Monday, December 20, 2021

Imad N. Shehadeh on Jesus' use of εγω ειμι ("I Am")

 

·       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)