Daniel's account of the heavenly judgement in chapter 7 reveals "one of great age" come to judge the beasts. There was also one "coming from heaven like a son of man" to whom was given eternal dominion over all nations. To the Jews of the day, "son of man" was a symbol of 'the holy ones of God' that is God's people, because Daniel was not speaking of a personal Messiah, rather it was a Messianic kingdom he described. Gradually, this term developed into a title for the Messiah and which eventually Jesus used to refer to Himself in the Gospels.

Thus, appropriately, Daniel's vision prefigures the vision of the Transfiguration which Peter, James and John witnessed. As Peter says in 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 19, the Transfiguration was "a confirmation of what was said in prophecies", prophecies like Daniel's vision of the Son of Man coming on a cloud from heaven. Yet at the time of the Transfiguration, Peter himself did not recognize immediately the significance of his privileged vision. The voice from the cloud, signifying God's presence, attested to Jesus as "my Son, the Beloved" and demanded obedience to His divine nature and power, and spelt His dominion over all: ". . . listen to Him."