Thursday, August 15, 2024

Brant Pitre on John 8:58

  

For one thing, Jesus’s assertion that “Abraham” had a vision of the future in which he “saw” all the way up to Jesus’s own “day” (John 8:56) fits very well into an early Jewish context. For in the Second Temple period, there was a widespread tradition that Abraham had experienced visions in which he “foresaw the days of the Messiah.” Consider the following early Jewish texts:

 

We [angels] came to Abraham. . . . We blessed and told him everything that had been commanded for him: that . . . one of Isaac’s sons would become a holy progeny. . . . Then we went on our way and told Sarah all that we had reported to him. The two of them were extremely happy. . . . He celebrated a joyful festival in this month—for seven days. . . . He was the first to celebrate the Festival of Tabernacles on the earth. (Jubilees 16:15-17, 19-21)

 

Then a voice came speaking to me twice, “Abraham, Abraham!” And I said, “Here I am.” And he said, “Behold, it is I. Fear not, for I am Before-the-World and Mighty, the God who created previously, before the light of the age. . . . you shall set out for me the sacrifice which I have commanded you, in the place which I will show you on a high mountain. And there I will show you the things which were made by the ages and by my word, and affirmed, created, and renewed. (Apocalypse of Abraham 9:1-4, 8-9)

 

To him [Abraham] only you [God] revealed the end of times, secretly by night. (4 Ezra 3:14)

 

There are striking parallels with Jesus’s statements about Abraham. Just as the book of Jubilees says that angels revealed the future to Abraham so that he was “extremely happy” and celebrated the “feast of Tabernacles” (Jubilees 16:17, 21), so too Jesus—apparently during the Feast of Tabernacles—says that Abraham “rejoiced” to see Jesus’s day and “was glad” (John 8;57; cf. 7:2, 37-44). Likewise, just as the Apocalypse of Abraham says that God “showed” Abraham a vision of the future “ages” when the world would be renewed (Apocalypse of Abraham 9:10; cf. Gen 15:17-20), so too Jesus describes Abraham’s knowledge of the future as a vision in which he “saw” the future “day” of salvation (John 8:56-57). According to early Jewish tradition, Abraham was not just a patriarch; he was an apocalyptic prophet who experienced heavenly visions of “the end of times” (4 Ezra 3:14).

 

Even Jesus’s startling declaration “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:5[8]) is contextually credible in an early Jewish context. For one thing, if Jesus claimed to be the Danielic son of man (cf. Dan 7:13-14), then it is quite credible that he also claimed to be a preexistent, divine being. For we have already seen, the “son of man” figure in the book of Daniel is described in some early Jewish apocalypses as a preexistent, heavenly messiah:

 

For from the beginning the Son of Man was hidden,
and the Most High preserved him in the presence of his might,
and he revealed him to the chosen. (1 Enoch 62:8)

 

As for your seeing a man come up from the heart of the sea, this is he whom the Might High has been keeping for many ages. . . . When these things come to pass. . . , then my son will be revealed, whom you saw as a man coming up from the sea. (4 Ezra 13:25-26)

 

In light of such evidence, experts in early Judaism concluded that some apocalyptic Jews did indeed expect “the messiah” to be a “preexistent” and “heavenly being.” If this is true, then there is no reason Jesus could not make a similar claim for himself. Moreover, if Jesus did claim preexistence, then it is contextually plausible that he would do so by using the divine epithet, “I am.” For, in an early Jewish context, the divine “I am” that was revealed to Moses on Sinai (Exod 3:14-15; cf. Isa 43:10) had come to be connected with the name of the eternal God:

 

Moses . . . also besought him not to deny him knowledge of his name. . . . Then God revealed to him his name, which before then had not come to men’s ears, and of which I am forbidden to speak. (Josephus, Antiquities 2.275-276)

 

Then a voice came speaking to me twice, “Abraham, Abraham!” And I said, “Here I am.” And he said, “Behold, it is I. Fear not, for I am Before-the-World and Mighty, before the light of the age.” (Apoc. Ab. 9:1)

 

In light of such evidence, it seems reasonable to conclude that when Jesus says “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58), he is not just claiming to be any kind of divine being. Rather, he is claiming to be the same God who appeared to Moses and the other patriarchs in Jewish Scripture and tradition. (Brant Pitre, Jesus and Divine Christology [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2024], 263-65)

 

 

  


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