Jesus & the Prophets – on the Son of Man … (10/26/18)
On more than one occasion in the Gospels, Jesus is seen clearly recalling “the prophets” when he boldly cites Daniel 7:13-14 while proclaiming, “then they will see the Son of Man1 coming in clouds with power and great glory” – initially doing so after having predicted “the desolating abomination”2 that would overtake the people of Israel (see Matthew 24:30b, Mark 13:26, & Luke 21:27), and later doing so after having been publicly questioned as to whether or not he was the sole Davidian Messiah (see Matthew 26:64 & Mark 14:623 – also Acts 7:56‘s “I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God”4, along with Luke 23:2-3 & John 18:33-37).
Indeed, the language of this particular passage from the book of Daniel could be neither more reflective of Jesus’ courageous “heresy” nor more important to his ministry’s call to religious reform – for Daniel 7:13-14 is in fact the only passage in the entire Bible where the phrase “the Son of Man” explicitly refers to the longed-for Davidian Messiah, with that same supposed savior willingly receiving “dominion and glory and kingship of all peoples and nations”; essentially the same rewards that were rejected by Jesus after he was offered them by Satan in the wilderness (see Matthew 4:1-10 & Luke 4:1-13). And this remarkable distinction is made even more lucid when the reader realizes that the few self-specific “Son of Man” references Jesus does employ in the Gospels foreshadow the pre-orchestrated & intentionally pain-full end to his ministry (see Matthew 20:17-19, Matthew 25:31, Mark 8:31-32, Mark 10:32-34, & Luke 18:31-34), not the glory & abundance-rich end that Daniel 7 promises (see Daniel 7:13-14‘s “And I saw one like a Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven. He came to the Ancient One, and was … given dominion and glory and kingship over all peoples and nations”).
“While Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside by themselves, and said to them on the way, ‘See, we are going to Jerusalem, where the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified” ~ Matthew 20:17-19
“For just as the Father has life in Himself, so too has He granted the Son to have life in himself; and has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man … [In contrast], you judge by human standards. I [on the other hand] judge no one.” ~ Jesus Christ (John 5:26-27 & John 8:15)
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1 The expression “Son of Man” is a highly controversial one, to say the least, with still no scholarly consensus as to its exact meaning. It appears 107 times in the Old Testament texts – with the vast majority of those references being directed to Ezekiel himself in the book bearing his name, and in 32 of those times it appears in its plural form (“sons of men” – that is, human beings in general). It is also used therein to explicitly contrast the lowly status of humanity against the exalted nature of celestial beings (see Numbers 23:19, Job 25:6, Psalm 8:4, Psalm 144:3, & Isaiah 51:12 et al) … While also citing the same general “Son of Man” in a similar humanity-in-general context in Hebrews 2:6, the 81 references thereto in the Gospels of the New Testament for the most part made the same into the definite and seemingly singular “the Son of Man.” Despite this awkward & quite ambiguous wording (found nowhere else in Greek antiquity), the phrase still almost exclusively refers to all of humanity – or at the very least to a ubiquitous spiritual essence residing therein. Yes, there are a minority of instances where Jesus uses the phrase to refer to himself (see Matthew 20:17-19, Mark 8:31-32, Mark 10:32-34, Luke 18:31-34, & John 9:35-37), and yet these are without question exceptions to a far greater rule – a rule that has him almost exclusively referring to “the Son of Man” in one of three primary contexts: the “exaltation” that comes to all those choosing to live selflessly and thereby walk his Way (see Matthew 25:31-32, Mark 8:38, Luke 12:8, Luke 21:36, John 1:51, John 6:26, & John 6:53 et al), the “suffering” that all must endure on their way to the same (see Matthew 13:41, Mark 8:31, & Mark 9:9-12 et al), and the “earthly work” of caring for others – the deeds of willing self-sacrifice that lead through the latter in order to effectuate the former (see Matthew 11:19, Mark 2:10, Luke 9:58, John 5:27, & John 12:34-35 et al).
2 Matthew 24:15 & Mark 13:14‘s “desolating sacrilege” (see also Luke 21:20) both allude to Daniel 9:27‘s “the consummation which is poured out upon the desolate” (either referencing 1 Maccabees‘ recounting of the heretical actions of Antiochus IV in the mid-2nd century BC or post-event “prophesying” the destruction of the Temple that took place in 70 AD – see also Daniel 8:13, Daniel 11:31, & Daniel 12:11) just as the subsequently noted celestial signs (those that will arrive “immediately after the suffering of those days” – see Matthew 24:29, Mark 13:24-25, & Luke 21:25-26) directly recall the awful “Day of Judgment” mentioned in Isaiah 13:9-10, Amos 5:18-20, Joel 2:10-11, Joel 3:14-15, Zephaniah 1:14-16, & Ezekiel 32 et al… A minority of scholars feel that those same verses refer to the iconoclastically wrathful “2nd Coming” seemingly mentioned in Matthew 16:27‘s “For the Son of Man is to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and will then repay everyone for what has been done” (see also Mark 8:38 & Luke 9:26‘s “of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father” – as well as the words of Matthew 25:31, uttered just before the telling of his Parable of the Goats & the Sheep) and yet Jesus rejects this notion wholeheartedly in all three instances by clearly announcing that “there are some standing right here before me who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom” immediately thereafter (see Matthew 16:28, Mark 9:1, & Luke 9:27 – also John 3:13) – once again making it clear that “the coming of the Son of Man” was an internally generated transcendence of being available to all human beings, not merely an external messianic event specific to himself … It is also worth noting that Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish high holiday also known as the “Festival of Trumpets”) was celebrated as a time of repentance (the essential foundation of Jesus’ entire ministry – see Matthew 3:2, Matthew 4:17, & Matthew 24:31 et al – though for Jesus this concept was a behavioral rebirth, not a verbal profession of guilt or an emotional confession of sin) and that it was traditionally tied to the Jewish recognition of a coming Day of Judgment (see Mishnah Rosh Hashanah 1:2) – the time when “the Son of Man” would also arrive on “clouds of glory” (see Isaiah 40:5).
3 NOTE that in both instances he actually states that he is not said celestial savior – in Matthew answering “You say so” (which, in light of his words in Luke 23:3+John 6:15+John 18:36, is quite literally a negative) and in Mark offering not a “Yes I am” but rather an “I, I am” (ego eimi in the Greek manuscripts) – a clear reference to the divine “Son of Man” that resides within all human beings (see John 8:28, John 10:34-35, & John 14:12-26 et al), not only Jesus himself (see Matthew 19:17, Mark 10:18, Luke 18:19, John 5:41, John 7:16, John 8:50-54, & John 12:44 et al).
4 Remember that “the right hand of God” is the hand of selfless generosity – the hand that transcends legal regulations in order to “do good anyway” (see Matthew 12:8, Mark 2:27-28, & Luke 6:5 et al) – the hand that must indeed be humbly extended in order to enliven Jesus’ Way of Christ (see Matthew 13:37-42, Matthew 18:11, & Mark 10:35-45 et al).
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