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• ESPAÑOL: Cuando Jesús se llamó a sí mismo Dios al afirmar ser el Hijo del Hombre

A few years ago, someone told me that nowhere in the New Testament does Jesus claim to be God.

And to be honest, I was caught a bit off guard by the question. Now, to be fair, nowhere in the Gospels did Jesus say, “I am God.” 

In other words, Jesus did not once say “I am Theos,” which is the Greek word for God. 

But Jesus was not speaking to a gentile crowd; the Lord, was speaking to Jews.

And for the benefit of the Jewish elite, Jesus did something much worse: He called Himself the “Son of Man.”

Hi, my name is Dean Smith, and in this podcast, I want to discuss the time that Jesus was accused of blasphemy by the Jewish high priest and why. 

Rome was ruling the world at this time, and they had dozens of gods. According to one list I looked at, they had 21 gods whose names started with the letter A. 

And they had some strange ones. There was Devera, a female god who ruled over the brooms used to sweep out the Roman temples. Yes, I said brooms.

Then there was Laverna, who was the goddess of thieves and con men. Yes, everyone had a god back then.

The Romans had over 200 gods and goddesses and that’s not even including the dozens of Greek gods, that were still hanging around.

The gentile world was crowded with gods, but Jesus was not sent to the gentiles. His message was for the Jews, so He spoke with a Jewish religious accent and you needed understand what the Lord was saying through a Jewish lens? 

When Jesus claimed to be the Son of Man

Three times in the Gospels, Jews accused Jesus of blasphemy. Accusations of blasphemy typically occurred when an individual claimed to be God.

And there was one time that was very odd, because the High Priest accused Jesus of blasphemy for calling Himself the Son of Man in Mark 14:53-64.

So why would Christ calling Himself the Son of Man enrage the Jewish High Priest? I mean the claim the Lord was the ‘Son of Man’ means the Lord is human.

But this claim was actually the final nail in Christ’s coffin resulting in the Lord’s crucifixion.

Jesus had been healing the sick, casting out demons, and attracting crowds, The priests had had enough and their number one goal was to eliminate Christ any way they could. 

But because of Christ’s popularity they needed a legitimate reason, one the Jews would accept.

After the Lord’s arrest in the garden, Jesus was dragged before the Jewish High Priest and the Sanhedrin.

They had arranged for several witnesses to bring false accusations against Christ. But their testimonies were so contradictory and convoluted, the case fell apart.

Exasperated the High Priest, Caiaphas, asked Jesus, “Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?” (Mark 14:61).

Jesus answered, “I am; and you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.”

As soon as Christ uttered those words, Caiaphas ripped his clothes and said no more witnesses were needed and accused Christ of blasphemy (Mark 14:63-64).

Why would Christ’s claim to be the ‘son of man’ cause such a dramatic reaction?

The Son of Man and Daniel 7

By adding He was ‘coming in the clouds of heaven,’ Jesus was alluding to a heavenly night vision that the prophet Daniel had in chapter 7. We read:

“I kept looking
Until thrones were set up,
And the Ancient of Days took His seat;
His garment was white as snow,
And the hair of His head like pure wool.
His throne was ablaze with flames,
Its wheels were a burning fire. (Daniel 7:9 NASV)

Daniel had a vision of the heavenly throne room and saw the the Ancient of Days, who of course was Jehovah, sitting on His throne.

But it’s easy to miss the slight, but significant, change in one word in this passage, Daniel writes that there were “thrones” in heaven. It is plural. There  was more than one throne in the heavenly throne room and by implication more than one God,

Obviously, the Ancient of Days (Jehovah) would sit on one of those thrones. But who would sit on the other one?

Then in verse 13, Daniel saw who this second throne was intended for writing:

“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.” (Daniel 7:13 NASV)

Daniel said that another being appeared who looked like a ‘Son of Man. In other words, He looked human and He was carried in on the clouds in the sky.

Daniel then adds:

And to Him was given dominion,
Honor, and a kingdom,
So that all the peoples, nations, and populations of all languages
Might serve Him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion
Which will not pass away… (Daniel 7:14 NASV)

This individual who looked like the ‘Son of Man’ was given full authority and power over all the nations. This is the who will be sitting on the second throne beside the Ancient of Days.

Because of passages like this, up to about the second century, the Jews believed that there were two powers or two Gods in heaven. 

So when the Jesus said He was “sitting at the right hand of power, and coming with the clouds of heaven,” the Lord was stating that He was the Son of Man in Daniel 7.

The High Priest knew exactly what Christ was implying. Jesus was calling himself God. 

Outraged the High Priest called it blasphemy, and sent Jesus to the Romans for execution. 

The Ascension of Christ

But this wasn’t the only time, that Jesus was connected to Daniel’s Son of Man. Luke does it in the Book of Acts, when he describes Christ’s ascension to heaven writing that “a cloud took Him up, out of their sight” (Acts 1:9).

Notice how Luke specifically said that Jesus went up in a cloud. Remember in his vision, Daniel saw the Son of Man arriving in the heavenly throne room on the clouds.

Stephen’s martyrdom

We see it again when the Church’s first martyr, Stephen, had finished his sermon telling the leaders of Jerusalem, they were hard hearted and had rejected Jesus as the Jewish Messiah.

In Acts 7:54, Luke writes that they were furious and ground their teeth in anger.

But it was the last thing that Stephen said in verse 56 which got him into trouble.

Stephen had a vision. Looking intently to heaven, Stephen said “Look, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man (a reference to Jesus) standing at the right hand of God.” This was the scene straight out of Daniel 7.

When the Jews heard this they covered their ears because they considered it so blasphemous. 

Outraged, they dragged Stephen out of the city and stoned him to death. They had Jesus crucified for saying He was the Son of Man, and they executed Stephen for claiming Christ was the Son of Man.

The Son of Man given all authority

The Apostle Paul also connected Jesus to Daniel’s Son of Man.

In Ephesians chapter one, the Apostle described what happened after God raised Christ from the dead. 

We read:

“He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion. (Ephesians 1:20-21)

Paul didn’t pull this concept of Jesus sitting at the right hand of God (remember those thrones in Daniel 7) or being given power and  authority over the world out of a hat. He pulled it all from Daniel 7 where the Son of Man was given this authority. 

Christ’s Second coming in Revelation

Then to wrap it all up, the Son of Man is seen again in the Bible’s last book. 

In Revelation 14:14, John uses the wording from Daniel 7 to describe Jesus writing, “Now in my vision, I saw a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was one like a son of man, with a gold crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand.”

So by referring to Himself as the Son of Man, Jesus essentially called Himself God which explains the outrageous reaction of the Jewish High Priest. 

As Jewish Rabbinical scholar Allan Segal pointed out in his book, “Two Powers in Heaven”, up until the second century, the Rabbis believed the Old Testament taught there were two Gods in heaven. 

But they rejected that concept in the second century and began emphasizing the oneness of God after Christians started claiming that Jesus was this second God. Jesus was part of the Trinity or Triune God, made up of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

Thanks for joining me on this podcast, and I will catch you again.