Language Studies

Aramaic Thoughts

''Son of Man'' in the New Testament - Part 3

The use of the phrase bar enosh (Aram. "son of man") in Daniel 7:13 is problematic partly because it is clearly a theologically significant passage, and partly because the Aramaic portion of the Old Testament is very small, and this is the only place the phrase is used. In other words, we have nothing with which to compare it, as far as the Old Testament goes. It thus becomes even more important to look for extra-biblical uses of the phrase in Aramaic.

The earliest use of the phrase in extra-biblical Aramaic comes from the pre-exilic period (those interested in the publishing details on this item are referred to J. A. Fitzmyer, "The New Testament Title ‘Son of Man’" in The Semitic Background of the New Testament). There it has the meaning simply of "human being" as we have seen in some of the uses of the equivalent Hebrew phrase in the Old Testament. In the later Official Aramaic phase of the language, Daniel 7:13 is the only extant use of the term. We will come back and look more closely at this as necessary, but even in this theologically loaded context, it may mean no more than simply "human being." That is, the one who appeared in the vision looked like a human being. There is no parallel term used in the passage to give any more clarity to the concept.

It is really with the Qumran material that occurrences of the phrase become more common in Aramaic. In the Genesis Apocryphon (1QapGenesis 21:13), "son of man" occurs in a paraphrase of Genesis 13:16. Genesis 13:16 says, "if anyone [lit. any man] can number the dust of the earth" where the Genesis Apocryphon says, "if any son of man can number the dust of the earth." Clearly "son of man" is used here in the generic sense of a human being. Grammatically, this is the equivalent of the Hebrew use of son of to indicate a member of a class.

[Just as an aside at this point, if any reader is unfamiliar with the identification of Qumran materials, the deciphering is as follows (using the Genesis Apocryphon reference for an example): 1: the number of the Qumran cave in which the item was found. There are 11 caves in the Qumran system; Q: indicates the location Qumran, as opposed to one of the other sites that had similar material from the same time period; apGen: in this case Genesis Apocryphon. A Biblical book will have an abbreviation of its name. A commentary or other work related to a Biblical book will have an additional identifying marker. Finally; 21:13 indicates column number and line number, rather than chapter and verse.]

The Targum of Job (11QtgJob 26:2-3) also uses bar enosh in the generic sense. In this instance, it happens to translate one of the Old Testament occurrences of ben adam. Thus, bar enosh seems to be a literal translation into Aramaic of the Hebrew original, and it seems to serve only as a poetic parallel for one of the more standard terms for human being.

Next week, we will continue to explore the later Aramaic sources.

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