John 12:34

The crowd apparently understood the allusion to His death, for they objected: Ἡμεῖς ἠκούσαμεν … ἀνθρώπου; “we have heard out of the law,” i.e., out of Scripture (cf. John 10:34; John 15:25, and Schechter, Studies in Judaism, p. 15: “under the word Torah were comprised not only the Law, but also the contributions of later times expressing either the thoughts or the emotions of holy and sincere men”), “that the Christ abides for ever”; this impression was derived from Psalms 110:4; Isaiah 9:7; Ezekiel 37:25; Daniel 7:14. A different belief was also current. Their belief regarding the Messiah seemed so to contradict His allusion to death that it occurred to them that after all “the Son of Man” might not be identical with “the Messiah” as they had been supposing. So they ask, τίς ἐστιν οὗτος ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου; This among other passages shows that the “Son of Man” was a title suggestive of Messiahship, but not quite definite in its meaning and not quite identical with “Messiah”.