Friday, September 18, 2020

Ben Witherington vs. NT Wright and the "Corporate Personality" Reading of the Son of Man in Daniel 7

 

In response to N.T. Wright’s belief that the “Son of Man” figure in Dan 7 is not an individual, not a corporate personality, Ben Witherington provides the following criticisms of this popular but very errant belief held by many:

 

Where Wright and I appear to part company is in the interpretation of Daniel 7. Wright argues that the humanlike figure is simply a cipher for Israel as the true humanity, as opposed to the beastly pagan nations. This is a possible interpretation, but it draws on a rather dubious idea of corporate personality. It appears more likely to see that the Son of Man is seen as a representative of the beastly nations. The people of God could not simply be the new Adam; they required a representative to fulfill this role. Wright is however correct that it was indeed seen by various prophets as the vocation of God’s people to restore the whole creation, not just the Promised Land, and this meant that what happened to the Gentiles was conditioned upon what Israel was dong and what was happening to Israel . . . Wright is able to show that Josephus reflects the fact that the material in Daniel 1-12 was being seen in a messianic light in the first century A.D. 9cf. Wars 6.312-15 to Ant. 10.206-9). In particular, the combining of insights from Daniel 0:24-27 and 2:35, 44-45 seems to have led to an individualized reading of Daniel 7:13-14. This potentially could tell us a lot about Jesus’ use of the Son of Man phrase. Wright agrees that the rereading of the Daniel 7 material in 4 Ezra 13:3-13 involves an interpretation of the Son of Man figures as the Messiah, but he argues that in Daniel itself Son of Man refers to the group—the saints of the Most High (Dan 7:18, 27). I am unconvinced of this latter conclusion. The Son of Man even in Daniel 7 originally represents rather than is synonymous with the saints of the Most High. (Ben Witherington III, The Jesus Quest: The Third Search for the Jew of Nazareth [2d ed.; Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1997], 223-24, 226-27)

 

In an endnote for the above, Witherington further discussed the problems of understanding the figure as a corporate personality:

 

The notion of corporate personality goes beyond the idea of someone who is a representative or agent of a group. Thus, for instance, Wright will talk about Jesus acting as Israel, not merely acting for Israel. In the notion of corporate personality the many are included in or incorporated into the one. So, for instance, with Adam the idea would be that the seed of Adam are (seminally) present in Adam so that when Adam acts, his descendants have also acted. This idea has rightly been questioned by various scholars, especially Old Testament scholars such as J. Rogerson. It seems to involve a reading back of the idea of “being in Christ” (i.e., believers incorporated into the divine and omnipresent Christ) back into Old Testament notions about Israel and its representatives or agents. (Ibid., 313 n. 117)

 

 

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