Gide. I'm Gary Stevens. And welcome to the second series of the History in the Bible podcast. More of the history in more of the books in all the Bibles.

Episode 2.31, The Many Names of Jesus.

In the last episode of the History in the Bible, I introduced our final source for the life of Jesus,

the Gospel of John, and the many titles it bestows on Jesus.

In this episode, I want to work through all the appellations given to Jesus.

The New Testament uses many titles, King of the Jews, Savior, Son of man, God, son of God, Messiah, Lord.

Let's start with King of the Jews. The Gospels of John and Mark record that the Romans

called Jesus the King of the Jews while he was on the cross.

Matthew says that the three wise men called him a king.

No one else, including Jesus himself, calls Jesus a king.

Many works of the Second Temple period look for a warrior who will conquer the Romans and lead the Jews to independence.

As I recounted in episode 2.20, Herod's heirs, Jewish insurrectionists popped up every few years throughout the Roman period, claiming to be a new king of Israel.

Jesus is nothing like them. Jesus is not a warrior king. Jesus is never depicted as a general

who will vanquish his earthly enemies. Jesus does not lead a military uprising

against either the Romans or the Jewish establishment. Early Christian writers very quickly

discarded the regal title. After the fall of the temple and the extinction of Jewish hopes for independence, the Christian

mission became almost entirely Gentile, and the Gentiles cared nothing about Jewish kings.

How about the title Son of Man? That expression is thoroughly Jewish. As I discussed in episode 2.13,

grappling with the Greeks part four, Daniel and the book of parables, this was a common

Hebrew idiom, meaning humans, people. But it was always in an indefinite sense, a son of man.

God calls the prophet Ezekiel son of man dozens of times.

Now let me quote from our old friend, the book of First Enoch,

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