1^ Cf. Bousset, Die Religion des Judentiims, etc., 248: "But here and there there springs up, now, in the Jewish Apocal3'ptics a new tran- scendental Messiah-conception, that fits into these transcendental sur- roundings. In the first line there comes here under consideration the Similitudes of Enoch, springing from the pre-Herodian time. The standing designation of this peculiar Messiah is the ' Son of Man ' . . . Still more remarkable and unusual than, in part, the name is now the figure of this Son of Man. He is in no respect an earthly phenom- enon; he is not, like the Messiah of the stock of David, born on earth; he is an angel-like being, whose dwelling place is in heaven under the pinions of the Lord of spirits ; He is preexistent . . . Emphasis must be laid on the Son of Man in the great judgment upon the kings of the earth and the evil angels; He takes His place by the side of God and indeed supplants Him . . . This representation of the Messiah, singular in the sphere of Judaism, has only one, though by no means so far-going a, parallel in the vision of the Son of Man of 4 Ezra. . . . Here too the Son of Man ... is conceived as a preexistent (heavenly?) being. Here too he holds the great judgment, and, according to the original disposition of the apocalypse, seems also
The Jesus of the Synoptists 135
representation, upon the essential divinity of the Mes- siah by Jesus and His followers.
Certainly the Messianic conception represented as expressed by Jesus through His constant employment of the title ' Son of Man ' of Himself, 'Son of Man' ^^ ^^'^^ °^ ^ Supermundane Being enter- ing the sphere of earthly life upon a high and beneficent mission, upon the accomplishment of which He returns to the heavenly sphere, whence He shall once more come back to earth, now, however, not in humiliation, but in His appropriate majesty, to gather up the fruits of His work and consummate all things. The characteristic note of ' the Son of Man ' on earth is therefore a lowliness which is not so much a humility as a humiliation, a voluntary self-abnegation for a purpose. He came under the conditions of hu- man life (Mt 11^^ II) on a mission of mercy (Lk 19^°) which involved His self-sacrifice (Mk lo^^jl), and there- Ifore lives a life unbefitting His essential nature (Mt 8"") . For, when He tells the questioning scribe that the ' Son of Man ' is worse off than the very foxes, who have holes, and the birds of the air, who have nests, since He has not where to lay His head (Mt S"''), the very point of the remark is the incongruity
to bring in the definitive end, and not merely a preliminary closing . , ." So also p. 215: "The title Son of God, closely connected though it is with the conception of the Son of David and the Anointed, is comparatively very rare. It is found in the address in Psalm 2, v?hich also became typical for the title 'Messiah' (verse 7, cf. Ps 89^7), In 4 Ezra 7-^ the filius is not textually assured; in i. Enoch 1052 the vfords " and My Son," as perhaps also the whole clause, is a later interpolation. Accordingly the apposition, ' My Son,' is found only in 4 Ez 113.32,37,52^ — ^h^t is to say, in the section in which along with the Similitudes, the transcendent conception of the Messiah comes forward most vitally — and also in 4 Ezra 14^ (Dalman, 219)."
136 The Designations of Our Lord
of the situation. Accordingly even on earth He exer- cises an authority which does not belong to His condi- tion: though destined to be set at naught by men, to be evil-entreated and slain, yet He has power to regu- late the religious observances of the people of God (Mk 2-^) and even to forgive sins (2^^). And when His lowly mission is accomplished He ascends the throne of the universe (Mk 14*^-, Mt 19-^); and in due time will return in His glory and render to every man according to his works, seated as King on the universal judgment seat (Mk 8^^ Mt 25^^). The con- nection of the title with the dream of Daniel 7^^'^^ is obvious : the point of connection lying in the concep- tion of the Kingdom of God, which Jesus came to in- troduce, and which He finds particularly promised in Daniel 7^^•■^^ apparently because it is there depicted, specifically in contrast with the earthly kingdoms which it supercedes, as a Kingdom of heaven. But there Is much more expressed by the title than Is discernible In the dream of Daniel, and that not least with reference to the person of the founder, who Is conceived. In Jesus' Idea, as represented by the Synoptic record, not merely as a supermundane, perhaps angelic, figure," but dis- tinctly as superangelic, transcending all creaturely re-