byPtr. Art Calaguas
Shalom.
As mentioned last week, we start on the introductory part of ournew series on the great “I AM” declarations of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel of John. The Greek phrase is εγώεἰμι,“ego eimi” meaning “I am.” So what’s so special about this phrase? Is it a big deal?
As we progress in the series, we will see that the Lord Jesus used this phrase in a precise way that revealed his true nature to his disciples first;second to all believers for all time; and lastly, for all to hear and read. When these words were heard and read in their 1st century A.D. historical, literary and cultural setting and context; and specifically with the Old Testament (OT) in mind, some of his original Jewish audience understood their true meaning and implication. Others did not or refused to. Today, we ask ourselves how do we read or “hear” these words.
We start with definitions first. Ἐγώ(“Ego”) is Greek (Strong No. 1473) for “I” or “me” (https://biblehub.com/greek/1473.htm). Grammatically, it is what we call a first person singular pronoun used as a nominative in speech or writing. There are 352 occurrences of this exact word in the Greek New Testament (NT) out of a total of 2600 word variations (inflected forms).
On the other hand, εἰμι(“eimi”) is a verb in Greek (Strong No. 1510) which means “I exist” or “I am” coming from “to be;” expressing being (https://biblehub.com/greek/1510.htm). There are 141 occurrences of this exact word in the Greek NT out of a total of 2479 word variations (inflected forms). It is what is known in Greek as a present active indicative verb with an implicit 1st person singular subject. While it is similar to what we have in English, note that in English verb usage, the subject is normally stated explicitly. But in Greek, the ending of the verb is changed (“inflected”) to specify the implied subject. Thus, we can say εἰμι(“eimi”) and it will be enough. However, if we add an explicit subject (pronoun) in front of the verb, it is usually meant as an emphatic expression.
From the foregoing, we can summarize the word meanings as follows: εγώ– (“ego”), a pronoun, means “I” while εἰμι– (“eimi”), a verb, means “I am” from “to be” and εγώεἰμι – means “I AM” (emphatic).
The phrase εγώεἰμιas an emphatic expression would then have the English equivalent of saying: “I truly am!” or “I really am (the one)!” or depending on the specific context, “I am He!”
Now, how many times is the combination εγώεἰμι used in the NT? It is actually used by a handful of authors only in a few books, mostly in the Gospels. It is used 5 times by Matthew; 3 times by Mark; 4 times by Luke; 24 times by John; 7 times in the Book of Acts (written by Luke); and 4 times in the Book of Revelation (written by John). As we can see, the words εγώεἰμι are used more in the Gospel of John compared to any other NT book and uses them more than all of them combined. Taking John’s Gospel and the Book of Revelation together, we can conclude that this author is very much familiar with these words spoken by our Lord Jesus Christ, remembered them well and wrote them down in his narratives. We will soon find out that the Apostle John used them uniquely in a way that invariably communicates something theologically profound; as in emphasizing the Deity of Jesus Christ.
Focusing now on the Gospel of John, we can see 2 different ways the word combination εγώεἰμι is used. The first way, which we will classify as Group I usage is for those instances when the words εγώεἰμι are used as a subject with a following nominative predicate. This is the usual, expected case. For example, in John 6:35, our Lord is recorded by John as saying: “I AM the bread of life…” The “I AM” is followed by its predicate, “the bread of life.” The second way, which we can classify as Group II are for those instances when the declaration εγώεἰμι is used without an explicit predicate. For example, in John 8:58, our Lord tells the crowd: “…before Abraham was, I AM!” From the immediate context, the reader is engaged by the Apostle John to supply the expected and appropriate nominative predicate to complete the thought.
There are 7 “I AM” (Ἐγώεἰμι) declarations with predicates (Group I). There are also 7 “I AM” (Ἐγώεἰμι) declarations without predicates (Group II). As with our 7 Churches of the Revelation series, we will study the underlying Greek text from the Society of Biblical Literature Greek New Testament (SBLGNT) together with the ESV Global Study Bible, the NIV Study Bible and the NASB Life Application Study Bible translations as well as my own English translation of the passages under study. We will also relate the NT passages to their parallels in the Old Testament (OT) as warranted by its context. All OT texts are from the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS) based on the Masoretic Text (MT).
Most believers are aware of the Group I declarations of our Lord. Students of scripture also discern that the “I AM” phrase is undoubtedly connected with the OT narrative in Exodus 3:14 where the LORD God identifies his name to Moses. The original Hebrew MT of this verse is as follows:
וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים אֶל-מֹשֶׁה אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה וַיֹּאמֶר כֹּה תֹאמַר לִבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶהְיֶה שְׁלָחַנִי אֲלֵיכֶם
The Hebrew passage (with the portions of interest correspondingly highlighted), 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.’”
Alternatively, a possible, grammatically correct translation I learned in my Biblical Hebrew class many years ago is given below:
And God said to Moses “I WILL BE who I WILL BE”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I WILL BE has sent me to you.’”
Both Hebrew translations evoke the LORD God’s transcendent and timeless nature.
Meanwhile, the Greek Septuagint (LXX) translation version of Exodus 3:14 (ca. 250 B.C.) has a slight variation:
καὶεἶπεν ὁθεὸς πρὸςΜωυσῆνἘγώεἰμιὁὤν· καὶεἶπεν ΟὕτωςἐρεῖςτοῖςυἱοῖςΙσραηλ Ὁὢνἀπέσταλκέν με πρὸςὑμᾶς.
It can be literally translated this way (together with the corresponding highlighted portions of interest):
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.’”
Alternatively, the phrase “I AM the one who is” can also be rendered “I AM the existing one” or “I AM the one who exists.” Hence, the Greek ὁὤν means “the one who is,” or “the existing one,” or “the one who exists.”
Clearly, the LXX version also portrays the LORD God as a timeless and transcendent being, eternally existing.
Recall that in our study of the first part of the Book of Revelation, the LORD God identifies himself as “the one who is and who was and who is coming…” (Revelation 1:4 and 1:8). The words “the one who is” in Revelation comes from the same Greek words (ὁὤν) in the LXX version of Exodus 3:14. The Apostle John must surely have known and marveled at this connection!
We shall tackle the “I AM” declarations in the order they appear in John’s Gospel. However, listed down below for easy reference are the passages divided by the 2 classifications:
Group I
John 6:35, 41, 48, 51 I AM the bread of life.
John 8:12 I AM the light of the world.
John 10:7, 9 I AM the doorof the sheep.
John 10:11, 14 I AM the good shepherd.
John 11:25 I AM the resurrection and the life.
John 14:6 I AM the way, and the truth and the life.
John 15:1, 5 I AM the true vine.
Group II
John 4:26 (Samaritan woman) I who speaks to you AM HE.
John 6:20 (walks on water) I AM HE; do not be afraid.
John 8:18 (witnessing) I AMHE who witnesses …
John 8:24, 28 (sin & death) … unless you believe that I AM HE…
John 8:58 (father Abraham) … before Abraham was, I AM.
John 13:19 (betrayal prediction) … you may believe that I AM HE.
John 18:5, 6, 8 (betrayal & arrest) … I AM HE…
If one has been counting the number of individual occurrences in the list, there are only 23 cited above; while there are actually 24 mentioned earlier. The remaining instance is in John 9:9 and the phrase εγώεἰμι is used by the blind man who was healed at the Pool of Siloam. So he emphatically tells all that he really is the man born blind but now can see! It is the only time these words are used by someone in the Gospel of John other than the Lord Jesus Christ.
We will continue next week with John 4:26.
God bless us all.