[B-Greek] Question for Discussion About EIMI

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad2 at mac.com
Thu Dec 27 12:53:35 EST 2007


Forwarded for: Tsialas Vasileios

Relevance between Ex 3:14 (LXX) and John 8:58 can stand if Jesus was speaking in Greek and didn't know Hebrew well. Otherwise, there is semantic and syntactic difference between hayah in Ex 3:14 and EIMI John 8:58. Hayah means "to become, to occur, to be present" (not simply "to exist"). That is why Ludwig Koehler and Walter Baumgartner have rendered ehyeh asher ehyeh, "I shall be who I shall prove to be". In order to avoid the semantic difference, many scholars point Isaiah's use of ani (rendered also EIMI by the LXX), which could be used in a Hebrew dialogue in the contextual structure of John 8:58. Furthermore, the syntactic difference has to do  with the absence of any predicate in John 8:58, that, on the contrary, exists in Exodus 3:14.
 
On the other hand, EGW EIMI of John 8:58 could be simply taken as historical presence, a tense referring to a situation existed in the past and still exist, in this case referring to Jesus' existence, that was long enough to precede Abraham's existence. The scenario of historical present seems to be strengthened by the Peshitta's version of the verse, which is translated by Lewis (1896), "Before Abraham was, I have been."
 
Kind regards,
 
Tsialas Vasileios
 
Athens, Greece
 
P.S. Forgive me for my poor English.

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