Language Studies

Aramaic Thoughts

''Son of Man'' in the New Testament - Part 2

Last week, we introduced the phrase "Son of Man," so well-known from the gospels. In the New Testament, the term occurs in two Greek forms ho huios tou anthropou (the arthrous form, that is, having the definite article), and huios anthropou (the anarthrous form, not having the definite article). The former is a grammatical anomaly, about which we will say more later. The latter seems to reflect the Hebrew phrase ben adam that is found often in the Old Testament.

This possible Old Testament background will be our investigation for this week. In addition to the Hebrew phrase ben adam (see the statistics on usage in last week’s column), there is also the Hebrew phrase ben enosh, which occurs only in Psalm 144:3. The phrase with the definite article (that is, ben ha’adam which would usually be translated "the son of the man" or "the man’s son") does not occur in the Old Testament. Thus, as far as the Hebrew of the Old Testament goes, ben adam is the most likely to give some help in understanding the possible background of Jesus’ use of the term in self-identification.

As noted last week, the phrase is used most extensively in Ezekiel, as God’s most common form of addressing the prophet. Outside of Ezekiel, the phrase occurs in Numbers (23:19), Job (16:21; 25:6; 35:8), Psalms (8:5; 80:18; 146:3), Isaiah (51:12; 56:2), Jeremiah (49:18,33; 50:40; 51:43), and Daniel (8:17). These occurrences are all in either poetic language or in the language of formal pronouncement. The passage in Numbers, for example, is in one of Balaam’s prophecies. The Job and Psalms passages are obviously poetry. The Isaiah and Jeremiah passages occur in prophetic pronouncements, as does the one occurrence in Daniel.

The passages from Jeremiah are particularly interesting. They are found as follows in the ESV:

49:18 As when Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring cities were overthrown, says the Lord, no man shall dwell there, no man shall sojourn in her.

49:33 Hazor shall become a haunt of jackals, and everlasting waste; no man shall dwell there; no man shall sojourn in her.

50:40 As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring cities, declares the Lord, so no man shall dwell there, and no son of man shall sojourn in her.

51:43 Her cities have become a horror, a land of drought and a desert, a land in which no one dwells, and through which no son of man passes.

The attentive reader will tell me first of all that "son of man" does not occur in the first two passages. Oh, but it does—in Hebrew. For some reason, the translators of the ESV have seen fit to omit "son of" in the phrase "no man shall sojourn in her" that occurs in 49:18,33.

These usages in Jeremiah are instructive in a couple of ways. First, they can remind the reader that the English versions may not give the reader a strict presentation of what is in the original. Second, the use of "son of man" in these passages, like most of the occurrences apart from Ezekiel, is poetic language to refer to a human being. In other words, the reader should be careful not to read too much into it.

Next week we will look at the uses in Ezekiel, and begin to move beyond the Hebrew and into the Aramaic material.

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