Not only is the wording of Ex. 3:14 not "I am" but "
I will be" [
ehyeh] in the Hebrew OT and "
the being" in the Septuagint version, but everywhere else in Moses' writings the Hebrew (
ehyeh) is rendered in nearly all Bibles as "
I will be."
We know that some of the Jews wanted Jesus killed for blasphemy because he admitted to being the
Messiah (Christ) - see Matt 26:59-68 and footnotes for Matt 26:65 and
Luke 22:71 in
The NIV Study Bible, Zondervan Publ., 1985.
“But powerful forces in the Jewish congregation, jealous of his popularity, incensed by his denunciation of some of them, and bitterly critical of his disregard for formalism, his willingness to violate some of the minor laws of the Jews, and his
heretical claim that he was the Son of God, repudiated him, conspired to kill him, saw him crucified, and after his death, persecuted his followers.” -
The Portable World Bible, Viking Press, p. 230.
It was even forbidden for
others to say that Jesus was the Messiah -
John 9:22. And, in fact, that was obviously why Stephen was stoned to death.
At Acts 7:55-58, Stephen looked up into heaven “and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand
of God, and he said, ‘Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of man [synonymous with the Messiah, not God] standing at the right hand
of God.’ But they [the Jews] ... cast him out of the city and
stoned him.” -
RSV.
Stephen was stoned, not because he claimed to be God, nor because he claimed Jesus was God (quite the contrary, in fact, as his quoted statement clearly shows: Jesus “standing at the right hand of
God”) but because he was proclaiming Jesus to be the
Messiah (Christ)! See
The NIV Study Bible footnotes for Acts 7:56 and Mk 8:31.
Therefore, when Jesus claimed, at
John 8:58, to have lived long before his first century human existence, the Jews could have perceived him as a false prophet, or a self-proclaimed “wizard,” or, more likely, as one claiming to be the Christ or Messiah (the Son of Man) and tried to stone him because of that.
The words
ego eimi formed a phrase that was in very common use by first century Christians and Jews and in New Testament scriptures. It was certainly not understood (by Jews or Christians) as declaring one’s Godhood! If it could have been understood that way, we can be sure the Jews would have
never applied it to themselves (as they did so frequently)!
Notice, for example, how the former blind man (
John 9:9) actually
identifies himself by saying “
ego eimi,” but none of the other Jews present, even for a moment, understood him to be claiming to be Jehovah!
And Jesus earlier (
John 6:20) clearly
identified himself by saying to his frightened disciples:
ego eimi. None of his disciples considered that to mean that Jesus was claiming to be God. In fact, most trinitarian-translated Bibles render Jesus’ words identifying himself here as “
It is I.” E.g.,
ASV; AMP; CJB; DARBY; DRA; ESV; GNT; GNV; HCSB; ISV; JB; KJV; KJ21; TLB; MEV; MLB; MOUNCE; NAB; NASB; NCV; NEB; NET; NIV; NKJV; NLV; NRSV; REB; RSV; WEB; and
WE.
The Gospel writers have clearly shown Jesus applying the term
ego eimi to himself and meaning “I am
the Christ.”
Mark 13:6 shows Jesus saying, “I am he [literally just
ego eimi alone, ‘
I AM’]” -
NEB. The parallel account at
Luke 21:8 agrees. But the other
parallel account by Matthew shows what Jesus actually meant by the “absolute”
ego eimi in those parallel accounts of Mark and Luke: “I am the
Messiah” - Matt. 24:5 -
NEB.
Jesus saying
ego eimi convinced some of the Jews that he was claiming to be the Messiah (so they attempted to stone him to death on the spot). Later, Jesus was taken before the high priest and all the chief priests and questioned by them (Matt. 26:59-66; Mk 14:53-64;
Luke 22:66-71).
Now if Jesus had really previously claimed to be
God by saying
ego eimi (or if the Jews had even
thought he
might have been making such a claim by saying those words), what questions would they have asked him now that they had him up before the highest Jewish court? Would they have asked “Are you the
Christ?”? (Remember the Christ was not believed by the Jews to actually be God himself. -
NIVSB f.n. for
Mark 14:61.) Wouldn’t they have concentrated on “Do you claim to be
God?”?
But what did they actually ask Jesus at this most important Jewish trial where the Jews were actually seeking to find a reason, no matter how false, to kill him? Even though they searched for any and all accusers, even
false accusers (Matt. 26 59-60), to give them a reason to kill Jesus, no one accused him of claiming to be
God!
“Now the chief priests and the whole Council kept trying to obtain false testimony against Jesus in order that they might put him to death; .... And the high priest said to him, ‘I adjure you by the living God, that you tell us whether you are
the Christ, the Son of God.’” - Matt. 26:59, 63,
NASB.
C’mon, be honest now! Could any honest person reasonably conclude that Jesus had claimed to be
God at
John 8:58 and that the deciding question at the Jews’ trial of Jesus would then be “are you the
Christ?”
There is absolutely no suggestion that the Jews thought Jesus was calling himself
God here! They asked no questions concerning such a thing. This is absolutely impossible if there could have been even a
possibility that
ego eimi at
John 8:58 could mean the speaker was claiming to be God! Remember, this high court was
looking for any reason to have Jesus killed!
But if his statement at
John 8:58 could mean “I am
the Christ,” what would these priests and chief priests have asked him? Just exactly what they
did ask him: “Are you the
Christ, the Son of God?”
In the same way, John near the end of his Gospel wrote that his work was written down that you may believe that Jesus is (
not God, but)
the Christ the son of God". -
John 20:31.
Examining the Trinity: "I AM" - Part 1
