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A Key to Understanding the Son of Man Is His Virgin Birth

A Key to Understanding the Son of Man Is His Virgin Birth

Last updated on: November 23, 2018 at 11:56 am by Kermit Zarley

A Key to Understanding the Son of Man Is His Virgin Birth 2018-11-23T11:56:46-07:00 Kermit Zarley

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Last month I posted about Son of Man Study, which is my favorite: Jesus Was Daniel’s Suffering Son of Man; Must We Believe in the Virgin Birth to Be Saved; Jesus As Son of Man Was Isaiah’s Suffering Servant.

Son of Man Study centers on Dan 7.13-14. I regard it as the second most important text in the Old Testament, with the Shema in Deut 6.4-5 as foremost.

The author of the book of Daniel begins Daniel 7 by saying, “Daniel had a dream and visions of his head as he lay in bed. Then he wrote down the dream” (v. 1). Daniel then proceeds to tell the vision or visions throughout Daniel 7.

I believe Daniel 7.13-14 is a prediction of a royal court scene in heaven which actually will occur in heaven shortly before the parousia, i.e., Jesus’ second coming. It reads as follows in the NIV: “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 peoples, nations and men of every language worshipped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.” “The Ancient of Days” refers to God the Father. The word “men” is not in the text; rather, it is “peoples.”

I believe Jesus had this text in mind when he was approaching Jerusalem during Passion Week. Luke says of Jesus and his disciples (NRSV), “he went on to tell a parable, because he was near Jerusalem, and because they supposed that the kingdom of God was to appear immediately. So he said, ‘A nobleman went to a distant country to get royal power for himself and then return'” (Luke 19.12). Jesus then continued with one his lengthiest parables recorded in the New Testament (NT) gospels. My point about mentioning only the beginning of this parable is that Jesus here alluded to Dan 7.13-14. So, forty days after his resurrection from the dead he ascended to heaven as that “distant country,” where he will receive “royal power,” and then return to earth.

Daniel 7.13 was surely Jesus’ premier source, perhaps his only source, for constantly identifying himself as “the Son of Man” (82x in four gospels, but 39x in my The Gospels Interwoven, thus without repetition) and for his repeated teaching about the kingdom of God. In contrast, Jesus never publicly identified himself in his many sayings in the NT gospel as Israel’s Messiah until he admitted it under examination before the Sanhedrin shortly before his execution.

In contrast to Dan 7.13, Jesus always identified himself in his NT gospel sayings as “the Son of Man” (Gr. ton huion tou anthropou), thus with an article and without the qualifying word “like” as in Dan 7.13. Why is this? Apparently, the intertestamental, non-canoncial book of 1 Enoch reflects that Jews had by then dropped this qualifier ke (“like”) and added the article as a reference to the title in Dan 7.13. Accordingly, the author(s) of 1 Enoch depended on the full expression in Dan 7.13. Therefore, I think 1 Enoch presents commentary on Dan 7.13. (I believe the book of Daniel was written as purported, in the sixth century BCE, thus not about the time “The Parables” in 1 Enoch may have been written as most historical-critical scholars think.)

I am now re-reading Chrys C. Caragounis’ book, The Son of Man: Vision and Interpretation (orig. 1986; reprint Wipf and Stock, n.d.). I cited it in my book The Restitution of Jesus Christ (2008). I agree with Caragounis in his treatment of the Aramaic/Hebrew word elyonin in Daniel 7, which appears only four times in the OT, in Daniel 7.18, 22, 25, 27. I think he is right in translating elyonin there as Highest One, as does the NASB, rather than Most High as most versions have it. I think each time it refers to “one like a son of man” (kebar enash) in Dan 7.13. The prefix ke means “like.”

Both Caragounis and I believe that “one like a son of man” in Dan 7.13 refers to Jesus. But Caragounis (p. 66) says pelechun in Dan 7.14 and pelech in v. 27 should be translated “worship,” as in the NIV above, thus signifying that Jesus is God or “deity.” But other versions render it “serve” in those two verses (e.g., NRSV, NASB, ESV). Scholars disagree on whether or not this verb pelech or palach was used during antiquity only with its object being a deity/deities or not. Since I don’t believe the Bible ever says Jesus is God, I favor that it means “serve” here.

But Caragounis has other reasons he derives from Daniel 7 for his view that Jesus is God. When he compares Dan 7.13 with Son of Man teaching in 1 Enoch and IV Ezra (also a non-canonical Jewish book), Caragounis says (p. 128), “the Figure IV Ezra described was thought of as non-human–precisely as in Dan 7!” Caragounis then addresses the Aramaic expression kebar enash (“one like a son of man”) in Dan 7.13. He says of Daniel’s use of the preposition ke there, “As in Dan 7:13 and 1 En [Enoch] 46:1, this was the means which the author employed in order to make it clear that the entity he described was non-human. The Personage only resembled a human being.”

I beg to differ. As I state in my RJC book, I think ke in kebar enash in Dan 7.13 refers to Jesus’ Virgin Birth (i.e., virginal conception). Accordingly, Jesus is viewed as totally human in much the same way that the first man, Adam, was totally human. Both came into this world differently from the rest of us humans as a direct creation of God. That is why the Apostle Paul writes about what scholars call Second Adam Christology. Paul says (NRSV), “Adam, who is a type of the one who was to come” (Rom 8.14), referring to Jesus. Paul also quotes from the Old Testament referring to Jesus, “‘The first man, Adam, became a living being;’ the last Adam became a life-giving spirit” (1 Cor 15.45).

Along with this, I accept the theory of original sin, in which the sin nature is believed to pass down genetically. But since neither Adam nor Jesus were conceived like the rest of us, both came into this world without the inherited sin nature. Thus, Daniel can say that Jesus was “one like a son of man” because he had a Virgin Birth. Jesus’ Virgin Birth does not indicate he was God but that God performed a miracle there. Despite this miracle, Jesus was still fully human in the same way that Adam was fully human when created. Thus, I disagree with Caragounis saying the Son of Man in Dan 7.13 “was non-human” and merely “resembled a human being.” This position even departs from so-called orthodox Christian theology, that Jesus was both fully human and fully God.

Caragounis continues about the Son of Man in IV Ezra and Dan 7.13 being non-human (p. 128-29) by saying, “This point . . . is further underlined by another phrase borrowed from Daniel, namely that the Figure observed is transported with the clouds of heaven.” He adds, “The mention of the clouds carrying the Son of Man with its theophanic significance, hints at the supernatural or divine character of the Figure so transported.” He means what so many scholars contend, that the Son of Man in these two books is a deity because elsewhere in the OT only God rides on clouds, though it is rare (Ps 104.3; Isa 19.1; cf. Deuteronomy 33.26; Ps 18.9-12; 68.33; Habakkuk 3.8).

Caragounis and other scholars mean that riding on clouds is a sole prerogative that belongs only to God, so that Jesus as the Son of Man riding on clouds must indicate he is God as well. But this is a mere assumption that cannot be supported from the Bible. Moreover, Jesus has already corrected such false assumptions.

One time at Jesus’ new hometown of Capernaum, on the Sea of Galilee, friends of a paralytic man on a mat let him down through the roof of a very crowded house to get to Jesus. We read, “When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’ Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts. ‘Why does this fellow speak in this way? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?’ At once Jesus perceived in his spirit that they were discussing these questions among themselves; and he said to them, ‘Why do you raise such questions in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, “Your sins are forgiven,” or to say, “Stand up and take your mat and walk”? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins’–he said to the paralytic–‘I say to you, stand up, take your mat and go to your home.’ And he stood up, and immediately took the mat and went out before all of them; so that they were all amazed and glorified God” (Mark 2.5-12).

Traditionalist Christians (those who believe Jesus is God) get this wrong. They think like those scribes, that only God can forgive sins and thus Jesus forgiving sins indicates he is God. Not at all! This is indicated when Jesus healed another man.

On another occasion, this time at Jerusalem, Jesus healed a man on the sabbath who had been lame for thirty-eight years (John 5.1-9). It was much like the other time at Capernaum, This time, “At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk” (v. 9). The Jews then discussed among themselves, accusing Jesus of breaking the Sabbath because they believed it was against the Law of Moses to do such a thing. But they erred, and that is why this charge was not brought against Jesus when interrogated by the Sanhedrin, for its members likely debated this. Then we read, “The Jews started persecuting Jesus because he was doing such things on the sabbath. But Jesus answered them, ‘My Father is still working, and I also am working.’ For this reason the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the sabbath, but was also calling God his Father, thereby making himself equal to God” (vv. 16-18). This was what those Jews thought, not what the author of the Gospel of John was saying. This should be obvious since Christians do not agree that when they themselves call God their “Father,” they are making themselves equal to God. And they certainly do not think Jesus ever broke the sabbath.

Jesus then gave a lengthy rebuttal to this false accusation–that he was claiming to be equal to God (John 5.19-47). One of his points he made to prove that he was not God was that he said, “For just as the Father has life himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself; and he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man” (vv. 26-27). Thus, Jesus here declared that God the Father had given him authority to judge and therefore either forgive sins or condemn people because of their sins. (Indeed, Jesus will be the Judge on judgement day.) And Jesus said this as part of his rebuttal against the false accusation that he was making himself equal with God, which means being God as well.

So, God making Jesus, the Son of Man, ride on clouds as in Dan 7.13 does not indicate Jesus is God any more than God giving Jesus, as the Son of Man, authority to forgive sins. Jews of antiquity and Christians ever since have therefore erred in thinking that attributes previously known to belong only to God, such as cloud-riding or forgiving sins, cannot be given to anyone else without that making them God as well. Thus, Jesus said of his second coming, “Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see ‘the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven’ with power and great glory” (Matt. 24.30). The single quotation marks in this quotation indicate that Jesus was quoting that material from Dan 7.13.

In conclusion, Jesus being “like a son of man” because of his Virgin Birth, and one who rides on clouds, does not indicate he is God; rather, these distinctions signify that God has greatly rewarded Jesus with such attributes and many more as the Ideal Man and Chosen One whom his saved people will serve and obey as their Lord and Master with great joyfulness and thanksgiving in his kingdom throughout all eternity.

…………….

To see a list of titles of 130+ posts (2-3 pages) that are about Jesus not being God in the Bible, with a few about God not being a Trinity, at Kermit Zarley Blog click “Chistology” in the header bar. Most are condensations of my book, The Restitution of Jesus Christ. See my website servetustheevangelical.com, which is all about this book, with reviews, etc. Learn about my books and purchase them at kermitzarley.com. I was a Trinitarian for 22 years before reading myself out of it in the Bible.

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