When is God ‘coming on the clouds’?
Quite early on in Revelation (1.7) we notice the phrase 'I am coming with the clouds', and information technology is striking that the near universal view of commentators on this verse is that it is a reference to the render of Jesus to earth, every bit promised in Acts 1 and elsewhere. (Note that the New Testament never uses the now-popular phrase 'second coming' of Jesus, since this pairs the time to come with his 'first coming' in the incarnation, whereas the NT always pairs his return with his divergence, as in 'he will return in the aforementioned mode yous have seen him become' in Acts 1.eleven).
On start reading, this is perhaps not surprising when we look at the verse carefully.
"Expect, he is coming with the clouds,"
and "every eye volition see him, even those who pierced him";
and all tribes on earth "will mourn considering of him."
Yeah! Amen. (Rev ane.7)
In this translation, parts of the verses have been put in inverted commas by the translator to help us realise the use of Dan 7.13, Zech 12.10 and Zech 12.12, albeit with some adaptations. There is a slight shift in tenses, with the parallel to Dan 7.13 in the present, rather than past, tense; the verb 'to see' has been inverse to parallel 'mourn' (opsetai is echoed now pastkopsetai); and the tribes of state [of State of israel] at present appear to exist the tribes on earth (the Greekge is the same in both cases, but the grammatical structure has changed).
Craig Koester, in his large and excellent Anchor commentary, notes the close parallel with Matt 24.30, though (as Aune points out) the allusions occur in the contrary gild. In both cases, the NT texts follow the time to come tense of the language in Zechariah. Only this raises some questions about whether the reference here is to Jesus' return.
Showtime, within the context of this introductory department, focussing on Jesus' return seems slightly odd. After the prologue, in Rev 1.4 John writes an epistolary opening following the usual pattern of kickoff-century alphabetic character writing which we as well see in Paul's messages. Only it is notable that the trinitarian greeting from God emphasises God'southward majesty and authorization, adapting the name of God every bit revealed to Moses in Ex 3.14, the six- or seven-fold Spirit of God in Is eleven.two, and a iii-fold exposition of Jesus' significance, which include his priority in the new creation ('firstborn from the dead') and hisde jure authority over earthly kings. The acclamation of one.vii is then followed by repeated emphasis on God's majesty and power. And the vision of Jesus that follows in the second half of the affiliate similarly portrays his nowadays power and authority in quite startling terms.
Second, the parallel between 1.seven and Matt 24.30 throws upwards a striking dissimilarity. Matthew's utilise of these biblical citations signal to Jesus' triumph and ascension to God as part of both his vindication and the judgement by God of those in Jerusalem who rejected him which (by the fourth dimension Matthew is writing) are firmly in the by. However exactly the aforementioned prepare of allusions in Rev i.seven is taken by commentators (including Koester, who notes the contrast) to refer to Jesus' return in the future.
To explore what is going on, we need to spend a little time thinking about 'clouds' and what it means to be 'coming' with them.
For British readers, we need to brand something of a cultural shift. We are used to clouds; we meet them all the fourth dimension; they don't signify anything much other than that it is going to be a normal rainy day. But if you alive below the olive line, then for large parts of the year, clouds are quite unusual. This is, perhaps, part of the cultural background to the regular occurrence of clouds in the Quondam Attestation.
A cloud (or clouds) first characteristic prominently in the exodus narrative, equally God travels with his people in the form of a 'colonnade of cloud by day and a pillar of fire past night' (Ex 13.21, perhaps showtime showing that there is no fume/cloud without fire…). There is no dubiousness that this symbolises God'south presence in power, protecting his people and confounding the Egyptian army. But equally the narrative progresses, information technology go clear that the cloud of God'due south presence on Sinai (Ex 24.15–16) and in the tabernacle (Ex 40.34–35) likewise signify God's mystery, otherness and unknowability. In afterward parts of the narrative, information technology is often 'dark clouds' which signify God's action in power (e.thousand. in the song of 1 Sam 22.10) and his impenetrable presence (1 Kings 8.10–11 = ii Chron 5.14).
Within the wisdom tradition, clouds by and large form part of the created club which manifests God's celebrity and power (eastward.k. Job 37.15) but this is combined in the Psalms with the previous narrative tradition. And then God 'makes the clouds his chariots' (Ps 104.3) as a symbolic expression of his presence and power in the natural realm.
It is within this symbolic context that we see the development of the language of 'coming with the clouds' in the prophetic tradition. When God comes over again in judgement to Arab republic of egypt, he 'rides on a swift deject' (Is 19.ane)—and when he comes to his ain people to bring the judgement that leads to exile, 'he advances similar the clouds, his chariots come like a cyclone' (Jer 4.thirteen). The emphasis here is less on the direction of travel (there is little reference in these verses to God going upward or coming down) as it being a sign of his authority and ability.
This is the canonical context for reading Daniel 7.13. God's people are surrounded by the ferocious beasts of successive imperial powers, and they expect to the Ancient of Days to render judgement in their favour—which he does as the Ane similar a Son of Homo comes to him on the clouds. And this is clearly Jesus' intention in his use of the phrase in the gospels (Matt 24.thirty = Mark 13.26, Matt 26.64 = Marking 14.62). It is worth noting here that the passage so oftentimes put with these, i Thess iv.13-18, doesn't draw on this language at all. The 'coming' in v 15 is the substantiveparousia, and the 'coming' in v 16 is actually the word 'descend'. And there is no mention of him coming 'with clouds'; it is but 'in the clouds' that we will meet him. Paul is hear drawing on imagery of an purple visit, and not on this OT symbolic meaning of 'clouds'.
Boosted note: we also demand to be aware how much our estimation of these ideas is shaped by the implications of the term 'to come up'. In English, this almost universally has a sense of move towards the reader. Simply the same is not truthful oferchomai in Greek. The word occurs oft, and information technology is not uncommon for ETs to render it as 'go' or 'went', as in 'I may go and worship him' in Matt 2.eight, 'he went and lived' in Matt 2.23, 4.13, 'he had gone indoors' in Matt ix.28, 'he went throughout Galilee' Mark ane.39, and so on. There is a clear sense of arriving at something, merely that something is non always the identify of the observer or speaker. It is interesting to reverberate on how dissimilar it would exist to interpret Dan seven.13 and its echoes as 'he went/is going with the clouds…'
It is now difficult to encounter why Rev i.7 shouldn't be read within this scheme of Dan vii.13 and its use in the gospels. The text builds the picture show of the say-so of God every bit a counterpoint to the claimed authorisation of imperial power, and between which John'due south readers must choose their allegiance. I wonder whether our difficulty in reading this mode arises from our want to connect the text with something in the world of our expectationbefore we read information technology canonically in its own symbolic earth.
For this reason, information technology seems to me to make more sense to read Rev ane.vii, along with all the other NT uses of the phrase, as pointing to the majesty and ability of God and Jesus' participation of thatin the nowadays by virtue of his resurrection and ascent. It also, incidentally, helps united states of america make a bit more sense of some other image in Revelation which has taken to be rather sterile in modernistic civilization—the redeemed seated on the clouds singing with harps (Rev 14.3). Rather than suggesting the smooth, creamy gustatory modality of Philadelphia cheese spread, it is connected with the heavenly might of God in which we now participate because of Jesus.
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