John 8:58 The Messiah Destined To Rule

Greg

John 8:58 is commonly used by trinitarians to teach that Jesus is God, and by proponents of arianism to teach that Jesus had a pre-human existence.  As a biblical unitarian, I affirm that the passage teaches nothing about the deity or literal pre-human existence of the Messiah. 

First, a quote about the translation of John 8:58:

"The Septuagint translates the “I am that I am” of Exodus 3:14 as “ego eimi ho on.” Ego eimi is simply the “be verb” and not a name or an identity. God said “I am (ego eimi) ho on.” Thus, ho on is God’s name, not ego eimi. Scholars admit that ho on is difficult to translate, but it roughly means the self-existing one. So in Exodus 3:14 God said, “I am (ego eimi) the Self-Existing One (ho on). If Jesus had wanted to say he was God in John 8:58, he simply could have said, “I am (ego eimi) that I am (ho on),” or “I am (ego eimi) the Self Existing One (ho on).” But he didn’t. He simply said, “before Abraham was born, I am the one” or “I am the Christ ” or “I am the Son of Man.” (John 8:58 Before Abraham Was Born, I Am - onegodworship.com). 

I think this grammatical argument is very important.

As for an explanation of the passage, I would like to point out first of all, that in John 8, the distinction between Jesus and God is clear.  God sent Jesus.  God is the Father of Jesus. 

It is also important to realize that these people talking with the Lord Jesus did not want to hear what he had to say. They did not accept that he was the Messiah. They were rejecting him and his words because they were already rejecting God.  They honored God with their lips, but their hearts were far from him.

Jesus said that whoever follows him would not see death. This was not acceptable to his listeners. In rejecting Jesus, they sought to appeal to someone they considered to be a real "authority", that person being Abraham.  But Abraham had died.  Who did this man think he was?

John 8:53 - are you greater than our father Abraham?

Jesus didn't say he was God, he said he knew God.  He said he was sent by God.  That gave him authority.  Being the Messiah, the Son of God, he had God's authority, as God's Messianic agent.  

Their dullness was revealed in that they asked the wrong question. Jesus said that Abraham rejoiced to see his day. They acted as though he said he had seen Abraham.  In response, Jesus claimed his superiority... and I think it has a time element, as well a declaration of superiority, though no declaration of a literal pre-human existence.

Even before Abraham was born, the Messiah was predestined by God to rule the world.  The Messiah existed in the plan of God before Abraham was born.  Jesus claims he is that one, I am he - he is the predestined Messiah and is greater than Abraham, their father according to the flesh.  The term "ego eimi" occurs many times in the Greek text of the scriptures, and in fact, the man born blind uses the same exact phrase in John 9:9 (ego eimi, again, translated as "I am" in John 8:58), yet the translators supply additional words in John 9:9 and other places to convey what is being said (KJV - I am he; NIV - I am the man; NET, NASB95 - I am the one).  Why haven't they supplied the additional wording in John 8:58?  In Luke 21:8, the scriptures say: "And he said, Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them." The word "Christ" is italicized because, as it is well-known, the KJV translators italicized words that they added to the text for clarity.  So in the Greek text, Jesus actually said, "for many shall come in my name, saying, I am..." It is inexplicable why they would not add the additional word also in John 8:58.  It seems like it could be the bias of the translators, and other versions have followed this tradition, except many supplied the word "he" instead of "Christ" (NIV, NET, NASB95, RSV - I am he).   They all fail to add these words to John 8:58 and it has created confusion.  To claim that Jesus is claiming for himself the name of God (he wasn't, see the explanation above from onegodworship.com) is simply inaccurate, and the actual claim of Jesus, that he is the Messiah, is obscured.  God is not his Messiah, and the Messiah is not his God.  As Jesus clearly said, God is his God and Father (John 20:17) and is greater than Jesus (John 17:3) (*note - he did not say "greater than my human nature" - a trinitarian concoction to help "prove" the dual nature theory). 

​Here are some translations that get John 8:58 right:

Revised English Version - I am the one
One God Translation - I am the Messiah
Kingdom of God Version - I am the one
Improved Version - I am he

Some trinitarians like to argue that the Jews wanted to kill Jesus because he claimed to be God.  At no point in time did Jesus ever claim to be God or the second person of a triune god.  Even at his trial, this accusation was not brought against him, because it never happened.  So why were they trying to kill him?  

God spoke through Moses, saying that a prophet would arise one day on his behalf, and that he was to be obeyed.  The Lord Jesus was no "mere" prophet, but the apostles claimed that Jesus was indeed this prophet (see Acts 3:19-26; Acts 7:37; John 1:45; John 5:45-46; John 6:14).  Notice what was said: 

“The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you shall heed such a prophet.  This is what you requested of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said: "If I hear the voice of the LORD my God any more, or ever again see this great fire, I will die." Then the LORD replied to me: "They are right in what they have said.  I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their own people; I will put my words in the mouth of the prophet, who shall speak to them everything that I command.  Anyone who does not heed the words that the prophet shall speak in my name, I myself will hold accountable.  But any prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, or who presumes to speak in my name a word that I have not commanded the prophet to speak -  that prophet shall die" (Deuteronomy 18:15-20 NRSV). 

The rebellious Jews thought that Jesus was a false prophet for claiming to be the Messiah.  They did not think he was speaking the words of God, therefore they believed that he needed to die, following the words of the passage above.  

See this presentation at Restitutio.org for a further look at translations of John 8:58.