The key thing I think about Jesus is the importance of self-identification Jesus used “the Son of Man”. It links in with the same term often used in writings called the Book of Enoch, written back in the Fara Period apparently (3000-2500 BC). Enoch who wrote it testified to being taken into the place where the Son of Man is together with God [1]. This identifies Jesus as “pre-existent”, which seems short of meaning but captures what is necessary to grasp and maintain as a matter of faith: “Except you believe that I am you will die in your sins” and “Before Abraham was born I am” says Jesus in John’s gospel (chapter 8). There is more,m to who this Son of Man but this pre-existence is part of it. Ongoing existence is a major part of it too, as is historical crucifixion (sacrifice to pay humans’ debt of ethical shortfall) and resurrection and future eternal existence. The word “pre-existent” is confusing. It does not mean existing before existing. It refers to His existence before becoming a fully flesh-and-blood human. It is a well-known, often-used term so it is useful. Yet it merely states that He is a being, not what sort of being. It misses “heavenly being” existing together with the Lord of Spirits, a heavenly being to whom Enoch was taken up. It misses “uniquely human heavenly being”, hence “THE Son of Man”.
Ref [1]: The Book of Enoch chapter 70:
“1. And it came to pass after this that his name during his lifetime was raised aloft to that Son of Man and to the Lord of Spirits from amongst those who dwell on the earth. 2. And he was raised aloft on the chariots of the spirit and his name vanished among them. 3. And from that day I was no longer numbered amongst them: and he set me between the two winds, between the North and the West, where the angels took the cords to measure for me the place for the elect and righteous. 4. And there I saw the first fathers and the righteous who from the beginning dwell in that place.”
