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The Apocalyptic Son of Man - Who, What, Why?
114 Plays1 year ago
In this episode, we dive into the meaning of the apocalyptic “Son of Man,” why Jesus used it as a title in the Gospel accounts, and what it means for a human–any human–to be exalted to the throne of God as a representative ruler of the world. Drawing from biblical sources like Daniel, 1 Enoch, and the Gospels, we explore the origins of the term and consider the implications of Jesus of Nazareth taking this title for himself.
Resources: Enoch and Son of Man I by Julia Blum, The Jewish Gospels; The Story of the Jewish Christ by Daniel Boyarin, Reflections on the ‘Son of Man’: Implications for a Christian Transformational Worldview by Randal Bush, The Apocalyptic Imagination: An Introduction to Jewish Apocalyptic Literature by John J. Collins, The Son of Man in Mark’s Gospel by Simon Gathercole, Prophesy Remains a Mystery Until it is Fulfilled and Is Jesus the “NAME” of God? by Michael Heiser, What does “Son of Man” Mean by Dan McClellan, Revelation for the Rest of Us: A Prophetic Call to Follow Jesus as a Dissident Disciple by Scott McKnight, The Enochic Son of Man and the Apocalyptic Background of the Son of Man Sayings in John’s Gospel by Benjamin E. Reynolds, Two Powers in Heaven: Early Rabbinic Reports About Christianity and Gnosticism by Alan Segal, The New Testament and the People of God, Jesus and the Victory of God, Video on the Son of Man and Daniel in the Lion’s Den Narrative by N.T. Wright.
Interlude Music: Mocha by bomul, Slow Motion by Elliptik
Theme Song: Believe by Posthumorous
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Transcript
Introduction to the Apocalyptic Son of Man
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome back to the Re-Paradigned podcast. Today is the first of two conversations on the apocalyptic Son of Man. Enjoy this deep dive in Jewish apocalyptic literature and on a self-identity of Jesus of Nazareth.
The Son of Man in the Gospels and Theology
00:00:27
Speaker
From now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God. So they all said, are you then the Son of God? And he said to them, you say that I am. This description, Son of Man is used by Jesus seemingly of himself over 80 times in the gospels. And I'm going to be so audacious as to say, if we understand the meaning of the apocalyptic Son of Man, our theology, our ethics, our beliefs about our place in this world, and our beliefs about the end of the world will never be the same.
00:00:56
Speaker
Sounds like something we better talk about then.
00:00:59
Speaker
So we want to understand primarily what, who, why, and when the Son of Man is.
Understanding 'Son of Man' in Jewish Writings
00:01:05
Speaker
So starting with the what, to figure out what the Son of Man is or what Jesus means by the term, the only and obvious place to look is at the literature that Jesus was probably familiar with. This would be, you know, both the canonical literature as well as other popular Jewish writings that would have been widely discussed around the time of Jesus, which sort of made up the pop culture of first century Second Temple Judaism.
00:01:29
Speaker
So if Jesus is going to pick up a title and people are going to have a strong reaction to it, it's probably because it means something in that air, in that context, in that culture. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So if you look at the Old Testament canon, if you search like Son of Man, if you search that phrase in some Bible app, you'll come up with a bunch of listings. So I'll just give you a few examples, like numbers 2319.
00:01:51
Speaker
God is not a man that he might lie, or a son of man that he might change his mind. Does he speak, not act, or promise, and not fulfill? Or in the Psalms, like Psalm 8.4. What is a human being that you remember him, a son of man that you look after him? Or in Psalm 146. Do not trust in nobles, in a son of man who cannot save. Or even in the prophets, like in Isaiah 51. I am the one who comforts you. Who are you that you should fear humans who die, or a son of man who is given up like grass?
00:02:18
Speaker
Over 29 times, the prophet Ezekiel is called son of man. Yahweh refers to him as son of man, son of man, son of man. But clearly in all of these passages, this phrase, son of man, benedam in Hebrew and barinash in Aramaic, basically just means human.
00:02:35
Speaker
as you can see in these passages. But this is where it gets interesting.
Daniel 7's Vision of the Son of Man
00:02:39
Speaker
There's an important Jewish text tradition that starts to invest this Son of Man term with deeply significant meanings. Significance of apocalyptic proportions, we can say. One of these texts is canonical, and it's in Daniel chapter 7.
00:02:54
Speaker
I watched then because of the sound of the arrogant words the horn was speaking. As I continued watching, the beast was killed and its body destroyed and given over to the burning fire. As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was removed, but an extension of life was granted to them for a certain period of time.
00:03:09
Speaker
I continued watching in the night visions, and suddenly one like a son of man was coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the ancient of days and was escorted before him. He was given dominion and glory in a kingdom, so that those of every people, nation, and language should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will not be destroyed.
00:03:31
Speaker
So then God goes on to give the interpretation of what these visions mean. So basically you have these beasts arise. And then what you end up having is this son of man figure who comes to the ancient of days and is given the dominion, the power over all these beasts. And these beasts are representative of kingdoms of the world.
00:03:51
Speaker
He says later on in verse 23 that the holy ones take possession of the kingdom, along with, presumably, the Son of Man. Or perhaps the Son of Man is a representative of the holy ones of God. We'll get more into that in a little bit. But down in verse 27 of Daniel 7, it says, The kingdom, dominion, and greatness of the kingdoms under all of heaven will be given to the people, the holy ones of the Most High. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will serve and obey him.
00:04:21
Speaker
So that's the canonical Daniel chapter 7. So that's a son of man that's doing a lot more than son of man was doing in those other passages we read. Right, that's why I said this is starting to take on some special significance because it's this human figure who is given all the authority in heaven and on earth basically. And it gets even more interesting because this son of man figure is talked about throughout the inter-testamental period or post-exilic period leading up until the time
Divine Attributes in 1 Enoch's Son of Man
00:04:49
Speaker
of Jesus.
00:04:49
Speaker
We actually have this figure, this vision, discussed across multiple different Jewish texts. One of the most significant of which is in the book of 1st Enoch, in the section called The Similitudes or the Parables of Enoch. Enoch is basically an anthology of different books put together into one,
00:05:07
Speaker
Some of it might have been, you know, put together later, et cetera, et cetera. It wasn't necessarily like one dude sat down and wrote it all at once. But there's like a bunch of books for our purposes. We're just interested in the similitudes portion, which is chapters 37 through 71. And in this section of 1st Enoch or 1 Enoch, as the Brits would say, you have extensive discussion of this Son of Man figure. And I thought it'd be really interesting to read some of that here. So 1st Enoch, chapter 46.
00:05:34
Speaker
And there I saw one who had a head of days, and his head was white like wool, and with him was another being whose countenance had the appearance of a man, and his face was full of graciousness like one of the holy angels. And I asked the angel who went with me, and showed me all the hidden things concerning that son of man, who he was and whence he was, and why he went with the head of days. And he answered and said unto me, This is the son of man who hath righteousness.
00:05:58
Speaker
with whom dwelleth righteousness, and who revealeth all the treasures of that which is hidden. Because the Lord of Spirits hath chosen him, and whose lot hath the preeminence before the Lord of Spirits in uprightness forever. And this Son of Man whom thou hast seen, shall raise up the kings and mighty from their seats.
00:06:16
Speaker
and the strong from their thrones, and shall loosen the reins of the strong and break the teeth of the sinners, and he shall put down the kings from their thrones and kingdoms, because they do not extol and praise him, nor humbly acknowledge whence the kingdom was bestowed upon them, and he shall put down the countenance of the strong, and shall fill them with shame, and darkness shall be their dwelling, and worms shall be their bed, and they shall have no hope of rising from their beds, because they do not extol the name of the Lord of Spirits,
00:06:46
Speaker
and raise their hands against the Most High, and tread upon the earth and dwell upon it. And all their deeds manifest unrighteousness, and their power rests upon their riches. And their faith is in the gods which they have made with their hands, and they deny the name of the Lord of Spirits, and they persecute the houses of his congregations, and the faithful who hang upon the name of the Lord of Spirits.
00:07:08
Speaker
So we can see in this passage the striking similarity with the Daniel 7 passage. You know, all the same motifs are basically in play here with the same general prophetic hope flowing out. Of course, we're given more detail as well. And this is just one portion. I mean, there's a lot more discussion about this in one Enoch if we wanted to look there. Again, first Enoch is not included in Protestant or even in the Catholic Bibles or Orthodox Bibles.
00:07:34
Speaker
It is actually included in a couple Orthodox Christian traditions, which I think is interesting. But the point is not to say that these are biblical texts or something like that. The point is to say that we see theological discussion going on at the time of Jesus or before the time of Jesus. So that when we're asking the question, what does the Son of Man mean? What does Jesus mean when he says Son of Man? Well, the best place to look is obviously in the canon, but also to look at the other popular literature.
00:08:00
Speaker
We've given this example before, but like if I start referencing right now Mjolnir, Thor's hammer or whatever, you'll know I'm referencing The Avengers, right? Something popular in culture right now, something that's discussed, something that's happening. I'm not saying anything about the veracity or the truthfulness of that story or whether or not it is the greatest or should be canonized. It's just something popular in culture to reference.
00:08:26
Speaker
Yeah, obviously, there's a lot of examples you could look at for our culture. But you're saying for Jesus' time and place, this book of Enoch represents the type of understandings around Son of Man that would have been popular. Yeah, that's a great way to put it. That's exactly what I mean. You probably noticed in this Enoch text that it sounds a whole lot like the book of Revelation.
00:08:45
Speaker
definitely has that weird strange vibe to it. That's because the book of Revelation shares a genre type with these passages that we just read.
Symbolism in Apocalyptic Literature
00:08:53
Speaker
This genre type is called apocalyptic or apocalyptic Jewish literature. And it's a relatively defined genre that arose in the exilic or post-exilic period and it became a common way to couch theological hopes. Scott McKnight in his book Revelation for the Rest of Us, he comments on apocalyptic literature by saying this,
00:09:13
Speaker
An apocalypse by design is an imagination-stimulating genre. Apocalypses reveal to humans God's plan for the world. They inform readers that what they think is real is not as real as they think, and that there's a deeper reality, that the world is not what it seems to be, and in reading, the unfathomable becomes clear.
00:09:35
Speaker
So, when the whole world looks like it doesn't make sense, you would look to something written in this apocalyptic genre to provide hope that there's something beyond what you can see that is more real, something on the horizon, I guess? Something like that, yeah, yeah. God is still in charge. In this case, God is going to put someone on the throne. This is not a bad figure. God will rule again with his people.
00:10:00
Speaker
even if you're suffering and distressed and persecuted right now. That's the message of one Enoch. That's the message of Revelation. That's the message of Daniel.
00:10:09
Speaker
Maybe it's because I've never lived in like an oppressed state, but it's kind of hard for me to imagine crushing the bones and breaking the teeth of my enemies as being like a hopeful thing to hear. But I guess maybe I could kind of put myself in that mindset, right? If you had an oppressor, like an evil figure that you saw as sort of the source of all of your problems in the world, that this sort of violent overcoming imagery could actually be a really hopeful thing. You probably feel squeamish about it because you're a follower of Jesus of Nazareth. Yeah.
00:10:37
Speaker
Yeah, we should actually talk about violent imagery in Revelation sometime. I actually want to do an episode on that. It's a whole conversation. Let's shelf that. Let's do it, though. We could also do a whole episode or 10 just on apocalyptic literature and how it works. But for now, the most important takeaway is that this genre called apocalyptic is characterized by things like use of numbers, symbols, exaggeration and hyperbole to communicate deep theological truths that are supposed to comfort the hearer.
00:11:05
Speaker
It attempts to use fantastical language to help the listener pull back the veil, if you will, and see what's really going on in the world. It's not supposed to be taken literalistically, but it's rather intentionally symbolic and hyperbolic in order to make a point.
00:11:22
Speaker
It's actually pretty intuitive what it's trying to do once you read it enough. For example, it would be to miss the point to spend all of our time trying to figure out what the beasts of Revelation look like or smell like, or how seductively dressed the whore of Revelation is, for example.
00:11:42
Speaker
Again, the point is to use this fantastical language to paint a strikingly different and in a real way truer picture of reality than the veneer that appears to the naked eye. The reality apocalyptic is always pointing to is that Yahweh God is in control.
00:11:59
Speaker
And even when it seems like the governments of the world are dominant in their evil and injustice, God's people will be vindicated, and God's chosen ruler, in this case the Son of Man, whose face is full of graciousness, will crush the unjust powers of the world, and will rule rightly overall.
00:12:20
Speaker
with his people as his co-regions, his image and God's image, so to speak, ruling alongside him and on his behalf in all parts of the earth. So the extreme hyperbole or like the crazy language and imagery that we see in apocalyptic literature, like in Revelation, is kind of par for the course when you're in that genre? Oh yeah, absolutely. That's how it works. It's an essential element of that genre type.
00:12:46
Speaker
Do you think that's because that genre type is meant to be informing its readers about something that is beyond the immediate visible world? Yeah, that could be. It is for sure to inspire one's imagination and through that to give hope. And what better way to inspire imagination than vivid imagery? We even do it today with films, with movies, videos, you know.
00:13:08
Speaker
Second Temple Judaism is obviously in a time before video media, right? And so what's the next best thing to inspire one's imagination and kind of take someone on a journey on a trip? Aside from the use of drugs, it would be to paint these fantastical pictures of reality and invite the listener into it to imagine it could be the case that there is actually hope and that the world is not as dreary and as oppressive as it feels to me right now. Hmm.
00:13:36
Speaker
was like a first century version of CGI effects. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It allows the storyteller to tell something beyond like a simple, tangible reality would allow. Yeah. Instead of eagles coming to rescue two little hobbits from a volcano, instead of that being portrayed in a film visually, you could describe that with words, with verbiage. You could describe that and heighten that sense of imagination and of wonder and of hope.
00:14:04
Speaker
So is it really then misreading that genre when we go through some of that language in something like Revelation and we try to pin it all on very real specific things?
00:14:16
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's disrespectful, especially to try to pin it on very real things in our time and place. The author is referring to people's places things in his time and place and couching them in this imaginative language. So to then like, use that imaginative language, and then encode our people times and places into them is to do a disservice to the author and is to not even try to understand what the author was trying to communicate.
00:14:44
Speaker
We reject that type of interpretation as subjective and as anachronistic and as modernistic. If the genre is written to kind of inspire that imaginative hope and then we go through it and we're like, well, this just means, you know, an Apache helicopter or whatever. It does feel like we're then scrubbing it of actually accomplishing its purpose.
00:15:04
Speaker
Yeah, and it's not to say this literature couldn't shape our imaginations and lead us to think similar things about our place in time, for sure, but you can't shortchange that process by dislocating what the author was most likely referring to with this language and just like download into that what we want him to be referring to.
00:15:23
Speaker
you can't shortchange the process like that. So we got to read it right, respect the author and the author's time and place, try to figure out as best we can what he's doing and why, and then sit with that wisdom right there. Sit right there. And then yeah, for sure, think about our own times and places, how our own empires, for example, are beastly and survive on the back of blood and injustice. Like those are all important reflections for us to have today.
00:15:49
Speaker
Sit in the weirdness. Sit in the weirdness and imagine with the Revelator.
00:16:16
Speaker
Back to First Enoch here. There's a lot more said about the Son of Man figure in First Enoch. And what we read, like I said, is just one portion. Benjamin Reynolds summarizes really nicely the description of this Son of Man figure throughout the book of First Enoch. So he summarizes the characteristics of the Son of Man in First Enoch as such.
00:16:35
Speaker
He says, according to 1st Enoch, the son of man is Messianic. This is from 48 and 52. He's called the anointed one several times. Messiah means anointed one. In passages like 1st Enoch 49.3 and 62.2, they also appear to be heavily influenced by canonical texts like Isaiah 11 and Psalm 110, which are Messianic passages.
00:16:59
Speaker
N.T. Wright notes that though Daniel 7 itself may not have been and probably wasn't taken to be Messianic at its time, it was certainly read as Messianic by a variety of Jewish sects in the Second Temple period leading up to in contemporaneous with Jesus. In fact, he says, Daniel 2, 7, and 9 taken together provided the Messianic prophecy that, as Josephus said, more than anything else, incited the Jews to revolt.
00:17:29
Speaker
So there was this messianic fervor that arose in part because of Daniel 7, in other words. 4 Ezra 11 and 12 talks about the same beast as Daniel 7, and it concludes with the Messiah, the Lion of Judah crushing all the oppressive kingdoms of the world and bringing peace to all the oppressed people. It sounds like really similar to Daniel 7 and 1 Enoch 46, and it actually intentionally references Daniel's vision.
00:17:56
Speaker
The key difference is, of course, that instead of Son of Man language, it just substitutes in the Lion of Judah, Messianic language. The French rabbi in the Middle Ages, Rashi, he also takes the Son of Man text as being Messianic.
00:18:12
Speaker
So a lot of people started connecting these dots even before the time of Jesus.
Pre-existence and Divinity in 1 Enoch
00:18:17
Speaker
Exactly. So the second characteristic of the Son of Man, according to 1 Enoch, the Son of Man is presented as pre-existent. 1 Enoch 48, 2 and 3 and 6 says,
00:18:27
Speaker
And at that hour the Son of Man was named in the presence of the Lord of Spirits, and his name before the head of days. Yea, before the sun and the signs were created, before the stars of the heaven were made, his name was named before the Lord of Spirits. And for this reason hath he been chosen and hidden before him, before the creation of the world and for evermore.
00:18:47
Speaker
This could just be referring to the election of the Son of Man instead of his actual ontological existence before all the time. But in any case, it's interesting to see this Son of Man being portrayed as having some type of pre-existence.
00:19:02
Speaker
It's especially curious given the title Son of Man, like implies that it came from another man. Yeah, Son of Man means human in its basic form, but here we see a Son of Man figure being talked about as pre-existent. Well, that's not a normal way to talk about just any old fella.
00:19:18
Speaker
The third characteristic of the Son of Man, according to 1st Enoch, is he is clearly presented as similar to God. Similar language is used of the Son of Man that's used of Yahweh in the Hebrew Bible. For example, the mountains melt at the coming of Yahweh in Micah 5.2 in Psalm 97.5 and in Nahum 1.5. Similarly, in 1st Enoch 52.6, the mountains melt at the coming of the Son of Man.
00:19:45
Speaker
The judgment of the kings of the earth is obviously a prerogative of Yahweh in the Hebrew Bible. Think Isaiah 24. But here in 1 Enoch, it's the Son of Man who has that prerogative. I love this one. This is interesting. So Reynolds points out that just as the mountains skip like rams at the coming of Yahweh in Psalm 114.6, so also they leap like rams and skip like lambs at the coming of the Son of Man.
00:20:34
Speaker
The fourth characteristic of the Son of Man from 1st Enoch is that he is glorified and worshipped. Now this is interesting. We saw this. All nations bow down and worship this Son of Man. So 1st Enoch 48.4.
00:20:39
Speaker
in 1st Enoch, 51-4.
00:20:47
Speaker
He shall be a staff to the righteous, whereon to stay themselves and not fall. And he shall be the light of the Gentiles, and the hope of those who are troubled of heart. All who dwell on earth shall fall down and worship before him, and will praise and bless and celebrate with song the Lord of Spirits. And all the kings and the mighty and the exalted and those who rule the earth shall fall down before him on their faces, and worship and set their hope upon that Son of Man, and petition him and supplicate for mercy at his hands.
00:21:16
Speaker
So all these people are worshipping this figure. This last one goes without saying, but the Son of Man is also human. Of course, I mean, that's what Son of Man means, right?
00:21:26
Speaker
It is funny that you have to get back to that, because through all these passages, he's elevated and elevated. He's like Yahweh. He's glorified. You have to remember, oh yeah, that's right. We picked the title for him, Son of Man, because he's a human. We've come full circle. Exactly. This is where it gets weird in 1 Enoch, because 1 Enoch actually describes Enoch as being the son of man. It's a letdown.
00:21:50
Speaker
A little bit. Yeah, so Enoch, Genesis 5.24, he goes up to the ancient of days in the chariot. And Hebrews 11 verse 5 actually reflects on this as well. There's some debate about whether that passage at the end of the parables of Enoch is a later edition, and it very likely could be. I'm not really interested in getting into that right now.
00:22:09
Speaker
But I find it fascinating actually that first Enoch identifies the man Enoch with the Son of Man. And this wouldn't really take away from Jesus filling up the same apocalyptic profile. A man who is vindicated by God by being raised from the clutches from the power of death into the presence of God.
00:22:30
Speaker
Yeah, exactly, yeah. You can see Jesus fulfilling a type even if this literature was written before his time and referred to Enoch as the Son of Man instead of leaving it open-ended.
Jesus's Identification with the Son of Man
00:22:42
Speaker
Enoch was the Son of Man, but Jesus was the Son of Man. Yeah, maybe something like that. I don't know. So in summary of the profile of the Son of Man figure from 1 Enoch, Reynolds outlines three functions of the Enochic Son of Man. That he is judge, that he is the revealer of hidden things, and that he is salvation for the righteous. That's cool. I like that. Judge, the revealer, and salvation.
00:23:08
Speaker
Julia Bloom, who's a Messianic Jewish author and speaker, she makes a couple, I think, important observations here. She says,
00:23:25
Speaker
existed at Jesus' time. She then quotes the Talmudic scholar Daniel Boyaran, who says,
00:23:55
Speaker
Bloom then states, we can conclude therefore that the Son of Man, speculations and expectations were widespread at the end of the Second Temple period. And I would add, that's when Jesus comes on the scene. So Jesus grabbing that title, Son of Man, clearly carries a lot more weight than just saying any old dude. Right. It very probably meant things to his hearers and meant some of these things that we've taken the time to explore here.
00:24:22
Speaker
Well, the super strong reactions of people hearing Jesus use this reference for himself start to make a lot more sense given this context. Don't they? So that's a little bit of a sketch of the what. What is the Son of Man? We've taken a good bit of time here to kind of sketch how this figure was described in the biblical canon, the Hebrew Bible, and in the other Jewish literature.
00:24:43
Speaker
at or around the time of Jesus. And that helps us for now when we get into the life of this Jewish man from the north of Galilee, Rabbi Yeshudin Azariah, who starts using this term for himself.
00:25:34
Speaker
Now we want to explore the question who? Well, who is the son of man? Yeah, it's kind of obvious, but it's actually important to bring this question up because there's some issues we got to deal with along the way. Every Sunday school kid has their hand up right now, Nick.
00:25:49
Speaker
So as I said before, Jesus uses this title of himself all the time, over 80 times in the Gospel accounts. And it really just seems like he's referring to himself. He's not referring to some other figure that is the Son of Man. So a couple examples of how Jesus uses it, just some random examples like Matthew 8.20. And Jesus said to him, Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.
00:26:24
Speaker
So when Jesus uses this term of himself, this is more than a simple circumlocution where one refers to oneself in the third person.
Is 'Son of Man' Self-Coined by Jesus?
00:26:36
Speaker
Like I said, it doesn't really seem like he's referring to someone else, certainly. But I think the best way to put it is that it is a reference to a commonly known Jewish prophetic profile or apocalyptic profile that Jesus saw himself as stepping into and filling up. Does Jesus looking at all that expectation or the Son of Man and saying, I am him? Yeah, I function in that spot.
00:27:00
Speaker
those Son of Man hopes are fulfilled in me." Yeah, you can now place all those in me. If this idea of filling up of a prophetic profile is new to you, you gotta listen to Michael Heiser on the way prophecy fulfillment works in general and how the prophecies of the Old Testament
00:27:19
Speaker
aren't necessarily referring to Jesus of Nazareth as such, but rather they're projecting hope of a profile of the Messiah, or in this case of the Son of Man, the seed of the woman, or something like that. A profile that Jesus then intentionally steps into and fills up. And I'll put in a show now, it's a video that Heiser has talking about this.
00:27:41
Speaker
We do need to stop here though and address an important question I think. How do we know that Jesus is thinking of Daniel 7 or these other apocalyptic Jewish texts when he uses the Son of Man title? I do want to acknowledge that the identity of Jesus's Son of Man self-description has been the subject of kind of endless debate in late 20th century biblical scholarship.
00:28:04
Speaker
trying to figure out if Jesus was even referring to the apocalyptic son of man that we've talked about. It's been popular actually in scholarship since the end of the 20th century to deny that Jesus was referring to the apocalyptic son of man and to suppose instead that he's simply coining a new term for himself or something.
00:28:24
Speaker
Like he's just walking around speaking about himself saying, this guy needs a place to stay tonight. Yeah, that's a popular view that he's kind of coining a new term for himself. It is based on some good reasons, too. It's true that, like we said last time, the son of man is just an Aramaic idiom that means person or human generically. So it's not obvious by any means that Jesus is referring specifically to the apocalyptic vision.
00:28:49
Speaker
Here's a difference, too. In Daniel 7, the title is actually slightly different. If you notice, it's actually one like a son of man, Kaban Adam in Hebrew, or Kabar Yannosh in Aramaic. Whereas in Mark, it's consistently the son of man, or Oios to Anthropou in Greek. So you have one like the son of man in Daniel 7, and now it's just the son of man. So it's actually not the exact same phrase that's being used here, even.
00:29:16
Speaker
It may be that there's a synthesis between these views that Jesus is just coining his own term for himself, or that he's intentionally referring to the apocalyptic Son of Man. And this synthesis could possibly be that Jesus picked a somewhat obscure title for himself because of his interest in staying out of trouble, hiding his identity from those who were out to get him, and on the other hand, revealing his identity to those who were sympathetic to him.
00:29:41
Speaker
So this is a more obscure title for himself than saying, I am the anointed one, I am the Messiah, for example, that would have gotten him in trouble immediately. And he wouldn't have even been able to do ministry. Interesting, almost like you picked a slightly encoded version of it.
00:29:56
Speaker
Right, yeah. This desire to hide his identity for a while is discussed in scholarship as the messianic secret, right? One writer comments on it like this. He says, the messianic secret enabled Jesus to continue his mission for sufficient time to establish a loyal following of disciples who could then publicly proclaim what had previously been a closely guarded secret among them.
00:30:21
Speaker
It was likely to have been this secret then that Judas betrayed when he went to the temple authorities and received his payment.
00:30:28
Speaker
Oh, interesting. It's like Judas snuck over to the authorities. He's like, hey, this isn't just the Son of Man. He thinks he's the one like a Son of Man. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Or he thinks he's the Messiah, which, like we said, the Son of Man probably had messianic connotations by this time. So perhaps there is a synthesis that Jesus is coining a generic title for himself, but that he's also claiming identity with the apocalyptic Son of Man for those who are open to listen.
00:30:53
Speaker
That does seem like the kind of thing that Jesus likes to do with the parables. Have plausible deniability. Kind of like put something out there that he knows not everyone's going to understand, but the people listening carefully will pick up on. And they'll maybe follow along and ask him later. Maybe, yeah. So these are some of the arguments for identifying Jesus self-description as Son of Man with the apocalyptic Son of Man. And I think these are actually pretty strong.
00:31:17
Speaker
The first reason I think that is because the New Testament Gospel writers consistently use the definite article, the Son of Man, in Greek, as we've already noted. The consistent use of the the is best explained, I think, by assuming the New Testament author is referring to that Son of Man, that is, the Son of Man of Daniel 7 in Jewish literature. They could just as easily not include the article and say a Son of Man. There's no reason for the definite article.
00:31:45
Speaker
In addition to this, just look at how it's used in some passages. In Luke 22, 69, and in Acts 7, 56, the Son of Man is being described as being ascended to the right hand of God, exactly what the apocalyptic texts describe. In Greek, the phrase Son of Man doesn't idiomatically mean human, as it does in Hebrew and in Aramaic. Therefore, it seems, I think, likely that Jesus, or the Gospel writer, is referencing a known title
00:32:15
Speaker
rather than only coining a novel Greek turn of phrase. A second reason I think it's a strong assumption that Jesus is identifying himself with the apocalyptic son of man is because of the way the religious leaders respond to Jesus.
Blasphemy Accusations Against Jesus
00:32:30
Speaker
It seems like they were at least taking Jesus to mean that he was the cloud rider at the right hand of Yahweh, right? Blasphemy, they say. Well, it would only be blasphemy if he was equating himself with the apocalyptic son of man.
00:32:44
Speaker
There was this idea in Judaism at the time of the Two Powers in Heaven, where Yahweh was conceived to be both omnipresent and invisible, as well as on earth, interacting with his people. The best book on this is Alan Segel's The Two Powers in Heaven. This Jewish theology was conveniently pronounced in Judaism as a heresy after the rise of Christianity because they saw the problems with it.
00:33:10
Speaker
Yeah, a little too easy to make that connection between Jesus and the second Yahweh. Exactly. So to steer clear of that, let's just get rid of this whole doctrine of the two powers in heaven. Sort of funny, but you could see perhaps the apologetic reason why that happened. Daniel 7 became an important text for this two powers in heaven theology as it imagines two divine figures, one being the ancient of days and one being the son of man, the human-like cloud rider.
00:33:38
Speaker
The idea of a cloud rider, by the way, is kind of a dig at the Canaanite god Baal, who is traditionally described as a cloud rider. The Jews took this description and used it of Yahweh a few times in the Hebrew Bible, most notably in Psalm 110. But then, importantly for us in this discussion, it's used of the divine human figure of Daniel 7 as well.
00:33:58
Speaker
So when the religious leaders hear Jesus describing himself as being vindicated as the Son of Man, they certainly are taking him to mean the Son of Man of Daniel 7 in 1st Enoch, the one who's enthroned over all the land and the one to whom all authority is given, the one who rides the clouds like or as Yahweh does. Yeah, it definitely seems like Jesus is drawing that connection. The religious leaders are seeing that connection and the gospel writers are making that connection very explicit.
00:34:27
Speaker
Again, that's precisely why they thought the claim was blasphemy. And I'm convinced that that's how we are to understand Jesus, not as a blasphemer, to be clear, but as telling the truth that he really is the cloud-riding son of man of Jewish apocalyptic vision, and that all authority was being given to him, and that his vindication was imminently arriving.
00:34:49
Speaker
The third reason why I think Jesus is identifying himself with the apocalyptic Son of Man is because the New Testament authors obviously took this to be the interpretation of Jesus' words. In Acts 7, Stephen, after he's stoned, he says, But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and he said, Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.
00:35:14
Speaker
And in Revelation, Chapter 1. And in the midst of the lampstands won like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching to the feet and girded around his chest with a golden belt. And his head and hair were white like wool, white as snow, and his eyes were like a fiery flame, and his feet were like fine bronze when it has been fired in a furnace. And his voice was like the sound of many waters, and he had in his right hand seven stars and a sharp double-edged sword coming out of his mouth, and his face was like the sun shining in its strength.
00:35:42
Speaker
And in Revelation 14, 14, then I looked and there was a white cloud and one like the son of man was seated on the cloud with a golden crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. So if the New Testament authors are clearly taking Jesus as referring to himself as that son of man of Daniel seven and first Enoch and Jewish apocalyptic vision, then I think that's another reason to think, yeah, that's probably the right interpretation, which as a reminder, it was no small claim. No, not at all.
00:36:10
Speaker
So we've outlined the what the Son of Man is, as well as the who the Son of Man is, and now it's time for why.
00:36:30
Speaker
This is probably the most fun that we'll have is reflecting on why. Why a vision of a son of man instead of something else. God always intended humans to rule the earth with him, but he's never found us to be a really suitable partner in that project.
00:36:46
Speaker
The Son of Man vision is that of a human being taking up rule with God again, and the people of God who are represented by the Son of Man are also given the kingdom to rule creation again as intended in the beginning. You see this clearly in Daniel 7. You notice also in Daniel 7 that the Son of Man is contrasted with the beasts that are representative of the unjust earthly empires.
00:37:11
Speaker
Revelation mentions that there's no more sea. Why? Well, because beasts are always associated with the sea in the ancient Near Eastern literature. This is a common theme. So, no more sea, no more beasts, no empire, only the son of man's kingdom.
00:37:28
Speaker
This is harkening back to the oldest story, a story where humans, instead of ruling the beasts of the field, they take their cues from the beasts of the field, personified by the Nahash, the serpent. And in so doing, we became beasts ourselves, not living up to our vocation as God's earth rulers. Check out our Image of God series if you want there.
00:37:50
Speaker
So in this apocalyptic genre, if beasts are stand-ins for empires built on blood and injustice, then this gives some new insight into the meaning of the mark of the beast, maybe, in Revelation. What else is the symbol of the mark of the beast but unquestioning, acquiescent, and unrepentant participation in evil empire?
00:38:13
Speaker
Let that be a warning to us against our typical support of empire warfare and unjust economic systems today. Think again about the gospel accounts of Jesus going into the wilderness, the wild and wasteland, so to speak, to be tempted by the adversary. This time, unlike the first man in the Hebrew Scriptures, the first Adam, if you'd like, the son of man, the second Adam, resists the adversary's voice,
00:38:41
Speaker
and in so doing, he's restoring the primordial human vocation. The odd comment that Jesus was with the wild animals, seemingly being at peace with them, reiterates the point perhaps that this is a moment of human restoration to the royal vocation of earth and creature rulership that we see in Genesis 2. This is reinforced, I think, by the comment about angels ministering to him in the wilderness.
00:39:08
Speaker
This is likely speaking into the Jewish literature of that time that reflects on the relationship between humans and angels, where according to some Jewish writings, the angels protested the creation of humans in the first place. One passage actually says angels were required to bow down to humans, but some refused. This gives some new meaning to Lucifer's, I will be like the most high, like the humans are in other words.
00:39:33
Speaker
or Paul's curious statement that don't you know we will judge angels? Right, yeah. That is also interesting then with this idea of humans created in the image of God as part of this proper functioning of all of creation with humans ruling over the beasts and the rest of creation.
Human Restoration in the Son of Man Vision
00:39:47
Speaker
And then after that's fallen, it's not like God has abandoned that plan.
00:39:50
Speaker
So within that story it makes perfect sense then that this figure, the Son of Man, that in so many ways we see elevated above humanity to be worshipped to be like Yahweh, that it's actually important for God's plan of restoration that that figure be a Son of Man, that it be like that true human figure, the figure that is humanity as it was meant to be.
00:40:10
Speaker
Right, I think that is a large reason why this vision is of a human. You could have a different vision, and there are other visions and other images of the deliverer, like the lion or something like that, right? But this figure is a human, a son of man. I think it's tapping into that Hebrew Bible story, a restoration of humanity.
00:40:31
Speaker
It's also really interesting then in the Daniel 7 passage that the Son of Man overcoming the beasts, which are representative of these human powers. And human power is possibly animated by spiritual powers, but maybe that's a conversation for another time, but continue. Yeah. So in that setting, that Son of Man being elevated above those powers is a restoration of God's plan for humanity from the beginning. Absolutely. It's a correction of things that went wrong in the fall. Right. Yeah.
00:40:58
Speaker
It's crazy then the kind of implications that properly understanding the image of God has for the way humanity is supposed to interact with power. That's why I referenced a little bit the image of God and our image of God series, because it's actually really important to grasp what the image of God is. And to be really honest with you, Christian theology in the West has very frequently just blown it here and has not really understood what the image of God means.
00:41:25
Speaker
Because Christian theology wasn't typically looking at what image of God meant at the time of writing Genesis 1 and 2. There's a little plug to check out that series and glean from that. But yeah, you're right. You gotta understand the image of God as positional and as vocational. Yeah, given kind of our strange but popular understanding of image of God, you wouldn't ever describe a son of man being one elevated above the beasts to be like Yahweh to be worshipped.
00:41:52
Speaker
or there wouldn't be a connection between that and image of God. It's a separate thing. Yeah, but it's clear that within Jewish tradition, that was what they hoped for. Yeah, these are their texts. These are the Hebrew texts, right? That obviously we as Christians interpret Jesus as fulfilling all these hopes, all these types, all these profiles. Little bias here, but yeah, we're trying to take the Jewish understanding of their texts and then interpreting them as being fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth.
00:42:19
Speaker
Yeah, I think sometimes I see so much debate around the divinity of Jesus and Christians being apologetic for that, that it can be easy to lose the importance of the fact that Jesus was human. The obedient human that restores a human vocation. Yeah, the importance of the Incarnation gets lost on us.
00:42:36
Speaker
There's so many rabbit holes we could go down here because then we could also talk about the importance of God having a covenant partner who will actually keep the covenant. Think of like Genesis 12, 15, 17, where God makes and reiterates these covenants with Abraham and his offspring. And God swears by his own reputation that he's going to fulfill these promises.
00:42:56
Speaker
But those promises also require an obedient partner, which none of Abraham's offspring end up being. And so how is God going to fulfill these promises? Well, the Incarnation solves that problem and explains that by God saying, I'm going to do it myself and I'll be my own covenant partner, and I will be the human partner, descendant of Abraham, who will obey.
00:43:20
Speaker
and who will then unlock and release all these blessings of all these promises that I want to release to not only Abraham's offspring, but the world. It is wild to start to put all that together. The humanity of Jesus suddenly seems so crucial. Yeah, you need Jesus to be human, for sure.
00:43:37
Speaker
Alright, back to the Son of Man though. It's widely observed by scholars that the Son of Man figure in Daniel 7 is closely connected to and representative of all of God's remnant people, people who've suffered at the hands of evil empire. Simon Gather Cole makes this point extensively. I love this description here by the biblical scholar John J. Collins. He says that the Son of Man is the heavenly, mystical doppelganger of the righteous community.
00:44:05
Speaker
In other words, closely connecting this figure of apocalyptic vision with the faithful people of God, to the point where you start to think, is the Son of Man in 1st Enoch, Daniel 7, an actual separate figure, or is he a stand-in for all the faithful people?
00:44:22
Speaker
And I don't know if you need to resolve that. Maybe you just say, yeah, kind of a common tension in Jewish literature. Yeah. So take that tension into reading your New Testament and all the language about being in Christ and represented by Christ being in Messiah Jesus. All of a sudden that gives that new meaning and new tension. And actually the Christ event sort of explains and alleviates this tension.
00:44:48
Speaker
Because it's, yes, you have a Son of Man figure that's ascended to power overall, but included with him and represented by him is all of his people who follow him and who share in his body and drink of his blood, the Christian community. By participating in Jesus, the Son of Man, we're starting to participate in that human who has been restored back to true humanity. Which is rulership. Yeah. Yes. Yeah, I don't often, I guess, connect all of those dots.
00:45:16
Speaker
N. T. Wright points out that the Daniel and the lion's den narrative sort of functions perhaps as a visual narrative anecdote that depicts God's faithful people being raised up out of the realm of beastly empires, as we see all over Daniel, being vindicated and exalted as the truthful rulers of the land, which is exactly what happens in the Daniel and the lion's den narrative, located squarely within the book of Daniel.
00:45:44
Speaker
Simon Dathricol also offers a comparison that I think is really interesting between Daniel 7 and Mark's Gospel. Notice this similar verbiage here that connects the suffering, faithful people of Daniel 7 with the fate of the Son of Man in Mark. Daniel 7 25 says,
00:46:14
Speaker
Mark 931 says, the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed after three days, he will rise. Mark 1441 says, the hour has come, the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners.
00:46:36
Speaker
This is just to stress again that the Son of Man, at least as seen by Jesus, functions as the representative of God's faithful people, as He shares their fate in suffering at the hands of evil empire for a pattern of three, three days, three times, however you want to put that, before being vindicated and exalted in the end.
00:46:57
Speaker
N.T. Wright sums up in his discussion of the Son of Man in his book, Jesus and the Victory of God, he sums up insightfully by saying,
00:47:17
Speaker
Yeah, that is interesting. We don't tend to, I think, see representative rulership the same way today. So that's not as intuitive for us. But it does feel like we need to try to see it that way if we're going to try to understand this in its own context. Yeah, we definitely do need to step into perhaps like a monarchical frame of mind, which we're not familiar with today, that I am represented by my ruler, right?
00:47:40
Speaker
I don't have a queen. Yeah. Tonight, as we're recording right now, there's like a debate going on with the people that are vying to lead our country, but we don't even care. Like I couldn't care less. You'd probably have to pay me to watch that. I don't hate these people, but like, in other words, I don't have like this awe of these figures and like, oh, let me be represented by you. It's just not the world we live in. Maybe I should speak for myself, but I feel like most of us don't really care about your representatives or your president or whatever. Yeah. We probably shouldn't care about that much.
00:48:10
Speaker
Yeah, we certainly don't describe the actions or behaviors of nations or large groups of people through like the representative of a single individual. Right. I bring up this example is a passage in Samuel or Kings, where there's a couple people disgruntled by David, and they don't want to be represented by him.
00:48:28
Speaker
they kind of are casting off his kingship. They're like, we have no share in David. But that language they use, we have no share apart. We have no inclusion in David and what David represents. That tips you off to the way they're thinking about kingship at the time.
00:48:45
Speaker
I don't think that way, you know, about our ruler. So yeah, to your point, it would maybe help us to try to get into this frame of mind of representative rulership and inclusion in the figurehead in order to better understand Jewish and Christian theology on this point.
00:49:00
Speaker
Yeah. Well, you definitely see the New Testament use that kind of language a lot for the church and its headship in Jesus. Right. Exactly. It's explicitly made there. Yeah. Yeah. That concept seems like it's a lot more robust and rich in this Jewish context than it is kind of in our own modern. Sure. It's a bit of a foreign concept for us.
00:49:17
Speaker
Here's a fun little aside that I'd maybe interject here as well. It's another Son of Man passage in the Gospels, this time not in the synoptics, but in John. You know this story at the beginning of John where Jesus calls Philip and then Philip calls Nathaniel to follow Jesus, right? Nathaniel sort of scoffs at the idea of a Nazarite being the Messiah, and he goes, does anything good come from Nazareth? When Jesus then sees Nathaniel, he says, a true Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit.
00:49:44
Speaker
Recall that Jacob means deceiver or schemer. So it's sort of like Jesus saying, a true Israelite in whom there is no Jacob. I just think that's kind of funny. Jesus then tells Nathaniel and those looking on that they will see the skies open and angels ascending and descending on the son of man. A really bizarre statement at first blush, I think.
00:50:06
Speaker
Remember Jacob's dream in Genesis 28? He dreams of angels descending and ascending on a ladder or stairway or ziggurat or whatever from the sky to the earth. But what could it possibly mean for Jesus to insert the Son of Man in here in the place of this ladder?
00:50:22
Speaker
Two Jewish texts actually might help us here. There's one called the Ladder of Jacob and there's also another Midrash on Exodus 32.7. In the former, the ladder represents this age and the rungs of the ladder represent the kingdoms of this age. There are actually faces, there's two faces on each rung that represent the evil kingdoms of the world that persecute God's people. Later in the text, a heavenly man comes on the scene to join heavenly things and earth.
00:50:52
Speaker
possibly displacing the images of the empires and that part's left unclear a little bit. So he swaps up the stair treads kind of thing? Possibly. Yeah, it's not explicit, but that's maybe the implication. So maybe this is what Jesus is tapping into. Otherwise, the mid rush on Exodus 32.7 is really interesting, I think.
00:51:09
Speaker
In this text, the angels that ascend and descend on the ladder are thought to be guardians of the kingdoms of this age, and their descent and ascent is thought to represent like the rising and the falling of these kingdoms. God then tells Jacob to ascend the ladder, but he's scared because he doesn't want to fall like the other ones have. God then tells him, Be not afraid, for just as I will never fall from my greatness, so neither you nor your children will ever descend from their greatness.
00:51:39
Speaker
So if Jesus is tapping into these ideas expressed in these texts or something similar, right, it would make it clear that he sees the Son of Man figure as a mediatorial figure who supplants the world's empires, properly uniting heaven and earth, God and humanity. Again, the way creation is presented in Genesis 2 in particular.
00:52:02
Speaker
He supersedes that whole ladder by which the powers of the world struggle against one another. I guess maybe I'm not understanding that second one that made us real clearly. I'm not sure if it's trying to comment on what the empires are trying to do, but it is interesting to think along that line. Is it the case that the empires of the world are trying to unite heaven and earth in a wrong sort of way?
00:52:24
Speaker
They're trying to rule in a disordered way. That's the critique of empire in apocalyptic literature. Could it be that this is commentary on what kingdoms of the world are trying to accomplish but just can't or can't get it right? And what you have in Jesus is a restoration of the proper way to unite heaven and earth, the proper way to rule as God's image bearers.
00:52:47
Speaker
So when the angels are ascending and descending on the Son of Man, that's because that ladder has been supplanted. Yeah, I'm not sure if there's concrete meaning to that. Other than, again, sit with it and let your imagination go a little bit wild here.
00:53:01
Speaker
And I've personally found these texts to be interesting because they kind of add more fuel to that imagination right there. I'm definitely gonna have weird ladder dreams tonight. Maybe that's what we're supposed to have, right? So we see then in these apocalyptic visions, a human who ascends to the right hand of God to take up the proper place of humanity.
00:53:19
Speaker
to rule alongside God and on God's behalf toward God's ends. But again, it's not that only this son of man, this human rule is alone, but everyone who is identified with him, the faithful ones, they too are given the kingdom.
Inauguration of God's Rule through Ascension
00:53:34
Speaker
They too are restored to their proper place of honor and glory. And they too are called to be the good and wise rulers once again. In the place of the beastly kings and kingdoms of the world,
00:53:46
Speaker
who have acquired and maintained their power and privilege through subjugation and oppression and military strength and cheap labor and classism and all the rest. This is exactly how empires of the world are routinely described in Jewish apocalyptic literature.
00:54:02
Speaker
It's like reading the fall of what in reverse. Exactly. This is a fall reversal type of narrative. The vision of the Son of Man and that vision as being fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth is presented in the New Testament writings as a reverse of the fall narrative.
00:54:19
Speaker
The Son of Man's ascension means the dissolution of earthly powers and the inauguration of God's rule, where, according to Matthew 28, the Son of Man and his people are given all authority in heaven and on earth.
00:54:57
Speaker
Tune in next time for part two of the apocalyptic Son of Man, where we talk about when.