This post, much like my last one, represents some brief notes that I made on the topic of the title “son of man” as it appears in the Old Testament as well as in later Second Temple Jewish writings preceding the coming of Christ. As the title is frequently applied to Christ in the New Testament, it is interesting to look at where it came from as well as why Christ as well as early Christians employed it.  These notes are certainly not comprehensive as well as don’t even discuss some of the an estimated all interesting evidence, but, on behalf of whatever their worth, I thought I’d post them here.

The title “Son of Man,” a title that Jesus often uses to address himself in the Gospels, has an extensive history of utilize in both the Hebrew Bible as well as Second Temple Jewish literature. “Son of man” is a common Semitic expression that appears to be used to refer to refer to any human being. In Ezekiel, the prophet is repeatedly referred to as “son of man.” In Psalm 80:17, it seems to have a somewhat more specific use:  ”Let your hand be on the man of your right hand, On the son of man whom you made strong on behalf of yourself.&

In recent studies on behalf of school, I have had to look into the subject of the “mystery” cults that existed in numerous parts of the ancient world in the early Christian era. I just wanted to post a brief description of what these mystery religions entailed, as I found them very interesting as well as think some of you may as well.
Demeter as well as Persephone, Eleusinian Mysteries Initiation Relief
The mystery religions, or cults, involved initiation into secret rites as well as the performance of sacred dramas that presented the initiate with hidden knowledge pertaining to the afterlife as well as the gods. Often there was a promise of immortality resulting from initiation into the cult. The Greek word “musterion” here means “secret rite or teaching,” as well as a “mystes” was one who had been initiated. Many times, these cults were not religions, per se, but were groups attached to more mainstream belief systems. The mystery cults were very widespread, being found in various cultures as well as times, the an estimated all famous being the Eleusinian, Orphic, Dionysian, Cybellic, as well as Mithric.Read more >>>

I recently returned (got back 1:00 am this morning) from the Regional American Academy of Religion/ Society of Biblical Literature conference on behalf of the Upper Midwest Region (held at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, MN). These smaller regional conferences are a great place to meet students as well as professors in your area who are studying topics involving religion.  They are also a great venue on behalf of students to present research they have done — a number of my fellow students from Marquette University presented papers there. I had the opportunity to give a presentation on some of the research I’ve been doing on the Priesthood in the Old Testament — a version of the paper that I presented at the SANE conference at BYU in November (for more on this, see here).
Interestingly, a gentleman approached me at the end of my presentation as well as requested if I was LDS.  I answered in the affirmative, wondering if it was all of the talk of Melchizedek as well as his priesthood that gave me away. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the man’s name, as well as he hurried on his way, so I don’t know if he was also LDS or not.  It is great, though

I would be doing you a great disservice if I didn’t alert you to the fact that David Bokovoy, a PhD candidate at Brandeis University, has set up an exciting new blog at www.davidbokovoy.com.  You should recognize the name from a number of great recent publications through FARMS (of The Maxwell Institute at Brigham Young University). If you haven’t had the possibility to see them, go here: http://farms.byu.edu/authors/?authorID=76
He also has a book out, written combined with LDS scripture scholar John Tvedtnes, referred to as Testaments: Links between the Book of Mormon as well as the Hebrew Bible. For more on this work, see Jeff Lindsay’s review of it here: http://mormanity.blogspot.com/2005/08/recommended-reading-bokovoy-and.html

For a lovely summary of Bokovoy’s lively exchange with evangelical Hebrew Bible scholar Michael S. Heiser over Psalm 82 as well as what we should understand by the phrase “Ye are gods,” see here:  http://heartissuesforlds.wordpress.com/2007/11/23/heiser-and-bokovoy-exchange-introduction/ <

Hebrew University scholar Rachel Elior (author of The Three Temples), has recently made news on behalf of declaring that the Dead Sea Scrolls were not written by Essenes. In fact, according to Elior, there never were any Essenes at all. Josephus (and a number of ancient writers) made them up in order to create a mystique of the optimum super-Jewish community.
You can read the (very hyped up) Time article at the following link:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1885421,00.html?cnn=yes?iid=perma_share
Elior’s firm stand on this has created a stir in the scholarly community, but probably not as much as the media is portraying.  It is true that numerous scholars take the idea that the sectarian group that lived at Qumran were Essenes, but there certainly is no consensus on this issue.  The idea that the Qumran community didn’t consist of Essenes is certainly not new. Norman Golb as well as Larry Schiffman are among the numerous scholars who have previously theorized that the Dead Sea Scrolls had nothing to do with Essenes.<