The first references to the term "son of man" are in the books of Ezekiel and Daniel in the Old Testament: "He said to me,"Son of man", stand up on your feet and I will speak to you", Ezequiel 2:1; "And he said to me, "Son of man" eat what is before you", Ezekiel 3:1; "Son of man, prophesy against God and say", Ezekiel 39:1.
Also: "I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days" Daniel 7:13.
Ezekiel and Daniel are prophets that are characterized by their visions of the future, the visions of these prophets are related with the Book of Revelations narrated by John.
It is very probable that the books of these prophets had influenced the gospel of St. John and the book of apocalypse, because it is in the books of the disciple John that we see the development of the statement about the son of man.
The gospels are presented to us as a mystery. Jesus in the gospel of John refers to himself as the "son of man": "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am", John 8:27-28.
Is in this contexts that he makes 7 statements: "I am the bread of life", John 6:35; "I am the light of the world" John 8:12; "I am the gate" John 10:9 ; "I am the resurrection and the life" John 11:25; "I am the way, the truth and the life" John 14:6; "I am the true vine" John 15:5
Jesus refers to himself as the "son of man" because he personifies the perfections of God, he is God made man, he is the third person of the Holy Trinity with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
Thomas Aquinas explains that God is the perfection itself, the spiritual gifts are perfections, we cannot attribute imperfections to God.
The kingdom of God is a play on words, is the man that became "son of god" and God that became "son of man". The kingdom of God is the man that search the eternal life, and in another sense, is the eternal life personified in Jesus.
It is very sure that the author of the Gospel of John belonged to some school of thought related to the first forms of Christianity.
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The term has always made me ponder who might say it and why. God is not from earth and being 'not of earth' would naturally call people "earthlings".
But because the term "earthlings" was not used as such until the cartoon age (and only in English), 'Ben haAdam' or son of the earth (son of man) were the correct way for a non-earthling beings to speak about the men of earth.
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