The Son of Man: God's Intended Pattern for Humanity
1. The Son of Man in Daniel, Enoch and the Gospel of John
The Son of Man in the Book of Enoch, the Book of Daniel and the Gospel of John seems to be God's template for how He intends humanity to be, and this template became embodied as Jesus Christ.
It seems to me that the Ethiopian Church has been especially blessed in preserving a rather unique and special additional book of Scripture, called the Book of Enoch. Most of this book was lost to the churches of the West, apart from fragments and references that survived. It is special and a blessing for the Ethiopian Church because it contains insight into the nature of the Son of Man, the Christ, before he came in the flesh as Jesus Christ.
Here we find a description of an angel-like, human-like being called the Son of Man, who is seen among the angels but before his coming in the flesh. This Son of Man, whom God calls His Son, is chosen from among all heavenly beings to be set apart and to stand forever in the very presence of God. In this position, he is able to help righteous human beings stand firm, even though angels fall. All of nature stands firm with him too, enabled by his name.
1 Enoch 46:1–3 — The Son of Man before the Head of Days
“And there I saw One who had a head of days,
And His head was white like wool,
And with Him was another being whose countenance had the appearance of a man,
And his face was full of graciousness, like one of the holy angels.
And I asked the angel who went with me and showed me all the hidden things, concerning that Son of Man, who he was, and whence he was, and why he went with the Head of Days? And he answered and said unto me:
This is the Son of Man who hath righteousness,
With whom dwelleth righteousness,
And who revealeth all the treasures of that which is hidden,
Because the Lord of Spirits hath chosen him,
And whose lot hath the pre-eminence before the Lord of Spirits in uprightness for ever.”
1 Enoch 48:2–6 — The Son of Man, the support of the righteous
“And at that hour that Son of Man was named
In the presence of the Lord of Spirits,
And his name before the Head of Days.
Yea, before the sun and the signs were created,
Before the stars of the heaven were made,
His name was named before the Lord of Spirits.
He shall be a staff to the righteous whereon to stay themselves and not fall,
And he shall be the light of the Gentiles,
And the hope of those who are troubled of heart.
All who dwell on earth shall fall down and worship before him,
And will praise and bless and celebrate with song the Lord of Spirits.
And for this reason hath he been chosen and hidden before Him,
Before the creation of the world and for evermore.”
The Holy Spirit says this too, as I have witnessed first-hand, which is how I know it is such a blessed book of Scripture to have been preserved by the Ethiopians.
Jesus Christ seems to have introduced this as a missing piece in our picture of the Messiah. He spoke not only of himself as the Christ, the one sent by God to be the King of Israel, worthy to be acknowledged by God as His Son, to save the world and to rule with true care for all, including the poor and weak. He also identified this Son as importantly human, in contrast to the heavenly host of sons of God spoken of in Scriptures such as Job 1, Genesis 6 and Psalm 82 (see also 1 Kings 22 and 2 Chronicles 18).
Consider, in particular, the vision in Daniel:
Daniel 7:13–14 — The Son of Man receives an everlasting kingdom
“I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.
And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.”
To this end, Jesus identified himself as the Son of Man: a human chosen by God. The implication, as I understand it, is that he is chosen from among the sons who are angelic divinities, but becomes and comes as a human being, unlike them, and is truly pleasing to God, apparently in contrast to many of them (see Psalm 82 and John 10).
Psalm 82 is particularly significant here because it describes heavenly beings who are called gods and children of the Most High, yet are judged for their failure to exercise justice and care for the vulnerable.
Psalm 82:1–8 — The judgement of the heavenly sons of God
“God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods.
How long will ye judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked? Selah.
Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy.
Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked.
They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course.
I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.
But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.
Arise, O God, judge the earth: for thou shalt inherit all nations.”
Jesus himself draws attention to this passage when speaking to those who challenge his claim concerning his relationship with the Father.
John 10:34–36 — Jesus refers to the sons of God
“Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?
If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken;
Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?”
Believing in this Son of Man, the human Son of God, means believing that, despite the failure of many heavenly sons of God to show the kind of care for the needs of the weak that pleased God, one being would be chosen to be a fully approved Son. This Son would actually be a human being, who would save the world by ruling justly, in accordance with the will of God and in the way that fully pleases Him.
The Book of Enoch also describes this Son of Man as the Elect One, seated in glory and exercising judgement.
1 Enoch 62:1–3 — The Elect One seated on the throne of glory
“And thus the Lord commanded the kings and the mighty and the exalted, and those who dwell on the earth, and said: 'Open your eyes and lift up your horns if ye are able to recognize the Elect One.'
And the Lord of Spirits seated him on the throne of His glory, And the spirit of righteousness was poured out upon him, And the word of his mouth slays all the sinners, And all the unrighteous are destroyed from before his face.
And there shall stand up in that day all the kings and the mighty, And the exalted and those who hold the earth, And they shall see and recognize How he sits on the throne of his glory, And righteousness is judged before him, And no lying word is spoken before him.”
This one would be King of the Jews, King of Israel, fulfilling the promise to ancient Israel's King David: he would build God's true temple, restore true worship of God and save his people from their sins.
2 Samuel 7:12–14 — God's promise to David
“And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom.
He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever.
I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men:”
Not only is this one human, but he is a descendant of the ancestor of the ancient people who gave them their name, Israel, descending through the line of the Jews and, in particular, from King David, their ancient king.
This is meaningful as part of the flow of history in which the world's salvation comes through this particular line of the Jews, in fulfilment of God's prophecies to the Jewish people.
Yet the salvation received by the world is not so much about flesh and descent as it is about spirit, and being formed anew by the Spirit which flows like water from the throne of God.
John 7:37–39 — The living water of the Spirit
“In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.
He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
(But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)”
And the vision of the river flowing from God's throne appears again in Revelation:
Revelation 22:1
“And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.”
The worship comes from having this Spirit through the Messiah's teachings rather than through any fleshly descent or qualification. Therefore, it is open to all to receive, if they are called and drawn to it by the Father Himself.
Thus, the human aspect of this salvation coming through a human Son of God is not about humanness as flesh, but humanness as a fleshly temple and abode of the Holy Spirit sent by God, through the teachings of this Son of God.
John 1:1–5, 14 — The Word becomes flesh
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”
To enable these disciples of his teachings to become true children of God, the Son must die for their sins and rise again.
Thus, Messiahship is about the cross, and discipleship is about putting away the old habits of mere desire and putting on the new humanness of living out his teachings. This is like a crucifixion of the fleshly life and a resurrection into the new life, which is the kind of humanness God always intended for human beings.
Romans 8:29 — Being conformed to the image of the Son
“For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.”
Thus, through this human Son, many can become the kind of human beings whom God is happy to call His sons. This leads to eternal life: disciples eternally with their Teacher, and with his Father, who becomes their Father.
2. What Kind of Person Does God Want Us to Become?
What kind of saintly person does an ordinary person — you or me — need to be?
Ideally, we need to become the kind of person whom God will not finally condemn, someone who can eventually find peace in being such a person, without that ultimate fear.
How is it possible for an ordinary person to become like that? Perhaps starting out decent, perhaps bad, but ending up right and hopeful?
It requires beginning with a belief that God sent Jesus Christ to make it all possible.
It takes light, as Jesus called it. First, we need to believe that he is this light: that he enables the kind of enlightenment required to change into this kind of person, even though we may be ordinary, perhaps bad, perhaps respectable, to begin with.
John 3:14–21 — Christ, the light sent to save the world
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.”
Then his teachings, and the teachings that come from the grace he brings, teach us what changes we need to make in our lives.
The Holy Spirit from God helps too, by bringing us the truth we need to be free from the misdeeds and bad habits that bind us. We must hold to these teachings and learn this truth.
John 8:31–32 — The truth makes us free
“Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
It teaches us to be free of those bad things, those desire-driven bad things, and to learn to live as the human beings God made us to be, behaving in a way that reflects God Himself.
It was always God's intention that we be like this, but Jesus Christ is the light that makes it possible.
Galatians 5:16, 22–25 — Walking in the Spirit
“This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”
And this is the transformation into the kind of humanity God intended from the beginning: not merely a change in outward behaviour, but a change in the person through the indwelling Spirit of God.
Romans 8:14–17 — Becoming children of God
“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.”
Christ died for you.
Christ lives, raised from the dead, for you.
God is committed to your transformation.
(Substantive wording by Stephen D Green. Typographical layout and scripture references by ChatGPT. November 2026.)
