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The Son of Man Again1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

E. D. Schweizer
E. D. Schweizer
Affiliation:
Zurich 44, Switzerland
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Extract

In the Old Testament, ‘son of man’ means (1) man in general, (2) the prophet, (3) the eschatological Israel. (1) appears, for example in Ps. viii. 5, is referred to in Heb. ii. 6 and is still present in the background of I Cor. xv. 27 and Eph. i. 2. (2) reflects the usage of Ezechiel. One should never forget that the term occurs here about eighty-seven times: the prophet is addressed as the son of man, filled with God's Spirit (ii. i ff.; iii. 24 f.; xi. 4 f.), watchman of Israel (iii. I7 xxxiii. 7), sent to a rebellious nation (ii. 3). The word of God is his food (ii. 8), but he lives among those who have eyes to see and yet do not see, ears to hear and yet do not hear (xii. 2), who talk about him and run after him, and yet do not do what he says (xxxiii. 30–2), because they think that God's judgement is still far off (xii. 27), so that his message remains riddles and parables for them (xvii. 2, cf. xxi. ). He must not only announce disaster (vi. i ff. etc.), but pronounce God's judgement over Israel (xx. xxii. xxiii. 36), even to kill them (xi. 4, 13; xxi. 19 ff.).

Type
Short Studies
Information
New Testament Studies , Volume 9 , Issue 3 , April 1963 , pp. 256 - 261
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1963

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References

2 Dodd, C. H., The Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel (1953), pp. 358 ff.;Google ScholarSchubert, K., Die Religion des nachbiblischen Judentums (1955), pp. 87 f.;Google Scholar also Sidebottom, E. M., Exp. Times, LXVIII (1956/1957), 233 f.;Google ScholarGrundmann, W., T.L.Z. LXXXVI (1961), 431.Google Scholar

3 Fitzmyer, J. A., N.T.S. vii (1960/1961), 297 ff., nos. 18, 22, 33.Google Scholar

4 Barrett, C. K., in New Testament Essays, Studies in Memory of T. W. Manson, ed. Higgins, A. J. B. (1959), pp. 10–15.Google Scholar

1 Fragments of every chapter of Eth. En. have been found in qumran, except of chapters 37–71 (contribution of M. Black to the discussion in Münster).

2 Black, M., J. T.S. n.s. iii (1952), 1 ff. It is, compared with the rest of the Similitudes, lectio difficilior and appears in the older manuscripts.Google Scholar

3 Conzelmann, H., Z.T.K. LIV (1957), 282 f.Google Scholar thinks that the term was not part of the creed, but of the eschatological hope (and therefore used by prophets speaking in the name ofJesus: Tödt, H. E., Der Menschensohn in der synoptischen überlieferung [1959], p. 209). This is not convincing. Why should the church have been so careful to introduce the title only into the sayings of Jesus, and so inventive to create words like Luke xii. 8, although, for the church, there was no more distinction between Jesus and the son of man?Google Scholar

4 Wrede, W., Das Messiasgeheimnis in den Evangelien (1913), p. 219,Google Scholar and Vielhauer, Ph., in Festschrift für G. Dehn (1957), pp. 51 ff.;Google ScholarHiggins, cf. A. J. B.,. in N.T. Essays (cf. n. 4, p. 256 above), p. 130.Google Scholar

5 Bultmann's, R. thesis has been developed again in a revised form by Tödt (cf. n. 3 above), particularly pp. 204 ff.Google Scholar

1 Jesus never uses the ‘Thus says the Lord’ of the Old or New Testament prophets (Amos i. 3, etc.; Rev. ii. 1 ff.; Matt. vii. 22); cf. contrariwise Matt. v. 21 ff.; xi. 12 Luke xi. 20, Jesus' call to discipleship from which heaven or hell will depend, etc.

2 Cf. the crisis-parables in Jeremias, J., Die Gleichnisse Jesu, 6th ed. (1962), pp. 163 f.: Luke xvii. 26 ff. etc.Google Scholar

3 ‘To suffer' usually includes the whole passion. Its position in Mark viii. 31 before Jesus’ rejection and death is unnatural. Both facts point to an original wording similar to that in ix. 12 Luke xvii. 25. Michaelis, Cf. W., T.W.N.T. v, pp. 911 f.Google Scholar viii. 33 is considered as originally immediately following xiii. 29 by Hahn, F. (cf. p. 259, n. 3) ch. iii, 2.Google Scholar

1 In the sequence of Mark, the coming on the clouds refers to the parousia (pace Robinson, J. A. T., Jesus and His Coming ‘1957’, pp. 43 ff.),Google Scholar but Mark may have changed an originally subordinate clause pointing to the exaltation as the cause of Jesus' heavenly power (with J. A. T.Robinson, Ibid.) into a co-ordinate clause.

2 This future aspect belongs certainly also to Jesus' preaching, whatever its relation to the presence of the kingdom in Jesus' words and deeds be.

3 Thus the usage in Ezechiel is probably decisive. That ‘son of man’ is used exclusively in the address by God forms no difficulty. The address ‘Thou art my beloved son’ (Mark i. ii) becomes the statement ‘This is my beloved son’ (ix. 7). The address ‘kyrie, Lord’, becomes an honoured title in Matthew (Bornkamm, G., in Bornkamm—G., G.Barth—H., Held, J., Ueberlieferung und Auslegung im Maitthäuseuangelium [1960], P. 38).Google ScholarHahn, F., Anfänge christologiscker Traditionen (1963), ch. ii, 2, thinks that the address to Jesus ‘man, Sir’ was the root of the title ‘maran, our Lord’ in the early church.Google Scholar

1 Rom., Cf. ii. 16; iii. 6 with II Cor. v. 10 or even I Cor..iv. 5 with iv. 4.Google Scholar

2 Daniélou, J., Théologie du Judeo-Christianisme (1958) shows that there was a large reach in which it was difficult to draw the border-line between Jews and Christians.Google Scholar

3 Glasson, T. F., The Second Advent (1945), pp. 13 ff.Google Scholar

1 Schulz, S., Untersuchungen zur Menschensohnchristologie im Johannes-Evangelium (1957), pp. 96 ff.Google Scholar

2 Robinson, J. A. T. (cf. n. I, p. 259), pp. 84f.;Google ScholarMatt, . xi. 16–19;Google ScholarLuke, xi. 29–32; xvii. 24f.;Google ScholarMark, viii. 38.Google Scholar

3 Haufe, G., Zeitschrift für Religions- und Geistesgeschichte, xiii (1961), 105 ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar