He Cometh with the Clouds: The Lord Who Came Down in the Cloud and the Son of Man on the Clouds of Heaven
Old Testament: Exodus 34:5-6; Numbers 12:5; 3 Kings 8:10
And when the Lord was come down in a cloud, Moses stood with him, calling upon the name of the Lord. And when he passed before him, he said: O the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, patient and of much compassion, and true, ... The Lord came down in a pillar of the cloud, and stood in the entry of the tabernacle calling to Aaron and Mary. ... And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the sanctuary, that a cloud filled the house of the Lord,
Old Testament, also: Daniel 7:13-14
I beheld therefore in the vision of the night, and lo, one like the son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and he came even to the Ancient of days: and they presented him before him. And he gave him power, and glory, and a kingdom: and all peoples, tribes and tongues shall serve him: his power is an everlasting power that shall not be taken away: ...
New Testament: Matthew 26:64-65; Acts 1:9, 11; Apocalypse 1:7
Jesus saith to him: Thou hast said it. Nevertheless I say to you, hereafter you shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of the power of God, and coming in the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest rent his garments, saying: He hath blasphemed; ... And when he had said these things, while they looked on, he was raised up: and a cloud received him out of their sight. ... This Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come, as you have seen him going into heaven. ... Behold, he cometh with the clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also that pierced him. And all the tribes of the earth shall bewail themselves because of him. Even so. Amen.
The connection
In the Old Testament the cloud is the Lord's own coming. On Sinai "the Lord was come down in a cloud" and proclaimed His name, "the Lord God, merciful and gracious" (Exodus 34:5-6). When Aaron and Mary spoke against Moses, "The Lord came down in a pillar of the cloud" to judge them (Numbers 12:5). When Solomon's Temple was finished, "a cloud filled the house of the Lord" (3 Kings 8:10). The cloud names Him, judges and dwells: "Clouds and darkness are round about him" (Psalms 96:2). Then Daniel sees something new: "one like the son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and he came even to the Ancient of days", and is given "an everlasting power" (Daniel 7:13-14). A son of man rides what belongs to God alone. Christ claims the vision before the high priest: "hereafter you shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of the power of God, and coming in the clouds of heaven." Caiphas understood Him exactly: "the high priest rent his garments, saying: He hath blasphemed" (Matthew 26:64-65). At the Ascension "a cloud received him", and the angels promised that He "shall so come, as you have seen him going" (Acts 1:9, 11). John opens the Apocalypse with the promise: "Behold, he cometh with the clouds, and every eye shall see him" (Apocalypse 1:7). St John Chrysostom draws the line from the old clouds to the new: "For God ever appears in a cloud ... Therefore shall the Son of man come in the clouds as God, and the Lord." St Augustine joins the Ascension: "He will come not only in the same body, but on a cloud, since He is to come as He went away." The Catechism follows the one cloud from Sinai, the tent and Solomon's Temple to the cloud that took Christ up and will reveal Him in glory at His final coming (CCC 697).
Moral sense
John adds who will see Him: "they also that pierced him", from Zacharias, where the piercing ends in grief: "they shall look upon me, whom they have pierced: and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for an only son" (Zacharias 12:10). St Augustine says Christ comes even now, "in His members as in the clouds, or in the whole Church as in one great cloud, as now He ceases not to come." Every eye will see Him; it is better to look now, in sorrow, than first at the end.
Anagogical sense
The cloud that hid the glory will at last carry it into sight. In the Temple "the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud" (3 Kings 8:11); at His coming the cloud will not hide Him, "and every eye shall see him." Then the cloud becomes our road as well: "we who are alive, who are left, shall be taken up together with them in the clouds to meet Christ, into the air, and so shall we be always with the Lord" (1 Thessalonians 4:16).
The Fathers
St John Chrysostom, on Luke 21:27 (Catena Aurea): "For God ever appears in a cloud, according to the Psalms, clouds and darkness are round about him. Therefore shall the Son of man come in the clouds as God, and the Lord, not secretly, but in glory worthy of God." St Augustine, on Mark 13:26 (Catena Aurea): "rightly do we believe that He will come not only in the same body, but on a cloud, since He is to come as He went away, and a cloud received Him as He was going." St Augustine, on Matthew 24:30 (Catena Aurea): "coming in His members as in the clouds, or in the whole Church as in one great cloud, as now He ceases not to come." St John Chrysostom, Homilies on Acts II, on Acts 1:9-11: "a cloud received Him; which was a symbol of Heaven ... for no other Power is seen to appear on a cloud. ... Also on the mount [Sinai] the cloud was because of Him: since Moses also entered into the darkness, but the cloud there was not because of Moses. ... that he shall come again to judgment 'thus' upon a cloud."
Warrant
Scriptural core: Christ applies Daniel 7:13 to Himself before the high priest (Matthew 26:64), and Apocalypse 1:7 joins Daniel 7:13 to Zacharias 12:10. The clouds of Sinai, the tabernacle and the Temple join through St John Chrysostom, who reads Christ's coming in the clouds as God's own manner of appearing (Catena Aurea on Luke 21:27), and through CCC 697, which traces the one cloud from Sinai to the Ascension and the final coming; that part is patristic rather than a New Testament citation. Checked in the Greek: the Septuagint has katebe kyrios en nephele, the Lord came down in a cloud, at Exodus 34:5, and katebe kyrios en stylo nepheles, in a pillar of cloud, at Numbers 12:5, and he nephele eplesen ton oikon, the cloud filled the house, at 3 Kings 8:10. The Greek of Daniel 7:13 has meta ton nephelon tou ouranou hos huios anthropou erchomenos; Matthew 26:64 has erchomenon epi ton nephelon tou ouranou, and Apocalypse 1:7 idou erchetai meta ton nephelon, the same meta as Daniel. Acts 1:9 has nephele hypelaben auton, a cloud received him. Dunk gathered the Old Testament clouds himself, Exodus 34:5, Numbers 12:5 and 3 Kings 8:10, and set them against Apocalypse 1:7.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 697.
The verses
Exodus 34:5 · Exodus 34:6 · Numbers 12:5 · 3 Kings 8:10 · Daniel 7:13 · Daniel 7:14 · Matthew 26:64 · Matthew 26:65 · Acts 1:9 · Acts 1:11 · Apocalypse 1:7
