[B-Greek] John 8:58 and Gen 17:1 (LXX)
Doug Hoxworth
doughoxworth at yahoo.com
Wed Feb 16 23:46:37 EST 2005
I don't want to resurrect this whole thread (since I
know that this was just recently discussed) nor do I
want to bring up any theological issues. But I wanted
to bounce an idea off of you all for discussion
because I found something that I found very intriguing
about John 8:58 and Gen 17:1 in the LXX.
People were bringing up Exod 3:14 and some texts in
Isaiah (I think this was George Somsel) as parallels.
Out of curiosity, I thought I'd do a search to find
EGW EIMI in the LXX and Genesis 17:1 came up. What I
found was that there were a number of similarities
that seem to suggest that this was what Christ was
alluding to. Here are the texts:
Gen 17:1 EGENETO DE ABRAM ETWN ENENHKONTA ENNEA, KAI
WFQH KURIOS TWi ABRAM KAI EIPEN AUTWi EGW EIMI hO QEOS
SOU, EUARESTEI ENANTION EMOU KAI GINOU AMEMPTOS
John 8:56 ABRAAM hO PATHR hUMWN HGALLIASATO hINA IDHi
THN hHMERAN THN EMHN, KAI EIDEN KAI ECARH 57 EIPON OUN
hOI IOUDAIOI PROS AUTON PENTHKONTA ETH OUPW ECEIS KAI
ABRAAM hEWRAKAS; 58 EIPEN AUTOIS IHSOUS AMHN AMHN LEGW
hUMIN, PRIN ABRAAM GENESQAI EGW EIMI
The language was somewhat similar and both are
discussing Abraham (something which the other proposed
allusions lacked). For example, EGENETO/GENESQAI;
ABRAM/ABRAAM (change of name in Gen 17:5 from ABRAM to
ABRAAM); ENENHKONTA/PENTHKONTA; ETWN/ETH; WFQH/IDHi;
EIPEN AUTWi/EIPEN AUTOIS; EGW EIMI/EGW EIMI
In addition, this would explain their attempt to stone
Him, if He was making an implicit claim (leaving off
the hO QEOS SOU as a sort of aposiopesis or something)
to deity. To me this all works well because the
allusion includes many parallel words and discusses
the age of Abraham at which time the Lord appeared to
Him to discuss the Abrahamic covenant which we find
that later Christ came to fulfill (cf. Gal 3:6-9, 16).
In other words, when Abraham saw the Lord in the
cutting of the Abrahamic covenant (and of Gen 17), he
saw Jesus' day and rejoiced in it.
Anyway, I looked through all of my commentaries and I
hadn't seen this text proposed as an illusion and I
wanted to submit here for peer review. So please let
me know your thoughts. Thank you.
Doug Hoxworth
Luther Rice Seminary
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