Monday, January 25, 2016

Does Jesus' Claim to be the Son of Man Affirm His Deity? Catching Yahya Snow in a Contradiction

I recently had some back and forth (see here and here) with Muslim YouTube polemicist Yahya Snow regarding Jesus' self-identification by the title "Son of Man", a clear reference back to Daniel 7:13-14 in which Daniel sees a vision of a divine-human figure. Yahya Snow insists that the Son of Man is a personification of the nation of Israel, and cannot possibly refer to a person who is God. As I mentioned previously, the Greek Septuagint translation tells us that the Son of Man receives latreuo from all nations. Latreuo is the very highest form of worship and religious service. In Yahya Snow's recent video on whether Jesus allowed His disciples to worship Him (which I addressed in my previous article here), he shows a clip of Ali Ataie talking about the two Greek words that are used for worship -- proskuneo and latreuo. Ataie concedes that latreuo is a form of worship reserved for God alone. Yet here is the problem: Jesus claimed to be the Son of Man, who, according to the Greek Septuagint translation of Daniel 7:14, receives latreuo. But Yahya insists that Jesus' claim to be the Son of Man is not a claim to deity. Yahya Snow thus appears to have been caught in a contradiction.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Jonathan,
Thank you for your excellent and encouraging work.
I don't believe that the word 'latreuo' is used in the Greek Septuagint in Daniel 7:14. Please see my comment-5th comment I believe- in your past article about the Son of Man. There are, of course, other good Scriptural reasons to support Christ's diety.
Any comments would be welcome.
Warm Christian greetings
Tolis

Jonathan McLatchie said...

Thanks, Tolis, for your comment. There are different versions of the Septuagint, but the oldest versions all definitely translate the Aramaic word pelach in Daniel 7:14 as latreuo.

Jonathan

Unknown said...

That's great to know Jonathan! Thank you for letting me know. Tolis