When is it I am and when I AM in the Bible?

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In the New American translation, when Jesus says “I am” why is it sometimes capitalized and sometimes not? For example in Jn 8:28 it is capitalized I AM, but in Jn 4:26 it is “I am he” with a note saying it can easily be translated as I AM, the same self-designation God gives to moses. Mark 14:62 he says I am to a question of “are you the messiah”. Are all responses to be understood as I AM, or some to be understood as I am, the way we use it in English, and some “I am”s to be understood as “I AM”?

thanks
Josip
 
Peace be with you.

The I AM is refferance to when Mosses asked God who might I say who you are to the people? As it reffers to Jesus it shows that He and the Father are One in the same, that Jesus is not a creation of God, but that He is God. He is showing His divinity.

At other times Jesus says I am to show that He is Human when He is asked ask or refferd to ask the son if Joseph and Mary for instance. He is showing that He is one of us.

Peace be with you
Ron
 
The editors probably use the footnotes instead of the literal translation to avoid confusion for the reader.
The Greek in all those cases says, “Ego Eimi”. The different english translations like, “hey it’s me”(paraphrased), just have to do with making the text more understandable for the average reader.
 
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Josip:
In the New American translation, when Jesus says “I am” why is it sometimes capitalized and sometimes not? For example in Jn 8:28 it is capitalized I AM, but in Jn 4:26 it is “I am he” with a note saying it can easily be translated as I AM, the same self-designation God gives to moses. Mark 14:62 he says I am to a question of “are you the messiah”. Are all responses to be understood as I AM, or some to be understood as I am, the way we use it in English, and some “I am”s to be understood as “I AM”?
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When the Bible texts were written, lower case letters had not yet been invented. They came along in the C6th, invented by scribes who realised that smaller letters would mean more words to a page, which was important because pages were expensive. Thus, the actual OT and NT texts do not make the discrimination of “i am”: it is one which has been applied by the translators of modern versions of the Bible in an effort to show what they believe the original text meant, rather than what it simply says.
 
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Mystophilus:
it is one which has been applied by the translators of modern versions of the Bible in an effort to show what they believe the original text meant, rather than what it simply says.
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Well, I dont think that works out like it sounds. Did nobody in the OT ever say the words “i am”? i am moses, i am hungry, i am a Jew. There has to be a distinction that is recognized when it is used. When the term “I AM” was used to talk about God, people recognized it wasnt an ordinary usage of the term.
 
Hi Josip, in John 8:58 Jesus is applying the name of God from Exodus 3:14 to himself and thus it is translated I AM in captial letters. You can tell that this is the correct translation there by the reaction of his Jewish listeners, who picked up stones to kill him for claiming to be God himself. The other I am’s are simply part of a scentence where Jesus is saying things like I am the door, I am the vine, I am the good shepperd. So, look to see if it is part of a sentence or just hanging out there and look at the reaction of those who hear the words being used. John says elsewhere,

John 5:18 For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

So, where the I AM is making Jesus God, it is captials, otherwise it is lower case.
 
Catholic Dude:
Well, I dont think that works out like it sounds. Did nobody in the OT ever say the words “i am”? i am moses, i am hungry, i am a Jew. There has to be a distinction that is recognized when it is used. When the term “I AM” was used to talk about God, people recognized it wasnt an ordinary usage of the term.
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The tetragrammaton (the letters that English bibles put as LORD) is not the same as how “I am” is done in Hebrew. It is left out of the type of sentence you give. “I am a shepherd” would go more like “I shepherd”. That you *are *one is understood, but English requires us to add the word “am” so it would get translated as I *am *a shepherd, even though there is no word in the sentence for am.

At least, this is the typical state of affairs in the bible Hebrew.
 
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Pug:
The tetragrammaton (the letters that English bibles put as LORD) is not the same as how “I am” is done in Hebrew. It is left out of the type of sentence you give. “I am a shepherd” would go more like “I shepherd”. That you *are *one is understood, but English requires us to add the word “am” so it would get translated as I *am *a shepherd, even though there is no word in the sentence for am.

At least, this is the typical state of affairs in the bible Hebrew.
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Thanks 👍

I should have thought about that. Many languages do not use the verb ‘be’ (i.e., am/are/is/was/were) unless there is an absolute identification between the two terms (when A=B and B=A). Unfortunately, I know precisely nothing about Hebrew and had not even considered that they might have done that.

One year, I am going to have to find time to learn Hebrew.
 
Daniel Marsh said:
blueletterbible.org/tmp_dir/c/1130102245-3838.html#14

why do I see I am in the hebrew?
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I’m not sure what your precise question may be in the context of telling I AM apart from regular I am and from YHVH. There is a verb to be in Hebrew (hayah), but it does not have to be used in the situation my post described. In the hebrew for I AM who I AM, the verb to be is used, or else I’m not sure it could be written down otherwise. Hebrew simply doesn’t use that verb in all the places that English would. It only uses it sometimes, from an English perspective. In that location, by the way, the verb to be appears as aleph he yod he, which is a first person singular of hayah.

Here is a bible example of not using it. It would help if you had a printed KJV that italicizes all the places that they added a word, because you would see italics on the word *is *here… Psalm 25:8 Good and upright is the LORD…
but there is no hayah (to be) verb in there. It just goes “good and upright YHVH” with the YHVH being the LORD, not is.

My Hebrew is not good enough to get too much more in depth, but I can try my best if that didn’t make sense.
 
thanks for the clairification, since I could not discern the context of your discussion.
 
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