Shlama Ahkay, When I first came to faith in Yeshua, I was perplexed about the repeated usage of the phrase Son of Man in the Gospels. Why would Yeshua continually refer to himself as Son of Man? Even more so than any other title more than Son of God or even Messiah the title is used over 80 times! At the time, not aware of the Peshitta, I had to reverse the phrase into Hebrew to gain a grip on the possible meaning and it got even worse because in Hebrew, Son of Man is Ben Adam or Son of Adam now thats a title I was very familiar with... Its a very common title simply meaning Human Being or just plain Man as in Hey Man! This is because Hebrew and Aramaic dont really have a word for Human and since theologically, all mankind descend from Adam & Eve, we are all truly sons & daughters of Adam hence the phrase Ben Adam or Bar Anasha in Aramaic. A very lowly title Yeshua chose almost with the implication that flies in the face of the doctrine of the Deity of Christ. But interestingly almost every occurrence in the NT is coupled with some reference to authority and/or power. So whats the answer? Since this phrase is obviously rooted in Semitic thought I looked into how this title is used in the Torah and the Prophets. Youll notice that the title is used almost exclusively with the common meaning Man. Nothing fancy or particularly important well until you get to a couple of prophetic verses describing a vision Daniel saw and these verses, coincidently, are composed entirely in Aramaic. Daniel 7:13 I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven one like a Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. 14 And to Him was given authority, Glory and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and (people of every) language will worship Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed. At first glance you might say so what? But as you look closely you will discover some amazing features in the text: First son of man here is virtually the exact Aramaic youll find on the lips of Yeshua Bar Anash Second In the Aramaic of Daniel youll find the letter Kap before bar meaning LIKE a son of Man basically revealing that this man in Daniel's vision was not JUST any ordinary man Third the Ancient of Days (atik yomaya=GOD) gives him tremendous authority which results in worldwide worship of this Son of man. Fourth the Ancient of Days sanctions the worship of this one LIKE a Son of man, which under any other circumstance would be utter blasphemy! Fifth With the entire worlds population worshiping and serving the Son of man in Daniels vision at that very moment ... No one on earth is worshiping the Ancient of Days, yet obviously this is not a problem in Daniels vision. This has got to be the most powerful two verses I have every seen as it pertains to the Deity of the Messiah! So therefore, when Yeshua referred to himself as Son of man, he is making the boldest claim to Deity He is saying I am THAT Son of Man He is saying Remember Daniels vision I am Him, both Messiah & LORD, given authority to forgive sin, raise the Dead, redeem mankind and accept worship etcYou see, without a Trinitarian understanding, Daniels vision is perplexing (even Daniel was amazed & disturbed) in fact its contradicting other areas of the OT. Areas where GOD prohibits the worship of anyone else. Areas where GOD proclaims that he does not share his glory with anyone else! So for those who have a problem with a divine Messiah (such as many among my own Jewish people and my Muslim brothers) -or- For those who have a problem with the Aramaic New Testament and/or the Apostle Paul for teaching Messiah is Lord-YAH or "Yeshua is Lord-YAH" (such as non-Christian groups like Ebionites, JWs, Mormons, Christadelphians, etc) -or- For those who feel uncomfortable with the concept of praising and worshiping Yeshua Meshikha -just remember- An Old Testament Prophet saw it first and according to that vision ... its endorsed, supported, and expected & fully within the will of YHWH Elohim! I realize that this forum is not a platform for forwarding ones theology. So please forgive me if it seems like Im trying to force my theology upon any of you. Since this topic (Deity of Christ) has been brought up and since linguistically, there is a connection between the language of Daniel 7 and the Peshitta, I thought it was appropriate. -Dean
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