The Expression Son of Man and the Development of Christology: A History of Interpretation

by Mueller,Mogens

• ISBN13: 9781845533359
• ISBN10: 1845533356
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2014-08-08
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Son of Man is practically the only self-designation employed by Jesus himself in the gospels, but is used in such a way that no hint is left of any particular theological significance. Still, during the first many centuries of the church, the expression as it was reused was given content, first-literally-as signifying Christ's human nature. Later "Son of Man" was thought to be a christological title in its own right. Today, many scholars are inclined to think that, in an "original" Aramaic of an historical Jesus, it was little more than a rhetorical circumlocution, referring to the one speaking. Mogens Müller's The Expression "Son of Man" and the Development of Christology: A History of Interpretation is the first study of the "Son of Man" trope, which traces the history of interpretation from the Apostolic Fathers to the present, concluding that the various interpretations of this phrase reflect little more than the various doctrinal assumptions held by its interpreters over centuries.

Author Biography

Mogens Muller has been Professor in New Testament at the University of Copenhagen since 1982. He is author of Der Ausdruck 'Menschensohn' in den Evangelien. Voraussetzungen und Bedeutung (1984) and The First Bible of the Church: A Plea for the Septuagint (1996), as well as articles on the Gospel of Matthew, on the Son of Man problem and on the reception of the Old Testament in the New.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Abbreviations	p. xi
Introduction	p. 1
Early Church	p. 9
The Son of Man in Gnosticism	p. 32
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers	p. 53
The Son of Man in Medieval Exegesis	p. 81
Reformation, Orthodoxy, Counter-Reformation, and Pietism	p. 93
Enlightenment, Rationalism, and Idealism	p. 115
Son of Man and the Life of Jesus Project	p. 140
The Emergence of a Specific Apocalyptic Son of Man Concept	p. 177
The First Aramaic Stage in the Son of Man Research	p. 190
The Eschatological Interpretation	p. 207
Mostly Backwater	p. 216
The History of Religions School	p. 233
Interlude	p. 263
Continuations	p. 271
The Second Aramaic Stage	p. 308
Exit the Apocalyptic Son of Man?	p. 326
Son of Man as a Product of the Gospel Tradition	p. 375
Conclusion	p. 417
Bibliography	p. 420
Index of References	p. 498
Index of Authors	p. 506
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