The Eschatological Function Of The Son Of Man

This is a work of great importance in which the Son of man appears as the one whose name is pronounced by the Head of Days at the beginning of creation. The eschatological function of the Son of man is manifested as judge and king of the righteous. In this book he is also expressly called Messiah. Other sources that are available for the knowledge of the Jewish conceptions about the Son of man are: The Apocalypse of Ezra and Baruch, but it must be taken into account that the conception of the Son of man is not pure and unmixed. In the Apocalypse of Ezra, the Son of man emerges from the waves of the sea rising above the clouds like a savior (Esd.13). The figure of the Messiah is found enlarged by a series of elements of the Son

This qualifier transmitted essential aspects of its nature and its being. His appearance would be human and despite belonging to another sphere, the celestial world, he would possess certain human features. This Son of man would be the expression (personification) of God but at the same time, it would be a reinterpretation of the old messianic hopes; reason why it has features of this world and appears as an independent figure of God and close to our history. In the time of Jesus then, the figure of the Son of man was already known as apocalyptic. The Jews expected the Son of Man as a character who had a particular relationship with God and who would represent them as a prophet and even as a

This triple division or classification was first suggested by Rudolf Bultmann, although he only recognized as authentic the third of the three categories. One thing that many theologians unfortunately overlook is the fact that in the great majority of the quotations in which Jesus uses the expression the Son of Man there is a marked emphasis on his authority in relation to something that identifies him as a supernatural character. For example, in Mark 2, chapter 5 Jesus says to a paralytic: "Son, your sins are forgiven" (Mk 2: 5). The scribes who were present accuse Jesus of blasphemy and say: "Who can forgive sins but God alone?" (2: 7). Following that question, Jesus makes the following statement: "But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins." (2:10). The question that had been raised revolved around the question of whether Jesus had the authority to exercise a privilege that only corresponds to God, that is, the authority to forgive sins. Jesus uses the title "the Son of Man" to affirm that, he possesses such authority. Another important passage where the authority of Jesus is questioned appears in the three synoptic gospels (Mt. 12: