The Expression Son of Man and the Development of Christology: A History of Interpretation

Son of Man is practically the only self-designation employed by Jesus himself in the gospels, but is used in such a way that no hint is left of any particular theological significance. Yet, during the first centuries of the church, the expression was given content, firstly as signifying Christ's human nature, and then later as a christological title in its own right. Today, many scholars are inclined to think that, in an original Aramaic of an historical Jesus, it was little more than a rhetorical circumlocution, referring to the one speaking. In this book, the first study of the Son of Man trope, Muller traces the history of its interpretation from the Apostolic Fathers to the present day and concludes that the various interpretations of this phrase reflect little more than the various doctrinal assumptions held by its interpreters over centuries.

Mogens Mller is Professor in new Testament Studies at the University of Copenhagen. He is the author of Der Ausdruck Menschensohn in den Evanglien: Vorausseizingen und Bedeuting and The First Bible of the Church: A Place for the Septuagint.