S. Pattemore on Daniel 7 and the Apocalypse

I've (thankfully) continued to enjoy reading S. Pattemore's work, "The People of God in the Apocalypse." Especially interesting is his discussion of the use of Daniel 7 in the book of Revelation. Pattemore's discussion includes an extremely helpful table that analyzes the "narrative structure" of Daniel 7 and notes plausible allusions to that text in the Apocalypse (120). [Interestingly, Pattemore describes some of them as "weak allusions" (see previous post on Pattemore's work).] He also analyzes "the pattern of allusion to the structural elements of Daniel 7 in Revelation" (122-124). His discussion leads to some interesting conclusions. Of especial note are the following.

First, Pattemore notes the prominence given to the "one like a Son of Man" in Rev 1:7, 13 and concludes "[t]he audience's perception of these two strong contextual allusions . . . means that Daniel 7 is a link, binding together the world within the vision and the audience's own world outside the vision" (122). Second, Pattemore suggests, "the climax of Daniel's narrative, the close association of the rule of the son of man with the rule of the saints, is presented by John at the very beginning of his prophetic letter both as a present fact (1:6) and as a promise to the overcomers (2:16-28; 3:21) (123)." Third, Pattemore observes that "echoes of Daniel's description of the heavenly court, the judgment of the beasts and the judgment for the saints, are to be found primarily at the two ends of the second vision, namely chs. 4-5 and 19-22 . . . [s]een like this, the whole book is like an expansion of the throne-room scene of Daniel 7" (123-24).

Pattemore's study continues to provide much "food for thought."