"Son of Man" does not mean "GOD" or "Son of GOD"
By
Abdul Haleem
A favorite debating trick of Christian missionaries is to quote various passages from the Bible - both Old and New Testaments - and read the oft-repeated phrase "son of man" as "God" or "son of God."
Through this verbal sleight of hand, the unproveable - the alleged divinity of the Prophet Issa (peace be upon him) (Greek, Jesus) - is "proven."
Such debates frequently involve citation to Daniel 7:13 - a verse in which the "Son of man" is presented in Heaven to the "Ancient of Days."
An extensive examination of the Old Testament usage of "son of man," however, conclusively establishes that the phrase "son of man" carries no implication of divinity on the part of the person so described.
The phrase translated "son of man" in the Old Testament is, invariably, the Hebrew Ben adam (Strongs Concordance, Nos. 01121 and 0120) or the Aramaic Bar enash (Strongs Concordance, Nos. 01247 and 0606).
"Son of man" appears some 109 times in the King James Version of the Old Testament.
In at least 12 instances, the phrase clearly means "man in general" or "humanity" and refers to no particular person. Examples include:
"God [is] not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do [it]? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? (Numbers 23:19)"
"Put not your trust in princes, [nor] in the son of man, in whom [there is] no help (Psalms 146:3)"
"As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbour [cities] thereof, saith the LORD, no man shall abide there, neither shall a son of man dwell in it. (Jeremiah 49:18)"
"And Hazor shall be a dwelling for dragons, [and] a desolation for ever: there shall no man abide there, nor [any] son of man dwell in it. (Jeremiah 49:33)"
"As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbour [cities] thereof, saith the LORD; [so] shall no man abide there, neither shall any son of man dwell therein. (Jeremiah 50:40)"
"Her cities are a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness, a land wherein no man dwelleth, neither doth [any] son of man pass thereby. (Jeremiah 51:43)"
Other similar examples appear in Job 25:6 and 35:8, Psalms 8:4 and 144:3, and Isaiah 51:12 and 56:2.
In the vast majority of instances, however, "son of man" represents a word used in place of the proper name of an individual, like we might, in everyday speech, use "brother," "sister," "buddy" or a like expression in place of the actual name of an individual being addressed or referred to.
The Prophet Ezekiel (peace be upon him) is addressed by God as "son of man" some 94 times in the King James Version! Some examples:
"And he said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee. (Ezekiel 2:1)"
"And he said unto me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that hath rebelled against me: they and their fathers have transgressed against me, [even] unto this very day. (Ezekiel 2:3)"
"But thou, son of man, hear what I say unto thee; Be not thou rebellious like that rebellious house: open thy mouth, and eat that I give thee. (Ezekiel 2:8)"
"Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, eat that thou findest; eat this roll, and go speak unto the house of Israel. (Ezekiel 3:1)"
"Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight, and with care; and they shall drink water by measure, and with astonishment. (Ezekiel 4:16)"
"Then said he unto me, Son of man, lift up thine eyes now the way toward the north. So I lifted up mine eyes the way toward the north, and behold northward at the gate of the altar this image of jealousy in the entry. (Ezekiel 8:5)"
"Son of man, eat thy bread with quaking, and drink thy water with trembling and with carefulness; (Ezekiel 12:18)"
"Therefore, son of man, speak unto the house of Israel, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Yet in this your fathers have blasphemed me, in that they have committed a trespass against me. (Ezekiel 20:27)"
In all of the above-referenced passages, "son of man," merely is a phrase standing in the place of the name Ezekiel. God could as easily have said:
And he said unto me, Ezekiel, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee.
-- OR --
And he said unto me, Brother, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee.
Rather than what King James quotes the Almighty as saying in Ezekiel 2:1:
"And he said unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto thee. (Ezekiel 2:1)"
The same observation can be made concerning Ezekiel 2:3, 2:8, 3:1, 4:16, 8:5, 12:18, 20:27, or numerous verses I have not bothered to quote: 2:6; 3:3; 3:4; 3:10; 3:17; 3:25; 4:1; 5:1; 6:2; 7:2; 8:6; 8:8; 8:12; 8:15; 8:17; 11:2; 11:4; 11:15; 12:2; 12:3; 12:9; 12:22; 12:27; 13:2; 13:17; 14:3; 14:13; 15:2; 16:2; 17:2; 20:3; 20:4; 20:46; 21:2; 21:6; 21:9; 21:12; 21:14; 21:19; 21:28; 22:2; 22:18; 22:24; 23:2; 23:36; 24:2; 24:16; 24:25; 25:2; 26:2; 27:2; 28:2; 28:12; 28:21; 29:2; 29:18; 30:2; 30:21; 31:2; 32:2; 32:18; 33:2; 33:7; 33:10; 33:12; 33:24; 33:30; 34:2; 35:2; 36:1; 36:17; 37:3; 37:9; 37:11; 37:16; 38:2; 38:14; 39:1; 39:17; 40:4; 43:7; 43:10; 43:18; 44:5; 47:6.
No one - Christian, Jew or Muslim - claims that the Prophet Ezekiel (peace be upon him) was God, the Son or God or part of the Godhead, yet God referred to him as "son of man,"some 94 times!
The same is true of the Prophet Daniel (peace be upon him). The Old Testament reports:
"And it came to pass, when I, [even] I Daniel, had seen the vision, and sought for the meaning, then, behold, there stood before me as the appearance of a man. And I heard a man's voice between [the banks of] Ulai, which called, and said, Gabriel, make this [man] to understand the vision. So he came near where I stood: and when he came, I was afraid, and fell upon my face: but he said unto me, Understand, O son of man: for at the time of the end [shall be] the vision. (Daniel 8:15-17 (King James Version))"
Gabriel, thus, addressed Daniel as "son of man."
Again, no one - Christian, Jew or Muslim - would argue that this form of address proves that Daniel (peace be upon him) was God, the Son or God or part of the Godhead.
If express address of Daniel and Ezekiel by angels and God himself as "son of man" do not make these prophets part of the Godhead, such references to Issa (peace be upon him) in the New Testament no more establish that Issa (peace be upon him) was divine or part of a Trinity.
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