Ancient of Days: Encyclopedia - Ancient of Days

Ancient of Days

Ancient of Days (Atik Yomin) is one of the biblical names for God.

Ancient of Days - In Judaism

This term appears three times in the book of Daniel (7:9, 13, 22), and is used in the sense of God being eternal. In contrast with all earthly kings, God's days are past reckoning.

See also The names of God in Judaism.

Ancient of Days - In Christianity

In Eastern Orthodox Christian hymns and icons, the Ancient of Days is sometimes identified with God the Father, and sometimes with God the Son, or Jesus Christ. As such, an icon 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 to portray him as he was incarnate.

In the hymn "Immortal, Invisible, God only Wise", the last two lines of the first verse read:
Most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,
Almighty, victorious, Thy great Name we praise.

"The Ancient of Days" is also the name of a famous painting by William Blake.

Ancient of Days - In Mormonism

In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the title Ancient of Days belongs to Adam, the oldest man, who is also identified with the archangel Michael. It is not normally used as a name of God, except by those who subscribe to the Adam-God theory.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Ancient of Days", http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_of_Days, used and available under the GNU Free Documentation License.