Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

§16.4 How Did Jesus See His Own Role?
Matt. 16.27
For the Son of Man
is about to come
in the glory of his Father
with his angels, and then he
will repay to each in accordance
with his way of acting.
Matt. 10.32-33
32 Everyone therefore who acknowledges me
before men. I also will
acknowledge before mv Father in heaven; 33 but
whoever denies me before men, I also will denv
before my Father in heaven.
Mark 8.38
For whoever is ashamed of me
and of my words in this
adulterous and sinful generation,
the Son of Man will also be
ashamed of him when he comes
in the glory of his Father
with the holv angels.
Luke 9.26
For whoever is ashamed of me
and of my words,
of him the Son of Man will be
ashamed when he comes in his
elorv and the glory of the Father
and of the holv angels.
Luke 12.8-9
8 And I tell vou. everyone who acknowledges me
before men, the Son of Man also will
acknowledge before the angels of God; 9 but
whoever denies me before men will be denied
before the angels of God.
Here the influence of Dan. 7.13 is less clear, but still probable. It is impossible to
tell now whether different teachings of Jesus are recalled in these passages. The
first three of the five cited passages are linked clearly by the common theme of
'the Son of Man coming in judgment', which has probably been elaborated in the
Matt. 16.27 tradition to bring out the judgment theme more prominently (cf.
Matt. 25.31). The last four are linked by the common theme of denial/shame (on
earth) being reciprocated by denial/shame at the final judgment (in heaven),
which is complemented in Q by a reciprocal acknowledgment theme, whether
from the store of remembered Jesus' teaching, or as an elaboration of the more
threatening version. Evidently there were several versions of the saying(s) being
circulated — Q, Mark, and possibly Matt. 16.27. 196
Two observations are pertinent. First, Luke 12.8-9 has been the lynchpin of
the dominant German view that Jesus saw the Son of Man as a heavenly figure to
whom he looked for vindication of himself and his teaching, if only at the final
judgment. But that view assumes that Jesus would be referring to a well-known
heavenly figure (as attested in the Similitudes of Enoch), and we have seen good
reason to question such an assumption. 197 We have also already observed that
'the Son of Man' version has an T parallel in Matt. 10.32, so quite possibly an
original bar ' e nasa saying (with a play on 'men', 'son of man') is in view. 198 The
196. Further discussion in Beasley-Murray, Jesus and the Kingdom 291-96.
197. See above, § 16.3b; also, e.g., Hare, Son of Man 221-24.
198. As Leivestad notes, 'It is a basic poetic device in Semitic poetry to interchange synonymous
terms in parallel lines' (Jesus 117). Casey offers an Aramaic reconstruction of Mark
8.38 (Son of Man 161-62). See further Lindars, Jesus Son of Man 48-58, who suggests an original
saying something like this: 'All who confess me before men will have a man to speak for
them (i.e, an advocate) before the judgment seat of God; but all those who deny me before men
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