Present tence copulative verbs

Stewarts presept at earthlink.net
Wed Jul 1 15:14:25 EDT 1998


Dear Mr. Stafford,

    Sorry it took so long for my responce.  The day after I sent my post, my computer had to be worked on.  I just received it back today.   You said, "Of course Jesus did not say, 'Since Abraham came into existence, I have been."  Maybe I should have said "Since before Abraham came into existence, I have been."  An adverbial expression denoting duration and referring to past time implies a starting point.  I don't think we have this in Jn 8:58.  In all the PPAs  listed in the grammars I checked, all the adverbial phrases are finite in time even if they don't specify a specific starting point.  "All these years..." in Luke 15:29 is an obvious finite period of time.  "All these years.." is a finit concept.  "For a long time..." in Jn 14:9 is finite in itself.  I don't see how you could argue for eternal from it.  
    You said, "...that the implied predicate is 'Messiah' or 'Christ."  In Jn 4:26, the predicate is in the immediate context (verse 25).  In Jn 8:24, 28, and 58, there is no predicate immplied in the context.  I do plan on reading your book and then I would like to discuss it off list.
    It would be interesting to know If Charles Thompson meant just simple preexistence by his translation of SU EI as "Thou existed" or if he meant "Thou hast always existed."  The NASB gave '"I have been" as an alternate translation to I Am in Jn 8:58.  When the translators were questioned about it, they said that I have been = I have always been.  
    You said, "...I will simply say that John 8:58 does not tell us anything but that Jesus existed before Abraham."  Since we can not discuss hermeneutics or theology, I think we have reached an impasse on what we can discuss on b-greek.  Thank you for the exchange.  I have learned much.  I look forward to futher dialogue with you.
                        
                                                                            In His Truth,
                                                                          James Stewart  
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