In the Book of Daniel and in post-biblical literature, the similar terms bar-anosh and bar-nasha also appear.
In thirty two cases, the phrase appears in intermediate plural form "sons of men".
To his disciples' anxious inquiries he answered that he had been so preoccupied in prayer as not even to feel the bite.
"[4] ואשגה זרעך כעפר ארשא די לא ישכח בר אנוש לממדיה And I will multiply your seed like the dirt of the earth which no son of man (בר אנוש [bar 'anosh]) can count.
The New Testament expression ὅ ὑιὸς τοῦ ἀνθρόπου is a translation of the Aramaic "bar nasha," and as such could have been understood only as the substitute for a personal pronoun, or as emphasizing the human qualities of those to whom it is applied.