. Building his argument upon the Daniel passage, Thomas Aquinas recalls that some bring forward the objection that the Ancient of Days matches the Person of the Father, without necessarily agreeing with this statement himself. In the hymn "Immortal, Invisible, God only Wise", the last two lines of the first verse read: Daniel 7:13-14 says, “I kept on beholding in the visions of the night, and, see there! with the clouds of the heavens someone like a son of man happened to be coming; and to the Ancient of Days he gained access, and they brought him up close even before that One. And to him there were given rulership and dignity and kingdom, that the peoples, national groups and languages should all serve even him. His rulership is an indefinitely lasting rulership that will not pass away, and his kingdom one that will not be brought to ruin." From a Christian perspective, this may be understood to be describing the Ancient of Days bestowing rulership upon the Son of Man , a separate entity. Among ancient Christian pseudepigrapha, one 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”
