Was Jesus saying he was the "I AM"
Part 1
A text in John’s writings the trinitarians bring up in their arguing that John’s writings teach that Jesus Christ is God. That text is found in Jesus’ argument with the Jews given in
John 8:56-58
The expression “I AM” at Exodus 3:14 is used there as a title or a name, and in the Hebrew this expression is the one word
Ehyéh (אהיה). Jehovah God was there speaking to Moses and sending him to the children of Israel. Well, then, in
John 8:58, was Jesus claiming to be Jehovah God? Not according to many modern Bible translators, such as
Moffatt: “I have existed before Abraham was born.”
Schonfield and
An American Translation: “I existed before Abraham was born.”
Stage (German): “Before Abraham came to be, I was.”
Pfaefflin (German): “Before there was an Abraham, I was already there!" George M. Lamsa, translating from the Syriac Peshitta, says: “Before Abraham was born, I was.” Dr. James Murdock, also translating from the Syriac
Peshitto Version, says: “Before Abraham existed, I was.” The Brazilian
Sacred Bible published by the Catholic Bible Center of São Paulo says: “Before Abraham existed, I was existing.”
We must remember, also, that when Jesus spoke to those Jews, he spoke to them in the Hebrew of his day, not in Greek. How Jesus said
John 8:58 to the Jews is therefore presented to us in the modern translations by Hebrew scholars who translated the Greek into the Bible Hebrew, as follows: Dr. Franz Delitzsch: “Before Abraham was, I have been.” Isaac Salkinson and David Ginsburg: “I have been when there had as yet been no Abraham.” In both of these Hebrew translations the translators use for the expression “I have been” two Hebrew words, both a pronoun and a verb, namely,
aní hayíthi; they do not use the one Hebrew word:
Ehyéh. So they do not make out that in
John 8:58 Jesus was trying to imitate Jehovah God and give us the impression that he himself was Jehovah, the I AM.
In what language did John write his life account of Jesus Christ? In the Greek language, not in Hebrew; and in the Greek text the controversial expression is
Egó eimí. Just by itself, without any introductory material ahead of it,
Egó eimí means “I am.” Now this expression
Egó eimí occurs also in
John 8:24, 28; and in those verses the
Authorized or
King James Version and the
Douay Version and others render the expression into English as “I am he,” the pronoun
he being put in italics to indicate that the pronoun
he is added or inserted.
(AV; AS; Yg) But here, in
John 8:58, those versions do not render this same expression as “I am he,” but only as “I am.” They evidently want to give us the idea that Jesus was not simply referring to his existence but also giving himself a title that belongs to Jehovah God, in imitation of
Exodus 3:14.
When writing
John 8:58, the apostle was not quoting from the Greek
Septuagint Version, a translation of the Hebrew Scriptures made by Greek-speaking Jews of Alexandria, Egypt, before the birth of Christ. Let anyone who reads Greek compare
John 8:58 in Greek and
Exodus 3:14 in the Greek
Septuagint, and he will find that the
Septuagint reading of
Exodus 3:14 does not use the expression
Egó eimí for God’s name, when God says to Moses: “I AM hath sent me unto you.” The Greek
Septuagint uses the expression
ho Ōn, which means “The Being,” or, “The One who is.” This fact is clearly presented to us in Bagster’s translation of the Greek
Septuagint, at
Exodus 3:14, which reads: “And God spoke to Moses, saying, I am THE BEING [
ho Ōn]; and he said, Thus shall ye say to the children of Israel, THE BEING [
ho Ōn] has sent me to you.” According to Charles Thomson’s translation of the Greek
Septuagint, Exodus 3:14 reads: “God spoke to Moses saying, I am
The I Am [
ho Ōn]. Moreover he said, Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel, The
I Am [
ho Ōn] hath sent me to you.” Thus this comparison of the two Greek texts, that of the
Septuagint and that of
John 8:58, removes all basis for trinitarians to argue that Jesus, in
John 8:58, was trying to fit
Exodus 3:14 to himself, as if he was Jehovah God.