Analysis on Biblical Context

Question 1: Discuss the differences between “Son of man” and “Son of God”. To

the best understanding, which is more suitable to describe Jesus?

There have been numerous discussions on what would be the most suitable to describe Jesus as between “Son of Man” and “Son of God”. These unsettling discussions are caused simply because of the differences in beliefs and understandings. According to the book of “The New Testament” written by Bart D. Ehrman, he commented that the terms differ in meaning in various societies. Ehrman stated the meaning of the term, “Son of God”, was understood by the Jews readers in the first-century to be “someone who had a particular intimate relation with God, who was chosen by God to perform a task, and who thereby mediated God’s will to people on earth” (Bart D. Ehrman, 70). On the other hand, the Greco-Roman understood the term a little bit differently. Despite the differences, I believe that the character of Jesus contains both qualities within himself and hopefully the following discussion would be convincing enough.

Throughout the gospel, Jesus is seen as the “son of God” in a certain events while as “son of man” in another. In the beginning of the gospel, the gospel of Mark describes Jesus as a divine being sent by God to salvage the people from the sinful world. The gospel started by specifically referring Jesus as the “Son of God” in the first verse. Throughout the first chapter, Jesus is described as someone whom is sent and given authorities over the people by God for salvation of humanity. The gospel described that Jesus heard a voice from heaven saying “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” after being baptized by John. Furthermore, all of his disciples were so intrigued by his authoritative figure that they would abandon their families and tasks at hand to follow Jesus. Jesus is being recognized many times by an evil spirit as “the Holy One of God”. (Mark 1:24) or “Son of the Most High God?...” (Mark 5:6) upon his confrontations with them. Again, this supports the idea that Jesus is in fact the “son of God”. Throughout the gospel, Jesus is seen to perform miraculous events in an authoritative way which everyone would then follow his orders, for example; when Jesus says to the dead girl “Little girl, I say to you, get up!” (Mark 5:41), the girl immediately got up and walked around.

The gospel went further to show that Jesus is really the “son of God” in occasions that Jesus too proclaims himself of the title. On the account of driving out the evil spirits, “Jesus would not let the demons speak because they know who he was” (Mark 1:34), which is the “son of God”. Furthermore, Jesus “warned his apostles not to tell anyone about him after Peter confessed that he thought of Jesus as the Christ” (Mark 8:29). Jesus’ awareness of his true identity has proven the point that he is in fact the “son of God”. However, several events where Jesus is seen to act in humane way such as his diet and frustration through his disciples and other people definitely contradict the idea of him being the holy one.

Up to this point, Jesus is predominantly displayed by the character of the “son of God” showing that Jesus is, in fact, a divine being with power to perform miracles. From chapter 9 onwards, Jesus being portrayed as the “son of God” will be less and less with the character of the “son of man” being more significant towards the end of the gospel. Upon predicting his own death, Jesus refers himself as” the son of man” when he says that “the son of Man must suffer many things…” (Mark 8:31).

It is true that Jesus can be considered as “son of man” because of his human emotions and needs to survive. However, “son of man” can also be interpreted as someone who serves mankind if we associate the word ‘man’ with the human race. It actually makes sense when we put the term in this context because Jesus is, in the first place, someone who is sent by God to salvage people from their sins. This also means that he would have to sacrifice and commit himself into helping the others throughout his journey. Furthermore, Jesus dies like a man when the authorities crucified him on the cross. How about the “son of God”? Does it not refer to every human beings created by God? This again is a problem with perception. Therefore, to separate the two terms, a line has to be drawn before considering the difference.

All in all, both qualities of Jesus are presented in the gospel at the different places and time which led me to the conclusion that Jesus is both the “son of man” and “son of God”. The quality of being the “son of God” best fit Jesus when