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NASB | John 8:58 Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am." |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | John 8:58 Jesus replied, "I assure you and most solemnly say to you, before Abraham was born, I Am." [Ex 3:14] |
Bible Question (short): Is BeDuhn correct on John 8:58? |
Question (full): Sorry! I meant to post the following as a question.................................. Greetings Ben! The following is supposed to be a quote from DeDuhn's book. I have no way of verifying it at the moment, so please let me know if the quote is in error. ********************************************* One passage usually missing from the discussion of the expression “I am” in the Gospel according to John is John 9:9. I n this verse, the words egw eimi are heard from the mouth not of Jesus, but of a blind man cured by Jesus. He, too, uses the words to say “I am he,” the man who before was blind, but have been cured. If anyone needs proof that egw eimi need not be a quote from the Old Testament, and is not reserved as a title of God, here it is. Once again, our attention is drawn to inconsistency i n how words are handled by biased translators. If egw eimi is not a divine self-proclamation in the mouth of the blind man of John 9, then it cannot be such a proclamation in the mouth of Jesus just a few verses earlier. ****************************************** There are a couple of logical errors that I see in this short quote. 1) No one claims that 'ego eimi' is always used as a title for God. 'eimi' is simply the present, active, indicative, 1st person, singular verb of being, while 'ego' is simply the first person pronoun. The phrase 'ego eimi' is found 48 times in the Nestle Aland Greek text. It is often used in questions concerning identity, as in the English 'I am he'. It is often used as the subject of predicate nominative statements. "I am the Christ", ect.... So, no one disputes that 'ego eimi' has uses other than as a title for God. 2) The author says that if it is not a divine self-proclamation by the blind man then it CANNOT be a divine self-proclamation by Christ. Why can't it? Where is the rule? :-) Words and phrases can have different meanings in different contexts. 3) The context of John 8 clearly shows that Jesus is using the phrase differently than the blind man. a) First of all, Jesus was not responding to a question of identity. No one had just asked Him, 'Are you the Savior?' So, 'I am he' does not fit the context. b) Secondly, the phrase 'ego eimi' stands alone without any predicate nominatives. In fact, there aren't any helping words at all. c) Thirdly, no matter how one views the use of 'ego eimi' as a title for God, Jesus is clearly saying that he existed at the time of Abraham. So, 'I have been' would be a horrible translation. d) Finally, the reaction of the crowd makes it perfectly clear that they understood Jesus' statement to mean more than 'I am he' or 'I have been'. They wanted to kill Him. It would certainly be unusual to kill someone for simply saying that they exist. :-) Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |
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Hank | ||
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retxar | ||
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ladie | ||
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teslimjohnson | ||
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kalos | ||
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MrsBinGA | ||
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mosa | ||
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kalos | ||
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Morant61 | ||
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Morant61 | ||
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Mommapbs |