John 8:58: what’s with the great ‘I am’?

John's gospel uses the absolute 'I am' (Greek = 'ego eimi') statements of Jesus schematically. One of them is John 8:58, but to understand it, we need to look wider. 

To understand why, we need to dip back into the Hebrew Bible.

 

Deuteronomy and Isaiah

Behind some of it is the Hebrew 'ni hu (= 'I am he'). This occurs seven times as God's declaration of his unique identity. Those seven times are in Deuteronomy 32:39, plus six in Isaiah at 41:4, 43:10, 43:13, 46:4, 48:12 and 52:6; plus the emphatic ‘anoki 'anoki hu occurs twice, both in Isaiah at 43:25 and 51:12.

So, nine verses: seven of 'I am he'; plus 2 emphatic ones. Those verses are key and well known statements of Jewish monotheism. John wrote his gospel with this in view.

And before we move on to the New Testament, we need to know that the Old Greek (Septuagint) sometimes translates 'ni hu' as 'ego eimi' (= 'I am').

 

John's Gospel

In his carefully structured gospel, John echoes that pattern in reference to Jesus. It’s an extraordinary move.

So, for Jesus, John includes seven absolute 'I am' statements, plus 2 emphatic verses. Here they are:

·       John's seven absolute 'I am' verses in his gospel are: John 4:26, 6:20, 8:24, 8:28, 8:58, 13:19, and 18:5.

·       Plus 18:5-8 which emphatically twice repeat the seventh occurrence.

 

Note what John is doing there. John’s message emerges in his own pattern. It’s about the parallels with those famous monotheistic verses from the Old Testament. So:

·       the Old Testament ‘I am he’ has 7 instances of 'ni hu' and 2 of the emphatic 'anoki 'anoki hu.’

·       John's ‘I am’ includes 7 absolute instances of 'ehgo eimi'... and 2 repetitions of the 7th for an emphatic climax.

Those verses thus very carefully and deliberately identify the ‘I am’ Jesus with the ‘I am he’ God of the Old Testament. It’s about Jesus' divinity. The aforementioned 7 + 2 uses of ‘ego eimi’ in John’s gospel match up with the 7 + 2 uses of ‘ni hu’ by God in the Old Testament.

John in this way reveals Jesus to be claiming the monotheistic divinity of the creator God here.

Whatever one may think about how best to convey John 8:58 in English translation, whether ‘I am’ or not, we must not miss John’s point.

The Greek is clear - this gospel’s 7 + 2 uses of the absolute ‘ego eimi’ parallel the 7 + 2 uses by God of ‘ni hu’ in these profoundly monotheistic passages.

 

A brilliant place to find out is the short book 'God Crucified' by Richard Bauckham. The same line of thinking is in Catrin Williams’ much more expensive book.

 

Exodus 3:14

Sometimes, commentators are keen to connect the ‘ego eimi’ of John 8:58 in particular with the Old Greek version of Exodus 3:14.

But it's not particularly Exodus 3:14 that is in view in this 'I am' statement. Instead the schematic way it is used shows that John has structured his gospel to link to the 7+2 verses of Deuteronomy and Isaiah listed above.

 

Conclusion

The Old Greek (Septuagint) sometimes translated ‘ni hu’ as ‘ego eimi’.

The 7 + 2 uses of ‘ni hu’ by God in the OT are clearly in view in John’s plan of his Greek-language gospel, and what is especially significant about them is that they all occur in profoundly monotheistic contexts. These are well known OT verses, and John’s carefully structured gospel clearly echoes the pattern. It does so by giving Jesus 7 absolute ‘ego eimi’ statements plus two emphatic follow-ons.

Therefore, John's Gospel echoes the monotheism of Deuteronomy and Isaiah, and makes the profoundly Christological step of including Jesus in the identity of the God of Jewish monotheism.

 

Notes

Observers of the Jehovah’s Witnesses comments on this verse might like to go to this collection of references to see how it has evolved over the years. It’s not my favourite website by any means, but it’s handy for having a lot of information contained in one place.