The Son of Man

On EWTN today I was listening to Dr. Timothy O'Donnell, president of Christendom College, who was reading from Matthew, chapter 8, which included:

When Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side.
A scribe approached and said to him, "Teacher, I will follow you wherever you
go."

Jesus answered him, "Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head."

- Romans 8:18-20

According to O'Donnell, this is the first time that Jesus used the phrase Son of Man to refer to himself. O'Donnell goes on to say that Jesus was identifying himself with the son of man from the book of Daniel:

As the visions during the night continued, I saw One like a son of man coming, on the clouds of heaven; When he reached the Ancient One and was presented before him, He received dominion, glory, and kingship; nations and peoples of every language serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not be taken away, his kingship shall not be destroyed.

Daniel 7:14-14

Amen.


The Biblical text has the following footnote/comment on this passage in Daniel.

One like a son of man: in contrast to the worldly kingdoms opposed to God, which appear as beasts, the glorified people of God that will form his kingdom on earth is represented in human form (⇒ Daniel 7:18). Just as our Lord applied the figure of the stone hewn from the mountain to himself (⇒ Daniel 2:36-45), he also made the title "Son of Man" his most characteristic way of referring to himself, as the One in whom and through whom the salvation of God's people came to be realized.

http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0839/__PSS.HTM#-2MS