The Son of Man / Elect One / Righteous One
The Son of Man (in the Parables)
One of the most consequential figures in the history of religious literature. In the Book of the Parables (1 Enoch 37–71), an enthroned heavenly figure is identified as "the Son of Man," "the Elect One," "the Righteous One," and "the Anointed One" — four titles that point at the same individual.
The Parables figure is widely considered one of the most direct backgrounds for the New Testament's use of "Son of Man" as a self-designation for Jesus.
The textual data
Across 1 Enoch 37–71, this figure:
- Sits on a throne of glory (1 En 45:3; 51:3; 55:4; 62:3, 5; 69:27, 29).
- Is named before the creation of the world (1 En 48:3) — i.e., he is pre-existent.
- Was hidden from the beginning (1 En 48:6, 62:7) — kept by God until revealed.
- Will judge the kings and the mighty (1 En 46:4–5; 62:2–11).
- Is described in Isa-11 language — the spirit of wisdom, the spirit of insight (1 En 49:3).
- Is identified with Enoch himself in the closing scene (1 En 71:14 — but this is the most contested verse in the entire book; see below).
The four titles
| Title | Frequency | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Son of Man | ~14 occurrences in chs 46, 48, 62, 63, 69, 70, 71 | The figure's primary identifier in chs 46 ff. Echoes Dan 7:13. |
| Elect One | ~16 occurrences | The figure as God's chosen agent. |
| Righteous One | a few occurrences | The figure as embodiment of righteousness. Picked up at Acts 7:52. |
| Anointed One | 2 occurrences (1 En 48:10; 52:4) | Messianic title — Greek christos equivalent. |
These four titles refer to one figure, applied for varying narrative purposes.
The Dan 7 background
The phrase "Son of Man" (Hebrew ben adam; Aramaic bar enash) carries multiple resonances in Hebrew Bible literature:
- In Ezekiel, the prophet is addressed as "son of man" — a way of marking him as human/mortal.
- In Psalms, "son of man" is parallel to "man" — generic humanity.
- In Daniel 7:13, the phrase takes a sudden cosmic turn: "I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven."
Daniel's "one like a son of man" is brought before the Ancient of Days and given "dominion, and glory, and a kingdom." This is the verse the Parables author is reading. The Parables figure is the Danielic Son of Man given a more developed identity — pre-existence, enthronement, name, function.
How this connects to the New Testament
Jesus calls himself "the Son of Man" in the Gospels — about 80 times, almost exclusively self-referentially. The phrase is so frequent and so distinctive that scholars have asked: what kind of "Son of Man" is Jesus claiming to be?
Three options have dominated:
- The generic "human one" reading (Geza Vermes, 1973). Jesus simply means "I" or "a man like me."
- The Daniel 7 reading. Jesus identifies himself with the figure in Daniel 7:13 who comes with the clouds.
- The Parables-Enoch reading. Jesus identifies himself with the developed Son of Man of 1 Enoch 37–71 — pre-existent, enthroned, named before the world.
Most modern critical scholars (Collins, Boccaccini, Bauckham) think the answer is some combination of (2) and (3): Jesus invoked Daniel 7 directly and indirectly drew on the Parables-developed reading. Matthew 25:31 — "the Son of man shall come in his glory... then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory" — is in vocabulary almost identical to 1 En 62:5.
The crux of 1 Enoch 71
The most actively debated verse in the Parables is 1 En 71:14, where the figure who has been called "the Son of Man" through chs 46–69 is suddenly identified to Enoch as "the Son of Man who is born unto righteousness."
Several readings:
- Identification reading (the dominant Boccaccini/Nickelsburg view): Enoch is the Son of Man. The closing scene of the Parables identifies the patriarch with the heavenly figure.
- Non-identification reading (older scholarship, James/Charles): The angel is simply announcing to Enoch that the Son of Man exists and will be the judge — not that Enoch is him.
- Compositional reading: Chapters 70–71 are a later addition that re-attributes the figure.
The debate matters because of its implication for early Christology. If 1 En 71 already identified Enoch with the Son of Man, then the New Testament's identification of Jesus with the Son of Man is following an established Jewish pattern — locating a specific human individual as the figure Daniel 7 had described.
Cross-references
- 1 Enoch 46 — Son of Man + Head of Days introduced
- 1 Enoch 48 — pre-existence
- 1 Enoch 62 — judgment
- 1 Enoch 71 — the contested identification
- Enoch
- Lord of Spirits
- Dan 7:9–14 (Hebrew Bible source)
- Matt 25:31; 26:64 (NT use)
Further reading
- J. J. Collins, The Apocalyptic Imagination (Eerdmans, 1998), ch. 6 — the standard treatment.
- G. Boccaccini (ed.), Enoch and the Messiah Son of Man (Eerdmans, 2007) — the Enoch Seminar volume devoted to this question.
- D. Boyarin, The Jewish Gospels (New Press, 2012) — popular but rigorous treatment of pre-Christian Jewish Son-of-Man theology.
- L. T. Stuckenbruck, The Myth of Rebellious Angels (Mohr Siebeck, 2014).
- G. W. E. Nickelsburg & J. C. VanderKam, 1 Enoch 2 (Hermeneia, 2012) — the standard scholarly commentary on the Parables.