'Son of Man' in Psalm 80 V.

17
Author(s): David Hill
Source: Novum Testamentum, Vol. 15, Fasc. 4 (Oct., 1973), pp. 261-269
Published by: BRILL
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 'SON OF MAN' IN PSALM 80 v. 17

BY

DAVID HILL
Sheffield, England

Few, if any, of the recent discussionsof the backgroundto the use

of the 'Son of man' designation in the New Testament give more
than a passing reference to Ps. lxxx 17. Typical in its almost off-
hand dismissal of the passage is the comment by R. H. FULLER:
"While it has a possible bearingon the originof the Son of man with-
in Judaism, it is ... irrelevant to the New Testament usage of the
term Son of man. For this particular psalm is never quoted in the
New Testament" 1). It is indeed true that Ps. lxxx is not quoted in
the New Testament, but from time to time voices have been raised
in support of the suggestion that the vine-image as employed in the
psalm may have had some influence on New Testament passages and
that v. 17 in particularis not irrelevant to the New Testament usage
of the 'Son of man' title. For instance, M. BLACK has hinted recently
that the allegory of the desolated vine and vineyard for which
restoration is implored in Ps. lxxx may provide a more satisfactory
background for the figure of the vineyard in Mk xii I-I2 than that of
the deserted and hopelessly doomed vineyard of Isa. v 2),-a sug-
gestion which merits serious consideration in view of the fact that
the allegory of Isa. v contributes nothing to the Markanpericopeand
its meaning apart from the detailed description of the arrangement
and care of the vineyard in v. I, and that could well be
editorial3), whereas the significant association of vineyard and

1) The Foundations of New Testament Christology, p. 42. F. H. BORSCH,

The Son of Man in Myth and History, gives some attention to the passage
(pp. II6 f.) in the course of his immense survey of possible background
material for the interpretation of the title: likewise C. COLPE,T.W.N.T.,
viii, p. 410, who dismisses its relevance. The works of F. HAHN and H. E.
TODThave nothing at all to say on the text.
2) "The Christological Use of the Old Testament in the New Testament",
NTS, XVIII (I971-72), 13, note 3.
3) "The assimilation of the wording to that of Isa. v i and 2 (very close
in the Greek) is no doubt the work of the Evangelist, or one of his pre-
decessors", D. E. NINEHAM, St. Mark, p. 3II.
Novum Testamentum, Vol. XV, fasc. 4

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262 DAVID HILL

'son' could be indebted, at least in part, to Ps. lxxx. As to the

importance of this psalm in relation to the use and meaning of the
'Son of man' title in the New Testament C. H. DODD is in no doubt.
In The Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel he declares that "If we
single out any one passage in the Old Testament which might be re-
garded as the scriptural basis for the Johannine idea of the Son of
Man, Ps. lxxix (lxxx) would take precedence of Dan. vii" 1), be-
cause of the presence there-in the LXX, if not in the Hebrew-of
the parallelism between 'son of man' and the 'vine' (= Israel) which
DODD thinks is implied in the evangelist's first use of the title in
Jn i 5I. An even stronger affirmation of the relevance of the psalm
was made by DODD in the course of his study of the substructure of
New Testament theology: it merits quotation in full.

There is here [Ps. lxxx] no passage expressly quoted in the New Testament,
but the figure of the Vine, which is also the Son of Man and the Man of
God's right hand, combines ideas which in the New Testament are so organic-
ally united in the person of Christ that it is impossible to suppose the parallel
accidental. Indeed Ps. lxxx 17, which identifies "God's right-hand Man"
(the one who "sits at God's right hand") with the divinely strengthened
"Son of Man" might well be regarded as providing direct scriptural justi-
fication for the fusion of the two figures in Mk xiv 62. More clearly here,
perhaps, than anywhere else except in the treatment of Dan. vii, can we see
the process by which the corporate and the individual elements are united in
early Christian thought about Christ 2).

The attractiveness of DODD'Sappeals to Ps. lxxx depends, to a con-

siderable extent, on the identification of the 'man' figure with the
vine, which symbolizes Israel. This equation is certainly implied
in the LXX, and that fact may justify DODD'S use of it in elucidating
Christological passages in the New Testament. But the identifi-
cation has been questioned by many engaged in study of the Psalms,
and the probability increases that 'son of man'/'man of thy right
hand' denotes an individual, the leader and representative of
Israel, i.e. the king 3). The passage concerned is as follows (RSV):

14 (M.T. I5) Turn again, O God of hosts!

Look down from heaven and see;
have regard for this vine,

1) P. 245, note I. Later in the book (p. 41I) DODD suggests that the vine-
allegory in Jn xv I-5 may owe much to the content of this Psalm.
2) According to the Scriptures, pp. 101-2.
3) It must be admitted that DODD is not unaware of this view: op. cit.,
p. IOI, note i.

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 'SON OF MAN' IN PSALM80 V. 17 263

15 (i6) the stock 1) which thy right hand planted

(and upon the son (..) whom thou hast
reared for thyself) 2).
16 (17) They have burned it with fire, they have cut
it down;
may they perish at the rebuke of thy countenance!
17 (i8) But let thy hand be upon the man of thy righthand
the son of man whom thou has made strong for
R |"[.. '.J
thyself J .7.:8X.-_ -_n
F..-t'1 3).

18 (I9) Then we will never turn back from thee;

give us life, and we will call on thy name!

There can be no doubt that the 'vine' stands for Israel: else-
where in the Old Testament the image of the vine is so employed
(e.g. Hos. x I; Jer. ii 2I, vi 9, viii 13; Ezek. xv 6, xvii 6 ff., xix
Io ff.); and vs. 8 ff. of this psalm clearly refer to Israel, brought out
of Egypt, planted in a region from which the nations had been
driven forth, but now, by reason of the divine displeasure, afflicted

1) 'Stock' represents ;#1 interpreted as a noun (the equivalent of Syriac

kana, "root"): LXX has xac xarTprtaolocaurv which might presuppose
rnInl (from 13., "establish"). Perhaps we ought to read n1, "garden".
2) RSV margin. Many regard these words as a dittography and corruption
of v. 18 b (M.T.) which interrupts the metrical structure of the poem. If so,
it may represent, as COLPEsuggests (T.W.N.T., viii, p. 4Io). a collectivising
of an originally individualistic understanding of W7-1], whereby I6 b (at
the end of the vine-allegory) and, as a result, I8 b are both applied to Israel.
It should be said, however, that whether original or secondary, I in I6 b
could be interpreted as meaning "twig" (cf. Gen. xlix 22 where lnM ][ means
"twig of a fruitful tree"), there being then a three-fold agricultural image-
vine, shoot, twig.
3) In an article probably not well-known among New Testament scholars,
"Break-up of stereotype phrases as an artistic device in Hebrew Poetry"
(Scripta Hierosolymitana, ed. C. RABIN, Jerusalem, I96I, II5-53), E. Z.
MELAMEDclaims that (i) in poetical parts of the Old Testament the full
Hebrew form for "human being", QN'-12 W31N (i.e. man, the son of man) is
broken up into its two components, "man", t1zl, (replaced by 8" in a few
places including Ps. lxxx 17) and "son of man"; and (ii) in some poetical
texts "right hand" is also broken up into "hand" and "right (one)", again
including Ps. lxxx I7. Accordingly the natural division of the verse ac-
cording to the literal sense is "Let thy hand be on the man/thy right on
the son of man", which means "Let thy right hand be on the son of men (i.e.
the human being) thou has made strong..." If this division of the Hebrew
were to be accepted-and it has been missed by the translators of the LXX
and the composers of the Targum, to say nothing of modern commentators-
it would deprive the appearance of 'son of man' in Ps. lxxx of much of its
significance for interpretation, and there would be no 'man of Yahweh's
right hand'. But, even so, the 'human being' of MELAMED'S interpretation
would presumably be an individual, and possibly the king.

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 264 DAVID HILL

by enemies. The opening verses of the prayer for the restoration of

divine favour are concerned with the vine, the stock (or shoot)
of Yahweh's planting, i.e. with Israel. V. I6 then invokes retri-
bution on the nation's enemies: but it is hard to avoid the impression
that v. 17 requests Yahweh's blessing on an individual man (the
normal, if not the necessary referencein the tn-r1./.K1 parallelism),
and in particular a person through whom the entire people will find
renewal. Moreover,the phrase 'man of thy right hand' 1) strongly
recalls Ps. cx I, the king who sits at Yahweh's right hand. Only if
v. I5 b were original and if p at that point meant 'son' and not
'twig'-and these assumptions underlie the LXX version-would it
be likely that v. 17 referredto Israel, which is called Yahweh's 'son'
in Hos. xi I, but nowhere described as 'the man of his right hand'.
The impressionought not to be given that the interpretationsof 'son
of man' as indicating either the king or Israel are entirely exclusive
of one another: in Hebrew thought the king is representative of the
whole people, and the line of thought in vs. I4-I8 here itself sug-
gests that the 'man' figure of v. 17 is the one through whose pre-
servation and protection by Yahweh the nation hopes to regain
confidence and vitality.
The interpretation of Ps. lxxx I7 as referring to the king is de-
fended by A. GELSTON in a recent article which is concerned to
suggest how 'son of man' came to be associated with the Messiah2).
His argument is summed up in these words: "the use of 'son of man'
in Ps. lxxx 17 of the king, later understood as the Messiah, paved
the way for the later interpretation of Dan. vii I3 in messianic
terms alike by Jesus and by Jews" 3). Although we welcome this
fresh attempt to direct attention to Ps. lxxx 17, we regret that
GELSTON's statement of his thesis is ambiguous and perhaps mis-
leading. Granted the possibility that the messianic interpretation
of Dan. vii 13 by Jews is not pre-Christian 4), GELSTONseems to be

1) It does not seem likely that GUNKEL has done full justice to the sig-
nificance of the phrase when he claims that ." . is simply an allusion
"t
to Benjamin (= "son of the right hand"), already mentioned in v. 2.
2) "A Sidelight on the 'Son of Man"', SJT XXII (1969), 189-96.
3) Op. cit., I96.
4) This is the position taken by GELSTON (op. cit., 191) following G. F.
MOORE, Judaism, ii, pp. 334 ff., who reviews the relevant material and
declares: "Someone who rejoiced in a divinatory faculty might even be
tempted to guess that Dan. vii 9-I4 was taken messianically in the first
century. ." (p. 337), by which, we think, he wishes to imply that the sug-

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 'SON OF MAN' IN PSALM 80 V. 17 265

saying that the messianic understanding of 'son of man'/king in

Ps. lxxx preceded Jesus' interpretation of the Danielic 'son of man'
in messianic terms 1). But this is a most improbable view. The
evidence for the messianic understanding of 'son of man' in Ps.
lxxx is found in the Targum, where v n:/13: (= Pm-/7,. M.T.)
in v. I8 is identified as Kn'Ft "n)n in v. I6 where 17 appears in
the Hebrew. But the Targums on the Hagiographa,as known to us,
are of late date and, although features of the Targums on Psalms
and Proverbs suggest that they are earlier than those for other
books in this group 2), it would be rash to suggest that even they in
their present form belong to a time before the third or fourth
century A.D., though the age of the traditions they contain may
be older. Is GELSTONthen simply suggesting that the designation
of the king in Ps. lxxx as 'son of man' (before his identification
in the Targum with Messiah)paved the way for the later messianic
interpretation of Dan. vii 13 ? But how could it have done so unless
there was a messianic sense attributable to this particular reference
to the king: an allusion to the king is not in itself necessarily mes-
sianic. We now propose to suggest that what Ps. xxx says of the king
may itself contain, or could have been interpreted justifiably as
containing messianic overtones, apart altogether from the ex-
plicit targumic identification of the 'son' (jg).
V. i8 b (M.T.) speaks of the 'son of man' ( =king) as the one
"whom thou (Yahweh) hast made strong for thyself ("1 nst.)"
The piel of rt, appearsagain-and, with one interestingexception3),
only in these two places-with referenceto a person at Ps. lxxxix 22

gestion is not very probable. For a contrary view, based on the same passages,
see R. T. FRANCE, Jesus and the Old Testament, pp. I79-83, I85-88. The crucial
evidence may be in the Similitudes of Enoch, of still uncertain date. Even if
the evidence for the Jewish understanding of Dan. vii 13 in messianic terms
is dated later than the time of Jesus, we cannot be sure how long the tra-
dition was in existence before its appearance in written form. The Christian
use of the Danielic 'son of man' in a messianic sense would not have encour-
aged Jews to employ it in this way, if they had not done so earlier.
1) Whether or not Jesus was indebted to Dan. vii 13 and borrowed 'son
of man' as a messianic designation from the passage is an open question now
in view of the recent work by R. LEIVESTAD, ASTI VI (I968), 49-105, and
NTS XVIII (1971-72), 243-67. We are not prejudging the matter here, only
examining GELSTON'Sargument.
2) Cf. J. BOWKER, The Targums and Rabbinic Literature, p. 14, and
W. BACHER, Jewish Encyclopaedia, vol. xii, pp. 62-3.
3) Isa. xli IO, which will be introduced later in this study.

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266 DAVID HILL

(M.T.) which describes Yahweh's promised relation to David, "and

my arm shall strengthen him (a_s.n '.il- 1_)" . The context is
illuminating. V. 22 comes from that section of Ps. lxxxix which re-
calls and extensively elaborates the oracle of Nathan (2 Sam. vii
8-i6) in which is embedded the origin and legitimation of Israel's
messianic hope 1). The one whom Yahweh undertakes to strengthen
is the messianic prototype. If we ask what is meant by this 'streng-
thening' it may be affirmed that it includes pre-eminently the
securing of David's authority as king (2 Sam. vii 13; Ps. lxxxix 20,
36 f.) and the establishment of the father-son relationship (2 Sam.
vii I4; Ps. lxxxix 26 f.) with all that it implies in terms of divine
help and faithfulness. Now these two aspects of the kingship-
ideology and the actions which give effect to them are probably pre-
supposed in Ps. 80 as the means by which Yahweh has strengthened
the 'son of man'/king to carry out his divinely-given task, for the
term 'son' may allude to the ceremony of anointing (cf. Ps. ii 7) and
'man of thy right hand' recalls, as we have said, the language
of enthronement (Ps. cx I) 2). The virtually unique parallel in the
usage of rya in Pss. lxxx and lxxxix lends further weight to the
view that the phrase 'son of man' in the former denotes the king
and it may suggest that the reference to the 'strengthening' of
this 'son of man' may carry with it-at least for the observant
interpreter3)-some of the messianic overtones which belong to
the promise in the oracle of Nathan, as adapted in Ps. lxxxix.
If there was no other justification for relating Ps. lxxxix to Ps.
lxxx than a single verbal parallel, however interesting and sig-
nificant, the case for doing so would be weak. In fact, there are
other points of general and particular similarity between these
two psalms 4). In both there is expressed a striking contrast be-
tween the glorious past and a calamitous present. In Ps. lxxx,

1) G. VON RAD, Old Testament Theology, i, p. 310.

2) Cf. J. SCHREINER,T.W.A.T. (Band I), pp. 348-49. The exact shade of
meaning attaching to "let thy hand be upon the man. ." is hard to define:
it cannot be understood in terms of judgment, but rather of blessing or in-
spiration.
3) It would require only the implementation of one or more (and mainly
the second, i.e. gezera shawah) of Hillel's hermeneutical rules. Most of these
rules are a matter of common sense, and probably existed long before Hillel's
time: cf. J. BOWKER, op. cit., pp. 315-I6.
4) These are set out by 0. EISSFELDT, "Psalm lxxx und Psalm lxxxix",
Kleine Schriften, iv, pp. 132-36. The article makes no mention of the striking
parallel in the use of 1R?.

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 'SON OF MAN' IN PSALM 80 V. 17 267

under the image of the vine, the impressive strength and growth
of Israel "to the sea .. and to the River" is compared with its
present state of desolation (vs. 8-I3). In Ps. lxxxix the blessedness
of David's reign and the promise of lasting security for his throne
(vs. 3-4, 19-37) is contrasted with the humiliation to which the
reigning successor to David has been subjected (vs. 38-45)1).Within
this general similarity of theme there are a number of remarkable
linguistic parallels which are even clearer in the Hebrew texts.
ComparePs. lxxx II (M.T. I2)-"It (the vine = Israel) sent out its
branchesto the sea, and its shoots to the River"-with Ps. lxxxix 25
(M.T. 26)-"I will set his (David's) hand on the sea and his right
hand on the rivers". Again, Ps. lxxx I2 (13), "Why has thou broken
down its (Israel's) walls, so that all who pass along the way pluck
its fruit" is paralleled in Ps. lxxxix 40 f. (4I f.), "Thou hast
breached all his (the king's) walls ... All that pass by despoil
him". And thirdly, the words of lament over Israel in Ps. lxxx 6 (7),
"Thou dost make us the scorn of our neighbours; and our enemies
laugh among themselves "are recalledby Ps. lxxxix 41 f. (42 f), with
reference to the humiliated king, "He has become the scorn of
his neigbours ... thou has made all his enemies rejoice".
These parallels can hardly be regardedas a matter of coincidence:
but they do not permit us to advocate the dependence of one Psalm
on the other. Rather, they suggest that what we are dealing with
is a common type of, and common expressions within, lament-
utterances occasionedby moments of grave national crisis2),Ps. Ixxx
referring to afflictions of the northern kingdom, perhaps after the
fall of Samaria, or in the period between 732 and 722 (so EISSFELDT),
and Psalm lxxxix, if it reflects a historical situation rather than a
cultic 3), being associated with some grievous situation in the
history of the southern kingdom when the Davidic covenant and
dynasty was particularly threatened. Ps. lxxx places confidence in
the plea that Yahweh will grant to the 'son of man whom he has
strengthened for himself' the power to be the mediator of salvation
through whom Israel will be restored: he is the focus of the nation's
expectation of a renewal of its erstwhile glory. And Ps. lxxxix
1) Attempts to divide the psalm into two or three independent sections are
not convincing: cf. J. M. WARD,"The literary form and liturgical background
of Ps. lxxxix", VT XI (1961), 321-39.
2) Cf. EISSFELDT, op. cit., p. I35.
3) If it is a cultic psalm, the king is suffering ritual humiliation, and the
appropriate setting would be the autumn festival.

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268 DAVID HILL

affirms its hope that the covenant will be remembered by declaring

again Nathan's promise that it is David and his successors on the
throne to whom Yahweh gives help, supplies power 1), and provides
strength. But the demand and confidence that Yahweh would
strengthen (]rz) his chosen agent remained alive after the crises
reflected in these Psalms. In the time of exile the prophet Isaiah
proclaims this message to Israel: "Fear not, for I am with you, be
not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you (,.ns.),
I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand"
(Isa. xli Io). What was once promised to and sought for David and
his successors in the kingship is now reaffirmed in relation to the
servant of Yahweh, the chosen people, Israel.
The many similarities between the two Psalms we have been
discussing and, in particular, the apparently special use of YnK
in connection with kingship permit us to consider together Ps.
Ixxx I7 and Ps. lxxxix 2I and to suggest that the tn-x. whom
Yahweh has "strengthened" was open to interpretation in terms of
the promise to David, in an expansion of the messianic oracle, that
"Yahweh will strengthen him". What is made explicit in the Tar-
gum, viz. that the 'son of man' in Ps. lxxx 17 is to be identified as
the king Messiah, was already in some sense implied in the passage
itself and could have been deduced therefrom very much earlier
than its targumic documentation. In commenting on the fact that
later scribes and teachers sometimes gave a messianic interpre-
tation to Ps. viii 4 f., Ps. lxxx 15 ff., and Dan. vii I3 f. F. H. BORSCH
has this to say 2):

It is, however, impossible now to tell whether this results from their know-
ledge of the earlier relationships [i.e. between the 'man' figure and royal,
messianic categories], their sound contextual exegesis and awareness of the
nuances of the terms and descriptive language there given, or the influence
of contemporary interest ... in the Man-Son of Man figure. The second alter-
native appears the more probable to us, with possibly a trace of the others....

We think that we have provided some evidence to support BORSCH'S

view: "awareness of the nuances of the terms and descriptive
language" may well have allowed quite early interpreters of Ps.

1) V. 21 a is so interpreted by M. DAHOOD, The Psalms, ii, p. 316; cf.

J. T. MILIK, "Fragment d'une source du Psautier", RB LXXIII (I966),
99, for a different reading.
2) Op. cit., p. I6i.

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 'SON OF MAN' IN PSALM 80 V. 17 269

lxxx 17 to discover the messianic sense which is attributable to

that reference to 'son of man'. Could this be one source for the
understanding of Dan. vii 13 in messianic terms? One final obser-
vation: if there is any substance in this suggestion that, by reason
of the use of a special term in the language of the kingship ideology,
there is an implicitly messianic reference in Ps. lxxx 17, then there
is provided to 'son of man' certain important accompanying ideas:
this 'son of man' is humiliated, but remains the focus of hope; as
king, he is an individual, but represents the whole people, to whom,
as his chosen Servant, Yahweh later renews his promise of strength.

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