by Ptr. Art Calaguas
Shalom.
After analyzing the “I AM” emphatic declaration of our Lord Jesus in the Gospel of John regarding himself as the source of true light for the entire world and its related verses in both the Old Testament (OT) and New Testament (NT), we will again take a look at another declaration of εγώ εἰμι that is used without an explicit predicate. This is found in John 8:18.
The phrase εγώ εἰμι as an emphatic expression would still have the English equivalent of saying: “I truly am!” or “I really am (the one)!” or depending on the specific context, “I am He!” But the reader is engaged by the Gospel to supply the expected and appropriate nominative predicate to complete the thought from the immediate context.
The immediate context of John 8:18 revolves around the Lord’s answer to the challenge of the Pharisees that he was alone in witnessing/testifying about himself after he had declared that “I AM the light of the world (John 8:12) and therefore, his testimony was not valid. John 8:14-20 should be read as the contextual unit then. Note that in verse 17, the Lord Jesus already claims that the Father sent him. And in verses 17-18 reminds the Ἰουδαῖοι that the Father and himself adequately fulfill the requirement of 2 or 3 witnesses as the Torah lays down in Deuteronomy 19:15; and 17:6 (cf. Numbers 35:30).
The Greek verse of the Lord’s answer in John 8:18 is presented below:
ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ μαρτυρῶν περὶ ἐμαυτοῦ καὶ μαρτυρεῖ περὶ ἐμοῦ ὁ πέμψας με πατήρ.
This verse can be formally/literally translated as follows:
I AM the one witnessing/testifying about myself and (the) Father who sent me, witnesses/testifies about me.
Grammatically, there are four (4) verbs in this short 14-word verse. The first is the present indicative “am” (εἰμι) of the “I AM”; the second verb, “witnessing/testifying” (ὁ μαρτυρῶν) is a present participle; “witnesses/testifies” (μαρτυρεῖ) is also a present indicative verb; while the “who sent” (ὁ πέμψας) is an aorist participle. Both participles are adjectival in function as they have a Greek definite article (ὁ μαρτυρῶν and ὁ πέμψας) preceding each verb.
One can see in the Greek text that the verse starts off with the εγώ εἰμι (emphatic “I AM”) and ends with πατήρ (“pater” meaning father). If we just follow the Greek word order as is, the literal English translation can be rendered this way:
I AM the one witnessing/testifying about myself and (he) witnesses/testifies about me, (the one) who sent me – (the) Father.
As Greek word order is meant to emphasize certain words, here it seems the Apostle John has deliberately set up the last word of the verse, πατήρ (“Father”) as an equal counterweight to the first two (2) words spoken by the Lord Jesus, εγώ εἰμι (“I AM”). It is as if John is telling his audience that the Lord is saying I AM an equal witness to (the) Father as we both testify about me! Later on, in John 10:30, the Lord would declare, more forcefully, in only six (6) simple, yet theologically profound Greek words that ἐγὼ καὶ ὁ πατὴρ ἕν ἐσμεν (“I and the Father are one.”). And there is more.
Because we already know at this time the source of the “I AM” is from Exodus 3:14, we can review the Hebrew and corresponding English rendering of this verse as I included in the Introduction to this series.
The original Hebrew of Exodus 3:14 is as follows:
וַיֹּ֤אמֶר אֱלֹהִים֙ אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֔ה אֶֽהְיֶ֖ה אֲשֶׁ֣ר אֶֽהְיֶ֑ה וַיֹּ֗אמֶר כֹּ֤ה תֹאמַר֙ לִבְנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל אֶֽהְיֶ֖ה שְׁלָחַ֥נִי אֲלֵיכֶֽם׃
The Hebrew passage can be translated as:
And God said to Moses “I AM who I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”
Take note that the LORD, the “I AM” has sent Moses to his fellow Israelites (and to Pharaoh).
We also saw earlier in the same Introductory piece the Greek Septuagint (LXX) translation version of Exodus 3:14 (ca. 250 B.C.) which has a slight variation:
καὶ εἶπεν ὁ θεὸς πρὸς Μωυσῆν Ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ὤν· καὶ εἶπεν Οὕτως ἐρεῖς τοῖς υἱοῖς Ισραηλ Ὁ ὢν ἀπέσταλκέν με πρὸς ὑμᾶς.
It can be formally/literally translated this way:
And God said to Moses “I AM the one who is;” and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘The one who is has sent me to you.’”
Both the Hebrew and the Greek LXX texts state that the LORD, the timeless, transcendent, eternally existing “I AM” had sent Moses. Now, in John 8:18, the Lord Jesus is emphasizing the fact that He is the One sent (the One greater than Moses; see Deuteronomy 18:15-18 and cf. Hebrews 3:1-6) and the One who had sent Him was the same “I AM.” Furthermore, in John 7:28-29 during the celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles, the Lord Jesus had already declared twice that he was the one who was sent.
The parallel is unmistakable and could not have been missed by the Lord’s audience then.
So here, a short excursion into the original Greek verse of John 8:18 yields beautiful insights into the words of our Savior who sought to let the Ἰουδαῖοι and the people know who he is actually through their Torah. Next, in following verses, the Lord would warn them of the consequences of not heeding his words.
We will continue next week with John 8:24 and 8:28.
God bless us all.