harwood@cvl.UUCP (David Harwood) (07/10/85)
Reply to a question
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>From: darrell@sdcsvax.UUCP (Darrell Long)
Newsgroups: net.religion.christian
Subject: A simple question.
Message-ID: <959@sdcsvax.UUCP>
Throughout the Gospels Christ calls himself "The Son of Man".
Why? None have yet given me a satisfactory answer.
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There are many arguments about the meaning of this
expression, which is generally believed to have been actually
used by Jesus, more than other self-designations. Some say he simply
meant "human being", using a common expression for an person
(bar nasha, or ben adam), used in Ezekiel, for example. Others
see this as identification of himself with the end-of-time figure
of Daniel, where it is explicated as a singular reference for the
collective end-of-time saints. There is a another end-of-time
figure SOM in an apocraphal book of Enoch, a verse of which is
cited elsewhere in the NT (Jude).
Otherwise, Paul refers to Christ as the New Adam, which
is similarly a singular prototypic figure for those who have
recieved a new life, that in the spirit of Christ.
To answer your question, personally, I believe Jesus uses
the expression to identify himself with the new mankind which will
be his spiritual descendents, those who are called by God to live
even as he does. I believe confusion arises about this because
it is sometimes said the Son of Man comes from "heaven", or with
"the clouds of heaven" "with the angels" or "in power and glory",
and perhaps many Christians would take these to have a vague, but
material sense. But perhaps it is better to think of these spirit-
ually, as figures for how God manifests Himself in calling His own.