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== Who is the Ancient of Days ==
===St. [[Dionysius the Areopagite]]===
St. Dionysius includes the title "Ancient of Days" in his treatise "On the Divine Names", and as such applies the title to the Godhead:
:Now, this, we have thoroughly demonstrated elsewhere, that always, all the God-becoming Names of God, are celebrated by the Oracles, not partitively, but as applied to the whole and entire and complete and full Godhead, and that all of them are referred impartitively, absolutely, unreservedly, entirely, to all the Entirety of the entirely complete and every Deity. And verily as we have mentioned in the Theological Outlines, if any one should say that this is not spoken concerning the whole Deity, he blasphemes, and dares, without right, to cleave asunder the super-unified Unity.<ref>[http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/areopagite_03_divine_names.htm#c2 On the Divine Names, chapter 2, section I]</ref>
Of the meaning of the title "Ancient of Days", St. Dionysius says:
:...Almighty God is celebrated as "Ancient of days" because He is of all things both Age and Time,--and before Days, and before Age and Time. And yet we must affirm that He is Time and Day, and appointed Time, and Age, in a sense befitting God, as being throughout every movement unchangeable and unmoved, and in His ever moving remaining in Himself, and as being Author of Age and Time and Days. Wherefore, in the sacred Divine manifestations of the mystic visions, He is represented as both old and young; the former indeed signifying the "Ancient" and being from the beginning, and the latter His never growing old; or both teaching that He advances through all things from beginning to end,----or as our Divine initiator says, "since each manifests the priority of God, the Elder having the first place in Time, but the Younger the priority in number; because the unit, and things near the unit, are nearer the beginning than numbers further advanced. ...Almighty God we ought to celebrate, both as eternity and time, as Author of every time and eternity, and "Ancient of days," as before time, and above time; and as changing appointed seasons and times; and again as being before ages, in so far as He is both before eternity and above eternity and His kingdom, a kingdom of all the Ages. Amen.<ref> [http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/areopagite_03_divine_names.htm#c10 On the Divine Names, chapter 2, section I]</ref>
In [[Eastern Orthodoxy|Eastern Orthodox]] Christian hymns and [[icon]]s, the Ancient of Days is identified with [[God the Son]], or [[Jesus]] [[Christ]]. This is because the Old Testament is always explained in the light of the New Testament, and in the Revelation Chapter 1 we read:
12 I turned to see whose voice was speaking to me, and when I did so, I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and in the midst of the lampstands was one like a son of man. He was dressed in a robe extending down to his feet and he wore a wide golden belt around his chest. 14 His head and hair were as white as wool, even as white as snow, and his eyes were like a fiery flame. 15 His feet were like polished bronze refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. 16 He held seven stars in his right hand, and a sharp double-edged sword extended out of his mouth. His face shone like the sun shining at full strength. 17 When I saw him I fell down at his feet as though I were dead, but he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid! I am the first and the last, 18 and the one who lives! I was dead, but look, now I am alive – forever and ever – and I hold the keys of death and of Hades! (Rev. 1:11-18, NET).
:«The Ancient of Days became an infant». St. [[Athanasius of Alexandria]]. (Homily on the Birth of Christ).
:"Thou hast surpassed the laws of nature, O pure Daughter, in bringing a new Child upon the earth Who is both the Lawgiver and the Ancient of Days..." Theotokion, 8th Ode, Matins, 5th Sunday of Lent.
==Notes==
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==The Ancient of Days depiction ==