is an unintelligible phrase
rather than a title, was quite as obscure to the generation of Greek
Christians which produced the present gospels as it is to ourselves.
It was to them merely the strange self-designation of Jesus. Probably
the editors of the gospels believed that Jesus used this phrase
continually, and introduced it into their redactions of early sources
without stopping too narrowly to inquire either whether it had this
meaning in the passage in question, or whether the way in which they
were using it was consistent with the connotation of the phrase. The
result is that both in Mark and in Q there are passages in which "Son
of Man" represents an Aramaic phrase which might be {50} translated
literally in this way, but would be idiomatically rendered "man." For
instance, it is tolerably certain that in the passage in which Jesus
speaks of the Sabbath and says, "The Sabbath was made for man and not
man for the Sabbath," he really continued, "so that man is lord also of
the Sabbath," but in unidiomatic translation the word meaning "man" was
rendered "Son of Man" and interpreted as referring to Jesus himself.
The reason for saying that this is tolerably certain is that the only
alternative is that "Son of Man" really meant "Jesus," and was intended
as a reference to the "Son of Man" who plays a part in some of the
apocalypses, and it seems inconceivable that Jesus, who forbade his
disciples to tell the public that he was the Messiah, could so openly
have claimed this dignity.

Discussion of the phrase "Son of Man" has been going on for many years,
and has made it increasingly clear that, apart from the unidiomatic
translations referred to above, apocalyptic usage is the most important
factor in the problem. An obscure but impressive passage in Daniel was
taken up in the Book of Enoch, which describes in the Similitudes the
vision of a Man--or in Aramaic phraseology a "Son of Man"--in heaven,
who was "anointed," that is to say consecrated by God, to act as the
judge at the end of the age. Jesus appears to have used this
expression, and to have anticipated the speedy coming in judgement of
this Man on the clouds of heaven. This much may be regarded as agreed
upon by all {51} investigators. But the curious and striking thing is
that in none of the Marcan passages in which it is used in this sense
does it unambiguously refer to Jesus himself. No doubt the disciples
were convinced that it did, but it is the