Ancient of Days

[eyn-shuhnt uhv deyz]

noun

1. the Supreme Being; God.

Ancient of Days

noun

1. a name for God, originating in the Authorized Version of the Old Testament (Daniel 7:9)

Word History and Origins

Origin of Ancient of Days¹

First recorded in 1570–80; from the Book of Daniel 7:9

Example Sentences

Tall as the sea-kings of old, he stood above all that were near; ancient of days he seemed and yet in the flower of manhood; and wisdom sat upon his brow, and strength and healing were in his hands, and a light was about him.

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Between them they helped the ancient of days out of his crystal cell; it wasn’t hard, for he was as light as paper, and he would have followed them anywhere, having no will of his own, and responding to simple kindness like a flower to the sun.

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With his long, graying hair and extravagant beard, Moore resembles Blake’s mythical creation Urizen, who, in “The Ancient of Days,” crouches outside space-time to measure the universe with a pair of celestial compasses.

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If he’s the rare Southerner who can’t tell a story, he can tell a poetic joke, sometimes at the expense of his own mystical tendencies, as in “Ancient of Days,” from his latest collection, “Caribou,” published in March by Farrar, Straus and Giroux:

Read more on New York Times

Still more, as the Papacy is to be destroyed at the approach of the Ancient of Days, if we could only ascertain the date of its commencement we might calculate the date of the Advent. 

Read more on Project Gutenberg