Studying Hebrew and Greek has really opened up the scriptures to me in a whole new way. So many little, linguistic nuances are lost during translation, and it's amazing to discover these ancient details for the first time. This week, I was blessed with a discovery relating to the term, "the son of man." Jesus uses this title repeatedly in the New Testament to refer to himself. Why does he choose to say "the son of man" instead of "the son of God"? Although I cannot claim all-encompassing knowledge regarding this point, one linguistic detail came to my attention while I was pondering the question: in Hebrew, the word for "man" and the word for "Adam" are used interchangeably. By identifying himself as "the son of man/Adam", Jesus was reminding his Jewish listeners to hearken back to God's promise in the Garden of Eden. "And there shall be enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. And He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel." (Gen. 3:15) As "the son of man/Adam", Jesus was the long-looked-for Messiah, the one who had come to bruise the serpent's head.
5 comments:
Hey Petra.
That´s an interesting observation you´ve made.
I would love to hear more :-)
We had a grand time figuring that out.
That's interesting!
That is really neat! It sounds like you are having a lot of fun studying these two languages! The next time I see you I will have to inquire a bit more about what you have learned.
Sorry Paul, I should have given you more acknowledgment in that post: yes, it was great studying the subject together and bouncing ideas off each other. You're a great husband. :-)
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