Claim: Donald Trump - the Son of Man?

A ridiculous book has been written claiming Donald Trump is the Son of Man from the Bible.

A ridiculous and blasphemous book has been written claiming that Donald Trump is the Son of Man from the Bible.

However, Jesus Himself is in fact the Son of Man Jesus speaks about in the Gospels, the biographies of Jesus in the New Testament.

According to Helgard Müller, because Jesus speaks about the Son of Man in the third person, He must not be applying the term to Himself.

In the New Testament, the Greek expression ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου is used by Jesus quite often. In Greek it comes across as a slightly awkward expression. However, Biblical scholars agree that ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου “the Son of Man” is actually the Greek translation of an Aramaic idiom a person may use in order to speak about himself, or about a particular person as in the passage in the Biblical book of Daniel below.

One may think of examples in English where one uses a word to apply to oneself, technically in the third person. In the Australian colloquial idiom a bloke can use the word “bloke” in this way, to refer to this bloke, i.e. myself. To refer to oneself in the third person is in many languages a mark of humility.

The most undeniable proof that Jesus was applying the Son of Man title to Himself in the New Testament, and that others understood the term in this way as well, and that he knew that others understood it this way also, is found in the trial of Jesus in Mark’s gospel:

They led Jesus away to the high priest, and all the chief priests, elders, and scribes assembled. Peter followed Him at a distance, right into the courtyard of the high priest. And he sat with the officers and warmed himself by the fire.

Now the chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were seeking testimony against Jesus to put Him to death, but they did not find any. For many bore false witness against Jesus, but their testimony was inconsistent.

Then some men stood up and testified falsely against Him: “We heard Him say, ‘I will destroy this man-made temple, and in three days I will build another that is made without hands.’ ” But even their testimony was inconsistent.

So the high priest stood up before them and questioned Jesus, “Have You no answer? What are these men testifying against You?”

But Jesus remained silent and made no reply.

Again the high priest questioned Him, “Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?”

“I am,” said Jesus, “and you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power and coming with the clouds of heaven.”

At this, the high priest tore his clothes and declared, “Why do we need any more witnesses? You have heard the blasphemy. What is your verdict?”

And they all condemned Him as deserving of death.

Then some of them began to spit on Him. They blindfolded Him, struck Him with their fists, and said to Him, “Prophesy!” And the officers received Him with slaps in His face. Mark 14:53-65.

From the context it is quite clear that the “Son of Man” that Jesus is referring to here is Himself. He intentionally provoked the unjust condemnation of the chief priests and the Sanhedrin by claiming to be the Son of Man the prophet Daniel saw in a dream. This is the passage from Daniel:

In my vision in the night I continued to watch, and I saw One like the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into His presence. And He was given dominion, glory, and kingship, that the people of every nation and language should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and His kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. Daniel 7:13-14

Daniel 7, up to verse 28, is written in Aramaic, which was the language of the Chaldean empire, where Daniel was a servant in the court of the king(s).

Aramaic, or Chaldean, was the lingua franca of the period when the Chaldeans ruled the Middle East, before the Greeks and later the Romans conquered the area. It survived particularly in rural areas as the first language of Israelis in those days.

The phrase, “The Son of Man”, bar enosh בַ֥ר אֱנָ֖שׁ, is actually an Aramaic idiom that literally means, “son of a person”, its meaning in context is simply, ‘this person’ or ‘this man.’

In Luke chapter 9 Jesus is also clearly using the expression about himself, in referring to his own sufferings:

Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone. “The Son of Man must suffer many things,” He said. “He must be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and He must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” Then Jesus said to all of them, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me.… Luke 9:21-23

A down to earth Australian might say, “This bloke’s going to suffer a lot of things”…

It is an unnecessary multiplication of hypotheses to say that Jesus is referring to more than one person, when He is reported as using precisely the same expressions about Himself unambiguously in the parallel passage in Matthew’s gospel:

Then He admonished the disciples not to tell anyone that He was the Christ. From that time on Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and that He must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Matthew 16:20-21

In any case, according to my estimation Donald Trump has not until this present day been killed and raised to life on the third day. Even if this happened, apparently, I would still not believe it, nor would I believe that Trump is the Son of Man, the Messiah, because the Messiah the Son of Man has already come, and is now seated at the right hand of God in heaven, and He is Jesus Christ, Yeshua Meshiach, the first century Son of Man, the down to earth ‘bloke’ who died on a cross, and whom God raised from death, who is now Lord and King of Kings in heaven.

I believe Donald Trump himself would be shocked by the allegation in this book that he is equal to Jesus Christ, as Trump is apparently a Christian, and despite Trump’s occasional boastfulness, I do not think he would be pleased at being compared to Christ in this way.

This book review summarises my own feelings about this book very nicely, and quite humorously as well: