Son of Man

G. N. Stanton (ISBE) said, "Christ by this phrase represented Himself as the head, the type, the ideal of the race." Others have said, "'son of man' is an expression in the sayings of Jesus in Christian writings, including the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles and the Book of Revelation." The meaning of the expression is controversial. Interpretation of the use of "the Son of man" in the New Testament has remained challenging and after 150 years of recent debate, no consensus on the issue has emerged among scholars. The expression "the Son of man" occurs 81 times in the Greek text of the four Canonical gospels, and is used only in the sayings of Jesus. The occurrences of Son of man in the Synoptic gospels are generally categorized into three groups: (i) those that refer to his "coming" (as an exaltation); (ii) those that refer to "suffering" and (iii) those that refer to "now at work" i.e. referring to His earthly life. What of the Son of Man when Jesus departed? He is described as 'at' or near' in Rom. 8:34; as 'appointed' or 'set' in Eph. 1:20; 'sitting' in Col. 3:1; 'sat down' in Heb. 1:3. But, in Acts 7:56 at Stephen's stoning, He was observed as 'standing', intensely interested in the ongoing events. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are intensely interested in each step of a Christian's unique individual spiritual journey, but especially when humans suffer for upholding godly desires.