Second Timothy 3:16 teaches that “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God.” Christians rightly receive the entire Bible as the inspired Word of God, profitable for doctrine, correction, instruction, and faithful living. Nevertheless, reading Scripture faithfully requires more than extracting isolated statements from their original setting. The Bible was written within real historical, cultural, and theological contexts, and much of that context is rooted in the life, language, and hope of Israel.

The Scriptures came to us through Israel. The prophets were Jewish. The apostles were Jewish. Jesus was born into a Jewish family, participated in Jewish religious life, celebrated the biblical feasts, quoted the Hebrew Scriptures, and spoke to people who were familiar with Israel’s symbols, stories, promises, and prophetic expectations. The Christian reader should therefore ask not only, “What do these words mean to me?” but also, “What did these words communicate within the world of Scripture, and what might the original audience of Jesus have recognized in them?”

Few expressions demonstrate the importance of this approach more clearly than the title Jesus repeatedly used when speaking about Himself: the Son of Man. Christians commonly associate this expression with the humanity of Christ. That understanding is correct, but it is incomplete. When read within the broader world of Israel’s Scriptures, the Son of Man points not only to one who shares human weakness, but also to a mysterious heavenly figure who receives authority, glory, and an everlasting kingdom.

The Son of Man and the Humanity of Jesus

The expression “son of man” can describe an ordinary human being. In the Hebrew Scriptures, God repeatedly addressed the prophet Ezekiel as “son of man.” Within Ezekiel, the expression emphasizes the distance between the sovereign God and His mortal servant. Ezekiel was human, dependent, limited, and called to speak only what God commanded him to speak.

This ordinary meaning should not be dismissed. When Christians confess that Jesus is the Son of Man, they confess that He truly entered the human condition. Jesus was not merely divine in appearance while remaining untouched by human experience. He experienced hunger, thirst, exhaustion, sorrow, suffering, physical pain, and death. The eternal Son became truly human without ceasing to be truly divine.

The historic Christian confession therefore recognizes Jesus as fully human and fully divine. His humanity does not weaken His deity, and His deity does not diminish His humanity. The one who forgave sins, commanded the wind, received worship, and rose from the grave was also the one who became weary, wept at a tomb, suffered rejection, and died upon a cross.

Yet this human dimension does not exhaust the meaning of Jesus’ chosen expression. Richard Bauckham has emphasized that “son of man” did not automatically function as a formal title of divinity throughout early Jewish literature. Its significance must be determined by its context (Bauckham, 2023). The decisive context for understanding the words of Jesus is found in Daniel 7.

The Son of Man Coming With the Clouds

Daniel described a nighttime vision in which four violent beasts emerged from the sea. These creatures represented earthly kingdoms marked by pride, violence, and opposition to the purposes of God. Their kingdoms appeared powerful, but their authority was temporary. Daniel then saw the Ancient of Days seated in judgment, surrounded by fire, majesty, and the heavenly court.

Into this scene came another figure:

“I was watching in the night visions,
And behold, One like the Son of Man,
Coming with the clouds of heaven!”
(Daniel 7:13 NKJV)

This figure appeared human, especially when compared with the beastlike kingdoms that preceded Him. Yet His humanity was joined with heavenly imagery. He came with the clouds and approached the Ancient of Days. Daniel continued:

“Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom,
That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion,
Which shall not pass away,
And His kingdom the one
Which shall not be destroyed.”
(Daniel 7:14 NKJV)

Daniel’s figure is not identified as the Ancient of Days. He approaches the Ancient of Days and receives authority from Him. Nevertheless, what He receives exceeds the authority of any ordinary human ruler. His kingdom extends over all peoples, nations, and languages. His dominion is everlasting, and His kingdom cannot be destroyed.

Scholars have long debated the identity of this humanlike figure. Because Daniel later speaks of “the saints of the Most High” receiving the kingdom, some interpreters understand the figure collectively as a symbol of faithful Israel. Others understand Him as an individual, angelic, royal, messianic, or heavenly representative of the faithful people. These readings need not be entirely separated. A representative figure can embody the destiny of the people he represents. Within Christian interpretation, Jesus is both the individual Son of Man and the faithful representative of God’s people.

The cloud imagery is especially important. Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, clouds are connected with the presence and majesty of God. God led Israel through the wilderness in a pillar of cloud. His glory filled the tabernacle and the temple in a cloud. Psalm 104:3 describes God as the one “who makes the clouds His chariot.” The humanlike figure of Daniel 7 therefore appears within imagery normally associated with divine action and heavenly authority.

Daniel Boyarin observes that interpreters have often moved between a collective understanding of the figure and some form of personal, heavenly, or divine interpretation (Boyarin, 2012). John J. Collins likewise demonstrates that later Jewish texts could interpret Daniel’s humanlike figure in personal and messianic ways, though Jewish thought was not uniform on the subject (Collins, 1992).

When Jesus called Himself the Son of Man, He was therefore saying more than, “I am human.” He was directing His audience toward Daniel’s vision of the one who comes with the clouds and receives an everlasting kingdom.

Jesus’ Intentional Use of the Title

Jesus used the expression Son of Man in connection with several dimensions of His mission. In Mark 2:10, He declared that “the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins.” The title was connected with His present authority. The religious leaders understood that the forgiveness of sins belonged to God, yet Jesus claimed that authority for the Son of Man.

Jesus also used the title when teaching His disciples about His rejection and death. Mark 8:31 states that “the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected,” killed, and raised again. The disciples expected the Messiah to triumph, but Jesus joined the authority of Daniel’s Son of Man with the path of suffering.

The title also appeared in His teaching about future glory. Matthew 24:30 declares that the nations “will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” The words intentionally echo Daniel 7. Jesus identified the rejected and suffering Son of Man with the glorious figure who would be revealed before all nations.

The title therefore holds together truths that readers might otherwise separate. The Son of Man possesses authority, yet He suffers. He is rejected, yet He will be vindicated. He dies, yet He rises. He appears in humility, yet He will come in glory. Jesus’ use of the term was neither accidental nor merely a general statement about His humanity. It was a deliberate announcement concerning His identity and mission.

Zion’s King Upon the Donkey

Beside Daniel’s image of the cloud-borne Son of Man stands another prophetic image. Zechariah 9:9 declares:

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your King is coming to you;
He is just and having salvation,
Lowly and riding on a donkey,
A colt, the foal of a donkey.”
(NKJV)

Zechariah does not call this King “the Son of Man.” That expression belongs to Daniel 7. Zechariah describes Zion’s promised King. Nevertheless, both passages became important to Jewish reflection concerning the coming Messiah.

The contrast is striking. Daniel presents a humanlike figure coming with the clouds of heaven. Zechariah presents the King entering Zion upon a donkey. Daniel’s image appears heavenly, universal, and glorious. Zechariah’s image appears lowly, peaceful, and humble.

Jesus intentionally connected Himself with both.

Throughout His ministry, He called Himself the Son of Man, directing His audience toward Daniel 7. Then, during His final entrance into Jerusalem, He rode upon a donkey, publicly enacting Zechariah 9:9. The Gospel writers did not treat His choice of transportation as an incidental detail. Jesus was presenting Himself as Zion’s promised King.

The one riding upon the donkey was the same one who called Himself the Son of Man.

The humble King and the glorious Son of Man were not two competing Messiahs. They were two scriptural portraits brought together in Jesus.

A Kingdom Revealed Through Humility

Jesus did not enter Jerusalem as a military ruler mounted upon a warhorse. He entered as a humble King. His humility did not mean that He lacked authority. Rather, it revealed how He chose to exercise His authority.

He came not to crush sinners, but to carry their sins. He came not to establish His kingdom through the weapons of earthly empires, but through obedience, sacrificial love, suffering, death, and resurrection. The King entered Jerusalem upon a donkey because He was moving toward the cross.

This does not mean that the donkey was a symbol of weakness in the sense of failure. Zechariah describes the coming King as “just and having salvation.” His humility was consistent with His righteousness and saving mission. Jesus possessed authority, but He refused to imitate the violent and beastlike kingdoms of Daniel’s vision. His kingdom would be revealed through a different kind of power.

The cross therefore should not be separated from the Son of Man’s glory. Jesus taught that the Son of Man “must” suffer before His vindication. His resurrection and exaltation would demonstrate that humility, obedience, and sacrificial love had not defeated His kingdom. They were the means through which His redemptive mission was accomplished.

Israel’s Need for Mercy

The arrival of Jesus occurred during a difficult period in Israel’s history. Judea lived under Roman power. Political and religious tensions were intense. Different Jewish groups offered competing visions of faithfulness, resistance, holiness, and national hope. The Gospels describe injustice, hypocrisy, spiritual blindness, sickness, demonic oppression, poverty, and people who appeared “weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd” (Matthew 9:36 NKJV).

Israel needed the mercy of God.

This statement, however, must never be used to present the Jewish people as uniquely sinful while imagining the Gentile nations to have been righteous. Paul rejected such thinking. Romans 3 teaches that Jews and Gentiles alike are under sin. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23 NKJV).

Israel needed mercy. The Gentiles needed mercy. Humanity needed mercy.

The world did not merely need a political ruler capable of replacing Rome with another earthly empire. Humanity needed a Savior who could address the deeper captivity of sin and death. Jesus came as the King upon the donkey because He came to bear sin before He came to judge the kingdoms of the world.

Salvation Is of the Jews

Jesus came first to Israel because God was faithful to His covenantal promises. He was Israel’s Messiah. The covenants, the prophets, the Scriptures, and the promises had been entrusted to the Jewish people. Jesus was born among them, ministered among them, and gathered Jewish disciples who became the first witnesses of His resurrection.

In His conversation with the Samaritan woman, Jesus declared, “Salvation is of the Jews” (John 4:22 NKJV). Salvation came through the Jewish people because the Messiah came through the Jewish people. Jesus’ ministry to Israel did not reveal divine indifference toward the nations. It revealed the order of God’s redemptive faithfulness.

The gospel began in Jerusalem. It moved through Judea and Samaria, and then it reached the nations. Acts 1:8 records Jesus telling His Jewish disciples that they would become His witnesses “in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Paul later described the gospel as “the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek” (Romans 1:16 NKJV). The phrase “to the Jew first” is not a statement that Gentiles are unimportant. It recognizes the historical and covenantal order through which God brought salvation to the world.

Gentile believers were not called to erase Israel, replace Israel, or detach Jesus from His Jewish identity. They were welcomed into blessings that came through Israel’s Messiah. Paul’s olive-tree image in Romans 11 warns Gentile believers against pride. They do not support the root; the root supports them.

Sanhedrin 98a and the Question of Worthiness

A later Jewish discussion preserved in Sanhedrin 98a brings Daniel 7:13 and Zechariah 9:9 together. Sanhedrin is a major section of the Babylonian Talmud, an extensive collection of rabbinic teachings, interpretations, debates, and discussions about Scripture, Jewish law, tradition, and life. The designation “98a” identifies the location of the discussion.

The Talmud is not part of the Christian Bible, nor do Christians receive it as inspired Scripture. It remains valuable, however, for understanding how Jewish teachers wrestled with biblical texts.

In Sanhedrin 98a, Rabbi Alexandri, citing Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi, considers the apparent tension between Daniel’s figure coming with the clouds and Zechariah’s King riding upon a donkey. The answer given is that if Israel merits redemption, the Messiah will come with the clouds of heaven. If Israel does not merit it, he will come lowly upon a donkey.

This discussion was preserved after the earthly ministry of Jesus and should not be treated as proof that every Jew in the first century held this interpretation. Daniel 7 and Zechariah 9, however, were part of Israel’s Scriptures long before Jesus. The two images were already present, and the rabbinic discussion demonstrates that Jewish interpreters recognized the tension between heavenly glory and humble arrival.

From a Christian perspective, the New Testament offers a remarkable answer. The donkey and the clouds are not merely alternative possibilities dependent upon human worthiness. They reveal two movements within the mission of one Messiah.

Jesus came first upon the donkey in humility.

He came to Israel in its need for mercy, but that need extended to the Gentiles and to all humanity.

He came first to the Jewish people because salvation is of the Jews.

Then the gospel was extended through Jewish witnesses to the nations.

Yet the story does not end with the donkey.

The Son of Man Will Come With the Clouds

During His trial, Jesus joined Daniel 7:13 with Psalm 110:1. He declared:

“Hereafter you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
(Matthew 26:64 NKJV)

Psalm 110 describes the Lord’s chosen ruler seated at God’s right hand. Daniel 7 describes the humanlike figure coming with the clouds and receiving an everlasting dominion. Jesus brought these passages together and applied them to Himself.

At that moment, He appeared powerless before human authorities. He had been rejected, arrested, and accused. He was preparing to suffer. Yet He declared that the one standing before them in apparent weakness would be revealed in heavenly authority.

After His resurrection, Jesus ascended before His disciples. Acts 1:9 states that “a cloud received Him out of their sight.” The angels then promised that the same Jesus would return in the manner in which they had seen Him enter heaven.

The one who entered Jerusalem upon a donkey was received into heaven in a cloud.

The one who humbled Himself will return in glory.

The one who carried the cross possesses an everlasting kingdom.

The one who suffered as the Son of Man will be revealed as the glorious Son of Man.

Living Between the Donkey and the Clouds

The Church now lives between the donkey and the clouds. Christians look back to the King who came in humility, bore the sins of humanity, and accomplished redemption through the cross. At the same time, they look forward to the return of the Son of Man in power and glory.

Living between these two images should shape Christian conduct. The Church must not seek the clouds while rejecting the donkey. It cannot desire authority without service, victory without sacrifice, recognition without obedience, or glory without humility. The kingdom of the Son of Man calls believers to follow the pattern of the King who served, suffered, and gave His life for others.

The title Son of Man therefore reveals far more than the humanity of Jesus. It reveals the one who possesses authority to forgive sins, the one who suffered and died, the one who rose from the grave, the one who received an everlasting kingdom, and the one who will come again with the clouds of heaven.

The Son of Man came.

The Son of Man suffered.

The Son of Man died.

The Son of Man rose.

The Son of Man ascended.

And the Son of Man will come again.

References

Bauckham, R. (2023). “Son of Man,” Volume 1: Early Jewish Literature. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.

Boyarin, D. (2012). Daniel 7, intertextuality, and the history of Israel’s cult. Harvard Theological Review, 105(2), 139–162.

Collins, J. J. (1992). The Son of Man in first-century Judaism. New Testament Studies, 38(3), 448–466.

Slater, T. B. (1995). One like a Son of Man in first-century CE Judaism. New Testament Studies, 41(2), 183–198.

The Babylonian Talmud. Sanhedrin 98a. Chabad.org Torah Texts.

The Holy Bible, New King James Version. (1982). Thomas Nelson.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.