Wednesday, October 28, 2020

The Meaning of Εγο ειμι in John 8:58



Isaiah 45:18 in Hebrew had the Tetragrammaton ( = YHWH) but the Greek Septuagint used ego eimi ( = i am), not Kyrios ( = Lord) as the substitute for the Tetragrammaton. 

Οὕτως λέγει Κύριος ὁ ποιήσας τὸν οὐρανόν, οὗτος ὁ θεὸς ὁ καταδείξας τὴν γῆν καὶ ποιήσας αὐτήν, αὐτὸς διώρισεν αὐτήν, οὐκ εἰς κενὸν ἐποίησεν, ἀλλὰ κατοικεῖσθαι ἔπλασεν αὐτήν, Ἐγώ εἰμι, καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν ἔτι. (Isaiah 45:18 LXX)

It's highly likely that ego eimi in John 8:58 also represents the Tetragrammaton because it occured in the context where Jesus was claiming to be eternal. 

The grammar of Psalm 90:2 in the Greek translation (the Septuagint) is the same as in John 8:58 and only differing in the inflection of the prounoun.

Psalm 90:2 (LXX) says that "before the mountains were...You are".  

John 8:58: "before" Abraham was, I am".


The Jews correctly understood Jesus to be claiming pre-existent in vv. 56-57 but Jesus himself added more in v. 58. In this verse, Jesus also claimed to have existed in the same way Yahweh existed i.e. eternally. This is the reason why the Jews wanted to stone Jesus in v. 59. It's really the same reason found in John 10:33 which had a different scenario but the same claim of "blasphemy", because Jesus, "being a man, made himself God".


The present tense indicated that whether the mountains came into existence or not, Yahweh is deemed to be existing, to be always there existing, in contrast to the mountains which clearly had come into existence. Likewise, Christ's eternal existence was contrasted against the "coming of Abraham" in 3000 BCE:


Yahweh always exists whilst the mountains came into existence

Jesus always exists whilst Abraham came into existence

 

The Meaning of θείας κοινωνοὶ φύσεως in 2 Peter 1:4

The Meaning of θείας κοινωνοὶ φύσεως in 2 Peter 1:4

2 Peter 1:4 explicitly speaks of persons "participating in the divine nature" (θείας κοινωνοὶ φύσεως). Anyone who is called "god" by Yahweh logically participates also in his own nature because it is how the agent can perform god-like functions (i.e. miracles). For to be a god necessitates to have powers and attributes i.e. nature that is essential to a god (cf. Exodus 7:1, Psalm 82:6, John 10:34). A man that only has the essence of man cannot do what a god can do unless he is truly "made a god" , as in the case of Moses, who was explicitly described as having been made god by Yahweh in the Hebrew Bible, with supporting Biblical evidence such as his participation in divine glory as well as performing 40+ miracles. 

How is Moses being god different from Jesus being God? Moses is a generic god, made so by Yahweh, who is the God of Israel and who is explicitly described as the "God of gods" in Scripture. Thus, Moses' godhood is different from that of what Jesus himself possesses. Jesus is the same God as Yahweh. In John 20:28, Jesus acknowledges that he is both Lord and God.

The God of Jesus as the Origin of High Christology

The God of Jesus is the same as the Father of Jesus. Even before creation, Jesus, as the Son, adores and worships his God and Father (The Wo...