Wednesday, March 9, 2022

Sharon H. Ringe on εγω ειμι in John 8:58 and 18:6

  

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)