More Real, More Permanent
In the Book of Daniel, the Son of Man is not a personification of the righteous community, but is conceived, in mythological fashion, as its heavenly doppelgänger. Now it is characteristic of mythological thinking that such a doppelgänger is conceived to be more real and permanent than its earthly counterpart and prior to it in the order of being. (From a modern critical perspective, the reverse is true. It "is a question of men before it is a question of angels." The human community is the datum of our experience and knowledge. The heavenly counterpart is posited on the basis of this datum.)
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