Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

THE QUESTION OF JESUS SELF-UNDERSTANDING
§16.4
problem (the decisive factor?) for many has evidently been the difficulty of conceiving
that Jesus spoke of such a role for someone like himself in the final judgment.
199 But is that so inconceivable? 200 Alternatively, if the identity of Jesus
with the Son of Man is not entirely clear, does that not make the saying's origin
as an assertion of that identity less plausible? 201
Second, there is some ambiguity in regard to the location of the final judgment.
The Q version is clear that it will happen in heaven, before the angels or
God himself. But the Mark 8.38 version allows the possibility that the coming of
the Son of Man is from heaven, parallel to the coming of the kingdom (Mark 9.1
pars.). Should we then see here a transition from the heavenly scene depicted in
Daniel, of the one like a son of man 'coming' with the clouds (Dan 7.13) to be
enthroned and to share in God's judgment (7.9-10, 14)? That is, if Jesus did
speak of the Danielic manlike figure, did he speak in terms of a coming to heaven
or from heaven? Or is the coming from heaven a subsequent development in the
Son of Man tradition, perhaps of a piece with the development from 'the son of
man' to 'the Son of Man'?
d. The Day(s) of the Son of Man
One of the most intriguing sequences of Son of Man sayings comes in Luke
17.22-30/Matt. 24.23, 27, 37-39.
Matt. 24.23, 27, 37-39 Luke 17.22-30
23 Then
if anyone says to you. 'Look! Here is the
Messiah!' or 'There he is!'—do not believe it.
27 For as the lightning comes from the east and
flashes as far as the west, so will be the coming
of the Son of Man.
22 Then he said to the disciples, 'The days are
coming when you will long to see one of the days
of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. 23
They will say to you. "Look there" or "Look
here!" Do not go, do not set off in pursuit.
24 For as the lightning flashes and lights up the
sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of
Man be in his day. 25 But first he must endure
will find that they have an accuser before the judgment seat of God' (54). It needs to be stressed
again that the issue is not how an original T saying was replaced by the 'Son of Man' title or
vice-versa {pace Schürmann, Gottes Reich 166-67; Crossan, Historical Jesus 248-49;
P. Hoffmann, 'Der Menschensohn in Lukas 12.8', NTS 44 [1998] 357-79).
199. Funk, Five Gospels 80; Lüdemann, Jesus 343-44.
200. Jeremias pointed out that nowhere else is Jesus recalled as looking for a saving figure
other than himself (Proclamation 276; similarly Lohse, 'Frage' 42-44; Marshall, Jesus 83-
85; Hampel, Menschensohn 159-60); we should also recall that the language of confessing and
denying is more appropriate to a witness than a judge (Hare, Son of Man 222; also 269-71; disputed
by Becker, Jesus 208-209).
201. See particularly Beasley-Murray, Jesus and the Kingdom 225-27.
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