Who Does Jesus Say He Is?

“In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all people, nations and men of every language worshiped him”

(Daniel 7:13–14).

The expression “Son of Man” as a title for Jesus Christ occurs about 80 times in the New Testament. Almost without exception it is found on the lips of Jesus Himself. It was His favorite name for Himself.

Most Christians naturally think that the expression “Son of Man” refers to the humanity of our Lord, while the expression “Son of God” refers to his Deity. When we look at the Bible, however, we find something else.

The key passage to understanding the term “Son of Man” is in Daniel 7. There Daniel sees a divine figure coming on the clouds of heaven. This is a reference to the glory cloud of God Himself, the cloud that appears so often when God appears. Clearly, the person approaching on this cloud is divine.

This Person is called the “Son of Man,” and He is the Father’s agent to rule and judge the world. The principal role of the Son of Man is judge. The Ancient of Days calls on the Son of Man to bring judgment. He comes to earth from the Father, evaluates the situation, reports back to the Father, and participates with the Father in judgment. Throughout His earthly ministry, Jesus spoke of the “crisis” or judgment of the world. By saying that He was the Son of Man, Jesus was saying to the Jews, “I didn’t come from Bethlehem. I came from heaven. I have come to judge.” It was time for all men to make up their minds whom to serve.

In Acts 7 we read of the stoning of Stephen. As he died, Stephen saw heaven opened and the Son of Man standing next to the Father. He saw that the One who is judge of all was also standing as his advocate and defense attorney. Do you understand that Jesus acts both as your judge and defense attorney? For many it is difficult to conceive that He could perform both roles. The Good News of the Gospel is that the Christian can embrace the Son of Man as judge, because we know that He has taken upon Himself the penalty for our sins, and that we are declared righteous before God in Him.

Jesus as the "Son of Man"

The "Son of Man" discussion is one of the more vigorous in the whole of New Testament studies.  No small amount of literature on the phrase “son of man” [Hebrew ben ʾādām (בֶּן אָדָם); Aramaic bar ʾĕnāš (בַּר אֱנָשׁ); Greek (ho) huios (tou) anthrōpou (ὁ υἱος του ἁνθρωπου)]  was produced over the course of the twentieth century. The twenty-first century is continuing this trend and will likely produce many more journal articles, monographs, and book chapters.

Essentially, "Son of Man" was Jesus’ favorite self-designation in the Synoptic Gospels. As noted, the denoted name arises from the Hebrew ben-˒āḏām and Aramaic bar ˒enāš “son of man,” a Semitic idiom for an individual human being or for mankind in general, particularly as distinguished from God (e.g., Num. 23:19; Ps. 8:4; Ezek. 2:1).

At Dan. 7:13, the phrase “son of man” occurs and is likely a title for the people of Israel considered corporately or for their angelic representative in the heavenly court (cf. “the saints of the Most High,” v. 18). The Similitudes of Enoch (1 En. 37–71) and 2 Esdras 13 both draw on Daniel’s use of the title, viewing it as an expression for a specific eschatological redeemer figure. Whereas the influence of Dan. 7:13 on New Testament use of the expression is unquestioned, 2 Esdras 13 and probably the Similitudes of Enoch are too late to have had any such influence. Jesus’ use of the term may have arisen from its use in Aramaic as an oblique substitute for the first person singular pronoun as much as from the use of the term in Daniel. Discussions on this are vigorous.

Indeed, the variety in Jesus’ use of the term suggests that no single influence was dominant in the meaning of the term as he used it, that his own creativity played a significant role, and that part of this creativity was to bring ideas from the Servant Songs of Isaiah (esp. Isa. 52:13–53:12) into the “son of man” concept. The uses of the term in the Synoptic Gospels fall into three broad categories. 

Jesus uses it with respect to himself in describing his activity and the exercise of his authority on earth (Matt. 13:37; Mark 2:10, 28; 10:45; Luke 7:34; 9:58; 12:10; 19:10). 

He uses it in predicting his suffering and death (Mark 8:31; 9:31; 10:33). He uses it when speaking of his eschatological return and rule (e.g., Matt. 10:23; 19:28; 25:31; Mark 8:38; 14:62; Luke 17:22–30; 21:36).

All three categories of “son of man” sayings originated with Jesus and are plausible within the framework of his own anticipation of his rejection, suffering, and vindication.

The gospel of John uses “the Son of man” for Jesus in relation to John’s christology of the descending and ascending redeemer (John 3:13; 6:62; cf. 1:51; 5:27; 6:27) and in relation to the death of Jesus, viewed as his glorification (3:14; 12:23, 34; 13:31). In the end, evidence suggests that “the Son of man” functions as a self-designation of some kind for Jesus Christ; though it never became a way for other people to refer to Jesus, and it thus played no part in the confessional and doctrinal statements of the early church, unlike “Christ,” “Lord” and “Son of God.”