The expression 'Son of Man', used in the Gospels almost exclusively by Jesus, has been the object of intensive study since the Protestant Reformation, yet scholars have come to no agreement on its origin or meaning. Research in this area has been described as 'a veritable mine field' and 'a can of worms'. Because of the scope and complexity of the literature, no comprehensive survey of the subject has been written in the twentieth century. Delbert Burkett's book fills this need. It provides a comprehensive historical overview of the debate from the patristic period to 1996, and gives an evaluation of that research and a summation of the present state of the question. Burkett concludes that despite nineteen centuries of 'Son of Man' study there is no consensus concerning the meaning or origin of the expression; the debate is therefore a prime example of the limits of New Testament scholarship.

Cliffe Knechtle offers clear, reasoned and compassionate responses to the tough questions skeptics ask.

When world-class biblical scholar Bart Ehrman first began to study the texts of the Bible in their original languages he was startled to discover the multitude of mistakes and intentional alterations that had been made by earlier translators. In Misquoting Jesus, Ehrman tells the story behind the mistakes and changes that ancient scribes made to the New Testament and shows the great impact they had upon the Bible we use today. He frames his account with personal reflections on how his study of the Greek manuscripts made him abandon his once ultraconservative views of the Bible. Since the advent of the printing press and the accurate reproduction of texts, most people have assumed that when they read the New Testament they are reading an exact copy of Jesus's words or Saint Paul's writings. And yet, for almost fifteen hundred years these manuscripts were hand copied by scribes who were deeply influenced by the cultural, theological, and political disputes of their day. Both mistakes and intentional changes abound in the surviving manuscripts, making the original words difficult to reconstruct. For the first time, Ehrman reveals where and why these changes were made and how scholars go about reconstructing the original words of the New Testament as closely as possible. Ehrman makes the provocative case that many of our cherished biblical stories and widely held beliefs concerning the divinity of Jesus, the Trinity, and the divine origins of the Bible itself stem from both intentional and accidental alterations by scribes -- alterations that dramatically affected all subsequent versions of the Bible.

The Son of Man sayings are some of the most contested sayings in the Gospels. They preserve a phrase employed by Jesus to refer to himself, yet the meaning of the saying in its various contexts has been hotly debated for centuries. Some identify allusions to other literature in the bible, including the book of Daniel. Others see it as simply being a strange rendering in Greek of an Aramaic phrase that was relatively commonplace. The history of research on these sayings is here presented by Benjamin E. Reynolds in a volume of critical readings, which provides access to over 50 years of scholarly research. These essays and articles include the most often cited articles that address the various aspects of the Son of Man debate. In addition to these most well-known pieces Reynolds includes carefully selected additional essays that allow readers to trace different developments in the debate and to provide an entry into the waters of 'the Son of Man Problem' and the numerous solutions that have been offered. Each section features an introduction and a section of annotated further readings.