The Greek of John 8:58 and the Personal Pre-Existence of Jesus

Latter-day Saints, as with the majority of those within the broad Christian spectrum, hold to the personal, conscious pre-existence of Jesus Christ (one potent, explicit example from uniquely LDS Scripture would be D&C 93:10-11). However, there are small groups that hold to what one would label a “Socinian” Christology, one that holds that Jesus did not have personal pre-existence, instead hold that he pre-existed in the “mind” or “plan” of God (“ideal” or “notional” pre-existence). Groups that hold to this perspective would include the Church of God Abrahamic Faith and the Christadelphians.

Much has been written on John 8:58 and whether it teaches Jesus is Yahweh based on the “I am” (εγω ειμι). However, another debate within Christology is whether John 8:58 teaches the personal pre-existence of Jesus.

To watch a Socinian (so-called “Biblical Unitarian”) perspective on this, see the video by Anthony Buzzard, a member of The Church of God, Abrahamic Faith General Conference (his arguments are a summary of those found in his 1998 book, The Doctrine of the Trinity: Christianity’s Self-Inflicted Wound)

However, Buzzard must go against the majority of exegetes and the rather plain meaning of the underlying Greek to argue against Christ pre-existing. To give just one example, the following comes from Greek grammarian, K.L. McKay:

Extension from Past. When used with an expression of either past time or extent of time with past implications (but not in past narrative), the present tense signals an activity begun in the past and continuing to present time: Lu 13:7 ιδου τρια ετη αφ ου ερχομαι ζητων καρπον . . . και ουχ ευρισκω, it is now three years since I have been coming looking for fruit . . .and not finding it; Lu 15:29 τοσαυτα ετη δουλευω σοι, I have been slaving for you all these years; Jn 14:9 τοσουτον χρονον μεθ υμων ειμι . . .; have I been with you so long . . .?; Ac 27:33 τεσσαρεσκαιδεκατην σημερον ημεραν προσδοκωντες ασιτοι διατελειτε, today is the fourteenth day you have been continuing on the alert without food; Jn 8:58 πριν Αβρααμ γενεσθαι εγω ειμι, I have been in existence since before Abraham was born. This is a form of the continuation realisation of the imperfective aspect, and similar uses are found with the imperfect tense and with imperfective participles. (K.L. McKay, A New Syntax of the Verb in New Testament Greek: An Aspectual Approach [Studies in Biblical Greek; New York: Peter Lang, 1994], 41-42; emphasis in bold my own.)

On this vein, I would highly recommend the article by David L. Paulsen, Jacob Hawkens, and Michael Hansen, "Jesus was not a Unitarian,"(*) a review of another book by Buzzard, Jesus was not a Trinitarian: A Call to Return to the Creed of Jesus (2007)—I once joked to a friend of mine that I tend to agree with the titles of Buzzard’s works, but not much else ;-)

(*) A lengthier version of the article is available. If anyone wants a copy, email me at irishlds87atgmaildotcom