'Son of Man' in Psalm 80 V. 17

'Son of Man' in Psalm 80 V. 17Author(s): David HillSource: Novum Testamentum, Vol. 15, Fasc. 4 (Oct., 1973), pp. 261-269Published by: BRILLStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1560265 .

Accessed: 15/06/2014 03:30

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

BRILL is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Novum Testamentum.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.49 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 03:30:17 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=bap

http://www.jstor.org/stable/1560265?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


'SON OF MAN' IN PSALM 80 v. 17

BY

DAVID HILL Sheffield, England

Few, if any, of the recent discussions of the background to the use of the 'Son of man' designation in the New Testament give more than a passing reference to Ps. lxxx 17. Typical in its almost off- hand dismissal of the passage is the comment by R. H. FULLER: "While it has a possible bearing on the origin of the Son of man within Judaism, it is ... irrelevant to the New Testament usage of the term Son of man. For this particular psalm is never quoted in the New Testament" 1). It is indeed true that Ps. lxxx is not quoted in the New Testament, but from time to time voices have been raised in support of the suggestion that the vine-image as employed in the psalm may have had some influence on New Testament passages and that v. 17 in particular is not irrelevant to the New Testament usage of the 'Son of man' title. For instance, M. BLACK has hinted recently that the allegory of the desolated vine and vineyard for which restoration is implored in Ps. lxxx may provide a more satisfactory background for the figure of the vineyard in Mk xii I-I2 than that of the deserted and hopelessly doomed vineyard of Isa. v 2),-a suggestion which merits serious consideration in view of the fact that the allegory of Isa. v contributes nothing to the Markan pericope and its meaning apart from the detailed description of the arrangement and care of the vineyard in v. I, and that could well be editorial3), whereas the significant association of vineyard and

1) The Foundations of New Testament Christology, p. 42. F. H. BORSCH, The Son of Man in Myth and History, gives some attention to the passage (pp. II6 f.) in the course of his immense survey of possible background material for the interpretation of the title: likewise C. COLPE, T.W.N.T., viii, p. 410, who dismisses its relevance. The works of F. HAHN and H. E. TODT have nothing at all to say on the text.

2) "The Christological Use of the Old Testament in the New Testament", NTS, XVIII (I971-72), 13, note 3.

3) "The assimilation of the wording to that of Isa. v i and 2 (very close in the Greek) is no doubt the work of the Evangelist, or one of his pre- decessors", D. E. NINEHAM, St. Mark, p. 3II.

Novum Testamentum, Vol. XV, fasc. 4



DAVID HILL

'son' could be indebted, at least in part, to Ps. lxxx. As to the

importance of this psalm in relation to the use and meaning of the 'Son of man' title in the New Testament C. H. DODD is in no doubt. In The Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel he declares that "If we

single out any one passage in the Old Testament which might be re-

garded as the scriptural basis for the Johannine idea of the Son of

Man, Ps. lxxix (lxxx) would take precedence of Dan. vii" 1), be- cause of the presence there-in the LXX, if not in the Hebrew-of the parallelism between 'son of man' and the 'vine' (= Israel) which DODD thinks is implied in the evangelist's first use of the title in

Jn i 5I. An even stronger affirmation of the relevance of the psalm was made by DODD in the course of his study of the substructure of New Testament theology: it merits quotation in full.

There is here [Ps. lxxx] no passage expressly quoted in the New Testament, but the figure of the Vine, which is also the Son of Man and the Man of God's right hand, combines ideas which in the New Testament are so organic- ally united in the person of Christ that it is impossible to suppose the parallel accidental. Indeed Ps. lxxx 17, which identifies "God's right-hand Man" (the one who "sits at God's right hand") with the divinely strengthened "Son of Man" might well be regarded as providing direct scriptural justification for the fusion of the two figures in Mk xiv 62. More clearly here, perhaps, than anywhere else except in the treatment of Dan. vii, can we see the process by which the corporate and the individual elements are united in early Christian thought about Christ 2).

The attractiveness of DODD'S appeals to Ps. lxxx depends, to a con- siderable extent, on the identification of the 'man' figure with the vine, which symbolizes Israel. This equation is certainly implied in the LXX, and that fact may justify DODD'S use of it in elucidating Christological passages in the New Testament. But the identification has been questioned by many engaged in study of the Psalms, and the probability increases that 'son of man'/'man of thy right hand' denotes an individual, the leader and representative of Israel, i.e. the king 3). The passage concerned is as follows (RSV):

14 (M.T. I5) Turn again, O God of hosts! Look down from heaven and see; have regard for this vine,

1) P. 245, note I. Later in the book (p. 41I) DODD suggests that the vine-

allegory in Jn xv I-5 may owe much to the content of this Psalm. 2) According to the Scriptures, pp. 101-2.

3) It must be admitted that DODD is not unaware of this view: op. cit., p. IOI, note i.

262



'SON OF MAN' IN PSALM 80 V. 17

15 (i6) the stock 1) which thy right hand planted (and upon the son (..) whom thou hast

reared for thyself) 2). 16 (17) They have burned it with fire, they have cut

it down; may they perish at the rebuke of thy countenance!

17 (i8) But let thy hand be upon the man of thy righthand the son of man whom thou has made strong for

thyself J .7. R :8X.-_ |"[.. '.J -_n F..-t'1 3).

18 (I9) Then we will never turn back from thee; give us life, and we will call on thy name!

There can be no doubt that the 'vine' stands for Israel: else- where in the Old Testament the image of the vine is so employed (e.g. Hos. x I; Jer. ii 2I, vi 9, viii 13; Ezek. xv 6, xvii 6 ff., xix Io ff.); and vs. 8 ff. of this psalm clearly refer to Israel, brought out of Egypt, planted in a region from which the nations had been driven forth, but now, by reason of the divine displeasure, afflicted

1) 'Stock' represents ;#1 interpreted as a noun (the equivalent of Syriac kana, "root"): LXX has xac xarTprtaol ocaurv which might presuppose rnInl (from 13., "establish"). Perhaps we ought to read n1, "garden".

2) RSV margin. Many regard these words as a dittography and corruption of v. 18 b (M.T.) which interrupts the metrical structure of the poem. If so, it may represent, as COLPE suggests (T.W.N.T., viii, p. 4Io). a collectivising of an originally individualistic understanding of W7-1], whereby I6 b (at the end of the vine-allegory) and, as a result, I8 b are both applied to Israel. It should be said, however, that whether original or secondary, I in I6 b could be interpreted as meaning "twig" (cf. Gen. xlix 22 where lnM ][ means

"twig of a fruitful tree"), there being then a three-fold agricultural image- vine, shoot, twig.

3) In an article probably not well-known among New Testament scholars, "Break-up of stereotype phrases as an artistic device in Hebrew Poetry" (Scripta Hierosolymitana, ed. C. RABIN, Jerusalem, I96I, II5-53), E. Z. MELAMED claims that (i) in poetical parts of the Old Testament the full Hebrew form for "human being", QN'-12 W31N (i.e. man, the son of man) is broken up into its two components, "man", t1zl, (replaced by 8" in a few places including Ps. lxxx 17) and "son of man"; and (ii) in some poetical texts "right hand" is also broken up into "hand" and "right (one)", again including Ps. lxxx I7. Accordingly the natural division of the verse according to the literal sense is "Let thy hand be on the man/thy right on the son of man", which means "Let thy right hand be on the son of men (i.e. the human being) thou has made strong..." If this division of the Hebrew were to be accepted-and it has been missed by the translators of the LXX and the composers of the Targum, to say nothing of modern commentators- it would deprive the appearance of 'son of man' in Ps. lxxx of much of its significance for interpretation, and there would be no 'man of Yahweh's right hand'. But, even so, the 'human being' of MELAMED'S interpretation would presumably be an individual, and possibly the king.

263



DAVID HILL

by enemies. The opening verses of the prayer for the restoration of divine favour are concerned with the vine, the stock (or shoot) of Yahweh's planting, i.e. with Israel. V. I6 then invokes retri- bution on the nation's enemies: but it is hard to avoid the impression that v. 17 requests Yahweh's blessing on an individual man (the normal, if not the necessary reference in the tn-r1./.K1 parallelism), and in particular a person through whom the entire people will find renewal. Moreover, the phrase 'man of thy right hand' 1) strongly recalls Ps. cx I, the king who sits at Yahweh's right hand. Only if v. I5 b were original and if p at that point meant 'son' and not

'twig'-and these assumptions underlie the LXX version-would it be likely that v. 17 referred to Israel, which is called Yahweh's 'son' in Hos. xi I, but nowhere described as 'the man of his right hand'. The impression ought not to be given that the interpretations of 'son of man' as indicating either the king or Israel are entirely exclusive of one another: in Hebrew thought the king is representative of the whole people, and the line of thought in vs. I4-I8 here itself suggests that the 'man' figure of v. 17 is the one through whose pre- servation and protection by Yahweh the nation hopes to regain confidence and vitality.

The interpretation of Ps. lxxx I7 as referring to the king is de- fended by A. GELSTON in a recent article which is concerned to suggest how 'son of man' came to be associated with the Messiah 2). His argument is summed up in these words: "the use of 'son of man' in Ps. lxxx 17 of the king, later understood as the Messiah, paved the way for the later interpretation of Dan. vii I3 in messianic terms alike by Jesus and by Jews" 3). Although we welcome this fresh attempt to direct attention to Ps. lxxx 17, we regret that GELSTON's statement of his thesis is ambiguous and perhaps mis- leading. Granted the possibility that the messianic interpretation of Dan. vii 13 by Jews is not pre-Christian 4), GELSTON seems to be

1) It does not seem likely that GUNKEL has done full justice to the significance of the phrase when he claims that ." . "t is simply an allusion to Benjamin (= "son of the right hand"), already mentioned in v. 2.

2) "A Sidelight on the 'Son of Man"', SJT XXII (1969), 189-96. 3) Op. cit., I96. 4) This is the position taken by GELSTON (op. cit., 191) following G. F.

MOORE, Judaism, ii, pp. 334 ff., who reviews the relevant material and declares: "Someone who rejoiced in a divinatory faculty might even be tempted to guess that Dan. vii 9-I4 was taken messianically in the first century. ." (p. 337), by which, we think, he wishes to imply that the sug-

264




saying that the messianic understanding of 'son of man'/king in Ps. lxxx preceded Jesus' interpretation of the Danielic 'son of man' in messianic terms 1). But this is a most improbable view. The evidence for the messianic understanding of 'son of man' in Ps. lxxx is found in the Targum, where v n:/13: (= Pm-/7,. M.T.) in v. I8 is identified as Kn'Ft "n)n in v. I6 where 17 appears in the Hebrew. But the Targums on the Hagiographa, as known to us, are of late date and, although features of the Targums on Psalms and Proverbs suggest that they are earlier than those for other books in this group 2), it would be rash to suggest that even they in their present form belong to a time before the third or fourth century A.D., though the age of the traditions they contain may be older. Is GELSTON then simply suggesting that the designation of the king in Ps. lxxx as 'son of man' (before his identification in the Targum with Messiah) paved the way for the later messianic interpretation of Dan. vii 13 ? But how could it have done so unless there was a messianic sense attributable to this particular reference to the king: an allusion to the king is not in itself necessarily messianic. We now propose to suggest that what Ps. xxx says of the king may itself contain, or could have been interpreted justifiably as containing messianic overtones, apart altogether from the explicit targumic identification of the 'son' (jg).

V. i8 b (M.T.) speaks of the 'son of man' ( =king) as the one "whom thou (Yahweh) hast made strong for thyself ("1 nst.)" The piel of rt, appears again-and, with one interesting exception3), only in these two places-with reference to a person at Ps. lxxxix 22

gestion is not very probable. For a contrary view, based on the same passages, see R. T. FRANCE, Jesus and the Old Testament, pp. I79-83, I85-88. The crucial evidence may be in the Similitudes of Enoch, of still uncertain date. Even if the evidence for the Jewish understanding of Dan. vii 13 in messianic terms is dated later than the time of Jesus, we cannot be sure how long the tra- dition was in existence before its appearance in written form. The Christian use of the Danielic 'son of man' in a messianic sense would not have encour- aged Jews to employ it in this way, if they had not done so earlier.

1) Whether or not Jesus was indebted to Dan. vii 13 and borrowed 'son of man' as a messianic designation from the passage is an open question now in view of the recent work by R. LEIVESTAD, ASTI VI (I968), 49-105, and NTS XVIII (1971-72), 243-67. We are not prejudging the matter here, only examining GELSTON'S argument.

2) Cf. J. BOWKER, The Targums and Rabbinic Literature, p. 14, and W. BACHER, Jewish Encyclopaedia, vol. xii, pp. 62-3.

3) Isa. xli IO, which will be introduced later in this study.

265



DAVID HILL

(M.T.) which describes Yahweh's promised relation to David, "and my arm shall strengthen him (a_s.n '.il- 1_)" . The context is

illuminating. V. 22 comes from that section of Ps. lxxxix which recalls and extensively elaborates the oracle of Nathan (2 Sam. vii 8-i6) in which is embedded the origin and legitimation of Israel's messianic hope 1). The one whom Yahweh undertakes to strengthen is the messianic prototype. If we ask what is meant by this 'strengthening' it may be affirmed that it includes pre-eminently the securing of David's authority as king (2 Sam. vii 13; Ps. lxxxix 20, 36 f.) and the establishment of the father-son relationship (2 Sam. vii I4; Ps. lxxxix 26 f.) with all that it implies in terms of divine help and faithfulness. Now these two aspects of the kingship- ideology and the actions which give effect to them are probably pre- supposed in Ps. 80 as the means by which Yahweh has strengthened the 'son of man'/king to carry out his divinely-given task, for the term 'son' may allude to the ceremony of anointing (cf. Ps. ii 7) and 'man of thy right hand' recalls, as we have said, the language of enthronement (Ps. cx I) 2). The virtually unique parallel in the usage of rya in Pss. lxxx and lxxxix lends further weight to the view that the phrase 'son of man' in the former denotes the king and it may suggest that the reference to the 'strengthening' of this 'son of man' may carry with it-at least for the observant interpreter 3)-some of the messianic overtones which belong to the promise in the oracle of Nathan, as adapted in Ps. lxxxix.

If there was no other justification for relating Ps. lxxxix to Ps. lxxx than a single verbal parallel, however interesting and significant, the case for doing so would be weak. In fact, there are other points of general and particular similarity between these two psalms 4). In both there is expressed a striking contrast between the glorious past and a calamitous present. In Ps. lxxx,

1) G. VON RAD, Old Testament Theology, i, p. 310. 2) Cf. J. SCHREINER, T.W.A.T. (Band I), pp. 348-49. The exact shade of

meaning attaching to "let thy hand be upon the man. ." is hard to define: it cannot be understood in terms of judgment, but rather of blessing or in- spiration.

3) It would require only the implementation of one or more (and mainly the second, i.e. gezera shawah) of Hillel's hermeneutical rules. Most of these rules are a matter of common sense, and probably existed long before Hillel's time: cf. J. BOWKER, op. cit., pp. 315-I6.

4) These are set out by 0. EISSFELDT, "Psalm lxxx und Psalm lxxxix", Kleine Schriften, iv, pp. 132-36. The article makes no mention of the striking parallel in the use of 1R?.

266




under the image of the vine, the impressive strength and growth of Israel "to the sea .. and to the River" is compared with its

present state of desolation (vs. 8-I3). In Ps. lxxxix the blessedness of David's reign and the promise of lasting security for his throne

(vs. 3-4, 19-37) is contrasted with the humiliation to which the

reigning successor to David has been subjected (vs. 38-45)1). Within this general similarity of theme there are a number of remarkable

linguistic parallels which are even clearer in the Hebrew texts.

Compare Ps. lxxx II (M.T. I2)-"It (the vine = Israel) sent out its branches to the sea, and its shoots to the River"-with Ps. lxxxix 25 (M.T. 26)-"I will set his (David's) hand on the sea and his right hand on the rivers". Again, Ps. lxxx I2 (13), "Why has thou broken down its (Israel's) walls, so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit" is paralleled in Ps. lxxxix 40 f. (4I f.), "Thou hast breached all his (the king's) walls ... All that pass by despoil him". And thirdly, the words of lament over Israel in Ps. lxxx 6 (7), "Thou dost make us the scorn of our neighbours; and our enemies laugh among themselves "are recalled by Ps. lxxxix 41 f. (42 f), with reference to the humiliated king, "He has become the scorn of his neigbours ... thou has made all his enemies rejoice".

These parallels can hardly be regarded as a matter of coincidence: but they do not permit us to advocate the dependence of one Psalm on the other. Rather, they suggest that what we are dealing with is a common type of, and common expressions within, lament- utterances occasioned by moments of grave national crisis 2), Ps. Ixxx

referring to afflictions of the northern kingdom, perhaps after the fall of Samaria, or in the period between 732 and 722 (so EISSFELDT), and Psalm lxxxix, if it reflects a historical situation rather than a cultic 3), being associated with some grievous situation in the history of the southern kingdom when the Davidic covenant and dynasty was particularly threatened. Ps. lxxx places confidence in the plea that Yahweh will grant to the 'son of man whom he has

strengthened for himself' the power to be the mediator of salvation

through whom Israel will be restored: he is the focus of the nation's expectation of a renewal of its erstwhile glory. And Ps. lxxxix

1) Attempts to divide the psalm into two or three independent sections are not convincing: cf. J. M. WARD, "The literary form and liturgical background of Ps. lxxxix", VT XI (1961), 321-39.

2) Cf. EISSFELDT, op. cit., p. I35. 3) If it is a cultic psalm, the king is suffering ritual humiliation, and the

appropriate setting would be the autumn festival.

267



DAVID HILL

affirms its hope that the covenant will be remembered by declaring again Nathan's promise that it is David and his successors on the throne to whom Yahweh gives help, supplies power 1), and provides strength. But the demand and confidence that Yahweh would

strengthen (]rz) his chosen agent remained alive after the crises reflected in these Psalms. In the time of exile the prophet Isaiah

proclaims this message to Israel: "Fear not, for I am with you, be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you (,.ns.), I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand"

(Isa. xli Io). What was once promised to and sought for David and his successors in the kingship is now reaffirmed in relation to the servant of Yahweh, the chosen people, Israel.

The many similarities between the two Psalms we have been

discussing and, in particular, the apparently special use of YnK in connection with kingship permit us to consider together Ps. Ixxx I7 and Ps. lxxxix 2I and to suggest that the tn-x. whom

Yahweh has "strengthened" was open to interpretation in terms of the promise to David, in an expansion of the messianic oracle, that "Yahweh will strengthen him". What is made explicit in the Tar-

gum, viz. that the 'son of man' in Ps. lxxx 17 is to be identified as the king Messiah, was already in some sense implied in the passage itself and could have been deduced therefrom very much earlier than its targumic documentation. In commenting on the fact that later scribes and teachers sometimes gave a messianic interpretation to Ps. viii 4 f., Ps. lxxx 15 ff., and Dan. vii I3 f. F. H. BORSCH has this to say 2):

It is, however, impossible now to tell whether this results from their know- ledge of the earlier relationships [i.e. between the 'man' figure and royal, messianic categories], their sound contextual exegesis and awareness of the nuances of the terms and descriptive language there given, or the influence of contemporary interest ... in the Man-Son of Man figure. The second alter- native appears the more probable to us, with possibly a trace of the others....

We think that we have provided some evidence to support BORSCH'S view: "awareness of the nuances of the terms and descriptive language" may well have allowed quite early interpreters of Ps.

1) V. 21 a is so interpreted by M. DAHOOD, The Psalms, ii, p. 316; cf. J. T. MILIK, "Fragment d'une source du Psautier", RB LXXIII (I966), 99, for a different reading.

2) Op. cit., p. I6i.

268



'SON OF MAN' IN PSALM 80 V. 17 269

lxxx 17 to discover the messianic sense which is attributable to that reference to 'son of man'. Could this be one source for the

understanding of Dan. vii 13 in messianic terms? One final obser- vation: if there is any substance in this suggestion that, by reason of the use of a special term in the language of the kingship ideology, there is an implicitly messianic reference in Ps. lxxx 17, then there is provided to 'son of man' certain important accompanying ideas: this 'son of man' is humiliated, but remains the focus of hope; as

king, he is an individual, but represents the whole people, to whom, as his chosen Servant, Yahweh later renews his promise of strength.



Date post:	24-Jan-2017
Category:	Documents
Upload:	david-hill
View:	213 times
Download:	1 times

'Son of Man' in Psalm 80 V. 17

Documents