“Jesus never called himself God. He called himself the Son of Man, over and over. Doesn’t that prove his divinity was added later?”
That question went viral this week, and it sounds strong. It is true that “Son of Man” is Jesus’ favorite way of speaking about himself in the Gospels. He uses it far more than any other title. But the argument assumes the phrase simply means “a regular human being.” Follow it back to where Jesus got it, and the title turns out to make one of the biggest claims in the whole Bible.
Where the title comes from
In Daniel 7 the prophet sees four beasts rise from the sea. They are kingdoms, violent and proud. Then the scene moves to heaven. Thrones are set, the Ancient of Days takes his seat, and the court sits in judgment. Then comes this:
“I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.” (Daniel 7:13–14, ESV)
Notice three things.
He comes with the clouds of heaven. In the Old Testament, riding the clouds belongs to the LORD himself (Psalm 104:3; Isaiah 19:1). The figure looks human, “like a son of man,” but he arrives the way God arrives.
All peoples serve him. The Aramaic word translated “serve” (pelach) is used throughout Daniel for the service and worship given to God (for example Daniel 3:12, 17–18, 28; 6:16, 20). This figure receives what Daniel’s friends refused to give to any statue.
His kingdom never ends. The beasts rise and fall. His dominion is everlasting. That is language for God’s own reign (Daniel 4:34).
So “one like a son of man” is not a way of saying “just a man.” It is a human-looking figure who shares the throne, the worship, and the eternal rule of God. Jewish readers noticed this too. Later Jewish texts such as 1 Enoch (the “Similitudes,” chapters 37–71) picture a heavenly Son of Man who sits on a throne of glory and judges the world.
How Jesus used it
When Jesus calls himself the Son of Man, he does not stay vague for long.
He claims God’s authority to forgive sins: “But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins” (Mark 2:10, ESV). The scribes watching knew exactly what that meant. Their objection, a few verses earlier, was “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Mark 2:7).
He claims to be Lord of the Sabbath (Mark 2:28), the day God himself set apart.
And at his trial, he makes the connection to Daniel unmistakable:
“Again the high priest asked him, ‘Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?’ And Jesus said, ‘I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.’ And the high priest tore his garments and said, ‘What further witnesses do we need? You have heard his blasphemy. What is your decision?’ And they all condemned him as deserving death.” (Mark 14:61–64, ESV)
Jesus fuses Psalm 110:1 (seated at God’s right hand) with Daniel 7:13 (coming with the clouds). The high priest does not hear “I am an ordinary human.” He hears a man claiming to sit beside God, and he calls it blasphemy. If “Son of Man” were a modest title, that trial makes no sense. It was the title that got Jesus condemned.
Isn’t Mark too late to count?
Mark is usually dated within about 35 to 40 years of the crucifixion, while eyewitnesses were still alive. And the high view of Jesus is even earlier than the Gospels. Paul’s letters, written in the 50s, already quote hymns and confessions that place Jesus inside the identity of the one God. One example is 1 Corinthians 8:6, which takes the Shema (“the LORD is one”) and places Jesus within it. Scholars like Larry Hurtado and Richard Bauckham have shown that devotion to Jesus as divine appeared early, among Jewish believers, not as a slow later upgrade.
What about “Why do you call me good?”
The other clip in the viral argument quotes Mark 10:18: “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.” (ESV)
Read in context, Jesus is not denying he is good. He is asking the man to think about what he just said. The man wants a checklist to earn eternal life. Jesus points him to God’s standard, and then tells him to give up everything and “come, follow me” (Mark 10:21). Only God can rightly ask for everything. The question is not a denial; it is an invitation to see who is standing in front of him.
Why it matters
The “Son of Man” argument works only if we cut the title off from its roots. Put it back in Daniel 7, and Jesus’ favorite name for himself turns out to be a claim to the throne of heaven, said in a way that was humble on the surface and staggering underneath.
That is the question Jesus still puts to every one of us: “But who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15, ESV)
Sources
- Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway. Quotes checked against the ESV text Oct 20, 2026.
- Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the God of Israel (Eerdmans, 2008).
- Larry W. Hurtado, Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity (Eerdmans, 2003).
- Michael F. Bird, Craig A. Evans, et al., How God Became Jesus (Zondervan, 2014).
- 1 Enoch 37–71 (the Similitudes), e.g. 46:1–4; 62:5–7, in George W. E. Nickelsburg & James C. VanderKam, 1 Enoch: A New Translation (Fortress, 2004).