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Daniel 7

Augustine of Hippo · Comentário Patrístico (catena)

Daniel 7:13

I do not know in what manner these people understand that the Ancient of Days appeared to Daniel, from whom the Son of man, which he deigned to be for our sakes, is understood to have received the kingdom; namely, from him who says to him in the Psalms, "You are my son; this day have I begotten you; ask of me, and I shall give you the nations for your inheritance" and who has "put all things under his feet." If, however, both the Father giving the kingdom and the Son receiving it appeared to Daniel in bodily form, how can those people say that the Father never appeared to the prophets, and, therefore, that he only ought to be understood to be invisible whom no one has seen or can see? For Daniel has told us thus.… Behold the Father giving and the Son receiving an eternal kingdom; and both are in the sight of him who prophesies, in a visible form. — ON THE TRINITY 2:18.33

Daniel 7:18

Just as God's promise made to Abraham is already visibly fulfilled in Christ, so other promises made to the seed of Abraham will be no less certainly fulfilled. The promise to Abraham was that "all the nations of the earth will be blessed in your seed." It is one of many such promises. Some of the prophecies concerning Abraham's seed say, "The dead shall rise again.… There shall be a new heaven and a new earth, and the former things will not be remembered, and they will not come on the earth, but they will be glad and rejoice forever in these things. For see, I shall make Jerusalem a rejoicing and my people joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem and joy in my people, and the voice of weeping will be heard in it no more." Then there are the promises made to and through another prophet, saying, "At that time your people will be saved, everyone that will be found written in the book. And every one of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awaken, some to everlasting life and others to reproach and everlasting confusion.… But the saints of the most high God will take the kingdom, and they will possess the kingdom forever and ever … whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom." — City of God 22.3

Daniel 7:18

But then there had not yet risen the prophet Daniel to say, "The saints shall receive the kingdom of the Most High." For by these words he foretold the merit not of the Old but of the New Testament. In the same manner did the same prophets foretell that Christ himself would come, in whose blood the New Testament was consecrated. — PROCEEDINGS OF PELAGIANS 14