WHERE DOES JESUS SAY "I AM GOD"?

​

The purpose of this inquiry is to determine whether or not Jesus claimed to be God in John 7–8. A critic of Christian theology might concede that other biblical writers declared Jesus to be God (e.g., John in John 1:1, Paul in Titus 2:13, Peter in 2 Peter 1:1), but then challenge, "If Jesus were God, where did he say, 'I am God. Worship me'?" To analyze this challenge, the body of this paper contains four sections:

​

1.  How to call yourself God

2.  A broad look at claims

3.  A close look at details

4.  Claims categorized by type

​

As an exegetical inquiry, its scope will be narrower than a theological paper: the work of other scholars will not be examined until a later paper.
 

How to Call Yourself God in First-Century Judea

How would someone tell first-century Jews that he was the God of Israel, if he wanted to say such a thing? Not by saying, "I am God." Nobody understood Modern English! This joke may be pithy, but is quite applicable to the discussion: critics of the Christian position typically show little awareness of the original language involved.

​

So, how about saying it in the Greek of the day? This would be fairly ineffective, as Greek was a language of the hated Roman occupiers. Even if one did call oneself the Greek word for God (θεός), this could signify many people, including the Emperor of Rome (who called himself "God and Savior") or a street-corner prophet. Furthermore, calling oneself the regular designator for God The Father in the Greek translation of the Old Testament would open the doors to polytheism and an unnuanced oneness of God.

​

More useful would be the Hebrew word for God (אֵל or אֱלֹהִים), but this was the more generic term for God, sometimes applied to false gods and even applied to humans.

​

Neither would one just say, "I am Yahweh." Pronouncing the name of Yahweh was extremely blasphemous in first-century Palestine. Despite declaring the Name of Jesus above all other names, the New Testament authors never once transliterated the covenant name of God, even in reference to The Father.

​

To make matters more complicated, Jesus was said to "always" speak in parables to people [Matt 13:34–35] so that only those with "ears to hear" would discern and believe in him [Mark 4:11–12].

​

What does that leave? Instead of pronouncing the name "Yahweh," people used Hebrew circumlocutions meaning "The Lord," or "My Lord," or "The Name." The word "lord" was used in commonplace address equivalent to "sir," but marked usages of "Lord" could certainly be interpreted as a reference to Yahweh. So, to a Jewish audience, self-declaration using names reserved in the Tanakh only for Yahweh would be one way to claim deity. Claiming the prerogatives of Yahweh would be another. Making identical, elevated claims would be another. Did Jesus make himself out to be God in any of these ways? Let us now look at the text.

​

​

The Broad Look

John 7–8 is a dense pericope, containing 55 claims for us to consider. Block-quoting the entirety of it would be infeasible, so here are the claims, separated into "micro-interactions," with minimal adornment and notes. In the fourth section of this paper, each claim will be grouped into these categories: Derivational, Epistemological, Official, Ontological, or Spiritual. If you are only scanning this paper, not reading, at least read micro-interactions #6, #7, #9, and #10. 

Micro-interaction 1

[7:14] Action: Jesus started teaching.

[7:15] Reaction: The Jews were surprised. "How does this man know so much when he hasn't been formally

trained?"

[7:16] Jesus: "My teaching is not mine, but of the one who sent me."

[7:17] Jesus: "If anyone wants to do God’s will, he will know about my teaching, whether [or not] it is from God...."
 

The Jews looked to academic training, but Jesus redirected them to his derivation.
 

Micro-interaction 2

[7:19] Jesus: "Not one of you keeps The Law! Why do you want to kill me?"

[7:20] Jews: Claimed Jesus was demon-possessed.

 

Micro-interaction 3

[7:26] Jews: "Do the rulers really know that this man is the Christ?"

[7:27] Jews: "[But] we know where this man comes from."

[7:28] Jesus: "You [think you] both know me and where I am from."

[7:28] Jesus: "I did not come on my own initiative ... you do not know the one who sent me."

[7:29] Jesus: "I know Him."

[7:29] Jesus: "I am from Him who sent me."

[7:30] Reaction: Some tried to arrest Jesus.

[7:31] Reaction: Many in the crowd believed in him.
 

Note that the listeners are the ones who brought in the supposition about The Messiah here, not Jesus. Moreover, in the same stroke they rejected the idea, because they thought they knew where Jesus came from. Regarding v.29 where Jesus says, "I am from Him who sent me," his meaning could be derivational or ontological. But the fact that some tried to arrest Jesus demonstrates that some may have understood his claim.
 

Micro-interaction 4

[7:31] Jews: "Whenever The Messiah comes, he won't perform more miracles than this, will he?"

[7:32] Reaction: Pharisees and chief priests sent guards to arrest Jesus.

[7:33-34] Jesus: Said he would go back to the one who sent him, where they could not find him.

[7:35-36] Reaction: They were confused.

Micro-interaction 5

[7:37-38] Jesus: "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink." Then he

alluded that he was the source of The Holy Spirit.

[7:40-41] Jews: Some claimed he was The Prophet. Some claimed he was The Messiah.

[7:41] Jews: Some said he couldn't be The Messiah because he came from Galilee.

[7:44] Reaction: Some wanted to arrest him.
 

Since we don't yet know whether Jesus was claiming to be Messiah in this passage, his statement in vv.37-38 is also ambiguous: he claim could be official or ontological.
 

Micro-interaction 6

[8:12] Jesus: "I am the light of the world. The one who follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the

light of life."

[8:13] Pharisees: "You testify about yourself; your testimony is not true!"

[8:14] Jesus: Knows where he comes from and where he is going.

[8:14] Jesus: The Pharisees don't know where Jesus comes from or where he is going.

[8:16] Jesus: "But if I judge, I am not alone, but I and the Father who sent me."

[8:19] Pharisees: "Who is your father?"

[8:19] Jesus: "You do not know either me or my Father. If you knew me you would know my Father too."
 

The claim in 8:12 was ambiguous to listeners, being either official or ontological. Readers of John’s Gospel, however, know it is ontological, because of what John said about The Light in John 1:1–18. The claim in John 8:14 is the second time Jesus took an epistemological challenge and turned it around into a claim of derivation.
 

Micro-interaction 7

[8:21] Jesus: "I am going away, and ... where I am going you cannot come."

[8:21] Jesus: "You will look for me but will die in your sin."

[8:22] Reaction: They were confused.

[8:23] Jesus: "You people are from below; I am from above. You people are from this world; I am not from this

world."

[8:24] Jesus: "Thus I told you that you will die in your sins. For unless you believe that I am, you will die in your

sins."

[8:25] Pharisees: "Who are you?"

[8:25] Jesus: "What I have told you from the beginning."

[8:26] Jesus: "the Father who sent me is truthful"

[8:26] Jesus: "the things I have heard from Him I speak to the world."
 

Micro-interaction 8

[8:28] Jesus: "When you lift up The Son of Man, then you will know that I am."

[8:28] Jesus: "I speak just what The Father taught me."

[8:29] Jesus: "The One who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do those things which

please Him."

[8:30] Reaction: Many people believed in him.
 

Micro-interaction 9

[8:38] Jesus: "I am telling you the things I have seen while with The Father."

[8:41] Jews: "We have only one Father, God himself."

[8:42] Jesus: "If God were your father, you would love me."

[8:42] Jesus: "for I have come out from God and am now here.

[8:42] Jesus: "I have not come on my own initiative, but He sent me."

[8:43] Jesus: "Why don’t you understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot accept my teaching."

[8:43] Jesus: "You people are from your father the devil."

[8:45] Jesus: "because I am telling you the truth, you do not believe me."

[8:48] Jews: Said Jesus was possessed by a demon.

 

The statement, "For I have come out from God and am now here" is more than the simple prepositional phrase. The Greek ἐγὼ ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ ἐξῆλθον καὶ ἥκω includes the verb ἐξέρχομαι and the redundant ἥκω. The periphrasis here is quite marked. He is saying He literally proceeded from The Father out of Heaven.

​

Micro-interaction 10

[8:51] Jesus: "If anyone obeys my teaching, he will never see death."

[8:52] Jews: Said Jesus was possessed by a demon.

[8:53] Jews: "You aren’t greater than our father Abraham who died, are you?"

[8:53] Jews: "Who do you make yourself out to be?"

[8:54] Jesus: "The one who glorifies me is my Father, about whom you people say, 'He is our God.'"

[8:55] Jesus: "Yet you do not know him, but I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar

like you."

[8:57] Jews: "You are not yet fifty years old! Have you seen Abraham?"

[8:58] Jesus: "I tell you the solemn truth, before Abraham came into existence, I am!"

[8:59] Reaction: For the only time that entire week, his listeners attempt to stone Jesus.
 

If you read the Scripture above carefully, you may already be convinced what John 8:58 meant. But let us look at some details.

​

​

The Close Look

John 7–8 is set mainly in Jerusalem during the Festival of Shelters, at the beginning of Jesus's second year of ministry. The Festival of Shelters (also known as The Festival of Booths, The Festival of Tabernacles, and The Feast of Ingathering; Hebrew סֻכּוֹת, "Sukkot") marks the gathering of the harvest at autumn's end, and occurs a few weeks after the Jewish New Year. Jesus planned to miss the festival on this occasion, because he wanted to stay out of Judea wherein the Jewish leaders were plotting to kill him. However, after his brothers departed to attend the festival and Jesus returned home, he changed his mind and went to Jerusalem in secret.

 

The Festival of Sukkot spanned a whole week. Jesus started teaching midway through the festival. His claims progress in boldness as time passes.

 

Teaching in The Temple 

Jesus accused his listeners of not knowing God. In contrast to them, Jesus claimed that he knew God because he came from God (παρʼ αὐτοῦ εἰμι κἀκεῖνός με ἀπέστειλεν) [7:29]. The context of this declaration comes from v.27. Amazed listeners had proposed Jesus might be The Messiah—until they realized they knew where he came from, and no one was supposed to know where The Messiah came from. (The reader of John's gospel understands that they knew no such thing: not only were they ignorant of The Holy Spirit's overshadowing of Mary and her virginal conception, but a lot of these people did not even know Jesus was born in Bethlehem rather than Nazareth.) Jesus used this assumption of knowledge as a rhetorical stepping stone, then turned it upside down by making the astounding claim that he's the only one who knows God, for he comes from God's side, and God sent him (ὃν ὑμεῖς οὐκ οἴδατε· ἐγὼ οἶδα αὐτόν, ὅτι παρʼ αὐτοῦ εἰμι κἀκεῖνός με ἀπέστειλεν). This is the first time at Sukkot that people try to arrest him [7:30].

 

Regarding the claim in v.29, an NET note cautions, "The preposition παρά (para) followed by the genitive has the local sense preserved and can be used of one person sending another. This does not necessarily imply origin in essence or eternal generation" (emphasis mine). This caution is corroborated by John 1:6, for instance, where John the Baptizer was ἀπεσταλμένος παρὰ θεοῦ. The caution is correct insofar that it opposes a formulaic proof-text of παρʼ αὐτοῦ. Indeed it does not necessarily imply origin in essence, but it certainly can imply that. Let us look at the several elements of context around the claim in v.29. First, the verb οἶδα used. "To have information about" is within this verb's semantic range, but this possibility is dispelled by Jesus saying to his listeners about The Father, "ὃν ὑμεῖς οὐκ οἴδατε." They in fact did have information about the one, true God—much more than every other culture on Earth. Another option is a minority usage of οἶδα, meaning to recognize or honor someone. This usage is at least possible here, and it would segue from the previous statement about no one following the Law. But the majority usage is the common, interpersonal nuance (i.e., to know personally). This understanding has overwhelming consonance with the rest of John 7–8 (especially in light of the later 8:53–55). Second, Jesus differentiated himself from his listeners by saying he knew God, but they did not [7:28]. Third, the counter-parallel John 1:6 does not employ the εἶναι verb, but John 7:29 does. Jesus could easily have said merely "ἐγὼ οἶδα αὐτόν, ὅτι κἀκεῖνός με ἀπέστειλεν" if a mundane meaning of οἶδα was connoted; instead an ontological verb is used. Fourth, some of the crowd reacted by trying to seize Jesus [7:30], and some believed in him [7:31]. Why would this be done if Jesus was merely saying he was speaking for God in the mundane sense? All rabbis could make such a claim, and Jesus was already known as a rabbi! These four elements of context point to the likelihood of an ontological claim in 7:29. Do the claims following it affirm or reject the literality of this claim?

​

Water and Light

Jesus saved his starkest teachings for the last day: "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me, and the one who believes in me, drink" [7:37-38]. "I am the light of the world" [8:12]. To the modern ear, being either a source of sustenance or a light for the world might sound like a certain claim of deity. These are unquestionably elevated claims, but to be fair to the text we have to allow the ambiguity of the phrases to imply the mundane as well. Indeed, the Pharisees interpreted the second claim as merely an elevated reference to enlightenment or prophethood, and did not understand Jesus to be claiming divinity at this point. Their response was not to tear their clothes, nor accuse him of blasphemy, nor stone him. Their response was to claim that his testimony was untrue. This is not discounting the possible divine allusions here, only that they may be understood in another way.

​

While the audience at the Festival of Sukkot had room to interpret "I am the light of the world" [8:12] in more than one way, it is notable that the readers of John's Gospel had no such recourse. John started his gospel by saying Jesus was the light who was coming into the world, that He is The Logos, both beside God and Himself God. To the reader, the phrase "I am The Light of the World" means "I am The Word who is God Himself come unto Earth" per John 1:1-5. Therefore, the reader knows that this "The Light of the World" is in fact θεός.
 

Not Monos

​

καὶ ἐὰν κρίνω δὲ ἐγώ, ἡ κρίσις ἡ ἐμὴ ἀληθινή ἐστιν, ὅτι μόνος οὐκ εἰμί, ἀλλ’ ἐγὼ καὶ ὁ πέμψας με πατήρ.

But if I judge, my judgment is true, for I am not alone, but I and The Father who sent me.

​

In 8:16 we have an emphatic pronoun with the first person singular verb, a singular possessive in a noun phrase, and the connecting particle of purpose (ὅτι), all followed by an adjective used contentiously in Trinitology (μόνος). We do not have the full phrase ἐγώ εἰμί in the third clause. We have the first person pronoun joined with the substantival participial phrase, with an identifier of "The Father," rather than the lexeme "God," all referring back to the singular noun κρίσις. The Jewish leaders still did not understand: they answered this statement by asking where his father was. The statement μόνος οὐκ εἰμί, ἀλλʼ ἐγὼ καὶ ὁ πατήρ contains a respectable amount of ambiguity by itself, especially in a collectivist culture wherein things like judgments, opinions, and business were conceived of collectively.

 

You will die in your sin

A pronouncement that the Jewish leaders will die in their sin does not necessarily imply that Jesus is a cosmic judge; a human prophet could make such a pronouncement speaking in place of God. The tie presented in 8:21 about looking for Jesus (not The Father), not being able to find him, and then one dying in their sin is of great gravity, however.

 

"Finding" Jesus determines whether one goes to Heaven or to Hell. This isn't an ontological statement. But, what follows directly after in 8:23-24 is:

​

καὶ ἔλεγεν αὐτοῖς· Ὑμεῖς ἐκ τῶν κάτω ἐστέ, ἐγὼ ἐκ τῶν ἄνω εἰμί· ὑμεῖς ἐκ τούτου τοῦ κόσμου ἐστέ, ἐγὼ οὐκ εἰμὶ ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου τούτου. εἶπον οὖν ὑμῖν ὅτι ἀποθανεῖσθε ἐν ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις ὑμῶν· ἐὰν γὰρ μὴ πιστεύσητε ὅτι ἐγώ εἰμι, ἀποθανεῖσθε ἐν ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις ὑμῶν.

​

Jesus replied, "You are from below; I am from above. You are from this world; I am not from this world. Thus I told you that you will die in your sins. For unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins."

​

So, Jesus claims that he is not native to Earth. In the next major sentence, he enjoins, "Unless you believe that I am...." Before I read this pericope, I assumed that a general referent for "I am" was that of Messiah. But Jesus hasn't said a word about Messiahship in this entire encounter. Others whispered it, and the Jewish leaders heard it. The people rejected the possibility because they thought they knew where Jesus came from. Instead, we have a natural referent for "I am" in immediate proximity: "from Above, not from this world." Here it is again, with other material removed:

​

ἐγὼ ἐκ τῶν ἄνω εἰμί· [...] ἐὰν γὰρ μὴ πιστεύσητε ὅτι ἐγώ εἰμι, ἀποθανεῖσθε ἐν ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις ὑμῶν.

I am from above. [...] If you do not believe that I am, you will die in your sins.
 

This is a strong ontic referent, and it considerably raises the probability of escalating markedness and double entendre for ἐγώ εἰμι. Who else but angels are "not from this world, but from [Heaven] above"? Nevertheless, what is more concrete here is that unless the Jewish leaders believe that Jesus is not from this world, they will die in their sin. So far, we have death in one's sins due to not finding Jesus, and not believing Jesus is from "Above" rather than from this world.

 

In a third statement, Jesus then says (8:28b-29b):

​

 Ὅταν ὑψώσητε τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, τότε γνώσεσθε ὅτι ἐγώ εἰμι, καὶ ἀπ’ ἐμαυτοῦ ποιῶ οὐδέν, ἀλλὰ καθὼς ἐδίδαξέν με ὁ πατὴρ ταῦτα λαλῶ. καὶ ὁ πέμψας με μετ’ ἐμοῦ ἐστιν· οὐκ ἀφῆκέν με μόνον

​

"When you lift up The Son of Man, then you will know that I am; and I do nothing on my own initiative, but I speak just what the Father taught me. And the one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone...."

​

Lifting up The Son of Man we know to refer to The Cross. We also know that this was a "type" of the bronze snake lifted up by Moses in the wilderness for salvation of the Jews from snake poison. We also know that The Son of Man is a weighty title from Daniel 7. But what did his hearers know? They knew about The Son of Man in Daniel 7 (Caiaphas ripped his clothing because of it at Mark 14:63). Anarthrous "a son of man" was a regular substitute for "I" or a human being, but not the articular. So it might have seemed tautological: when they exalt him, they will know he is...someone who they can't figure out.

 

In these ontological statements it is notable that ὁ θεός is not referenced as per usual in Scripture for The Father. Instead, Jesus uses "The Father." Directly after Jesus's second use of ἐγώ εἰμι, the very next clause clarifies by again referencing what Jesus was taught by The Father (in Heaven). And then we get a second ontological repudiation of μόνος in v.29. The Father is with Jesus; He has not left Jesus alone. Messiah is not the referent of 8:24 or 8:28. It is not said once by Jesus. Its only possible allusion is in the phrase "The Son of Man," but this is but one piece of a complex referent, the first of which was, "I am from Above...I am not from this world." As we are about to see, the ties to Sonship in John 3 are cornucopic. Concluding "Messiah" here should very probably be classified as an interpolation.

Who are you?

John 8:25 is the only time during Sukkot that Jesus is directly asked, "Who are you?" He flatly evades a forthright answer, saying, "What I have told you from the beginning." John the Baptizer asking the Pharisees about who warned them to flee the coming wrath comes to mind. So what is meant here by the "beginning"? The beginning of Jesus's public ministry? Jesus's first synagogue teaching? The beginning of Jesus's teaching at that festival? Let us look at some of the possibilities.

Beginning of his ministry, John 1:29–34

Right before Jesus's baptism, John the Baptizer said, "Behold The Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world! This is he of whom I said, 'After me comes a man who ranks before me, for he existed before me.' I myself did not know him; but for this I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel." After John sees The Spirit descend on Jesus and remain on him, he says this is "The Son of God."

 

First synagogue teaching, Luke 4:16-30; Isaiah 61:1-2a

In what was possibly his first, formal synagogue leading, Jesus was handed the scroll of Isaiah. He read Isaiah 61 verse 1, the first clause of verse 2, stopped, and then said the Scripture was fulfilled in their hearing. Theologians have noted that Jesus stopped right before the clauses about seeking vengeance, to accord with the unexpected dichotomy of Messiah's first coming in mercy, with his second coming being of vengeance. The Septuagint of Isaiah 61:1 has the same verb Jesus has used repeatedly in John 7–8, so this improves this option's candidacy:

​

Πνεῦμα κυρίου ἐπʼ ἐμέ, οὗ εἵνεκεν ἔχρισέν με, εὐαγγελίσασθαι πτωχοῖς ἀπέσταλκέν με, ἰάσασθαι τοὺς συντετριμμένους τῇ καρδίᾳ, κηρύξαι αἰχμαλώτοις ἄφεσιν καὶ τυφλοῖς ἀνάβλεψιν

​

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me, to bring good news to the afflicted He has sent me, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners

​

The Spirit of Yahweh (The Holy Spirit) indeed is upon Jesus, and John said The Spirit "remained" there. And Jesus has been saying over and over that he was not from Earth, and that The Father sent him. "The beginning" could reference what Jesus declared here.

​

Wait, Jesus Has Said This Before: John 3

While the above possibilities may also have been in view, it wasn't until I saw John 3:12–19 that this question was answered:

​

If I have told you people about earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into Heaven except the one who descended from Heaven—The Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life." For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through him. The one who believes in him is not condemned. The one who does not believe has been condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. Now this is the basis for judging: that the light has come into the world and people loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil.

​

Jesus can tell humans about heavenly things, because he has been there [3:12–13]. Jesus says he'll be "lifted up" like the serpent in the wilderness [3:14], explicitly answering what he meant in 8:28. And "the one who descended [and ascended] from Heaven is a quotation of Proverbs 30:4, where Yahweh is the referent and He has one Son! In the statement in John 3:13, Jesus conflates himself with Yahweh, and changes "Son" to "The Son of Man"—one of his favorite self-designations. The monogenic sonship of Jesus is thus conflated with deity by Jesus himself, and it parallels the statements in John 8 on multiple points. A few more holes are filled in with John 3:31-35:

​

The one who comes from above is superior to all. The one who is from the earth belongs to the earth and speaks about earthly things. The one who comes from Heaven is superior to all. He testifies about what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. The one who has accepted his testimony has confirmed clearly that God is truthful. For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for he does not give the Spirit sparingly. The Father loves The Son and has placed all things under his authority. The one who believes in the Son has eternal life. The one who rejects the Son will not see life, but God's wrath remains on him.

​

The contrast here is between "being of" Earth, but "coming" from Heaven: Ὁ ἄνωθεν ἐρχόμενος ἐπάνω πάντων ἐστίν· ὁ ὢν ἐκ τῆς γῆς ἐκ τῆς γῆς ἐστιν καὶ ἐκ τῆς γῆς λαλεῖ. ὁ ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ἐρχόμενος [ἐπάνω πάντων ἐστίν]. And look at that: we have an echo of Romans 9:5 with ἐπάνω πάντων ἐστίν, even if John the Baptizer didn't know the extent of what he was saying here. So, I believe this definitively answers what Jesus meant by "What I have told you from the beginning," because it was said to or by three main streams of early witness: Nicodemus, a Pharisee; John the Baptizer; and the witnesses of Jesus's baptism. "What I have told you from the beginning" equals "The Son." Jesus is the divine Son of Man and the monogenic Son of God. Not "a" son of God, like later baptized believers. Not one of the sons of God, a reference to angels in the Torah. He is the divine Son of Man, and The Son of God who is God The Son [John 1:18].

​

The meaning of Jesus's statement in 8:28 is already conclusive, but another narrative argument makes it all but certain. Jesus responded by saying, "What I have told you from the beginning," but His status as Messiah was the one title He consistently forbade people to speak about [notably Mark 8:29-30], so that He would neither be killed before the right time, nor made a political king against His will [John 6:15]. Even demons cast out of people were allowed to cry, "You are The Son of God," but Jesus silenced them before they could reveal He was the Christ [Matt 4:41]. "The Son," of Man and God, is what He had told them from the beginning. The final data point is that Jesus mentioned the corollary to "The Son" before He even finished His sentence: "just what The Father taught me, I speak" [John 8:28c].

​

Who do you make yourself out to be?

In John 8:53–55 Jesus said, "I tell you the solemn truth, if anyone obeys my teaching, he will never see death." The Jews replied, "Are you greater than our ancestor Abraham? ... Who do you make yourself out to be?" And here we come to the crux of the pericope. These are 2 of the 4 challenges John 8:58 answers: questions of ontology. Who does Jesus think he is? Does he think himself greater than the Patriarch of all Jews? Once again in v.55 Jesus responds they don't know The Father, but he knows The Father (and now he explicitly equates His Father with God). Previously in this pericope, the Jews asked Jesus plainly, "Who are you?" He completely evaded the answer. Now here in the climax, the Jews are incredulous and instead ask, "Who do you make yourself out to be?" This construction of "make oneself out to be" already occurred in John, in chapter 5 verse 18. There it was the Jewish leaders who understand fully that Jesus was πατέρα ἴδιον ἔλεγεν τὸν θεὸν ἴσον ἑαυτὸν ποιῶν τῷ θεῷ, calling God his own father, and thus "making himself out" to be equal to God Himself. The audience in John 8 is at a similar point of incredulity, and the forthcoming answer is going to be the same.

The Last Straw

"Your ancestor Abraham was overjoyed that he might see my Day. He saw it, and was glad" [John 8:56]. Now Jesus tells his audience what a man who died two thousand years previously was feeling. The Jews respond, "You aren't even 50 years old. How can you say you have seen Abraham?" [8:57]. How can Jesus say he saw Abraham 2,000 years ago? These are the other 2 challenges John 8:58 answers, also concerning ontology. Let us hear the ontological answer: "Amen, Amen, I truly tell you: πρὶν Ἀβραὰμ γενέσθαι ἐγὼ εἰμί" [8:58].

​

So, this directly answers four challenges at once:

​

1) Are you greater than Abraham? [8:53]

2) Who do you make yourself out to be? [8:53]

3) You are not old. [8:57]

4) How have you seen Abraham? [8:57]

​

Jesus answers, "Before Abraham existed, [the phrase I have been saying since John 8:12]." In other words, 'A guy from 2,000 years ago was happy about seeing me come. Before that guy existed, ἐγὼ εἰμί." He answers all four challenges concerning his greatness, his identity, his age, and his ability to know what people dead for 2,000 years were feeling. His answer to all four was "ἐγὼ εἰμί." What did Jesus mean? The overwhelming majority of all scholars have already come to one conclusion, but we wouldn't do it justice exegetically unless we took a step back and again looked at it broadly at this point.

​

​

Claims Grouped by Type

​

Epistemological Claims [4]   *All numbers in brackets entail those claimed by Jesus, not by others.

[7:15] Jews: "How does this man know so much when he hasn't been formally trained?"

[8:13] Pharisees: "You testify about yourself; your testimony is not true!"

[8:26] Jesus: "The things I have heard from [God] I speak to the world."

[8:28] Jesus: "I speak just what the Father taught me."

[8:38] Jesus: "I am telling you the things I have seen while with The Father."

[8:43] Jesus: "Why don’t you understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot accept my teaching."

​

Epistemological conclusion: Jesus's listeners were both amazed and skeptical about the source of his knowledge. He said it was from God The Father, whom he both personally "heard" and "saw" when He was previously in Heaven. Despite decreasing his degree of parabolic speaking throughout the pericope, they still hadn't understood by 8:43.

​

Official Claims [0]

[7:26] Common Jews: "Do the rulers really know that this man is the Christ?"

[7:31] Common Jews: "Whenever The Messiah comes, he won't perform more miracles than this, will he?"

[7:40-41] Common Jews: Some claimed he was The Prophet. Some claimed he was The Messiah.

​

Official conclusion: It seems quite inaccurate to correlate Jesus's claims of self-identity in John 7–8 with Messiahship. He hadn't whispered the idea for the entire week. Others supposed it, but they rejected it because they thought they knew where Jesus came from. We now know that "I am" refers to, at minimum, that Jesus is "from Above," "not from this world," and "The Son of God," as well as "The Son of Man."

 

Spiritual Claims [8]

[7:17] Jesus: "If anyone wants to do God’s will, he will know about my teaching, whether [or not] it is from God."

[7:19] Jesus: "Not one of you keeps The Law!"

[7:20] Jews: Accused Jesus of being demon-possessed.

[8:21] Jesus: "You will look for me but will die in your sin."

[8:24] Jesus: "For unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins."

[8:29] Jesus: "The One who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do those things that

please Him."

[8:41] Jews: "We have only one Father, God himself."

[8:42] Jesus: "If God were your father, you would love me."
[8:43] Jesus: "You people are from your father the devil."

[8:45] Jesus: "Because I am telling you the truth, you do not believe me."

[8:48] Jews: Accused Jesus of being demon-possessed.

[8:51] Jesus: "If anyone obeys my teaching, he will never see death."

[8:52] Jews: Said Jesus was possessed by a demon.

​

Spiritual conclusion: Jesus sets himself up as judge. He makes multiple statements about being the object of universal human consummation. "Finding" him is necessary for salvation. "Believing on" him is necessary for salvation. "Obeying his teaching" is necessary for salvation. He offers The Holy Spirit. He speaks extemporaneously about The Devil at his beginning. He says God is his own father, which was elsewhere correctly understood to be making himself out to be God Himself [5:18].

 

Interpersonal Claims [5]

[7:28] Jesus: "You [think you] know me."

[7:28] Jesus: "You do not know the one who sent me."

[7:29] Jesus: "I know him."

[8:19] Pharisees: "Who is your father?"

[8:19] Jesus: "You do not know either me or my Father. If you knew me you would know my Father too."

[8:55] Jesus: "You do not know him, but I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like

you."

​

Interpersonal conclusion: Jesus's listeners don't actually know him, despite knowing where he is from, and possibly knowing rumors about his birth. They don't know him or his Father, who is God. Jesus makes the jaw-dropping claim, "If you knew me you would know my Father too."

 

Derivational Claims [9]

[7:28; 8:26; 8:42] Jesus did not come on his own initiative but was sent by God (his own father).

[7:27] Jews: "We know where this man comes from."

[7:28] Jesus: "You [think you] know where I am from."

[7:33; 8:21] Jesus said he would go back to the one who sent him.

[7:41] Some Jews said he couldn't be The Messiah because he came from Galilee.

[8:14] Jesus knows where he comes from and where he is going. Pharisees don't know this about him.

[8:23] Jesus: "I am from above. I am not from this world."

[8:42] Jesus: "For I have come out from God and am now here."

​

Derivational conclusion: At first, early in his Sukkot Declarations, it was possible to think Jesus just meant he was "sent" by God in the mundane sense. The entire context of John is conclusive, however. He comes from God because God The Son proceeds from God The Father. In John 1:18, Jesus was called "God The Son," who was "in the bosom of The Father." In John 7–8, when Jesus says things like "I have come out from God and am now here," he is speaking literally, not metaphorically.

 

Ontological Claims [12]

[7:29] Jesus: "I am from Him who sent me." (παρʼ αὐτοῦ εἰμι) Construction can be mundane, but this was

determined to be ontological, and moreover constitutes the first point in an escalating self-revelation.

[7:37-38] Jesus: "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink." Again, Jesus

may just be a prophet delivering God's "water," but the rhetoric escalates one step.

[8:12] Jesus: "I am the light of the world. The one who follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the

light of life."

[8:16] Jesus: "But if I judge, I am not alone, but I and the Father who sent me."

[8:23] Jesus: "You people are from below; I am from above. You people are from this world; I am not from this

world."

[8:24] Jesus: "Thus I told you that you will die in your sins. For unless you believe that I am, you will die in your

sins."

[8:25] Jews: "Who are you?"

[8:28] Jesus: "What I have told you from the beginning." (The Son [of God and Man])

[8:28] Jesus: "When you lift up The Son of Man, then you will know that I am."

[8:38] Jesus: "I am telling you the things I have seen while with The Father."

[8:42] Jesus: "for I have come out from God and am now here.

[8:53] Jews: "You aren’t greater than our father Abraham who died, are you?"

[8:53] Jews: "Who do you make yourself out to be?"

[8:54] Jesus: "The one who glorifies me is my Father, about whom you people say, 'He is our God.'"

[8:57] Jews: "You are not yet fifty years old! Have you seen Abraham?"

[8:58] Jesus: "I tell you the solemn truth, before Abraham came into existence, I am!"

​

Ontological conclusion: It is at minimum "very probable" that Jesus is directly claiming deity in John 7–8. His listeners didn't understand because they "loved darkness rather than light." Jesus made a self-declaration in 8:58 used only before by Yahweh in Exodus 3:14. He claimed to be The Great "I AM." They tried to stone him in 8:59.

 

The "I am" Statements

[7:28] "You [think you] both know me and where I am from." (κἀμὲ οἴδατε καὶ οἴδατε πόθεν εἰμί)

[7:29] "for I am from him who sent me." (ὅτι παρʼ αὐτοῦ εἰμι κἀκεῖνός με ἀπέστειλεν)

[7:33] "I am with you a short time yet, then I will go to the one who sent me." (ἔτι χρόνον μικρὸν μεθʼ ὑμῶν εἰμι καὶ

ὑπάγω πρὸς τὸν πέμψαντά με)

[7:34] "and where I am, you cannot come." (ὅπου εἰμὶ ἐγὼ ὑμεῖς οὐ δύνασθε ἐλθεῖν)

[8:12] "I am the light of the world." (ἐγώ εἰμι τὸ φῶς τοῦ κόσμου)
[8:16] "I am not alone, but [it is] I and The Father who sent me." (μόνος οὐκ εἰμί, ἀλλʼ ἐγὼ καὶ ὁ πέμψας με πατήρ)

[8:18] "I am the one who testifies about myself, and My Father who sent me testifies." (ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ μαρτυρῶν περὶ

ἐμαυτοῦ καὶ μαρτυρεῖ περὶ ἐμοῦ ὁ πέμψας με πατήρ)

[8:23] "You people are from Below, I am from Above." (ὑμεῖς ἐκ τῶν κάτω ἐστέ, ἐγὼ ἐκ τῶν ἄνω εἰμί)

[8:23] "You people are from this world, I am not from this world." (ὑμεῖς ἐκ τούτου τοῦ κόσμου ἐστέ, ἐγὼ οὐκ εἰμὶ ἐκ

τοῦ κόσμου τούτου)

[8:24] "For if you do not believe that I am, you will die in your sins." (ἐὰν γὰρ μὴ πιστεύσητε ὅτι ἐγώ εἰμι, ἀποθανεῖσθε

ἐν ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις ὑμῶν)

[8:28] "When you lift up The Son of Man, then you will know that I am." (ὅταν ὑψώσητε τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, τότε

γνώσεσθε ὅτι ἐγώ εἰμι)

[8:58] "Before Abraham existed, I am." (πρὶν Ἀβραὰμ γενέσθαι ἐγὼ εἰμί)

​

Conclusion on "I am": The linguistic markedness of the "I am" statements generally increases, especially through 8:12, 8:23, 8:24, and 8:28. More importantly, the context of most of them have to do with weightier topics like knowing, origins, and ontology.