Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58).
Jesus of Nazareth was a powerfully polarizing figure, evoking
a passionate response from all who encountered Him.
He was intensely loved. And deeply despised.
The Gospel narrative evidences that no one who met – or even heard about – Jesus, was indifferent or neutral.
And that visceral reaction of the characters in the biblical narrative – often explosive loathing – is difficult for 21st century
Western readers to understand.
After all, we are observing from a cultural vantage-point of
2000 years and 9000 kms away.
Why, when Jesus uttered the enigmatic statement above, did His opponents begin to collect rocks for the purpose of violently, impulsively killing Him – there and then?
The reason – not obvious to most English readers of the text – is that Jesus had, in their minds, committed a gross blasphemy.
He had uttered something horrifically disrespectful against
the God of Israel.
Jesus had claimed Himself to be God!
If we miss that, it is because we don’t fully grasp the use of the I AM title.
It is a little technical, but its worth the deep dive.
In the centuries leading up to the time of Christ, more Jews
were living outside of Israel and throughout the Mediterranean world. As a
result, many were using their Hebrew heart language less and koine Greek
- the lingua franca of the Roman world for daily and business conversation – more.
As a result, it was decided that a Greek version of the
Hebrew Old Testament would be useful. This massive undertaking was the task of
roughly 70 Jewish scholars in the period between the end of the Old Testament
and the coming of Christ.
Its name: the Septuagint, symbolized by the Roman numerals
LXX for the seventy language experts who completed the project.
According to Jewish tradition, the initial piece of the
monumental task was to translate the Torah, the first 5 books of Moses
(Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy).
And the scene of Moses approaching the burning bush in
Exodus 3 presented a unique challenge.
In that text, God spoke to Moses from the bush advising that
the Lord would liberate the Israelite slaves from oppressive captivity in
Egypt. This is in the 15th century BC.
The narrative continues in verses 13,14:
Then Moses said to God, "If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?"
God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." And he said, "Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’"
The challenge this text presented to the translators: how
to accurately convey in Greek the Name that God used in this incident: I AM
WHO I AM?
The Greek language has 2 common terms for the verb “to be”: ego
and eimi.
The creative decision was taken to use both terms together.
I AM WHO I AM from Hebrew would be converted into
Greek as ego eimi – somewhat repetitive, but forever after capturing the essence of God’s Name.
And that’s what triggered the emotional – and sometimes violent – reaction from the adversaries of the Lord Jesus.
They clearly understood His use of the term was a claim to
Him being God.
He used this double term (ego eimi) frequently in John’s Gospel, including these 7 well-known statements:
I am the bread of life (John 6:48).
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).
I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he
will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture (John 10:9).
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd
lays down his life for the sheep (John 10:11).
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and
the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live (John
11:25).
Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the
truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6).
But what is hidden from our eyes when reading in English, is
that Jesus used this term in over 30 other texts in the Gospels, including this
well-known incident on the Sea of Galilee:
…but when they saw him walking on the sea they thought it was a ghost, and cried out, for they all saw him and were terrified. But immediately he spoke to them and said, "Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid" (Mark 6:49,50).
Jesus’ declaration it is I is an English translation
of the words eimi ego, again a clear proclamation of His assertion to deity – that He is God!
Takeaway: it is often questioned whether Jesus really thought of Himself as God. After all, wasn’t that a later fabrication of His over-zealous apostolic followers in the early church?
Emphatically NOT!
Jesus stood in the role of God when He received worship and
when He forgave sin.
But the clearest evidence to His Jewish contemporaries of
His claim to being God was the use of the I AM title.
Sometimes, students of the Bible wish that He said in so many words, “I am God”. However, in the Greco-Roman world of His era, that would have been a meaningless assertion to many. Greek and Roman mythology named a plethora of gods and deities.
Therefore, many would have understood Him to be just one
more god among many.
But in using the Name of the Hebrew God – the One and Only God – Jesus was specific and precise.
He was intentional and deliberate.
He is the God of Israel – YAHWEH.
I AM.
He claimed to be what He was: the eternal, self-existent,
omniscient, omnipotent, omni-present One.
In the intervening 20 centuries, many have loved Him for it,
recognizing Him for Whom He claimed to be and falling at His feet in worship.
And others killed Him for this audacious claim. Their
spiritual progeny to the present day continue to loathe and hate and detest and
raise angry objection to this central claim of His identity.
And to His Gospel.
