The ubiquitous vocative expression בן־אדם (literally ‘son of man’) in the Book of Ezekiel seems to underscore the prophet’s status as a mere mortal. In contrast to the other ancient versions, Targum Jonathan to the Prophets interprets the word אדם as a proper noun, and renders the phrase accordingly as בר אדם ‘son of Adam’. This translation runs counter to the Targum’s conventional practice of rendering בן־אדם with בר אנש(א). In the absence of a satisfactory grammatical explanation for the divergent rendering, this article examines the possibility that the Targumist’s eschewal of בר אנשא was motivated by doctrinal concerns. On the strength of the findings it is argued that בר אדם was a clever and subtle alternative for בר אנשא because, depending on the context, the latter phrase could evoke associations with the Danielic Son of Man figure and the Son of Man Christology
