Son of Man

Jesus’ most frequent title for himself is “Son of Man.” Why did Jesus refer to himself this way?

Son of Man is Jesus’ way of calling himself the “Son of Adam.” In Pauline language, it means Second Adam, or Last Adam. It means he inaugurates a new humanity, Humanity 2.0.

But there’s more. In Daniel 7, Daniel sees one “like a Son of Man” ascend to the Ancient of Days and take possession of the kingdom. This is a new Adam vision — but the beasts he rules over and tames are the wild Gentile nations. Daniel is prophesying the ascension and reign of Jesus.

But there’s yet another layer of meaning.

Ezekiel is called “son of man” more than anyone else in the OT. Ezekiel and Daniel are contemporaries. Daniel goes off into exile and becomes a high ranking official in the same pagan empire that is carrying the Jews into exile. Ezekiel prophecies judgment against those still in Judah, including the temple. (You can imagine that Daniel and Ezekiel were not that popular among their Jewish contemporaries.) Ezekiel says that Daniel is one of the three most righteous men to ever live, along with Job and Noah. Daniel returns the favor so to speak: the one he sees ascending to take possession of the kingdom is “one like a son of man” — one like Ezekiel.

Thus, when Jesus calls himself “Son of Man” he is also identifying himself as a new and greater Ezekiel. And there are indeed many parallels between Ezekiel and Jesus. Ezekiel is ordained as a priest/prophet at age 30 in the Chebar canal, then begins his public ministry. At his baptism/ordination, heaven opens and he saw “visions of God.” Later Ezekiel sees the glory of the Lord leave the temple because the priesthood is committing idolatry. And when judgment finally falls on the temple, Ezekiel is in some sense the one who brings it because it is fulfilling his prophetic word. The book of Ezekiel closes with a long description of the new temple that will be built after the new exodus, when the return from exile takes place. All of this points to Jesus: He is ordained/baptized at age 30 in the Jordan River, and heaven opens; following his baptism, he begins his public ministry. Throughout his ministry, he announces judgment on that generation of Jews, finally telling them their temple will be left “desolate” — the glory of God is moving out because of their corruptions. He announces he will bring judgment on the temple so that not one stone is left upon another. And the church is built as his new temple.

Taking all of this together, we can say that the title “Son of Man” indicates more than just the fact the Jesus was fully human. It means he is the new Adam, the one who will ascend to the throne of heaven and rule/subdue the nations. He is the new Ezekiel, a priest/prophet who judges the old temple and builds a new one.