Jesus never referred to himself as divine. There were a couple of references to Jesus making a comment that he was a "prophet," and a few instances where he called himself "Son of Man."
But that phrase--also sometimes translated as "Son of Adam"--simply means
HUMAN BEING.
http://www.amazon.com/Human-Being-J...6&sr=1-1&keywords=walter+wink+the+human+being
The term Son of Man was not meant to point out Jesus' humanity. This is a common misunderstanding. The term "Son of Man" spoken by Jesus in his native Aramaic was
bar'enash which was the same Aramaic term used in
Daniel 7:13-14
"I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the
clouds of heaven there came one like a
son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given
dominion and glory and a
kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his
dominion is an everlasting dominion,
which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that
shall not be destroyed."
The passage says "he came to the Ancient of Days" meaning he dared to approach the very throne of God, unthinkable in the culture of that day. The Ark of the Covenant was only a symbol of God's throne and no Jew would approach that who was not cleaned ritually by washing and sprinkling. Even then there was danger. In order to understand the Bible we have to get in their minds. We cannot superimpose our 21st century Western cultural context on them.
Jesus is said to be many things. There are in him qualities that both attract and repel people so much that people would like to divide him in two and make several Christs. One is a kind humanitarian, a nice guy. The other is a rampant egomaniac with delusions of grandeur. All I can say is if Jesus was not divine or a megalomaniac he probably one of the worst communicators in history.. All he needed to do to avoid crucifixion was to explain that he did not REALLY mean he was God, but he only meant that he was a son of God like all men are sons of Adam (who was a "son of God")However, when questioned by the Sanhedrin he blew it by answering this way:
Again the high priest asked him, "Are you the Christ, the
Son of the Blessed?" And Jesus said, "I am, and you will see the Son of Man
seated at the right hand of Power, and
coming with the clouds of heaven." (
Mark 14:61-62)
Here he connects Himself to Daniel's prophecy and thereby makes a claim to deity at least this is how it was understood within the language and context of that culture. To call oneself a "son of God" will not raise many eyebrows today but when Jesus said it the Jews understood his meaning and tried to kill Him (
John 5:18). On several other occasions they also tried to kill him for similar claims to deity (
John 8:59, John 10:31) After his answer to the Sanhedrin they finally succeeded.
Jesus followers later understood the connection between Jesus' statements and Daniel's prophecy. Notice the similarity between these two passages:
(
Daniel 2:33-35 and
Revelation 11:15)