Language Studies

Aramaic Thoughts

''Son of Man'' in the New Testament - Part 6

As our brief investigation has shown, the use of the phrase "son of man" in the gospels seems unique in the Hebrew/Aramaic literature not only in the pre-Christian era, but also in the centuries after Christ. What then is to be made of the phrase and its significance?

First, it is a phrase that came consistently from the mouth of Jesus, but not from any of the New Testament writers. The absence of the phrase from most of the rest of the New Testament seems to indicate that it could almost be considered an invention of Jesus. In fact, the curiosity of the crowd, "who is this Son of Man?" (John 12:34) reflects the absence of the phrase from pre-New Testament Semitic literature. The crowd is saying, in effect, "This is some new thing you are talking about here, and we want you to explain it to us."

Second, the phrase seems clearly to be a title, an indicator of office, and not simply an affirmation of Jesus’ humanity, as the phrase is sometimes used in the Old Testament. The gospels clearly depict Jesus as fully human, and the crowds hearing him had no doubt of that, reacting against him only when he asserted deity as well (see John 8:57-59).

Third, Jesus, when asked to explain what he meant by "son of man," responded in an interesting (one might almost say enlightening) fashion. He tied the title into the prophetic revelation, given to enlighten those who would hear, but to bring darkness and judgment to those who would not. Further, John, in explaining Jesus’ cryptic statement about the light, tied the title into the theme of the suffering servant who was also deity. John cites first Is 53:1 (thus making the tie to the suffering servant), and then explains that Isaiah had said these things because he (Isaiah) saw his (Jesus) glory. By this reference to glory John makes the connection between Jesus and the glory of the Lord. The glory of the Lord in the Old Testament is always the visible manifestation of the presence of God, first seen with the pillar of fire and the pillar of cloud at the time of the Exodus. Thus John asserts that Jesus is the divine glory who has come to be the servant suffering for the sins of his people.

The connection between the phrase "son of man" and the glory of the Lord gives the explanation of Jesus’ use of the phrase. The vast majority of the uses of "son of man" in the Old Testament are found in Ezekiel, where "son of man" is the almost exclusive term by which God addresses Ezekiel. Further, the central issue in Ezekiel’s message is the glory of the Lord. The prophecy of Ezekiel is organized around three visions, chs 1-2, chs 8-11, and chs 40-48. At the center of each of these visions is the glory of the Lord and his presence with his people. Thus Jesus, by using the phrase so intimately connected with Ezekiel, ties himself into not only the glory theme of the prophets, but the theme of the true man, the suffering servant that is particularly present in Isaiah.

Next week we will conclude this study with a discussion connected to Jesus’ allusions to the "son of man" figure from Daniel 7.

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