Jesus saying he was Yahweh?

[abucs]

When Jesus answered the Sanhedrin regarding who he was and said ‘Truly, truly i say to you before Abraham was, i am’, does this roughly translate into ‘Truly, truly i say to you, before Abraham was, Yahweh’.

I have read that Yahweh means, ‘I am’, but i am wondering whether Jesus envoked the name of God in his answer, or not, or whether it is ambiguous.

Thanks.

 

[Cat_Herder]

The New Testament is written in Greek and the Tetragrammaton is a Hebrew expression. Whenever the Tetragrammaton was written in the OT, it would be said either as “haShem” (“the Name”) or “Adonai” (“Lord”), and that is why the Tetragrammaton appears in English Old Testament translations as “LORD.”

The word “Lord” appears in the NT quite often—and only in reference to God. Jesus of course also calls YHWH His Father, and to answer your question:

[BIBLEDRB]John 10:30[/BIBLEDRB]

 

[Celticnovice]

John 8:58 is the verse you listed

Well, in John 4:26 and John 8:24 Jesus uses the “I AM.” According to my bible, it was understood as Yahweh’s own self-designation in the Jewish scriptures. (See Isaiah 43)

Alas I’m not a scripture scholar, so hopefully someone more qualified can give you more info/insight to this…

 

[svid]

In The Passion of the Christ, when our Lord is questioned by the Sanhedrin in Hebrew (or Aramaic?), His response in the subtitle is in capital letters: I AM. They then take turns slapping Him for uttering the Divine Name aloud.

 

[tafan]

Today’s Gospel had a quote from Jesus that is related to the question, “The Sone of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath”. Those who say Jesus never claimed divinity are obviously wrong.

 

[DaveBj]

John 8:58 is the verse you listed

Well, in John 4:26 and John 8:24 Jesus uses the “I AM.” According to my bible, it was understood as Yahweh’s own self-designation in the Jewish scriptures. (See Isaiah 43)

Alas I’m not a scripture scholar, so hopefully someone more qualified can give you more info/insight to this…

You may not be a scripture scholar, but you have it right, at least as far as I understand it. Refer back to the 3rd chapter of Exodus, where God, talking to Moses, gives his Name as “I AM THAT I AM.” I don’t know what the “I AM” would have been in the Aramaic that was Jesus’ mother language, but in the Massoretic Hebrew text it is “EHYEH,” with both H’s pronounced.

DaveBj

 

[Reuben_J]

When Jesus answered the Sanhedrin regarding who he was and said ‘Truly, truly i say to you before Abraham was, i am’, does this roughly translate into ‘Truly, truly i say to you, before Abraham was, Yahweh’.

I have read that Yahweh means, ‘I am’, but i am wondering whether Jesus envoked the name of God in his answer, or not, or whether it is ambiguous.

Thanks.

Considering that lots of the NT allude to the OT, I would say he did. Non-Christians dispute this but the way the Bible is written it is more likely that Jesus invoked the name of God (Ex 3:14) in his answer to his tormentors. His listeners most likely understood Jesus to claim this too by the fact of the ensuing action that they took (to try to stone him) which was as if Jesus was blaspheming, noting that blaspheming was a crime punishable by stoning.

 

[thistle]

When Jesus answered the Sanhedrin regarding who he was and said ‘Truly, truly i say to you before Abraham was, i am’, does this roughly translate into ‘Truly, truly i say to you, before Abraham was, Yahweh’.

I have read that Yahweh means, ‘I am’, but i am wondering whether Jesus envoked the name of God in his answer, or not, or whether it is ambiguous.

Thanks.

D-R Bible, Haydock Commentary:

Ver. 58. Before Abraham was made, I am.[4] Christ here speaks of his eternal existence as God. St. Augustine shews this by these very words, I am. He does not say, before Abraham was made, I was made: because, as the Son of God, he never was made: but I am, which shews his eternal divine nature. (Witham)

 

[abucs]

Thanks. One more follow up question. Does the ‘I AM’ in Aramaic carry the same connotations as the Hebrew ‘I AM’?

 

[FaithfulAndTrue]

Thanks. One more follow up question. Does the ‘I AM’ in Aramaic carry the same connotations as the Hebrew ‘I AM’?

Well, they did pick up stones to stone him for blasphemy…

 

[abucs]

It might point to Jesus speaking Hebrew rather than Aramaic (depending on the connotations of Aramaic).

 

[patrick457]

When Jesus answered the Sanhedrin regarding who he was and said ‘Truly, truly i say to you before Abraham was, i am’, does this roughly translate into ‘Truly, truly i say to you, before Abraham was, Yahweh’.

I have read that Yahweh means, ‘I am’, but i am wondering whether Jesus envoked the name of God in his answer, or not, or whether it is ambiguous.

Thanks.

Well, first of all it doesn’t seem to be the Sanhedrin BTW, but the “Judaeans who had believed Him” (8:31) who pick up the stones, if we read it in context. One running theme in the Gospel of John (IMO) is that Jesus has little luck with His own disciples; I mean you’ve got John 6!

Secondly, I think that one should be cautious about trying to fit a Divine revelational formula in every instance of ego eimi (the Greek for ‘I am’). Though it is indeed true that ego eimi was the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew terms 'ehyeh (in the imperfect tense, literally ‘I-be’; the Hebrew 'ehyeh asher ehyeh are the words ‘I am that I am’ in our Bibles) and the absolute ani hu (‘I [am] he;’ more common in the book of Isaiah).

But even if the instance here proves NOT to be a case where Jesus is using a Name of God, when read in full His statement still connotes such an idea of identifying Himself as God: “Before Abraham was, I am.” What’s He talking about existing before Abraham, who died centuries ago? Unless there be some sort of divine boon granted to Him, God is the only one who could exist for that long!