Magdala
Active Member
I Am
There has been quite a bit of discussion on John 8:58. What happened to this verse as to confuse so many? Let's start in Exodus.
KJV Exo 3:14 And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.
Now we shall read the same verse from the Greek Septuagint
Septuagint Exo 3:14 και ειπεν ο θεος προς μωυσην [εγω ειμι ο ων] και ειπεν ουτως ερεις τοις υιοις ισραηλ [ο ων] απεσταλκεν με προς υμας
Note the two separate Greek words used for 'am'
Concordant Literal Version Exo 3:14 Then Elohim spoke to Moses: I shall come to be just as I am coming to be. And He said: Thus shall you say to the sons of Israel, I-Shall-Come-to-Be has sent me to you.
Now when translated literally you get a whole different look. What happened to the other I am's?
The Hebrew Bible uses the word (hâyâh H1961) in the place of "Am" which is a verb meaning to exist, to be.
Check the Strongs' number.
Clearly Jesus did not say (εγω ειμι ο ων) nor did he state (ο ων), in John 8:58. Jesus spoke the words (εγω ειμι) just like other people in the bible who are not God. So just what was Jesus saying?
But what about the great "I Am him" statement of Jesus? Especially that classic one in John 8:58 where Jesus says, "Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was born I am"?
Surely here Jesus makes the same claim for himself that Jehovah God made back in Exodus 3 where the LORD says to Moses at the burning Bush "I Am Who I Am." Surely Jesus is claiming to be the I AM of the Old Testament as Trinitarian belief asserts?
Now here is something very obvious that they never told me in church. This expression from Jesus' lips "I am" (Greek ego eimi) occurs throughout the Gospel of John and in no other text in John can it mean I AM, the God of the Old Testament.
Go back to John 4:25-26 for instance. The woman at the well said to Jesus, "I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ); when that one comes, he will declare all things to us." And Jesus said to her, "I who speak with you am he." You will notice that in most Bibles that word he is in italics. This means that the translators have correctly supplied a word in English that is not in the Greek but that nevertheless makes the intended sense quite clear. Here Jesus says to the woman - in the context of her question about the Messiah - that he is the Messiah, the Christ. "I who speak to you am he." In the Greek it reads ego eimi. Jesus simply says I am he, the Messiah. Definitely not “I am is the one speaking to you!”
In John 9 Jesus heals the blind man. Is this really the beggar who used to sit groping in the dark? Some people said, "Yes, it's him all right." Other said, "No, he just looks like him." But the beggar says, " ego eimi!" And the translators have no problem writing, "I am the one." So why aren't the translators consistent? Why not capitalize what this man says as I AM? Because it is clear that he is not claiming to be the God of the Old Testament. Saying "I am" (ego eimi) does not make somebody God in the Bible!
What Jesus is saying is simply “Before Abraham was born, I am he,” that is, "I am the Messiah."
Notice the context in John 8:56 where Jesus says, "Abraham rejoiced to see my day." By faith Abraham looked forward and saw the coming Messiah before he came in history. He believed the promise that God would send the Promised One. On the other hand these Jews did not believe that Jesus was their Messiah. They were claiming to be Abraham's descendents. Jesus said that this was impossible for they did not recognize him as their Messiah. But Jesus asserts that even before Abraham was born, he is the One who was always in God's plan. This Abraham believe and saw. The Messiah preexisted in God's plan and therefore in Abraham's believing mind, because he trusted the promise of God. Jesus positively did not say, before Abraham was, I was." Also, Jesus did not say, “Before Abraham was, I AM WHAT I AM."
The conclusion is inevitable. Jesus’ claim "Before Abraham was born, I am he" is the straightforward claim that he is the long promised one, the Messiah, the One in question. Jesus is the Savior in God's promise even before Abraham was born.
In Jn. 8:57, the Pharisees didn't ask Jesus if He was the Messiah, but rather if He had seen Abraham, and thus "Before Abraham was born, I am the Messiah" doesn't make sense as an answer.
Forms of the word
Dictionary: ἐγώ
Greek transliteration: egō
Simplified transliteration: ego
Numbers
Strong's number: 1473
GK Number: 1609
Statistics
Frequency in the New Testament: 2666
Morphology of Biblical Greek Tag: a-5a
Gloss: I, me, my; we, us, our; often added for emphasis: myself, ourselves
Definition: I, gen., ἐμοῦ (μου), dat., ἐμοι (μοι), acc., ἐμέ (με)
Forms of the word
Dictionary: εἰμί
Greek transliteration: eimi
Simplified transliteration: eimi
Principal Parts: (ἤμην), ἔσομαι, -, -, -, -
Numbers
Strong's number: 1488
GK Number: 1639
Statistics
Frequency in New Testament: 2462
Morphology of Biblical Greek Tag: v-6b
Gloss: to be, exist, be present
Definition: to be, to exist, Jn. 1:1; 17:5; Mt. 6:30; Lk. 4:25, freq.; ἐστι(ν), it is possible, proper, Heb. 9:5; a simple linking verb (copula) to the subject and predicate, and therefore in itself affecting the force of the sentence only by its tense, mood, etc., Jn. 1:1; 15:1, freq.; it also forms a frequent circumlocution with the participles of the present and perfect of other verbs, Mt. 19:22; Mk. 2:6
Καὶ εἶπεν ὁ Θεὸς πρὸς Μωυσῆν, λέγων, ἐγώ (I) εἰμι (exist) ὃ "Qu: καὶ εἶπεν, οὕτως ἐρεῖς τοῖς υἱοῖς Ἰσραὴλ, ὁ Ὧν 15 ἀπέσταλκέ με πρὸς ὑμᾶς. Kal εἶπεν ὃ Θεὸς πάλιν πρὸς Μωυσῆν, οὕτως ἐρεῖς τοῖς υἱοῖς ᾿Ισραὴλ, Κύριος ὃ Θεὸς τῶν πατέρων ἡμῶν, Θεὸς ᾿Αβραὰμ, καὶ Θεὸς ᾿Ισαὰις, καὶ Θεὸς Ἰακὼβ, ἀπέσταλκέ με πρὸς ὑμᾶς: τοῦτό μου ἐστὶν ὄνομα αἰώ" (Septuagint, Ex. 3:14-15)
The Pharisees asked, "You are not yet fifty years old! Have you seen Abraham?" (Jn. 8:57), and Jesus answered, "[...] before Abraham came into existence, I AM" (Jn. 8:58). Jesus explicitly not only said that He existed before Abraham was born, but that He's always existed, by referring to Himself as "I AM", the name of God: "And God spoke to Moses, saying, l AM THE BEING; and he said, Thus shall ye say to the children of Israel, THE BEING has sent me to you. And God said again to Moses, thus shalt thou say to the sons of Israel, the Lord God of our fathers, the God of Abraham, and God of Isaac, and God of Jacob, has sent me to you: this is My name for ever, and my memorial to generations of generations" (English translation from The Tanakh, Ex. 3:14-15). In response, the Pharisees attempted to stone Jesus to death for blasphemy, because they understood that He had said He's God. (Jn. 8:59)
The Jewish leaders were very well aware of what Jesus was saying about himself! Jesus Was not claiming to be God but the Son of God as Shown in John 19:6. They give the very reason they wanted Him dead!
John 19:6 When the chief priests therefore and officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Take ye him, and crucify him: for I find no fault in him. 7 The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.
Jesus referring to Himself as "the Son of God" is another way of saying that He's God. There's the idiom "more than one way to say something" which means "there are multiple ways to express the same idea or concept, using different words or phrasing, depending on the context or desired emphasis; essentially, it indicates that there is no single "correct" way to say something."
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