John 8:56-59 – “Your father Abraham
rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” So the Jews said to
him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” Jesus said
to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” So they picked
up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.
Most of us
want peace. It can seem that mutual acceptance of one another’s views is the
best way to get there. A big debate is raging on whether or not people of other
faiths worship the same God, just in different ways. It is tempting to say, “Yes,”
to find harmony. Yet, depending on what we mean when we say, “We worship the
same God,” we may find some real challenges that cannot stand in reality.
It usually
works best to build relationships from points of agreement, and there is much
in common with humanity’s search for meaning through seeking the true Source of
life. There are also several components, such as some standards of morality,
which are common among different religions. However, at their cores, do they
have the same definitions of God?
John 8
describes the culmination of Jesus’ debate with the Jewish leaders, and it reached
its climax with who Jesus is. The Jews kept falling back on their status as descendants
of Abraham, but Jesus put himself in a position of superiority. We get to see
this clearly in the original language.
Greek has a
very specific and detailed verb structure that can be used to communicate
nuances of meaning, and that happens here. Both the Jewish leaders and Jesus
started referring to Abraham in the aorist (simple past) tense. That makes
sense, because he walked on the planet 1,800 years before John 8 was written.
Yet, Jesus turned the tables when he said, “Abraham saw my day.” In the context
of the passage, Jesus disputed the Jews’ understanding that Abraham was dead
(vs 53) with the claim he lives eternally because he was observing Jesus’
ministry at that time.
That statement
spurred another attack from the Jews to which Jesus gave the strongest claim of
his divinity he could have, “Before Abraham was, I am.” These verb tenses do
not make sense in English. They do not make sense in Greek, but they are
intentional because they communicate something far beyond the normal sense of
things.
“Before
Abraham was” is driven by the past (aorist) tense was and indicates Abraham was born as a natural individual. The
next phrase, “I am,” is loaded with the present tense verb am. How can something be in present tense when it is referring to a
past tense event? The only way to make this connection is to go to a third
language – Hebrew – the language of the Old Testament. In Exodus 3, God
revealed himself to Moses with the name “I am who I am” (Exodus 3:14). This
verbal phrase became embedded in the personal name of God – YHWH – often said
in English as Yahweh or Jehovah but not pronounced by many devout Jews for fear
of breaking the Third Commandment.
There is no
way to overplay the significance of Jesus’ statement, “Before Abraham was I am.”
He was unmistakably identifying himself as God. Much of the mystery of the
Trinity is revealed in this chapter as some distinction between Father and Son is
described along with clear unity. The Triune God of Christianity is distinctive;
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; One God; three persons. The divinity of Christ in
central to the Christian faith and incompatible with nearly every other belief
system.
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