Son of Man

 Hello everyone.

Today, I'm to stay in Luke 5:17-26, the story of Jesus healing the paralytic, because I want to look at one thing that Jesus says.  Jesus says in verse 24, "But so that you can know that while on the Earth, the Son of Man has the authority to forgive sins.." and then heals the man. Darrell Bock states that this is the first of twenty-five that this title is used for Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. (Bock, 486.) So it obvious that Jesus refers to himself by this title quite ofte in the Gospels. But what does it mean? And what it mean to his audience at the time?

Now, I am going to lay out some Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic on you. I will admit that I am not an expert on any of these languages. While I am confident in my handling of the Greek, I am less so, in handling the other two. But, in spite of my limitations, I think that we can still learn something good from a little look at these languages.

In the Greek the title is Ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου (Ho huios tou anthropou). The Son of Man. This phrase is used numerous time in the Old Testament, so you can be sure that Jesus' audience was familiar with it. Most of the uses of the phrase come out of Ezekiel, where God calls Ezekiel בן–אדם (Ben-Adam) Son of Man. It is likely, though, that Jesus was making reference it use in Daniel 7: 13-14. This section of Daniel was written in Aramaic and uses the phrase בר אנש (Bar Anash) Son of Man. Now, according to A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, Bar means 'Son' and Anash means 'mankind.' Jesus is essentially calling himself, The Son of Humanity.

Now, while Luke wrote this in Greek, most Bible scholars agree that Jesus and his contemporaries typically spoke in Aramiaic, not Hebrew. So when Jesus called himself, The Son of Man, he probably said, 'Bar Anash', not 'Ben-Adam.' His audience likely immediately caught this reference to Daniel 7:13-14. So what does Daniel 7 say?

Daniel 7:13-14. “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 nations and peoples 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.

So, who is the Ancient of Days? Obviously this is a reference to God, because of His eternal nature.  Do you notice what the Ancient of Days gives the Son of Man (the Bar Anash)? He gives him 1) authority, 2) glory, 3) soveriegn power and 4) an everlasting dominion that will not pass away.  So when Jesus calls himself The Son of Man, he is saying a lot more that 'I am a human being.'  He is telling his audience that he, the Bar Anash, has authority and sovereign power. Power, even to forgive sins. The learned Pharisees and teachers of the law had to catch the significance of how Jesus just referred to himself, but since the paralyzed man got up and walked away, what could they do?  Jesus had just displayed incredible power, and witnesses of the miracle glorified God because of it. Jesus was looking like the Son of Man, the Bar Anash, that he was claiming to be.  The witnesses had a choice to make.  Were they going to buy into it or not? We, of course, have the same decision to make.  Will we believe in this Son of Man, who has all authority and power, and therefore give him glory?

Tom 

    Bock, Darrell. Luke: Volume 1 - 1:1-9:50. Grand Rapids, Michigan, Baker Academic. 1994.