Prophecies of a Triumphant Messiah — Fulfilled in Jesus: A “Son of Man” is Given Authority

When Jewish leaders were looking for a reason to condemn Jesus, the high priest challenged him with a question and Jesus’s answer triggered a dramatic reaction:

“‘Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?’ ‘I am,’ said Jesus.[1] ‘And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.’ The high priest tore his clothes. ‘Why do we need any more witnesses?’ he asked. ‘You have heard the blasphemy! What do you think?’ They all condemned him as worthy of death” (Mark 14:61–64).

The Semitic phrase, “son of man,” was not a messianic title within Judaism at the time, and Jesus seems to have been unique in applying this title to himself.[2] His claim was also an early tradition, mentioned in one of Paul’s letters and a document of the early church known as the Didache.[3] Many scholars therefore regard this as an authentic tradition that traces back to Jesus.[4] But why did his reference to a son of man provoke such a passionate denouncement? The phrase generally referred to any human being, but it is also found in a significant prophetic vision in the Book of Daniel:

“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” (Dan 7:13–14).

Various Jewish texts identify this highly revered figure as the promised Messiah.[5] The Old Testament also taught that the Messiah would sit at the right hand of God (Ps 110:1), and clouds of heaven usually indicated the presence of God.[6]

Jesus’s controversial statement therefore linked him directly with ancient messianic promises as well as with God’s glory and power. His Jewish audience would have realized that he was identifying himself as the Son of Man in Daniel’s ancient prophecy: the one who would be given sovereign authority by God and be worshipped by the nations. New Testament scholar Morna Hooker makes this comment: “To appropriate to oneself such authority and to bestow on oneself this unique status in the sight of God and man would almost certainly have been regarded as blasphemy” (The Son of Man in Mark, 173). This explains the high priest’s vehement condemnation of Jesus’s words.

In addition, God was regarded as the only judge of mankind: “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will judge between one sheep and another, and between rams and goats” (Ezek 34:17). But Jesus appropriated this divine right for himself:

· “And [the Father] has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man” (John 5:27)

· “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats” (Matt 25:31–32).

Jesus therefore made striking and unique claims of authority in his role as the Son of Man as depicted in Old Testament prophecy. It is significant that in the last book of the Bible, John’s vision depicts Jesus returning to judge humanity—arriving among heavenly clouds that signify the glorious presence of God (Rev 1:7).

[1]. In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus answers the question, “Are you the Messiah” by saying, “You have said so.” But this was also his reply when Judas asked if he would betray Jesus (Matt 26:25). So this phrase seems to be a form of affirmation, like our modern, “You said it!” [2]. The Qumran Scrolls only used the general phrases “sons of men” and “the sons of men,” and according to Fitzmyer, “In none of the phases of the Aramaic language has one been able to show that bar 'enais was ever used in a titular sense, for some ‘apocalyptic’ Son of Man” (“Aramaic Language,” 21.) Biblical scholar F. F. Bruce agrees: “There does not appear to have been any existing concept of ‘the Son of man’ which Jesus could have taken over and used either to identify himself or to denote a being distinct from himself. The expression as Jesus used it was evidently original to himself” (“Son of Man Sayings,” 60). See also Hurtado, “Critique of Bousset’s Influence,” 312; Segal, Two Powers, xi; Dunn, “Messianic Ideas,” 369. A text known as the Parables (or Similitudes) of Enoch did depict a heavenly Son of Man who would sit on a throne of glory and implement final judgment. However, this was very rare in messianic expectations of the time, and Jewish scholar Joseph Klausner pointed out that these verses “add new features to the spiritual aspect of the Messiah” (Messianic Idea, 299). Most scholars date the text to the first century AD, so its influence on or from Christianity is difficult to establish, and James VanderKam notes that “there remains widespread agreement that at least a few significant sections were added to the Similitudes during their textual history” (“Righteous One,” 176). Darryll Hannah agrees that some sections are “best regarded as a later addition to the text of the Parables” (“Elect Son of Man,” 154). The most ancient Enochian texts among the Dead Sea Scrolls do not contain the Parables section, and Martin Hengel comments about the Parables that “even its Palestinian origin is not certain” (“History of Isaiah 53,” 99). As a result, Matthew Black suggests that the text is “open to the suspicion that Enoch as Son of Man was an invention of late esoteric cabbalistic Judaism, as a Jewish rival to the Gospel figure” (“Aramaic Barnāshā, 201).). [3]. Paul wrote, “After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thess 4:17). The Didache contains this teaching: “Then the world will see the Lord coming on the clouds of heaven with power and dominion” (Didache 16:8). [4]. Frederick Borsch argues that “by the two toughest standards of ‘authenticity’ with respect to the traditions (dissimilarity and multiple attestation), the Son of Man usage has much better than a prima facie case for being taken seriously” (“Further Reflections,” 136). See also Segal, Two Powers, xi; Dunn, “Messianic Ideas,” 369; Black, “Aramaic Barnāshā,” 204. [5]. The vision of the Son of Man in the book of Daniel was regarded as a messianic prediction in Jewish texts such as these: · “One verse reads of the king Messiah that One like the sun of man came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before Him” (Midrash Psalms 21:5). https://www.matsati.com/index.php/midrash-tehillim/ · “To whom does Anani refer? To the Messiah, as is said . . . And it is written elsewhere: I saw in the night vision, and behold, there came with clouds (ananei) of heaven, one like unto a son of man” (Midrash Tanchuma 14:2). https://www.sefaria.org/Midrash_Tanchuma%2C_Toldot.14.2?lang=bi · “One like a man was coming: That is the King Messiah” (Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac, known as Rashi). https://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/16490/showrashi/true · The Babylonian Talmud records a rabbinic discussion about an apparent contradiction about the Messiah in scripture: “Rabbi Joshua opposed two verses: it is written, ‘And behold, one like the son of man came with the clouds of heaven; whilst [elsewhere] it is written, [behold, thy king cometh unto thee … ] lowly, and riding upon an ass” (Sanhedrin 98a). https://halakhah.com/sanhedrin/sanhedrin_98.html [6]. God’s presence is linked to the clouds of heaven in texts such as Num 12:5; Jer 4:13; Ezek 1:4; Isa 19:1.