AMEN!!!
John 8:58
Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.
The key in interpreting what Jesus is saying in John 8:58 and other passages is the reaction of the Jews and how Jesus handled their reaction.
John 8:58 in context:
56 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.” 57 Then the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?”
58 Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.” 59 Then they took up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.[/QUOTE]
Notice a couple things here: First the Jews knew exactly what Jesus said because they picked up stones to kill Him. They were quite legalistic in the day and would not have stoned Jesus for claiming to be older than Moses. Second there were crackpots in the day that claimed to be god. Caesar was one. There no doubt many others but the Jews didn’t just go around stoning people who claimed to be god. They mostly just considered the source. The difference is Jesus actually claimed the personal name God gave Moses. The audience knew exactly what He said.
Jesus is identifying Himself so closely with the one true and living God that He can speak of Himself as being there 'before Abraham existed.' This is as close as we come on the lips of Jesus to a direct statement of what John says in his Prologue:
John 1:1-2:
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God.
Jesus speaks uses the divine name of the Father—I AM—the Holy name of God. If Jesus had wanted to claim only that He existed before Abraham, He would have said something like: "Before Abraham was, I was." But Jesus used the word, ego eimi. "Before Abraham was born, I am." There is no doubt in these verses. Jesus was claiming to be God. There are strong linguistic connections with verses in the Old Testament.
See Isaiah 41:4,
4 Who has performed and done it,
Calling the generations from the beginning?
'I, the LORD, am the first;
And with the last I am He.’”
and, Isaiah 43:13,
13 Indeed before the day was, I am He;
And there is no one who can deliver out of My hand;
I work, and who will reverse it?”
In addition Jesus was claiming superiority over Abraham.
John 5:16-19,16 For this reason the Jews persecuted Jesus, and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath. 17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working.” 18 Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God. 19 Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.
Jesus said he was equal to God. If the Jews misunderstood Him He made no effort to correct them. Something He would have been obligated to do.
John 10:30-33, I and My Father are one.”
31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. 32 Jesus answered them, “Many good works I have shown you from My Father. For which of those works do you stone Me?” 33 The Jews answered Him, saying, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy, and because You, being a Man, make Yourself God.”
Again Jesus had an obligation to correct the thinking. Instead He scolded them for not believing His claim and had to escape once more.
Stoning was prescribed for blasphemy. (Leviticus 24:16, Mishnah Sanhedrin 7:4)
Comment by Carson (brackets and bold color added):
58. [. . .] Jesus [. . .]. If he had wanted to claim only that he existed before Abraham, it would have been simpler to say, ‘Before Abraham was, I was.’ Instead, bringing forward
egō eimi found in verses 24, 28, Jesus says, ‘Before Abraham was born,
I am.’ Whatever doubts may attach themselves to whether
egō eimi should be taken absolutely in verses 24, 28, here there can be none. Moreover, the strong linguistic connections to Isaiah 40-55 are supported by obvious links:
cf. ‘I, the Lord’ — with the first of them and the last — I am he’ (Isaiah 41:4); ‘Yes, and from ancient days I am he’ (Isaiah 43:13).
Cf. Psalm 90:2. That the Jews take up stones to kill him presupposes they understand these words as some kind of blasphemous claim to deity. [. . .]
— D. A. Carson,
The Gospel According to John (PNTC), page 358 (Eerdmans, 1991).
Comment by Bruce (brackets and bold color added):
8:57, 58 [. . .]
Jesus’ reply to their protest repeats the affirmation ‘I am He’ (
egō eimi), used twice already in this chapter (verses 24, 28), and does so in a way which underlines the magnitude of the claim it expresses. He echoes the language of the God of Israel, who remains the same from everlasting to everlasting: ‘I, the Lord, the first and the last, I am He’ (Isaiah 41:4), How can a man who is ‘not yet fifty years old’ speak like that? Only if he speaks as the Word that had been with God from the beginning and was now incarnate on earth. Abraham looked forward to the time of his incarnation, but he himself existed before his incarnation, before Abraham was born (
genesthai), before the worlds were made. The Word of the eternal God cannot be other than eternal. So much in this context is conveyed by
egō eimi. And if we suppose that the conversation was carried on in Aramaic or even Hebrew, then Jesus could have uttered the very words
’ ani hu’ [אני היא], as though he were applying them to himself.
— F. F. Bruce,
The Gospel of John: Introduction, Exposition, and Notes, pages 205-206 (Eerdmans, 1983).
