Der 'Menschensohn' in Daniel

For about 150 years exegetes have preferred to interpret בר אנש in Dan 7,13f collectively, as a metaphor either for the people of Israel or for the eschatological kingdom of God. The reason is the alleged identification of the kingdom of that figure with the kingdom which is received by the Holy Ones of the Most High in Dan 7,18. In particular New Testament scholars are anxious to exclude any apocalyptic background for the Jesus-title "Son of Man" in the gospels (recently Hofius, ZAW 117, 73-90). But the book of Daniel uses אנש as a generic term, like other Aramaic documents (Targum of Jonathan, Aramaic texts from Qumran) and adds בר only in Dan 7,13 as an individuator to signify the single representative of humankind (cf. the analogous בר אלהין in Dan 3,25). The Parables of I Enoch, perhaps the earliest written reception of Dan 7, confirm this interpretation. In Dan 7 the expression is not yet a title, nor does it refer to the Messiah, but to a heavenly figure (Collins).