The phrase “Son of Man” appears numerous times in the Bible, primarily in the Old Testament (Hebrew: בֶּן־אָדָם, ben-adam) and the New Testament (Greek: υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, huios tou anthrōpou).
For a translation that stays as close as possible to the original Hebrew and Greek texts with a precise, literal approach, the New American Standard Bible (NASB) is widely regarded as one of the most accurate and formal equivalence translations available. It prioritizes word-for-word fidelity over readability, making it ideal for reflecting the original languages’ structure and meaning. Below, I’ll provide the verses where “Son of Man” appears, replacing it with the Hebrew (ben-adam, or bar-enash in Daniel 7:13 Aramaic) or Greek (huios tou anthrōpou), using the NASB as the base text. I’ll again focus on key instances across the Old and New Testaments, aiming for comprehensiveness while avoiding excessive repetition (e.g., Ezekiel’s 93 uses).
Old Testament (Hebrew: ben-adam, Aramaic: bar-enash)
Numbers
- Numbers 23:19
- “God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a ben-adam, that He should repent; has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?”
Job
- Job 25:6
- “How much less man, that maggot, and the ben-adam, that worm!”
Psalms
- Psalm 8:4
- “What is man that You take thought of him, and the ben-adam that You care for him?”
- Psalm 80:17
- “Let Your hand be upon the man of Your right hand, upon the ben-adam whom You made strong for Yourself.”
Isaiah
- Isaiah 51:12
- “I, even I, am He who comforts you. Who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, and of the ben-adam who is made like grass*,”
*chatzir = “grass” (can also mean “herb” or “green growth,” often symbolizing transience in the Old Testament, e.g., Psalm 90:5, Isaiah 40:6-8).
Jeremiah
- Jeremiah 49:18
- “As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah with its neighbors,” says the Lord, “no one will live there, nor will a ben-adam dwell in it.”
Ezekiel (93 occurrences, examples below)
- Ezekiel 2:1
- “Then He said to me, ‘ben-adam, stand on your feet that I may speak with you!’”
- Ezekiel 2:3
- “Then He said to me, ‘ben-adam, I am sending you to the sons of Israel, to a rebellious people who have rebelled against Me;’”
- Ezekiel 3:1
- “Then He said to me, ‘ben-adam, eat what you find; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.’”
- (Note: ben-adam appears consistently as God’s address to Ezekiel, e.g., 3:3, 3:4, 3:10, 4:1, etc. I’ll limit to these examples, but it totals 93 times.)
Daniel
- Daniel 7:13 (Aramaic: bar-enash)
- “I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven one like a bar-enash was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him.”
- Daniel 8:17
- “So he came near to where I was standing, and when he came I was frightened and fell on my face; but he said to me, ‘ben-adam, understand that the vision pertains to the time of the end.’”
New Testament (Greek: huios tou anthrōpou)
Matthew
- Matthew 8:20
- “Jesus said to him, ‘The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the huios tou anthrōpou has nowhere to lay His head.’”
- Matthew 9:6
- “‘But so that you may know that the huios tou anthrōpou has authority on earth to forgive sins’—then He said to the paralytic, ‘Get up, pick up your bed and go home.’”
- Matthew 24:30
- “And then the sign of the huios tou anthrōpou will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the huios tou anthrōpou coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.”
- (Other instances: 10:23, 11:19, 12:8, 12:32, 13:37, 16:27, etc.)
Mark
- Mark 2:10
- “‘But so that you may know that the huios tou anthrōpou has authority on earth to forgive sins’—He said to the paralytic,”
- Mark 8:31
- “And He began to teach them that the huios tou anthrōpou must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.”
- Mark 13:26
- “Then they will see the huios tou anthrōpou coming in clouds with great power and glory.”
- (Other instances: 2:28, 8:38, 9:9, 10:33, etc.)
Luke
- Luke 5:24
- “‘But, so that you may know that the huios tou anthrōpou has authority on earth to forgive sins,’—He said to the paralytic—‘I say to you, get up, and pick up your stretcher and go home.’”
- Luke 9:22
- “Saying, ‘The huios tou anthrōpou must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised up on the third day.’”
- Luke 21:27
- “Then they will see the huios tou anthrōpou coming in a cloud with power and great glory.”
- (Other instances: 6:5, 7:34, 9:58, 12:8, etc.)
John
- John 1:51
- “And He said to him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the huios tou anthrōpou.’”
- John 3:13
- “No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the huios tou anthrōpou.”
- John 12:34
- “The crowd then answered Him, ‘We have heard out of the Law that the Christ is to remain forever; and how can You say, “The huios tou anthrōpou must be lifted up”? Who is this huios tou anthrōpou?’”
- (Other instances: 5:27, 6:27, 6:53, 8:28, etc.)
Acts
- Acts 7:56
- “And he said, ‘Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the huios tou anthrōpou standing at the right hand of God.’”
Hebrews
- Hebrews 2:6 (quoting Psalm 8:4)
- “But one has testified somewhere, saying, ‘What is man, that You remember him? Or the huios tou anthrōpou, that You are concerned about him?’”
Revelation
- Revelation 1:13
- “And in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a huios tou anthrōpou, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and girded across His chest with a golden sash.”
- Revelation 14:14
- “Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and sitting on the cloud was one like a huios tou anthrōpou, having a golden crown on His head and a sharp sickle in His hand.”
Notes on Translation and Terms
- Hebrew (ben-adam): Literally “son of Adam” or “human being,” used in Ezekiel to emphasize the prophet’s mortality and dependence on God. In poetic books like Psalms, it often parallels “man” (enosh or ish).
- Aramaic (bar-enash): Found in Daniel 7:13, it mirrors ben-adam but introduces a figure with messianic overtones, distinct from Ezekiel’s usage.
- Greek (huios tou anthrōpou): Literally “son of the human,” a Semitic idiom carried into Greek. In the Gospels, Jesus uses it as a self-reference, blending human identity with divine authority, likely echoing Daniel 7:13.
- The NASB retains the literal phrasing of the original texts, avoiding interpretive paraphrasing (e.g., unlike the NIV, which sometimes smooths out idioms for readability).
