Mark 14:62, The Son of Man

And Jesus said, I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.

//As I was reading Amy-Jill Levine’s Short Stories By Jesus, I was reminded of how many mysteries still remain about the man we consider our savior. Do we really know what Jesus meant by each of his parables? Do we know what he meant in some of his obscure sayings, such “I have not come to bring peace but a sword?” Do we even know what he meant when he called himself the Son of Man?

Jesus might have been speaking about himself as just an ordinary man, in the language of Ezekiel. You can find many references to Ezekiel as the “son of man.”

Jesus might have been elevating himself along with all mankind to the near-divine realm, as in Psalm 8:4-5, where the “son of man” is described as a little lower than the angels.

Jesus might have been alluding to the “son of man” in the book of Daniel, which describes a messiah sent by God, who is promised dominion over the earth in an everlasting kingdom.

Or he might have been using the phrase merely as an Aramaic idiom for “I”, which carries no connotations whatsoever.

So was Jesus depreciating himself, elevating himself, or neither? The answer may seem obvious to you, given what you’ve been taught–I certainly have my opinion–but do we know, really?

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