I continue to be impressed by the claim, fairly popular in German scholarship nowadays, that "Son of Man" was a messianic title. It certainly appears that way in 1 Enoch and 4 Ezra and also in the Gospels. Consider the following from the Fourth Gospel: "The crowd answered him, 'We have heard from the law that the Messiah remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?'"(John 12:34). Clearly here Son of Man = Messiah. Yet I acknowledge that most (if not all) of the sources that make this connection probably post-date 70 AD and it might not be possible to read this perspective back into Jesus' lifetime. There also remains the problem of whether this connection occured only in Greek and whether it was possible in Aramaic and how Daniel 7 relates to the problem.
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You'll be interested in the following volume, which from what I understand was *just* released by Eerdmans: Gabriele Boccaccini, ed., "Enoch and the Son of Man". This is the proceedings from the 2005 International Enoch Seminar held in Italy. Link: http://www.eerdmans.com/shop_products/9780802803771_l.jpg
You sure Mike?????
As an evangelical, you should know that being lifted or raised up in modern hymnology usually refers to Jesus being worshipped. Yet in Jn.12:33 being lifted up is related to Jesus's crucifixion - 'He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.' Clearly 12:33 is an interpolation and is a part of the editorial scheme.
So may be the modern evangelical worshippers are right in a sense. The prophet was not saying that he (the Son of Man) was the one to be raised up. He was saying that the Spirit of God was to be raised up - the picture is the Spirit being 'raised up' in the Sanctuary during the burning of incense.
1 Enoch ... post-date 70 ... ??
(groan)
:)
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