Commenting
on Jesus’ use of illeism (wherein a person refers to themselves in the
third-person), including his “Son of Man” sayings, Roderick Elledge noted the
following:
Jesus’s words affirm and characterize his
relationship with the Father. The distance between speaker and the
self-referent created by the illeism offers a subtle contribution to Jesus’s
presentation of his transcendent nature that he shares with the Father. While
at times Jesus speaks of himself in the first person in relation to the Father,
the choice of illeism emphasizes “the Son,” “the Son of Man,” and “the Son of
God” in parallel (third-person) presentation with the Father. This dissociative
third-person self-presentation in conjunction with another third-person
referent does not inherently imply equality of status between the two. Yet, in
this context, the choice to present both his own identity in the third person
and the Father in the third person alludes to their shared transcendent nature.
Apart from the illeism relating a parallel presentation of the Father and Son, the
illeism in itself functions to highlight the authority and status of the
speaker. The context of the illeism highlights this authority. Jesus states: “The
dead will hear the voice of the Son of
God.” The presentation of himself from this external perspective offers an
emphasis of this associated authority in a manner which the first-person
pronoun would not.
John 6:46 and 17:3 are two additional representative
texts that reflect illeism in a similar context in John’s Gospel. In 6:46 Jesus
(presenting himself as the bread of God that comes down from heaven) states
that “no one has seen the Father, except the
one who is from God” (ο ων παρα του θεου). This reference reflects a more descriptive
aspect in comparison to “the Son,” “the Son of Man,” etc. Yet, the rhetorical
effect of the self-reference is consistent with Jesus’s other self-references.
The distance created between the speaker and the reference functions to
emphasize the associated status and authority of the speaker. In John 17:1-3,
Jesus refers to himself illeistically as he prayers to the Father. “And this is
eternal life that they may know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (ον απεστειλας ‘Ισουν
Χριστον). This is
the only occurrence of the use of this reference by Jesus. The context is
unique in that Jesus’s audience is the Father. Yet, Jesus also speaks to
another audience indirectly. Ridderbos underscores how Jesus involves the “overhearing
disciples” in his prayer, “depicting before their eyes the power given him by
the Father in its full salvific meaning, as it concerned them” (The Gospel According to John: A Theological
Commentary [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1997], 549). Though the prayer
is directed to the Father, the illeism contributes to Jesus’s self-presentation
to his disciples. Consistent with his other uses of illeism, the dissociative
self-reference presents himself from an external perspective, affirming his
status and authority in a way the first-person reference could not. Yet, within
the context of this emphasis of identity, the choice of illeism on the part of
Jesus seems to reflect an instructional component, his words serving to teach
and illuminate the disciples developing understanding of who he is. (Roderick
Elledge, Use of Third Person for
Self-Reference by Jesus and Yahweh: A Study of Illeism in the Bible and Ancient
Near Eastern Texts and Its Implications for Christology [Library of New
Testament Studies 575; London: T&T Clark, 2018], 128-30)
