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‘When
the Word (מימרא) of the Lord will be
revealed to redeem his people he will say to all the nations: “See now that I
AM HE WHO IS (אנא הוא דהוי)” (Targ. Ps.-J. Deut
32.39) |
‘Before
Abraham came into being, I AM (εγω ειμι)’ (8.58) |
(Craig A. Evans, Word and Glory: On the Exegetical
and Theological Background of John’s Prologue [Journal for the Study of the
New Testament Supplement Series 59; Sheffield: JSOT Press, 1993], 116)
According to the targums, Abraham saw Israel’s
future, its domination by the four world powers, the final downfall of Rome (Frag.
Targ. Gen. 15.12; cf. Targ. Isa. 43.12): ‘I declared to Abraham your
father what was about to come . . . just as I swore to him between the pieces’),
and the day of judgment, including Gehenna prepared for the wicked (Frag.
Targ. Gen. 12.17). This tradition coheres with Jesus’ statement: ‘Abraham
your father rejoiced to see my day’ (Jn 8.56). Speculations that Abraham was
granted visions of the future are early, as seen in the Apocalypse of
Abraham and the Testament of Abraham, both of which probably
originated in Hebrew and in Palestine in the first century (cf. 4 Ezra 3.14
["and you loved him and to him only you revealed the end of the times,
secretly by night"]; 2 Bar. 4.4 ["After these things I showed
it to my servant Abraham in the night between the portions of the
victims"]). . . . The statement that Abraham ‘rejoiced’ may also reflect
targumic language (cf. Targ. Onq. Gen. 17.17). (Ibid., 162, comments in
square brackets added)
