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Who Is This Son of Man

Page 1

by Larry W Hurtado




  LIBRARY OF NEW TESTAMENT STUDIES

  390

  Formerly the Journal for the Study of the New Testament Supplement series Editor

  Mark Goodacre

  Editorial Board

  John M.G. Barclay, Craig Blomberg, R. Alan Culpepper, James

  D.G. Dunn, Craig A. Evans, Stephen Fowl, Robert Fowler, Simon J.

  Gathercole, John S. Kloppenborg, Michael Labahn, Robert Wall, Steve Walton, Robert L. Webb, Catrin H. Williams

  This page intentionally left blank

  ‘WHO IS THIS SON OF MAN?’

  The Latest Scholarship on a Puzzling

  Expression of the Historical Jesus

  EDITED BY

  Larry W. Hurtado

  AND

  Paul L. Owen

  Copyright © Larry W. Hurtado, Paul L. Owen and contributors, 2011

  Published by T&T Clark International

  A Continuum imprint

  The Tower Building, 11 York Road, London SE1 7NX

  80 Maiden Lane, Suite 704, New York, NY 10038

  www.continuumbooks.com

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

  Larry W. Hurtado, Paul L. Owen, and contributors have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identifi ed as the Author of this work.

  British Library Cataloguing- in-Publication Data

  A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: HB: 978-0- 567-52119-4

  Typeset by Pindar NZ, Auckland, New Zealand

  Printed and bound in Great Britain

  CONTENTS

  Preface: The Son of Man Debate; What's the Problem?

  vii

  Abbreviations x

  List of Contributors

  xiv

  1 ISSUES CONCERNING THE ARAMAIC BEHIND

  o( ui(oj tou= a)nqrw/pou: A CRITICAL REVIEW OF SCHOLARSHIP

  1

  Albert L. Lukaszewski

  2 PROBLEMS WITH CASEY’S ‘SOLUTION’

  28

  Paul L. Owen

  3 RE-SOLVING THE SON OF MAN ‘PROBLEM’ IN ARAMAIC

  50

  David Shepherd

  4 EXPRESSING DEFINITENESS IN ARAMAIC: A RESPONSE TO CASEY’S

  THEORY CONCERNING THE SON OF MAN SAYINGS

  61

  P. J. Williams

  5 THE USE OF DANIEL 7 IN JESUS’ TRIAL, WITH IMPLICATIONS FOR

  HIS SELF-UNDERSTANDING

  78

  Darrell L. Bock

  6 THE USE OF THE SON OF MAN IDIOM IN THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

  101

  Benjamin E. Reynolds

  7 THE ELECT SON OF MAN OF THE PARABLES OF ENOCH

  130

  Darrell D. Hannah

  8 SUMMARY AND CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS

  159

  Larry W. Hurtado

  Index of Scripture and Other Ancient Sources

  178

  Subject Index

  186

  Author Index

  189

  PREFACE

  THE SON OF MAN DEBATE: WHAT’S THE PROBLEM?

  Paul L. Owen

  The present volume seeks to advance scholarly discussion pertaining to the usage of the expression o( ui9oj tou~ a)nqrw&pou (‘the son of man’) in the Greek gospels. Those four words have accrued a signifi cance in theological studies, both critical and confessional, far out of proportion to their length. Such a seemingly inauspicious way of speaking about Jesus has been the conduit of scholarly energy for a variety of reasons.

  The phrase ‘son of man’ is strikingly frequent as a means of self-expression on the part of Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels. Given its frequency on the lips of Jesus, in combination with its rarity in the epistolary writings of early Christianity, it is by all accounts the ‘title’ for Jesus with the most convincing credentials of authenticity. Nearly all scholars admit that this manner of speaking goes back to the historical Jesus. Whereas other titles like Son of God, Messiah, and Lord clearly functioned later as means of confessional expression in the early church, ‘son of man’ does not seem to have been picked up and utilized in the same manner. What are we to make of this?

  This leads us to an important question. Should ‘son of man’ even be treated as a title for Jesus at all? Is it possible that o( ui9oj tou~ a)nqrw&pou in Greek translates an original Aramaic expression which designated Jesus in a non-titular manner? It has been suggested by some that Jesus used this expression in Aramaic as a humble substitute for the personal pronoun ‘I’. Others have argued that it stood generically for humankind in general, or a particular class of people (‘a man in my situation’). Still others have suggested that it stood in place of an indefi nite pronoun, simply meaning ‘someone’.

  viii

  Preface

  To what literary materials should we turn to determine the answers to such questions? Nowhere in Aramaic texts dating from around the time of Jesus do we fi nd any individual being referred to as ‘ the son of man’ ()#$n) rb). While there is a handful of texts which use ‘son of man’ (#$n) rb) to assert things about a person, what is the signifi cance of such examples, since they always lack the defi nite article we fi nd in the Greek gospels? And what are we to make of the evidence found in later Aramaic materials drawn from rabbinic and Targumic texts? What might we glean from their use of the same language and expression thought to underlie o( ui9oj tou~ a)nqrw&pou in the New Testament?

  Is there a way to ensure that we are reaching conclusions based on linguistic evidence from the proper time period and geographical range?

  Another issue is the connection between Jesus’ employment of the expression ‘son of man’ and Dan. 7.13, which provides the probable textual origin for at least some of the ‘son of man’ sayings in the Gospels. Are those (‘apocalyptic’) Synoptic sayings which make use of Dan. 7.13 in order to assert something about the son of man’s role in the fi nal judgement to be attributed to Jesus himself, or are they best seen as theological elaborations by the early church?

  This then raises questions about the meaning of the vision of the ‘son of man’

  in the book of Daniel. Is the cryptic fi gure described there to be understood as an angel, a symbol of the people of God, or an apocalyptic Messiah? And how are we to understand other apocalyptic texts which appear to appropriate the Danielic material in their own messianic rhetoric? What of those Synoptic sayings which are less direct in their appropriation of Daniel (the so-called

  ‘suffering’ and ‘earthly’ son of man)? Are they any more (or less) likely candidates for authenticity than are the apocalyptic sayings? How should they be understood by critical scholars who seek to distinguish the thoughts of Jesus from those of his devoted followers? And what role did the early transmitters and translators of the Jesus tradition play in passing on such sayings within the developing hermeneutic of Christian devotion?

  These sorts of questions have received an array of competing answers, and it is to the furtherance of such discussions that the present collection of essays is directed. The following chapters deal with a range of issues related to linguistics, the Aramaic evidence, the historical Jesus, and the infl uence of Daniel 7 in early Judaism and Christianity. First, the history of the ‘son of man’ discussion will be surveyed by Albert Lukaszewski, who provides a formidable overview

  Preface

  ix

  of the numerous methodological and linguistic issues involved in tackling the problem. Then, Paul Owen, David Shepherd and Pete
r Williams engage, at various levels, the work of Maurice Casey, who has devoted an enormous amount of energy to the debate in modern scholarship. Finally, Darrell Bock, Benjamin Reynolds and Darrell Hannah explore the use of the ‘son of man’ expression, and the appropriation of Daniel 7, at Jesus’ trial, in John’s Gospel, and within the Parables of Enoch ( 1 Enoch 37–71) respectively. The ‘son of man’

  debate serves as a conduit for discussions about method in Aramaic studies, the process whereby the oral teaching of Jesus took written form in the Greek gospels, the development of messianic hope(s) in the Second Temple period, the infl uence of Daniel 7 in Jewish apocalyptic texts, the self-understanding of the historical Jesus, and the relationship of Jesus’ modes of speech to the content of early Christian faith and devotion. It is our hope as editors that this collaboration will make a fresh and fruitful contribution to the ongoing discussion of these matters in New Testament scholarship.

  ABBREVIATIONS

  Bibliographical and general

  ABD

  David Noel Freedman (ed.), The Anchor Bible Dictionary

  (6 vols; New York: Doubleday, 1992)

  AcOr

  Acta Orientalia

  ÄF Äthiopistische

  Forschungen

  AThANT

  Abhandlungen zur Theologie des Alten und des Neuen

  Testamentes

  BBET

  Beiträge zur biblischen Exegese und Theologie

  BBR

  Bulletin for Biblical Research

  BECNT

  Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament

  BETL

  Bibliotheca ephemeridum theologicarum lovaniensium

  Bib

  Biblica

  BSR

  Biblioteca di Scienze Religiose

  BZNW Beihefte

  zur

  ZNW

  CBQ

  Catholic Biblical Quarterly

  CBQMS

  Catholic Biblical Quarterly, Monograph Series

  ch.

  chapter

  chs. chapters

  CSCO

  Corpus scriptorum christianorum orientalium

  DJG

  Joel B. Green, Scot McKnight, I. Howard Marshall (eds),

  Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1992)

  DSD

  Dead Sea Discoveries

  Abbreviations

  xi

  ETL

  Ephemerides theologicae lovanienses

  EvQ Evangelical

  Quarterly

  ExpTim Expository

  Times

  FZPhTh

  Freiburger Zeitschrift für Philosophie und Theologie

  HSS

  Harvard Semitic Studies

  HTR

  Harvard Theological Review

  JBL

  Journal of Biblical Literature

  JNES

  Journal of Near Eastern Studies

  JSHRZ

  Jüdische Schriften aus hellenistisch-römischer Zeit

  JSNT

  Journal for the Study of the New Testament

  JSNTSup

  Journal for the Study of the New Testament, Supplement

  Series

  JSOTSup

  Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Supplement

  Series

  JSP

  Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha

  JSS

  Journal of Semitic Studies

  JTS

  Journal of Theological Studies

  KJV King

  James

  Version

  LHBOTS

  Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies

  LNTS

  Library of New Testament Studies

  MPAT

  Manual of Palestinian Aramaic Texts

  MT Masoretic

  Text

  n. note

  nn. notes

  NovTSup

  Novum Testamentum, Supplements

  NT New

  Testament

  NTAbh Neutestamentliche

  Abhandlungen

  NTS

  New Testament Studies

  OT Old

  Testament

  QD Quaestiones

  disputatae

  RAC

  Reallexikon für Antike und Christentum

  RSV Revised

  Standard

  Version

  SBLDS

  SBL Dissertation Series

  SBLMS

  SBL Monograph Series

  SBLSCS

  SBL Septuagint and Cognate Studies

  xii

  Abbreviations

  SBLSymS

  SBL Symposium Series

  SBT

  Studies in Biblical Theology

  SNTSMS

  Society for New Testament Studies Monograph Series

  SSEJC

  Studies in Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity

  STDJ

  Studies on the Texts of the Desert of Judah

  SUNT

  Studien zur Umwelt des Neuen Testaments

  SVTP

  Studia in Veteris Testamenti pseudepigrapha

  TANZ

  Texte und Arbeiten zum neutestamentlichen Zeitalter

  TLZ Theologische

  Literaturzeitung

  TynB Tyndale

  Bulletin

  v. verse

  vv. verses

  WUNT

  Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament

  ZNW

  Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft

  Ancient sources

  Josephus

  Ant.

  Antiquities of the Jews

  Philo

  Vit. Mos.

  De vita Mosis

  Mishnah, Talmud and related literature

  Ber. Berakot

  Kil. Kilayim

  Taanit

  Taanit

  Tan.

  Tanhuma

  Sanh. Sanhedrin

  Suk. Sukkah

  Yoma

  Yoma

  Targumic texts

  Tg-Jonathan

  Targum Pseudo-Jonathan

  Tg-Onkelos

  Targum Onkelos

  Abbreviations

  xiii

  Other Rabbinic literature

  Num. Rab.

  Numbers Rabbah

  Early Christian literature

  Adv. Haer. Irenaeus,

  Adversus Haereses

  Adv. Marc Tertullian,

  Adversus Marcionem

  Barn. Barnabas

  Dial. Justin

  Martyr,

  Dialogue with Trypho the Jew

  Ignatius, Eph. Ignatius,

  Letter to the Ephesians

  LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

  Darrell L. Bock is Research Professor of New Testament Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary. He has written full commentaries on Luke and Acts, as well as a technical study Blasphemy and Exaltation in Judaism and the Jewish Examination of Jesus (Mohr/Siebeck, 1998). He has just edited a major historical Jesus study with Robert Webb, Key Events in the Life of the Historical Jesus (Mohr/Siebeck, 2009) and is associate editor on a new project on Second Temple background to the gospels with Bruce Chilton, A Comparative Handbook to the Gospel of Mark (Brill, 2009). He has been a Humboldt scholar for two sabbaticals at the University of Tübingen.

  Darrell D. Hannah is Rector of All Saints Parish Church in Ascot, England. He is the author of Michael and Christ: Michael traditions and Angel Christology in early Christianity (Mohr Siebeck, 1999), and a forthcoming commentary on the Epistula Apostolorum (Oxford). He has published articles in the Journal of Theological Studies, Vigiliae christianae, Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft, and New Testament Studies.

  Larry W. Hurtado is Professor of New Testament Language, Literature and Theology in the University of Edinburgh (New College, School of Divinity).

  He is a Fellow of the R
oyal Society of Edinburgh, and President of the British New Testament Society (2009–12). Among his publications are Lord Jesus Christ: devotion to Jesus in earliest Christianity (Eerdmans, 2003), and How

  List of Contributors

  xv

  on Earth did Jesus Become a God? Historical questions about earliest devotion to Jesus (Eerdmans, 2005). His latest book is ‘God’ in the New Testament (Abingdon Press, 2010).

  Albert L. Lukaszewski is co-chair of the Hellenistic Greek Language and Linguistics section for the international meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature. He has previously served as general editor of the Lexham Syntactic Greek New Testament and researcher at the Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon.

  In addition to his doctoral work on language dynamics at the time of Jesus and his grammatical research on Qumran Aramaic, he was also a National Endowment for the Humanities fellow in Aramaic.

  Paul L. Owen is Associate Professor of Biblical and Religious Studies at Montreat College in North Carolina. His previous research has appeared in a number of venues, including the Journal of Biblical Literature, the Journal for the Study of the New Testament, and the Library of Second Temple Studies within the monograph Of Scribes and Sages: early Jewish interpretation and transmission of scripture (Continuum, 2004).

  Benjamin E. Reynolds is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Tyndale University College in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. His publications include The Apocalyptic Son of Man in the Gospel of John (Mohr Siebeck, 2008) and articles in Biblica, Neotestamentica, and Henoch.

  David Shepherd is Senior Lecturer in Hebrew Bible and Jewish Studies at the University of Chester. His work in biblical studies and languages has appeared in various periodicals, including the Journal of Jewish Studies, Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha, and Journal for the Study of the New Testament, and his doctoral work on the Aramaic version of Job from Qumran was published in the Studia Semitica Neerlandica as Targum and Translation (Van Gorcum, 2004). He has served on the Board of the International Organization of Targum Studies since 2007.

  P. J. Williams is Warden of Tyndale House in Cambridge. His doctoral work at Cambridge was on the Syriac Old Testament, and he has also been Senior

  xvi

  List of Contributors

  Lecturer in New Testament at the University of Aberdeen. His books include Early Syriac Translation Technique and the Textual Criticism of the Greek Gospels, and he is editor of the Tyndale Bulletin.

  1

  ISSUES CONCERNING THE ARAMAIC BEHIND o( ui(oj tou=

  a)nqrw/pou: A CRITICAL REVIEW OF SCHOLARSHIP

  Albert L. Lukaszewski

 

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