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Son of Man
A while back we dealt with Jesus' title "Son of David" and unpacked what it meant and signified to people when it was used. I was searching back through some of the things we've covered (we've been reading the NT for over 5 months!) and I was surprised that I haven't covered the title "Son of Man" yet. As you know if you've been reading with us, the title "Son of Man" is used for Jesus A LOT. So what does it mean? It seems strange that this would be used for Jesus so often rather than "Son of God", doesn't it?
The title "Son of Man" most likely isn't referring to Jesus "humanness" in any way. Just two days ago we connected something Jesus said to Isaiah 53, which most people recognized at the time to be a passage about the coming Messiah - it's hard NOT to think that when you read the passage. "Son of Man" is connected to another passage that many considered to be referring to the coming Messiah, Daniel 7:13-14:
"I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed."
Again, this is a relatively clear Messianic passage. There certainly are other uses of "son of man" in the Old Testament, particularly in the book of Ezekiel, but this is the use that clearly utilizes the term as a title for someone rather than simply referring to a "human". This is the reason the title is used so much of Jesus: when people heard this term they didn't think, "Look! It's Jesus the human!", but "This is the Messiah whose Kingdom will not be destroyed!" This is a pretty simple but VERY important distinction.
Sorry I haven't mentioned this before! It's a title that appears pretty regularly and can be somewhat confounding if you don't know the background, so I probably should've mentioned it earlier.
Son of Man
A while back we dealt with Jesus' title "Son of David" and unpacked what it meant and signified to people when it was used. I was searching back through some of the things we've covered (we've been reading the NT for over 5 months!) and I was surprised that I haven't covered the title "Son of Man" yet. As you know if you've been reading with us, the title "Son of Man" is used for Jesus A LOT. So what does it mean? It seems strange that this would be used for Jesus so often rather than "Son of God", doesn't it?
The title "Son of Man" most likely isn't referring to Jesus "humanness" in any way. Just two days ago we connected something Jesus said to Isaiah 53, which most people recognized at the time to be a passage about the coming Messiah - it's hard NOT to think that when you read the passage. "Son of Man" is connected to another passage that many considered to be referring to the coming Messiah, Daniel 7:13-14:
"I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed."
Again, this is a relatively clear Messianic passage. There certainly are other uses of "son of man" in the Old Testament, particularly in the book of Ezekiel, but this is the use that clearly utilizes the term as a title for someone rather than simply referring to a "human". This is the reason the title is used so much of Jesus: when people heard this term they didn't think, "Look! It's Jesus the human!", but "This is the Messiah whose Kingdom will not be destroyed!" This is a pretty simple but VERY important distinction.
Sorry I haven't mentioned this before! It's a title that appears pretty regularly and can be somewhat confounding if you don't know the background, so I probably should've mentioned it earlier.
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