the kingdom of God."
This kingdom was approaching, and it was he, Jesus, who was that "Son
of Man" whom Daniel had beheld in his vision as the divine herald of
the last and supreme revelation.

[Footnote 1: Luke iii. 23; Gospel of the Ebionites, in Epiph., _Adv.
Haer._, xxx. 13.]

[Footnote 2: John i. 37, and following.]

We must remember, that in the Jewish ideas, which were averse to art
and mythology, the simple form of man had a superiority over that of
_Cherubs_, and of the fantastic animals which the imagination of the
people, since it had been subjected to the influence of Assyria, had
ranged around the Divine Majesty. Already in Ezekiel,[1] the Being
seated on the supreme throne, far above the monsters of the
mysterious chariot, the great revealer of prophetic visions, had the
figure of a man. In the book of Daniel, in the midst of the vision of
the empires, represented by animals, at the moment when the great
judgment commences, and when the books are opened, a Being "like unto
a Son of Man," advances toward the Ancient of days, who confers on him
the power to judge the world, and to govern it for eternity.[2] _Son
of Man_, in the Semitic languages, especially in the Aramean dialects,
is a simple synonym of _man_. But this chief passage of Daniel struck
the mind; the words, _Son of Man_, became, at least in certain
schools,[3] one of the titles of the Messiah, regarded as judge of the
world, and as king of the new era about to be inaugurated.[4] The
application which Jesus made of it to himself was therefore the
proclamation of his Messiahship, and the affirmation of the coming
catastrophe in which he was to figure as judge, clothed with the full
powers which had been delegated to him by the Ancient of days.[5]

[Footnote 1: Chap. i. 5, 26, and following.]

[Footnote 2: Daniel vii. 13, 14; comp. viii. 15, x. 16.]

[Footnote 3: In John xii. 34, the Jews do not appear to be aware of
the meaning of this word.]

[Footnote 4: Book of Enoch, xlvi. 1-3, xlviii. 2, 3, lxii. 9, 14, lxx.
1 (division of Dilmann); Matt. x. 23, xiii. 41, xvi. 27, 28, xix. 28,
xxiv. 27, 30, 37, 39, 44, xxv. 31, xxvi. 64; Mark xiii. 26, xiv. 62;
Luke xii. 40, xvii. 24, 26, 30, xxi. 27, 36, xxii. 69; _Acts_ vii. 55.
But the most significant passage is John v. 27, compared with _Rev._
i. 13, xiv. 14. The expression "Son of woman," for the Messiah, occurs
once in the book of Enoch, lxii. 5.]

[Footnote 5: John v. 22, 27.]

The succe