The Orthodox church service for the Meeting of the Lord (Feb. 2) identifies the ‘Ancient of Days’ with God the Son (‘The Ancient of Days appears this day as a babe’). Thus, in this interpretation, when Daniel beheld the Ancient of Days and the Son of Man together, it was a vision of the Divine and human natures of Christ. Some Fathers, however, understand the Ancient of Days to be God the Father: in this case, the vision is of Two Persons of the Holy Trinity, and as St. John Chrysostom says in his comentary on Daniel, this prophet ‘was the first and only one (in the Old Testament) to see the Father and the Son, as if in a vision.” For the devout student of Scripture, of course, there is no ‘contradiction’ between these two interpretations; in such mystical visions we do not see a ‘literal picture’ of the Godhead (such as to believe that God is really an ‘old man’), but only a hint of Divine mysteries. Thus, in his commentary on this same passage of Daniel, St. John Chrysostom adds: ‘Do not seek clarity in prophecies, where there are shadows and riddles, just as in lightning you do not seek a constant light, but are satisfied that it only flashes momentarily.’— Hieromonk Seraphim Rose of blessed memory (The Apocalypse by Archbishop Averky (1985), p. 51, note on Rev. 1:14).

A recent online discussion renewed the perennial and controversial modern issue of God the Father in Orthodox Christian iconography as a bearded ancient. This is also considered a depiction of the Ancient of Days, and the figure can be identified with Jesus Christ, for, as my Orthodox friend and Church colleague Reader Luke Soboleski likes to note, Christ is both the Image of the Father (hence Man made according to the Image of God is made in Christ, although also by the Holy Trinity), as well as being God-Man or Theanthropos. This iconographic issue deals with mysteries of both Christology and Triadology in Christianity.

My former Scripture instructor in the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia’s online Pastoral School, Fr. John Whiteford, has this excellent overview of the issue. It unpacks the complexity and nuances in the discussion, about which a book-length treatment here sums up criticisms of Orthodox “Ancient of Days” iconography in much online discussion today.

Basically, the controversy has centered around whether portrayal of the “Lord of Hosts” or “Ancient of Days” in much Orthodox iconography found in Eastern lands (particularly Russia but also in Greece in centuries following the Fall of Constantinople) is non-canonical or even heretical. Some view the Ancient of Days figure as being properly of Christ, as explained further here. The issue involves whether the “nature” of God the Father is portrayed, when un-portrayable, or whether the figure of the Father as a Divine Person in the Trinity is symbolized as seen by the Prophet Daniel in the Old Testament. The name “Ancient of Days” and with it “Lord of Hosts” is also identified with the Holy Trinity as a whole in Church Tradition.

An added aspect, I would add, is that the relationship being portrayed in such iconography, between the figure of our Lord God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, with our Lord the Holy Spirit, is, as in St. Andrei Rublev’s famous icon of the Holy Trinity “The Hospitality of Abraham,” not essentializing in nature, but within the bounds of Orthodox apophatic theology. However, the depiction of God the Father by nature was specifically prohibited by two local but pan-Orthodox councils of the Church in the 17th and 18th centuries. St. John Damascene said at the Seventh Ecumenical Council, “We do not depict God the Father because we cannot see Him. If we could see Him, we would depict Him.”

As Reader John Malov explains in writing for the blog of St. Elisabeth Convent in Belarus, sometimes “the icons of God the Father were based on the vision of the prophet Daniel, ‘As I watched, thrones were set in place, and an Ancient of Days took his throne, his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames, and its wheels were burning fire … As I watched in the night visions, I saw one like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. And he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. To him was given dominion and glory and kingship, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away, and his kingship is one that shall never be destroyed.'(Dan. 7: 9,13,14). 

“Many interpreters of this vision identify the Son of Man with the Ancient of Days: ‘Interpreting “coming to the Ancient of Days” spatially would be ignorant, because the Godhead is not present in space, but fills everything. These words really mean that the Son has attained the glory of the Father’ (St. Cyril of Alexandria). This interpretation was firmly established in the teaching of the Church and expressed in her hymnography, ‘Mentally perceiving Thy secrets, O Lover of mankind, in purity of mind Daniel beheld Thee on the cloud, like the coming Son of Man, O Judge and King of all nations’ (Canon to the Prophet Daniel and the three youths). Since God appears here in a vision of a single person and due to the heterogeneity of interpretations, the Church decided not to rely entirely on this prophetic vision, thereby not considering it a sufficient basis for the depiction of God the Father.“

From the sense of the relationship of the Son and the Father (described by our Lord Jesus in his discourse at the Last Supper, John 13-17), and also how even in the theophanies of the Old Testament (usually interpreted in Church Tradition as theophanies of Christ) the Trinity might be considered to be present as a whole (as when St John Chrysostom in his exegesis of the Gospel of John mentions God the Father appearing to Moses), also emerged the iconography depicting the Ancient of Days. The Orthodox scholar Eric Jobe has offered a review of the issues, in which he concludes that “The One Essence of God cannot be depicted in a direct manner, but the idea of it may be referenced symbolically through these eidos [idea-depicted-as-symbol] icons.  Nevertheless, these icons remain on the cusp of canonical permissibility, and they should be treated with caution.” What Dr. Jobe calls eidos icons could also be considered including figures of theophanies in the Old Testament, such as the vision to Daniel of the Ancient of Days, often again interpreted as a type of Christ our God but also sometimes as of God the Father.

Holy Trinity Monastery’s temple in Jordanville NY has a beautiful patronal icon of the Trinity with the Ancient of Days, and also another type of the same featured above the altar, which is visible in the photo below at the top behind the Cross. The ceiling iconography is especially breathtaking as part of a sequence related to the Trinity.

The sequence begins below with Jesus Christ in Divine Council with the Theotokos on His right and St. John the Forerunner (last of the Old Testament Prophets) on His left and other saints around with the Holy Spirit prominently above as a dove. Then above that the viewer sees a version of Rublev’s Hospitality of Abraham, in which the theophany figure of Christ bows to an angel as representing the Father, as it is often interpreted. Then, on the high ceiling area, Jesus Christ as a child sits on the lap of the Ancient of Days, or God the Father depending on the interpretation, with the Holy Spirit as a dove in the middle. In a cultural age like ours, in a “global West” bereft of strong symbols of Fatherhood, lifting one’s eyes in this sequence especially can catch a faithful viewer off-guard, in recognition of the mystery of the Trinity and the indication of God the Father in the iconography.

A number of icons with the depiction of the Ancient of Days have been wonder-working over the centuries, including the Kursk Root icon. Their beauty and miracle-working inform Orthodox Christian tradition. Truly, God’s ways are mysterious, and one can love and venerate such icons while being aware that the ultimate mystery of the Holy Trinity is communicated by canonical warnings as being beyond human ken.

(The photo above was taken on the Feast of St. Vladimir, on my unworthy first-year anniversary of ordination as a Deacon, with my mentor and friend Fr. Felipe Balingit; you can see the beautiful image of God the Father right behind the Cross, with — not mainly visible due to the Cross– the figure of the child Jesus Christ in His lap and the Holy Spirit symbolized by a dove.)