coming with the clouds of heaven (14^^), or " coming in clouds with great power and glory" (13"^) — "in the glory of His Father with the holy angels" (8^^), those holy angels who are sent forth by Him to do His bidding, that they may gather to Him His chosen ones (13-'^). Although there are intermingled traits derived from other lines of prophecy, the reference to the great vision of Daniel 7^'''^^ in these utterances is express and pervasive, and we cannot go astray in assuming that Jesus is represented as, in adopting the title of ' Son of Man ' for His constant designation of Himself, intending to identify Himself with that heavenly figure of Daniel's vision, who is described as " like to a son of man " in contrast with the bestial figures of the preceding context, and as having com- mitted to Him by God a universal and eternal do- minion. Primarily His purpose seems to have been to represent Himself as the introducer of the Kingdom of God; and in doing so, to emphasize on the one hand the humiliation of His earthly lot as the founder of the kingdom in His blood, and on the other the glory of His real station as exhibited in His consumma- tion of the kingdom with power. So conceived, this designation takes its place at the head of all the Mes- sianic designations, and involves a conception of the Messianic function and personality alike which re- moves it as far as possible from that of a purely earthly monarchy, administered by an earth-born king. Under this conception the Messianic person is con- ceived as a heavenly being, who comes to earth with a divinely given mission; His work on earth is con- ceived as purely spiritual and as carried out in a state of humiliation; while His glory Is postponed to a fu-
The Designations in Mark 31
ture manifestation which is identified with the judg- ment day and the end of the world. In the figure of the ' Son of Man,' In a word, we have the spiritual and supernatural Messiah by way of eminence.^
^* The whole subject has recently been excellently reviewed by a Roman Catholic scholar, F. Tillmann, Der Menschensohn, 1907. He suras up as follows: "The result of our investigation is in brief this: The designation ' the Son of Man ' Is a title of the Messiah just as truly as the designation ' Son of David,' ' the Anointed,' and the like. Jesus adopted this designation because it corresponded best to His nature and His purposes, and gave least occasion for the political, national hopes which His people connected with the person of the Messiah. If we inquire further into the specific content of this Messianic designation, the key is supplied by the reference embodied in it to the prophecy of Daniel : the Son of Man is the Divine-human inaugurator of the Messianic salvation predicted by the prophets, He with whom the reign of God on earth takes its start" (pp. 175-6).
MARK'S CONCEPTION OF OUR LORD
If, now, we review the series of designations applied to our Lord in the Gospel of Mark, as a whole, we shall, we think, be led by them into the heart of Mark's representation of Jesus.
What Mark undertook in his Gospel was obviously to give an account of how that great religious move- A Divine ment Originated which we call Chris- Intervention tianity, but which he calls " the Gospel in Christ q( Jesus Christ " — the glad tidings, that is, concerning Jesus Christ which were being pro- claimed throughout the world. To put it in his own words, he undertook to set forth " the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ " (i^). The account which he gives of the beginning of this great religious move- ment, by means of his ' Gospel,' is briefly that it origi- nated in a divine intervention; and that this divine intervention was manifested in the ministry of the di- vinely promised and divinely sent Messiah who was no other than the man Jesus. This man is represented as coming, endowed with ample authority for His task; and as prosecuting this task by the aid of supernatural powers by which He was at once marked out as God's delegate on earth and enabled, in the face of all dif- ficulties and oppositions, to accomplish to its end what He had set His hand to do.
It is idle to speak of Mark presenting us in his
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Mark's Conception of Our Lord 33