In order to discover how Jewish readers of the Book of Daniel in the time shortly preceding and shortly folloAving our Lord's ministry interpreted that hgure, which was presented so suddenly, to be so speedily withdrawn, we turn to the evidence of the Similitudes of the Book of Enoch and of 2 Esdras. Both books are quite certainly of Jewish origin, and both afford unmistakable testimony as to the deep impression made by the apocalyptic teaching of Daidel, which would carry with it familiarity with the concept of ' one like a son of man.' The date of the Book of Esdras is undis- puted ; it belongs to the closing decades of the lirst century of our era, approximately to A.D. 8L The date of the Similit^ides—a, later portion of the Book of Enoch — is more open to doubt. R. H. Charles (Book of Enoch, p. 29) holds them to have been written between B.C. 94-79, or B.C. 70-64. Schiirer (HJP 11. iii. 68) places them someAvhat later : ' at the very soonest, in the time of Herod,' I.e. between B.C. 37-4. Thus, according to both these authorities, the Similitudes are pre-Christian. Whether they have been subjected to interpolations at Christian hands has been much debated. The plea that such interpolations, had they taken place, must have gone further, appears conclusive. Schiirer (I.e.) claims, with reason, that 'this much at least ought to be admitted, that the view of the Messiah presented in the part of the book at present under consideration [the Similitudes'] is perfectly explicable on Jewish grounds, and that to account for such view it is not necessary to assume that it was due to Christian influences. Nothing of a specifically Christian character is to be met with in any of this section. ' We are concerned here with the Messianic teaching of the Similitudes only so far as they adopt and develop the concejit derived from Daniel of a heavenly ' Son of Man.' The following extracts (cited from Charles' tr.) may suffice :
In ch. 46, Enoch is represented as saying, when relating his vision of the Judgment : ' And there I saw One who had a Head of Days, and His head was white like wool, and with Him was another being whose countenance had the appearance . . . like one of the holy angels. And I asked the angel who went with me and showed me all the hidden things, concerning that Son of Man, who he was, and whence he was, and why he went with the Head of Days? And he answered and said unto me. This is the Son of Man who hath righteousness, with whom dwelleth righteousness, and vvho reveals all the treasures of that which is hidden, because the Lord of Spirits hath chosen him, and his lot before the Lord of Spirits hath surpassed everything in uprightness for ever. And this Son of Man whom thou hast seen°will arouse the kings and the mighty ones from their couches, and the strong from their thrones, and will loosen the reins of the strong and grind to powder the teeth of the sinners. And he will put down the kings from their thrones and kingdoms, because they do not extol and praise him, nor thankfully acknowledge whence the kingdom was bestowed upon them.' In ch. 62 we read: 'And thus the Lord com- manded the kings and the mighty and the exalted, and those who dwell on the earth, and said, Open your eyes and lift up your horns if ve are able to recognize the Elect One. And the Lord of Spirits seated him {i.e. the Messiah) on the throne of His glorv, and the spirit of righteousness was poured out upon him, and the word of his mouth slew all the sinners, and all the unrighteous were destroyed before his face. And there will stand up in that day all "the kings, and the exalted, and those who hold the earth, and thej' will see and recognize him how he sits on the throne of his glory, and righteousness is judged before him, and no lying word is spoken before him. . . . And one portion of them will look on the other, and they will be terrified and their countenance will fall, and pajn will seize them when they see that Son of Man sitting on the throne of his glory. And the kings . . . will glorify and bless and extol him who rules over all, who was hidden. For the Son of Man was hidden before Him, and the Most High preserved hini in the presence of His might, and revealed him to the elect.' See also 69-7 ' And he sat on the throne of his glory, and the
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sum of judj^ment was coniniitted unto him, the Son of Man, and he caused the sinners and those who have led the world astray to pass away and be destroyed from off tlie face of the earth.' These passafjes leave no room to question how the author of rtie Similitudes interpreted Daniel's ' one like unto a son of man.' To him the phrase characterized no symbolic figure, but a celestial person, Divinely endowed with world-wide dominion, and appointed to be the judge of all men. The descriptive expression is in process of becoming a title ; passing through demonstrative stages — ^this Son of Man,' 'tliat Son of Man,'— it emerges as Hhe Son of Man.'