The Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls: The ... - josephprestonkirk

PAOLO SACCHI 395
CONCLUSION
In accordance with recent trends in the research, I believe that BP was
most probably written around the year 30 B.C.E., and at any rate not
more than a generation after that date. This makes BP particularly important
for research concerning Jesus’ understanding of himself, and confirms
the reading of the Gospels without having to fall back on strange
and contrasting interpretations as to why Jesus would refer to himself as
the Son of Man. It also obviously poses a theological problem regarding
the relationship between the angelic figure of the Son of Man and the historical
figure of Jesus. The fact that Jesus attributes to himself powers and
functions of the Son of Man, as they appear in BP, does not mean that
he identifies himself with that figure sic et simpliciter: it is a fact that the
New Testament always refers to Daniel and never explicitly quotes BP in
reference to the Son of Man. In other words, even though the theology
of BP had an influence on the New Testament, the authors of the New
Testament did not consider BP to be scripture, nor an adequate support
for justifying Jesus’ view of himself, who always refers to the Son of Man
in Daniel and not to that of BP.