The same usage prevails in the Palest. Targums on the Pent.§, and on the Hagiographa (c. 7lh cent, a.d.): see, for instance, bar ndsh in Lv 21 42 61-2.4. -jl etc. ('if a man do so and so ' : Onk. in all such passages iri'K), Ps 80i»>' (for [3 DTK) 1154 118*5- 8 1443a. 4 etc. ; U and bar ndshd in ' that man,' Lv 720i>- 21b. art 174. 9 198 etc. (Onk. always sm'a), Ps 85- « 66" 6013 ii9i;:4.
(d) In Syriac, bamdsk, bamdshd, in the meaning * man,' are very common. Examples : for DIK Ex 1313, is 4413, Jer 26 1014, Ezk !»• 10- -6 108. 14, Dn 78 ; tor i»»euT«, Curet. and Pesh., Mt 44 1212 43 1511. 11. 18 196, Pesh. Mk S** 37, Jn 226 r^'L 23. 23, and (in ' every man ') Ro 2^ 34 1218 i6i9 (i,V riii>T»f), and elsewhere. TI
8. It thus appears that bar nds/i{a) is a common Aramaic expression, in which the force of the ' son ' has been so weakened by time as virtually to have disappeared, so that it practically means nothing more nor less than man (homo, Mensch, — not vir). The natural Aramaic original of A uiis toO avdp. would, however, seem to be barndsha. If, now, our Lord spoke Aramaic, and denoted Himself by this expression, what meaning can He have in- tended to convey by it? To this question, which is by no means a simple one, different answers have been given.
(1) C. B. E. Uloth, who, it seems, was the first to set himself to answer it, came to the conclusion that Jesus called Himself 'the man,' meaning by the expression to point to His creaturely frailty and humility.**
(2) Eerdmans argued that the expression was not in the days of Christ a Mess, title, and was not used by Him as such. In opposition to the prevalent Mess, expectations, Jesus called Himself ' the man,' meaning it to be understood that He
• Of. Dalman, Aram. Dialektproben, 1896, p. 8 (from the Megillaih Ta'anith, of 1-2 cent. A.D.; see Oi. p. 82, Oramm. del Jud.-Pal. Aram.Tt. 7).
t See Euting, Sab. Jnschriften (1885). ed. and tr., witli notes by Noldeke ; or CIS 11. i. 196-224 ; se\ cral also reprinted in Lidzbarski, Nordsem. Bpigr. pp. 450-456.
J See numerous examples m Lietzmann, .34-7 ; and cf. Dal- man, Aram. Diatektproben, pp. 28-30. The usage of the Palest. Midrashim is similar {xb. p. 15 ff.).
§ In which bar ndshia) occurs much more frequently than would be supposed from the terms used by Dalman {Vie Wane Jemi, 194).
n And so, in the ' Fragmentary ' (Palest.) Targ to the Pent., in the recension from a Paris MS edited by Oinsburger (1899), even in Gn 126 ([moia n -O ••\2i) : of. Ex 19" (for r'K ; Onlf. NoyK), Nu 12' ns'D '■\2V pj 133 n-S (in the Leipz. MS [p. 85) p:k 133).
H On the Samaritan see Fiebig [} 24 end], p. 14 fl.
•• Godgeleerde Biidragea, 1862, p. 467 ff.
SON OF MAN
SOX OF MAN
581
was a man, and not more. Translated literally into Greek, it was not understood, and under the influence of apocalyptic phraseology (Dn 7" etc.) made into a title of Christ.*
(3) Wellhauson, in 1S94 and 1897, also considered that Jesus intended by the term to speak of Him- self as 'the man,' meaniuir, however, by the ex- pression the one who completely fulfilled the idea of man, and who as such was in specially close relation to the Father ; and the early Christians, not understanding how He could have so described Himself, in translating rendered barnaxha falsely by A vlbi Tov di/dputirov instead of by 6 AvOpojiros : tlie expression was thus brought into connexion with Dn 7", and so became a standing Messianic desig- nation of Christ.t
(4) Arnold Meyer J called attention to the fact that in Aramaic, in particular in the Aramaic spoken in Galilee, it was not unusual for a person to speak of liim- (or her-) self as ' this man,' ' this woman '(k"i:j xinn, Knn'K tcnnjig and also that there are, even in the OT, passages in which, tliou^h the general term ' man ' is used, the reference is clearly to the speaker (Job 3^ IG'-') ; and he applied this principle to the explanation of at least some of the passages in the Gospels : sometimes, in usin" the expression, Jesus spoke of men in general (as Mk •2-^ 'Therefore vian is lord of the sabbath,' 12^^), sometimes He pointed by it to Himself (as Mk 2'"' ' that ye may know that a man hath authority on earth to forgive sins,' Mt 8™, 11'" a man came eating and drinking,' etc. ) : the early Greek-speaking Christians, translating it by 6 uids rou ivSpuiTTov, combined ^vith it associations derived from Dn 7". This explanation does not carry us very far. It is true, it might in the abstract (see § 2-2) be adopted for some of the passages cited ; but otherxvise the expression used in the Gospels is not, as in the Galila-an phrase quoted, 'this man '; nor does Meyer make any attempt to show how in the numerous other passages concerned, the pre- dictions of suilerings and the escliatological utter- ances, the exiires.sion ' a man ' could have been naturally employed by Christ (cf. Fiebig, p. 74 f.).