In 8:58 opponents immediately
pick up stones to throw at him. In 18:6 the onlookers fall to the ground. These
responses point toward a dramatic claim being conveyed by the phrase—in fact, apparently,
a claim of Jesus’ divinity. Although in Exodus 3:14 where the divine name is
given, the LXX uses ο
ων, meaning something like “the Existent One” (Jerome
Neyrey, An Ideology of Revolt: Christology in Social Science Perspective,
214), it is clear from the LXX of such texts as Isaiah 43:25; 45:18; 48:12; 51:12;
and 52:6 that εγω ειμι
was also a code for the divine name among Greek-speaking Jews. The phrase—particularly
when it has no complement—weaves through the Gospel the affirmation made in the
λογος hymn of Jesus’ past eternity and future imperishability” (Ibid.,
213; Elizabeth Harris, Prologue and Gospel: The Theology of the Fourth
Evangelist, 130), now present in human flesh. (Sharon H. Ringe, Wisdom’s
Friends: Community and Christology in the Fourth Gospel [Louisville, Ky.: Westminster
John Knox Press, 1999], 61)