“Before Abraham Comes to be, I AM.” Did Jesus Claim to be God?

Trinitarians and deity of Christ believers think that Jesus claimed to be God when Jesus said in John 8:58, “I am”. John 8:58 is probably among the top 5 of verses put forth as evidence for the deity of Christ.[1] This article gives reasons why Jesus’s “I am” statement in John 8:58 is not a claim to exist before Abraham in the past but is better understood in the context of Jesus’s presence, and who Jesus is, before Abraham comes to be in the future.  

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Outline:

1.       Tongue-in-cheek deity of Christ translations of John 8:58 and Exodus 3:14-15

Analysis of Trinitarian, Deity of Christ Interpretation of John 8:58

2.       Creating Confusion and Contradiction as to who the God of Israel is.

3.       Different Trinitarian translations in John 8:58 a sign of uncertainty: “before Abraham was, was born, came into existence, coming”? Is the infinitive verb “comes to be” better understood in the future tense (see 10f below)?

4.       If Jesus was before Abraham in the past, does that mean he is eternal God?

5.       In Hebrew, God’s name in Exo. 3:14 is not “I Am”, but more literally, “I Will Be Who I Will Be”.

6.       In Greek, God’s name is not “I Am”, but “the Living One”.

7.       The Commonness of “I am”.  The blind man is “I am”.

8.       Who is the God of Israel, and who is His Son? Deity of Christ interpretation of John 8:58 contradicts Peter, Stephen, John, Gabriel and Jesus.

Better ways to understand Jesus’s “I am” statement:

9.       Referring to the Past: Jesus in the plan of God before Abraham.

10.   Referring to the Future: Jesus comes as Messiah, the Light of the world, before Abraham, and before God’s promises to Abraham come to be in the future (in resurrection).

    a.       The problem of no predicate following “I am”. Did Jesus mean: I am God? I am he? I am the Messiah? I am the Light of the World?  
    b.       The context of the entire John 8 discourse following John 8:12, “I am the light of the world”.
    c.       “I am” in John 8:58 is an inclusio to the entire “I am the light of the world” discourse.
    d.       Jesus says in John 8:40 that he is a man who heard the truth from God. Is Jesus double-minded?
    e.       Healing of the blind man in John 9 is evidence that John 8:58 means “I am the light of the world.

       f.   The Greek word in John 8:58 translated in English versions in past tense as “was, was born, came into existence” is better understood as referring to the future. All of the other 6 occurrences of the same word in John’s Gospel refer to something or someone that can or will “come to be” in the future. Have presuppositions about a pre-incarnate Jesus negatively influenced translation?

Trinitarian Translation and Understanding of Exodus 3:14 and John 8:58

I would like to start by giving a tongue-in-cheek, Trinitarian, deity of Christ interpretive translation of John 8:58 and Exodus 3:14-15. Trinitarians interpret Jesus as claiming to be the God who revealed himself to Moses at the burning bush when Jesus said in John 8:58, “before Abraham was born, I AM”. Although my tongue-in-cheek translation is not what is written in the biblical text, the translation illustrates how Trinitarians interpret Jesus’s declaration as a claim to be the eternal God who revealed himself in the Old Testament event of Exodus 3:14-15.[2]

Exodus 3:14 (Amplified Trinitarian Translation): “The Second Person of the Trinity said to Moses ‘I AM WHO I AM, the pre-incarnate Second Person of the Trinity, God the Son.’ And He said, ‘Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” 

John 8:58 (Amplified Trinitarian Translation): “Jesus said to them, ‘Before Abraham was born, I AM God, the Eternal Second Person of the Trinity, who appeared to Moses in the burning bush.’” 

 

Trinitarian commentary:  While there is no reference to Moses or the burning bush incident in John 8, we can deduce that it was the second person of the Trinity who appeared to Moses in the burning bush because Jesus said “I AM”. While Jesus never stated explicitly, “I AM God (also), the co-eternal Second Person of the Trinity before anything else was created”, Jesus did claim to be “before Abraham”. This  "I AM" statement is a claim to pre-incarnate existence as Eternal God and his Jewish listeners knew it. Jesus's “I AM” claim is also a claim to be Yahweh in the Book of Isaiah who said, “I AM Yahweh your God (Isa. 43:3). We capitalize I AM in both John 8:58 and Exodus 3:14 to make it clear that Jesus, the Second Person of the Triune God, is the “I AM” who appeared to Moses. 

 

Analysis of the Deity of Christ Interpretation of John 8:58

 

Creating Confusion and Contradictions

The Trinitarian interpretation of John 8:58 leads to mass confusion as to who the God of Israel is. If Jesus is claiming to be the Great I Am of the Book of Exodus, then Yahweh, the God of Israel, the “I am” who appeared to Moses, is not the Father, nor the Spirit, nor the Trinity.

 

“I” in the statement “I AM” is singular: one person, not three. In Trinitarian theology, the Second Person never claims to be God the Father, nor God the Spirit, since the Father and the Spirit are two distinct persons from the Son. If Jesus is claiming to be the great “I am” of Exodus 3:14-15, then neither the Father nor the Spirit are the great “I am.”

 

If Jesus’s “I am” statement is a claim to deity, then the entire Trinity is not the Great I Am, since the Second Person of the Trinity would never claim to be the entire Trinity. If the entire Trinity speaks as “I”, then either: 1) there is a fourth person of the Trinity (Father, Son, Spirit, Trinity) who speaks using the singular personal pronoun “I”, or, 2) Yahweh the God of Israel is an abstract essence (an “it”) which speaks distinctly from the persons who share its essence.

 

Or, the “I Am” statement of Jesus is understood in a modalist way (by Trinitarian definition, heretical), a belief that Yahweh (one person, one self) speaks as “I” and can appear in different modes of Father, Son and Spirit.

 

The Bible says that “No man has ever seen God” and “No man can see God” (Exo. 33:20 1 Tim. 6:16, 1 John 4:12). But Trinitarians claim this truth only applies to the Father and the Spirit, but not to the Son. According to the Trinitarian, God (the Son), even though he is God, was seen in both the Old and New Testament periods.

 

If Jesus claimed to be God, then God was put to death. Any confusion or contradiction created by Trinitarian interpretation is shuffled into a bin called mystery. Instead of mystery, perhaps that bin should be called confusion and contradiction.

 

English Translation Red Flag: “before Abraham was?  was born? came into existence? coming?”

Evidence that the deity of Christ understanding may be faulty shows up in the different English translations of the Greek verb γενέσθαι genesthai[3] in John 8:58:

“before Abraham was”

“before Abraham was born”

“before Abraham came into existence”

“before Abraham’s coming.”

The word genesthai is not the normal Greek word which denotes birth, so the translation “was born” should be seriously be questioned. In each case (some 15 times) when John’s Gospel refers to being born, a different Greek word (γεννάω) is used.  Instead, the Greek word in John 8:58 is best understood as “come to be”. This is why many translations render the verb simply as “was”.  Later, we will compare other uses of the same word in the Gospel of John and see that it is preferable to understand that the word refers to something or someone that will come to be in the future.

 

Jesus was only before Abraham? Not before Adam, not before all creation?

Neither the burning bush incident of Exo. 3:14-16 nor the Book of Isaiah are part of the discussion recorded in John 8. Jesus’s “I am” is a statement about his association with Abraham. Jesus didn't say in John 8:58 (or anywhere else) that he was eternally the Second Person of the Triune God.  Instead, he apparently only cryptically gave clues of his eternal deity by saying something like, “before Abraham comes to be, I am.”  However, even Adam, Noah, Terah and angels were before Abraham. To be before Abraham doesn’t make a person Eternal God. The deity of Christ interpretation depends on much presumption about an uncertain, non-explicit statement.

 

In Hebrew, ehyeh asher ehyeh אהיה אשר אהיה Does Not Mean “I am”

The supposed word-play connection of “I am” in John 8:58 and Exo. 3:14 does not work in either Hebrew or Greek. In Hebrew, God said to Moses at the burning bush, “אהיה אשר אהיה, ehyeh asher ehyeh. The phrase could possibly be translated “I am what I am”, but more literally and more likely means “I will be who I will be”.[4]

 

Indeed, there is an implication of the eternality of God in the statement ehyeh asher ehyeh. In Exo. 3:14-15 God makes the ehyeh asher ehyeh declaration to Moses specifically in connection to God being able to make good on His promises - even though many years may pass. Hundreds of years before Moses, Yahweh had promised to Abraham that Abraham’s descendants would inherit the land and that Abraham would become the father of many nations. Then in Moses’s day, Yahweh promised that He, by the hand of Moses, was about to bring Israel out of Egypt and that “the future is now” - they would inherit that promised land. Yahweh will do what He says. He will make good on His promises though hundreds of years may pass.

 

The “I am” statement that Jesus made in John 8:58 does not connect clearly, if at all, to the Hebrew phrase ehyeh asher ehyeh, “I will be who I will be”.  In Hebrew neither ehyeh nor ehyeh asher ehyeh means “I am”. In Hebrew in Exo. 3:15, God told Moses to tell Israel that “I Will Be ehyeh has sent me to you.”

 

In the Greek Bible, God in Exodus 3:14 is not “I am”, but “the Living One”

The supposed word-play connection between John 8:58 and Exo. 3:14-15 does not work in Greek.  In the Greek (LXX) translation of the Old Testament, God said to Moses, “I am the Living One, ego eimi Ha On, ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ὤν.” God’s name or title in Exodus 3:14-15 is not “ego eimi I AM” but “Ha On, the Living One”.

“I am, ego eimi” is not a divine title. God said to Moses “I am the Living One”.  The Greek translation of the Bible of Exodus 3:14 does not say, “Tell them ego eimi (I AM) has sent me to you” but says, “Tell them Ha On (the Living One) has sent me to you.”

 

The commonness of “I am”

Many people in the Bible say, “I am” but are not making a claim to deity. Jesus said the exact same phrase to the Samaritan woman in John 4:26 when he claimed to be the Messiah, not God. The Samaritan woman said, “When the Messiah comes, he will explain everything to us.” Jesus replied, “I am.” Jesus did not mean “I am God, but “I am he”, “I am the Messiah.”

 

Just a few verses after Jesus’s “I am” statement in John 8:58, the healed blind man was questioned, “Are you the man?” The blind man’s response in the Greek New Testament is exactly the same as Jesus’s statement: “ego eimi I am.” The blind man said, “I am”, but he wasn't claiming to be God. To insist that “I am” in the Greek Bible is a claim to deity leads to much confusion.

 

“I am” is a very common declaration in the Bible and in any dialog. Are you the one who came yesterday? “I am.” Are you the person who will drive the car? “I am.” The statement, “I am” is very common and is not a claim to be God, unless it is accompanied by a predicate like, “I am Yahweh your God”.

 

The opinion that such a common phrase as “I am” means deity really shows the lack of evidence for the deity of Jesus in the New Testament. Rather than explicit statements, deity of Christ proponents must appeal to subtle hints and codes in a very common statement. “Jesus hinted or claimed to be God in code by saying, ‘I am’”

 

Contradicting the Apostle Peter: Jesus is the Servant and Son of the God of who Appeared to Moses (Acts 3:13)

The God who said “I will be who I will be” (often translated “I am” in English versions) in Exodus 3:14-16, is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (the God of your fathers). The consistent, explicit teaching of the Scriptures is that Jesus is the Son or Servant of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – NOT the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob himself.

 

In Acts 3:13, the Apostle Peter declared, “The God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His servant[5] Jesus” (ESV). In other words, Jesus is NOT the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who appeared to Moses in the burning bush, but Jesus is the servant/son of the God who appeared to Moses in the burning bush.

 

Peter says that Jesus is “His servant.” That is, Peter refers to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as one individual, single person. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is not a Trinity. He is one person. Jesus is His servant, not their servant. To make the God of Abraham more than one person sends the Scriptures into philosophical liberalism which prefers that the pronouns “I, he, him, his” refer to more than one person. 

The Trinitarian, deity of Christ interpretation of John 8:58 directly contradicts Peter’s understanding of who the God of Abraham is. Jesus is not the God of Abraham but is the servant/son of the God of Abraham.

 Contradicting Stephen (Acts 7:32-35)

The deity of Christ interpretation of John 8:58 also directly contradicts Stephen’s understanding of who appeared to Moses in the burning bush (Acts 7:32-35). Stephen declared that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob was represented by and spoke through an angel/messenger to Moses. Jesus is not an angel.[6] 

 Contradicting the Author of the Gospel of John

The deity of Christ interpretation of John 8:58 contradicts the author of the Gospel of John, who wrote that he recorded the signs that Jesus did in order that his readers might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, not God himself (John 20:31).

 Contradicting Jesus and Gabriel

The deity of Christ interpretation of John 8:58 contradicts Jesus’s own statement recorded in John’s Gospel. When Jesus prayed to the Father, Jesus declared that the Father is the only true God (John 17:1-3).

 The angel Gabriel declared concerning Jesus, “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David…” (Luke 1:32).

 Jesus is not the Most High. The Lord God is the Most High. Jesus is the Son of the Most High, to whom the Most High gives the throne of David.

 Since the deity of Christ, Trinitarian interpretation of John 8:58 contradicts Gabriel, Peter, Steven, the author of the Gospel of John, and Jesus - the deity of Christ, Trinitarian interpretation of John 8:58 can categorically be rejected.

 Other Interpretations:

What did Jesus mean when he said, “before Abraham comes to be, I am?” Is the deity of Christ interpretation missing the true meaning of the passage? If we set aside deity of Christ presuppositions, other possibilities emerge. I suggest two possibilities.

 The Messiah in the Plan of God before Abraham came to be

Much of the discussion in John 8 is about the precedence of Jesus the Messiah to Abraham. It is understood in the Hebraic world that the Messiah is greater than Abraham because the Messiah is the ultimate fulfillment of God’s promises to Abraham. One thing that Jesus may have intended in John 8:58 is that before Abraham came to be (in the past), Jesus as Messiah existed already in the plan and purpose of God. Jesus the Messiah was foreknown by God (Acts 2:23, 1 Pet. 1:20). Abraham “came to be” because God had a plan that through Abraham, both Abraham’s own descendants and other families of the earth would be blessed. According to God’s pre-known plan, Jesus the Messiah would descend from Abraham and become the channel through whom the promised blessings to Abraham flow.

 Before Abraham comes to be (in the future), I am (the Light of the World)

Another possibility, and I believe the more likely one, is that in John 8:58 Jesus was speaking about the necessity of his own presence as Messiah before Abraham comes to be in the future; that is, the Messiah comes before Abraham comes to be through resurrection, and before God’s promises to Abraham are realized.

 Jesus’s “before Abraham” statement involves Jesus’s precedence to Abraham in resurrection. As the Messiah, the firstborn from the dead, Jesus is superior to Abraham, and to Moses and to everyone else. It was necessary that Messiah (Jesus) lived before the ultimate fulfillment of God’s promises to Abraham, and as firstborn from the dead Jesus came to be in life immortal before Abraham. Abraham is still in the grave and God’s promises to Abraham are yet unfulfilled (Acts 7:5, Rom. 4:17-20, Heb. 11:8-19). Jesus of Nazareth is at the right hand of God – alive.

 One grammatical difficulty of Jesus’s statement “before Abraham comes to be, I am” is that there is no predicate following the statement “I am”. We need context to know what Jesus means when he says “I am.” I am what?  “I am the Messiah”, as in John 4:26, or, like the blind man, “I am he, the man“ (John 9:9)?

 The context of Jesus’s “before Abraham comes to be, I am” is Jesus’s declaration in John 8:12, “I am (ego eimi) the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” Jesus’s “I am (ego eimi) the light of the world” declaration is what generates the entire conversation in John 8. Jesus repeats a number of times in this same chapter, “ego eimi I am”. In John 8:24, “You will die in your sins unless you believe that I am” (ego eimi).  Many translations insert the pronoun “he” in John 8:24: “unless you believe that I am he”.

 In John 8:28 Jesus says, “When you have lifted up the son of man then you will know that I am (ego eimi) and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak as the Father taught me.” “I am and I do nothing on my own authority” does not sound like Jesus is claiming to be Almighty God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob of the books of Exodus and Isaiah. “I am and I do nothing on my own authority.” The God of Israel who appeared to Moses in the burning bush and spoke through the Prophet Isaiah does nothing on his own authority?

 Rather, in the context of the entire discussion, Jesus is claiming to be the light of the world. “Unless you believe that I am …the light of the world you will die in your sins.” “Then you will know that I am…the light of the world and I do nothing on my own authority.”

 From the first verses of John’s Gospel Jesus has been introduced as the light of the world. John the Baptist was not the light, but came to bear witness to the light. The light which enlightens every man was coming into the world. Jesus Christ is that light and this is what Jesus claimed in John chapter 8 – “I am the light of the world.”  All of the “I am” statements in John 8 can be understood best in the context of Jesus’s claim to be the light of the world.

 Jesus’s “I am” Declarations followed by Discourse

Jesus’s “I am ego eimi the light of the world” statement in John 8 is one of seven “I am” statements in John’s Gospel. The pronoun “I” is emphasized in these statements. “I (not someone else) am the light of the world”. This is the 2^nd such statement. The first “I am” statement is in John 6:35, “I am the bread of life”, which is followed by Jesus’s discourse about being the bread of life.  “I am the Good Shepherd” (10:11, 14) is followed by Jesus’s discourse of how he is the Good Shepherd. “I am the True Vine” (15:1, 5) is followed by a discourse about Jesus being the True Vine.

 We see the same kind of structure in John 8. Jesus declares, “I am the light of the world” and then he continues with a discourse about how he is the light of the world. The context of John 8 is a continuation and elaboration of Jesus’s “I am the light of the world” declaration. It therefore makes good sense to understand that all the “I am” statements in chapter 8 refer back to his claim, “I am the light of the world.”

 John 8:58 as a Re-statement, an Inclusio

It also makes good exegetical sense in the context and literary structure of this section to understand Jesus as closing his discourse with a re-statement of how he began. That is, Jesus affirms his original statement “I am the light of the word” with a re-statement at the end of the discourse, an inclusio. Jesus began his discussion in 8:12 by declaring: “I am the light of the world” and then wraps up his discourse by restating, “I say to you, before Abraham comes to be, I am (the light of the world).”

 Jesus is a Man who Told the Truth that he Heard from God

Another point about the context of John chapter 8 that shows that the deity of Christ interpretation of Jesus’s statement is wrong is that in John 8:40 Jesus says, “But now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth which I heard from God.” Here in the very same chapter Jesus says that he is a man. But according to deity Christ interpreters, a few verses later (8:58) Jesus speaks as if he is God. The deity of Christ interpretation makes Jesus into a kind of a schizophrenic double-minded, dual-natured liar. Jesus claims to be a man who heard the truth from God, who does nothing on his own authority, who differentiates himself from God - but then two minutes later he supposedly claims to be God by using a very common expression as some kind of code language, “ego eimi I AM”, that his Judean listeners supposedly understood as a claim to deity.

 The Proof of Jesus’s I Am the Light of the World Statement in John 8, a Healed Blind Man in John 9

Another evidence that Jesus is saying that he is the light of the world in John 8:58 is the next chapter. John 9 describes the healing of a man born blind. Jesus, the Messiah, gave the man light, gave the blind man sight. The giving of light/sight to a man born blind was proof that Jesus is the light of the world. As declared concerning the man Jesus, way back in the first couple verses of John’s Gospel: “in him was life and life was the light to men” (John 1:3b-4a). The true light came into the world.

 Before Abraham Was (in the past), or Before Abraham Comes to Be (in the future)?

The key error in the deity of Christ understanding of John 8:58 is in translating Jesus statement about Abraham in the past tense when it refers to the future.  The Greek word which often gets translated in John 8:58 in the past tense, before Abraham “was” (KJV, RSV, ESV) or “was born” (NAS, NIV) or “came into existence” (NET), can be interpreted in a future sense: “Before Abraham comes to be, I am.”  Note Young’s Literal Translation and the Literal Standard Version, “before Abraham’s coming - I am”.

 The Greek word (γενέσθαι genesthai)[7] occurs in this form seven times in the Gospel of John. In every occurrence, without exception, the word relates to something that will become or comes to be at some point in the future: In John 8:58 “before Abraham comes to be, I am” would mean before Abraham comes to be in the future, Jesus is (the light of the world). Before God's promises to Abraham – that Abraham would be the father of many nations, that Abraham’s seed would inherit the land, that Abraham would be the channel of blessing to all families of the earth, and before Abraham himself would come to be in the promised resurrection from the dead – before all that - the Messiah comes. The Messiah Jesus IS the light of the world, before Abraham comes to be.

 In other words, Jesus is making a Messianic claim to be the channel through whom God’s promises to Abraham are fulfilled. His claim is not a claim to be God, but to be the Messiah/Light through whom God is at work to fulfill God’s promises to Abraham.

 The “I am” statement of Jesus in John 8:58 is not about what Jesus was in the past before Abraham was born around 2000 BC. Rather, the “I am” statement is about what Jesus is at the time he was on the earth: “I, the Messiah, am the light of world before Abraham comes to be."

 The seven occurrences of γενέσθαι genesthai in the Gospel of John are listed below. Note that in none of the other occurrences is genesthai translated in the past tense, which is strong evidence that likewise Jesus’s “I am” statement in John 8:58 about his relation to Abraham should NOT be understood or translated in the past tense:

1:12, “the right to become children of God”

3:9, “how can these things be/become”

5:6, “do you want to be/become healthy?”

8:58, “before Abraham becomes/comes to be, I am”

9:27, “Do you want to become his disciples?”

13:19, “I tell you this now, before it comes to be/happens”

14:29, “I have told you now before it comes to be/happens, so that when it happens you may believe.”

 Three points:

1) To emphasize, translating the Greek word γενέσθαι genesthai in the past tense as “was born” or “was” in John 8:58 goes against all other occurrences of this Greek word in the Gospel of John. In all other occurrences in John, γενέσθαι genesthai does not communicate something in the past tense but rather denotes something or someone who could be or will be in the future. This is strong evidence that the word in John 8:58 relates to Abraham coming to be in a future context.

 2) The closest grammatical parallel statement to John 8:58 is John 14:29 since in both statements the subject of the verb genesthai is preceded by the word “before” (πρὶν).[8]

John 14:29, “I have told you before it comes to be/happens” πρὶν γενέσθαι

John 8:58, “before Abraham comes to be” πρὶν Ἀβραὰμ γενέσθαι

 The word “before” in both John 8:58 and 14:29 makes it clear that Jesus statement in 8:58 is about Abraham coming to be in a future context. Jesus’s statement does not relate to his being present before Abraham was born in the past. Rather, Jesus “I am” statement relates to Jesus’s being present before Abraham comes to be in the future.

 3) Trinitarian presuppositions concerning the literal pre-incarnate existence of Christ have negatively influenced the translation and interpretation of this verse, making it a claim about Jesus’s relationship to Abraham in the past, while it should be interpreted in connection to Jesus’s existence before Abraham “comes to be” in the future. The end result of the Trinitarian interpretation is a deflection from the hope of the promises of God fulfilled in resurrection.

 Conclusion

Jesus’s statement recorded in John 8:58, “before Abraham comes to be, I am” is thought by deity of Christ believers to be one of the chief places in the Bible where Jesus claimed to be God. But the deity of Christ interpretation of a very common statement (I am) relies on presupposition and causes confusion and contradiction. The linguistic connections of Jesus’s “I am” statement to Hebrew and Greek Old Testament texts do not exist.

 Jesus was not making a claim to be the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who appeared to Moses in the burning bush. Nor was Jesus claiming to be God in the book of Isaiah who said, “I am Yahweh your God…I am he…there is no other”. The Bible does not confuse pronouns. Yahweh is “I, he, his, him”, not “we, us, they, them”. To claim that Jesus was the “I” of “I am Yahweh your God, there is no other”, attempts to eliminate the Father from being Israel’s God. There is only one person in the pronoun “I”.

 Putting aside deity of Christ presuppositions, we considered two other possible interpretations of Jesus’s “I am” statement in John 8:58 that do not contradict Peter (Acts 3:13), Steven (Acts 7:32-35), the author of the Gospel of John (John 20:31), Gabriel (Luke 1:32) and Jesus (John 8:40, 17:3).

 Jesus may have been making a statement about himself as the Messiah being in the plan of God before Abraham came to be in the past. But, more likely, Jesus was making a statement about himself being Messiah (the light of the world) before Abraham and God’s promises to Abraham come to be in the future. In all other occurrences in the Gospel of John, the Greek word genesthai relates to a future coming to be, not a past “was”.

 The claim is often made by deity of Christ believers that the Judeans (“Jews”) who heard Jesus knew exactly what Jesus was saying; that in some kind of shared “I am” code language “Jesus was claiming to be God and that’s why the Jews took up stones.”  This kind of insistence by modern interpreters is evidence that in most cases modern Gentile interpreters don't know what Jews in 1^st century Israel were thinking. In most cases, Gentiles might think they know what Jews thought or think, but they don’t.

 Further, if a modern interpreter thinks that the Judeans (“Jews”) thought Jesus was claiming to be God in John’s Gospel – and agrees with the Judeans – the modern interpreter is on the wrong side of the truth (cf. John 8:40, 17:3, 20:31). Over and over in the Gospel of John the Judeans misunderstand Jesus’s words.  John chapter 8 states twice that the Judeans did not understand what Jesus was talking about (John 8:27, 43).  Any interpretation that claims to know how the Judeans understood Jesus’s words, and agrees with the supposed Judeans’ understanding of Jesus’s words, is wrong.

 Even though modern Christian songs declare that “Jesus is the Great I Am”, “I am” is not a title for God. Neither in Hebrew nor in Greek nor in English is “I am” a title for God. The “I am is deity claim” fails on many counts. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is God Most High, the Father - and Jesus is the Father's Son.

 

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[1] A Google search “Where did Jesus claim to be God in the Bible” on 1/12/23 brings John 8:58 to the top of the list among 31,600,000 results.

[2] A personal word. I don’t think as a Trinitarian that I held to the Trinitarian interpretation of John 8:58 for long. I heard and accepted this deity of Christ interpretation when I was a college student. But even as a Trinitarian, I eventually realized the weakness of the interpretation in regards to “I am”, probably because as soon as I started to learn Hebrew, I saw that linguistically the claim is faulty. If there is a former student reading who heard me teach that in John 8:58 Jesus claimed to be God by saying, “before Abraham comes to be, I am”, I apologize.

[3] Infinitive aorist middle from γίνομαι, capable of many translations, including “become, happen, take place, be born, be made”

[4] Cf. Tyndale Bible of 1526 and Coverdale Bible of 1535

[5] “servant” παῖς can also be translated as “son” or “youth”.  That is, Peter says that Jesus is the servant or son of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The God of our fathers glorified His servant/son, Jesus.

[6] Salinger, T. Pre-incarnate Appearances of the Son of God in the OT: Truth or Myth? https://letthetruthcomeoutblog.wordpress.com/2019/03/03/pre-incarnate-appearances-of-the-son-of-god-in-the-ot-truth-or-myth-part-3/ and,
One God Report Podcast: The Burning Bush, Melchizedek, One Like a Son of God: Pre-incarnate appearances of Jesus? https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/SRuIDsGMbwb

[7] Infinitive aorist middle from γίνομαι, capable of many translations, including “become, happen, take place, be born, be made.”

 [8] John 13:19 is of similar grammatical construction and relates to something that will yet be in the future, using another Greek word for “before”.