' the Son of Man.' But he wishes us to believe that Jesus did this only under great pressure, as the close of His life drew near and evil fate closed about Him, — seizing and clinging to the Danielic prophecy to com- fort Himself in the face of the fast-coming disaster. And He assures us that Jesus did not adopt the title even then in its full content " including the idea of preexistence and His own judgeship of the world." " To Him," he tells us, " the idea of the Son of Man meant only one thing, — His return in glory."^^ " He did not thereby place Himself on a level with God. Above all. He did not lay claim to the judgeship of the world, although that conception was, strictly speak- ing, included in that of the Son of Man." " It is true," he adds, " in the narrative of our Gospels, the opposite seems to be the case. But it is inconceivable that Jesus . . . should have arrogated to Himself the judgeship of the world in place' of God. This Is an instance of the faith of the community working upon the tradition. ... As the tradition was handed down by the community, Jesus was gradually removed from the position of a simple witness for His followers before God's tribunal to that of the actual judgeship of the world."" That Is to say, In brief, Bousset does not like the consequences of allowing that Jesus applied to Himself the title of ' Son of Man,' and, finding Himself unable nevertheless to deny that He did apply
16 Jesus, p. 194. Cf. among naturalistic writers who admit that Jesus used the title ' Son of Man ' in connection with promises of returning in glory: Weisse, Evang. Gesch'ichte i. 593 seq.: Keim, Jesus of Naz., III. 85-87; Wittichen, Idee des Reiches Gottes, 166-172; Vernes, Idees Mess., 229-233, and note on 243; Schenkel, Character of Jesus, 145; Zeller, Strauss und Renan, 88-91. These are brought together by Stan- ton, p. 249, note I.
" P. 203-5.
1 68 The Designations of Our Lord
this title to Himself, contents himself simply with deny- ing the consequences, — Jesus could not have meant it. Those who prefer to determine historical facts by the testimony of credible witnesses, rather than by the wit- ness of Bousset's consciousness as to what were fitting, will probably think otherwise.^*
Similarly it cannot be even plausibly denied that Jesus spoke the remarkable words attributed to Him Jesus Certainly In which He acknowledges His Ig- Claimed to be norance of the time of His promised Superangelic second coming. The critics are Indeed in a great quandary as to this passage. It Is not the kind of a passage they can assume the evangelists to have invented. On their fundamental canon that statements which are, or seem to be, in conflict with the evangelists' hero-worship of Jesus, bear the inerad- icable stamp of genuineness, they are bound to attribute these words of Jesus. For was not Jesus to the evangel- ists the omniscient Son of God? And how could they put on His lips a confession of ignorance of so simple a matter as the time of His return? In point of fact, accordingly, this passage is found among the nine " ab- solutely credible " passages which Schmiedel declares *' the foundation pillars for a truly scientific life of Jesus, "^^ and is pronounced by him to have been " most
18 Cf. Shailer Mathews, T/ie Messianic Hope in the N. T., p. 103 : " The phrase is represented as being used by Jesus to refer to Himself as Judge (Mk 8^^ 14^")- To argue that these passages are Christian comments added to the words of Jesus is certainly to base conclusions on no clear evidence." Nor is it easy to be rid of Jesus' claim to be judge of the world; says Dalman {Words, 314), justly: "The right to judge the world was assumed by Jesus when He forgave sins," — and the assertion of a function of forgiveness by Jesus is pervasive.
'^^Encyc. Biblica, 1881; ibid., 1888, cf. 1872 and Dr. E. A. Abbott, 5773. Shailer Mathews {Messianic Hope in the N. T.) on the other
The Synoptic Jesus Primitive 169
certainly " spoken by Jesus. Yet in this passage Jesus proclaims Himself a being superior to angels, sepa- rated, that Is, from the entire category of creaturely existences, and assimilated to the divine : " No one, not even the angels in heaven, nor yet the Son, but God only."