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Jhn. 1:1 discussion



>On Wed, 30 Nov 1994, Leroy Huizenga 1996 wrote:

>> I do not believe that Jesus limits himself to being only the Son of 
>> Yahweh. In John 8:58 Jesus appears to claim the name of God - Before 
>> Abraham was, I am." The Greek is egw eimi - with the emphatic "I". Is 
>> this not the greek equivalent to YHWH - "I Am (what I am)"?

Greg Jordan answered:

>Yes, although a person who spoke only Greek would not get the yihyeh-Yahweh 
>pun and so see a proper name here.  

     Greeks who were familiar with the Jewish Scriptures in Greek ought to
have been able to catch on to what Jesus was saying.  Exodus 3:14 in the LXX
reads, "KAI EIPEN O( QEOS PROS MWUSHN E*GW EIMI O( WN.  Besides, we may
safely assume that people with some instruction in the Jewish religion would
have known - as many non-hebrew-speaking Christians today do - that the
Divine Name is closely related to the verb "to be."  The context following
Jn. 8:58 (i.e. His hearers' wanting to stone Him) also points to Jesus'
statement as a strong offense to the religious sensibilities of his enemies.
 This latter would certainly pique the interest of anyone who had not
understood Jesus' idiom to find out just what he had meant.

David Moore


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