· Christ’s
expression “I am” is different from similar uses, even without the presence of
a predicate or direct object. For in the event of the absence of a predicate or
an object, the conjunction “that” is used in normal conversation directly prior
to the expression “I am,” as indeed occurs in the same chapter: “unless you
believe that I am He” (John 8:24); “you will know that I am He”
(8:28) (the conjunction “that” is οτι
[hoti]). In those usages, Christ was not referring to a title. God
himself used the same construction in the Old Testament when he said “that I am
he” (Isa 43:10; 52:6) (The particle כִּי [ki] in the Hebrew expression כִּֽי־אֲנִ֣י
ה֔וּא [ki anu hu] and its translation is οτι εγω ειμι [hoti ego eimi] in the
Greek LXX). But Christ does not use this particle. This means that his declaration
“I am” is unique and special.
· Belief
that understanding the expression “I am” as God’s name deprives it of its
verbal power misses the fact that the name that God declared for himself as “I
am” is both a verb and a proper name at the same time. God used a verb form
for a title. Christ employed the same method, adopting titles built on
verbs. For example, he referred to himself as “the coming one” (Matt 21:9; 23:37-39;
Mark 11:9; Luke 19:38; 13:34-35; John 12:13) or the one “who was dead, and has
come to life” (Rev 2:8c).
· The
common Jewish understanding of the expression “I am” without
the use of a predicate, an object or the conjunction “that” is as an expression
of eternal presence and therefore of deity. Leon Morris stresses that there is
no other way to understand it (Morris, Gospel According to John, 473-474).
This conclusion is supported by the several biblical examples (Isa 41:4;
43:11-13; 45:18, 21; 48:17) (In the examples above, there are parallel
expressions in the Masoretic Text: יְהוָה אֲנִי [ani Yahweh], אְנֹכִי [anochi],
אֲנִי-הוּא [ani hu]; and in the LXX εγω ειμι [ego
eimi], εγω ο θεος [ego ho theos] and εγο ειμι [ego eimi]).
· Christ’s
“I am” declarations on other occasions indicate that they not only express
personal existence, but much more transcend into effective and practical existence
in the lives of people in a manner that no one can perform except one who has a
divine nature (John 4:25-26; 8:24, 28; 13:19; 18:4-6) (See Youngblood, “A
New Occurrence of the Divine Name ‘I Am,’” 144-152). (Imad N. Shehadeh, God
With Us and Without Us, 2 vols. [Carlisle, U.K.: Langham Global Library,
2019], 2:74-75)
