Revelation 1:13. Son of Man: “One like a Son of Man.” (Also 14:14.)
As the Son of Man,
Jesus identified with mankind, fulfilling God’s will that Man should have
dominion over the earth. The term Son of
Man is found more than 90 times in the Book of Ezekiel, and 68 times in the
Gospels. In John 5:19-27 Jesus speaks of Himself as the Son of God and in verse
27 equates this with the Son of Man, “Because
He is the Son of Man.”
The Son of man came eating and
drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of
publicans and sinners. But wisdom is justified of her children.
This was
understood to be speaking of the Messiah.[ii]
Regarding the
kingdom, He referred to Himself not only as the Son of Man, but also as the
King. This was in reference to the passage in Daniel 7:13-14:
13. I saw in the night visions,
and, behold, [one] like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came
to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. 14 And there was given him
dominion and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, and nations, and languages,
should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass
away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed. And there was given
him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom that all people, nations, and languages
should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass
away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.
Also
in Luke 19:9-10:
9. And Jesus said unto
him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of
Abraham. 10. For the Son of man is come to seek and to save
that which was lost.
Here Jesus was identifying Himself as the
Messiah, the Shepherd, by reference to a passage in
Ezekiel 34: 11-16:
For thus saith the Lord GOD;
Behold, I, [even] I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out.12 As a
shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep [that are]
scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places
where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.13 And I will bring
them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring
them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the
rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country.14 I will feed them in a
good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be: there
shall they lie in a good fold, and [in] a fat pasture shall they feed upon the
mountains of Israel.15 I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down,
saith the Lord GOD.16 I will seek that
which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up
[that which was] broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but I will
destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment.
Dr. Robert Lindsay
believes that Jesus spoke in Hebrew because recent archaeological
discoveries near the Temple site indicate that Hebrew was
the spoken language in Jerusalem at that time. However, in these
passages He was quoting from portions of the Book of Daniel which were written in Aramaic, and so He used the Aramaic in these instances. In Aramaic the term
Son of Man would be Bar-Enash. When translated into the Greek, the term would have been awkward, considered a barbarism, “The Son of
The Man.”
The Son of Man as envisioned by Enoch had been hidden but was to be
revealed to the elect:
And the kings and the mighty and all who possess the earth shall bless
and glorify and extol him who rules over all, who was hidden. 7. For from the
beginning the Son of Man was hidden, And the Most High
preserved him in the presence of His might, And revealed him to the elect. (Charles, Enoch 62.6-7)
The revelation of
Jesus Christ, as the Son of Man, is therefore the fulfillment of Enoch’s prophecy, as well as those of the Old Testament.
This lesson is an edited excerpt from my book Revelation In Context.
This lesson is an edited excerpt from my book Revelation In Context.
My Book is available at the Living Word Bookstore in Shawnee, Oklahoma and is also available online at www.amazon.com or www.xulonpress.com.
Free downloads are available at www.revelationincontext.sermon.net .
[i] I owe much of this discussion to a lesson given by Dr.
Robert Lindsay on Channel 14 TBN television on December 11, 1988 at 2:30 p.m.
CST. See also Robert Lindsay, Jesus Rabbi and Lord, (Oak Creek, Wisconsin, Cornerstone Publishing, 1990).
[ii] The term Son of
Man was familiar to
the New Testament Jewish Church not only because
of His mention in the Book of Daniel, but also in the pseudepigraphical Book of Enoch. (See Charles, Enoch.) The Book of Enoch is one of the pieces of
literature with which the early Church was familiar and which seemed to be
revered almost equally with the canonical writings. In fact, the Book of Enoch is quoted in Jude verses 14 and 15.
The Book therefore serves as a literary referent for many of the expressions
and symbols used in the New Testament, and therefore should be considered as a
part of the cultural context for the Book of Revelation. Many of the obscure ideas of the Book of Revelation
will become clear after one reads the Book
of Enoch although it is not Scripture.
The Book
of Enoch is part of a body
of literature known as the pseudepigrapha,
which simply means that the author's name, in this case Enoch, is a pseudonym for the real author. In fact, Oesterley quotes Burkitt, (Jewish and Christian Apocalypses, p. 18), regarding pseudonymous authorship: "...that the names
were not chosen out of mere caprice; they indicated to a certain extent what
subjects would be treated and the point of view of the writer."
Charles, Enoch p. 66,
"48.2. And at that hour that Son of Man was named in the
presence of the Lord of Spirits, And his name before the Head of Days. 3. Yea,
before the sun and the signs were created, before the stars of the heaven were
made, His name was named before the Lord of Spirits."
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