The Son of Man

In the gospels Jesus often refers to himself as the "Son of Man". The term appears in all four gospels, and is used more than 70 times. The way it is used suggests that it was a title. But if so, what did it mean?

Linguistically, in the Aramaic of that period, the term "son of man" simply meant "an ordinary man" or "an ordinary human being". But many scholars think that it also had a specific prophetic meaning. They point to a passage in the Old Testament Book of Daniel (7:13-14), which reads:

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 peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.

In this passage Daniel seems to be using "son of man" as a name for the Messiah. According to the old Jewish prophesies, the Messiah was a great future leader who would overthrow all evil rulers and set up an eternal Kingdom of God. During the period when Jesus was growing up, many people were expecting this Messiah to appear within a short time.

But there were different ideas about how the Messiah would accomplish his goals. Many common people thought of him as a military leader who would drive the Romans out of the country. But the scriptures sometimes depicted him as a devout holy figure who would use non-violent methods and God's assistance to achieve his ends.

Many scholars believe that Jesus used "Son of Man" in the same way as the Book of Daniel did, as an alternate name for the Messiah. Jesus even used the same imagery as Daniel in several of his own statements, such as when he says (Mark 13:26) "At that time men will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory."

But why would Jesus use a substitute name for the Messiah? One possibility is that he realized that he might be arrested if he openly called himself the Messiah, and so he used Son of Man as a secret "code name". Most likely the authorities knew about the Messiah, and were ready to arrest anyone who claimed that title. But they may not have known what Son of Man meant.

Another possibility is that Son of Man was a specific name for the non-violent type of Messiah, and Jesus wanted to make it clear that he didn't intend to start a revolt. In his view the main role of the Messiah was to provide an atonement for everyone's sins so as to bring about a reconciliation between humankind and God.

Some scholars think that "Son of Man" is a misleading translation of the original Aramaic, and that a better translation would be "Son of Humanity". This could be interpreted to mean that Jesus represented the whole human race. Another possible translation, found in some bibles, is "Son of Adam". But however the term is translated, it was probably an alternate name for the Messiah.