In John 8:58, what exactly does Jesus's statement mean?

Question

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He says, "Truly, Truly I say to you. Before Abraham was born, I am..."

Is He saying that He existed well before Abraham, well before anyone else? If so, how does that work because it seems very confusing to me...

Answer 1

Hi.

If you will note before John 8: 58 there was some discussion with the Jews about his age, him being so young in verses 56 thru 57:

Abraham YOUR father rejoiced greatly in the prospect of seeing my day, and he saw it and rejoiced.” Therefore the Jews said to him: “You are not yet fifty years old, and still you have seen Abraham?”

In verse 58 Jesus said to them: “Most truly I say to YOU, Before Abraham came into existence, I have been.” Therefore they picked up stones to hurl [them] at him; but Jesus hid and went out of the temple.

What Jesus was letting them know is that he was along side his Father in heaven when most all of creation was being made. They did not believe him and wanted to hurt him. Well, eventually they killed him; Jesus. But Jesus, as you know, knew this would happen yet he still volunteered to come to earth, be born as a babe from a human woman, and to grow in the earth as did most other human beings.

He shares his Father’s love for humankind. Proverbs 8:30 and 31 expresses how his Father feels about this Son and how the Son feels about humankind: “I came to be the one he [Jehovah] was specially fond of day by day, I being glad before him all the time, . . . and the things I [Jesus] was most fond of were with the sons of men.” It was this most precious Son that God sent to earth to provide the ransom. How meaningful, therefore, is Jesus’ statement: “God loved the world so much that he gave his only-begotten Son”. (John 3:16)

Answer 2

Yes, He is telling that He existed before Abraham, that He is superior than Abraham. As a matter of fact, He has existed before Adan. Jesus is God.

Read the whole discussion that Jesus was having with the jews, start for example since John 8:31, and pay attention to:
John 8:56 and 8:57.

Answer 3

Many Bible versions render John 8:58 this way: "Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am."

And Ex. 3:14 this way: "God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." And he said, "Say this to the people of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'"

(Because of this, Trinitarians often refer to this as 'proof' that Jesus is the Hebrew GOD of the O.T.)

But are the words "I am" supposed to be God's name? Even if it were so, would it make sense in John 8:58 for Jesus to say the equivalent of, "Most assuredly I say to you, before Abraham was...Jehovah?!?"

Looking at the context, the correct phrasing of this sentence should be "I was" instead of "I am" when used after the word "before." Also in verse 57, the question to which Jesus was replying had to do with age, not identity.

During the exchange with the Jews leading up to John 8:58, nowhere does Jesus claim to be God. And as we've already seen, the words "I am" at John 8:58 (including the blatant unwarranted use of capitalization) is not only inaccurate but nonsensical.

Several translations phrase John 8:58 the correct way by which Jesus was actually illustrating how long he has existed. One, for instance:
"Jesus answered, "The truth is, I existed before Abraham was even born!" (NLT)

Answer 4

First, whenever you're reading a passage from the bible you need to read what else it is saying in preceeding and following paragraphs to get the context of the passage. Although I don't remember the passage specifically off hand, Jesus could be saying that he existed before Abraham because you have to remember that in the trinity, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and God are all one and three seperate beings. Therefore where the father has existed, so too has the son.

Answer 5

The Expository Times, 1996, page 302 by Kenneth Mckay.

"The verb 'to be' is used differently, in what is presumably its basic meaning of 'be in existence', in John 8:58: prin Abraam genesthai ego eimi, which would be most naturally translated 'I have been in existence since before Abraham was born', if it were not for the obsession with the simple words 'I am'. If we take the Greek words in their natural meaning, as we surely should, the claim to have been in existence for so long is in itself a staggering one, quite enough to provoke the crowd's violent reaction."

This is exactly what Furuli is on about in his analysis of the three ways that "ego eimi" has been translated:

1)"I was."
2)"I am"
3)"I have been."

To quote from Furuli :

"The truth is, there is no way to translate this Greek passage into English in a strictly literal way, because Greek is an aspectual language and English is not. ...In comparing the above translations we can see that ["I am"]..does not fulfill any of the four requirements[of grammaticality, intelligibilty, faithful conveyance of the message, addition of elements] while ["I was"] and ["I have been"] fulfill three out of the four. My personal preference is for ["I have been"]....as it does not distort the message as ["I was"] does."(The Role of Theology and Bias in Bible Translation, pp.237, 238)

Furuli then points out McKays translation of this passage as, "I have been in existence since before Abraham was born." as an improvement over all three.

The New Testament Or Rather The New Covenant-S.Sharpe: "I was before Abraham".

A Bible, A New Translation- J.Moffatt: "I existed before Abraham was born"

The New Testament in the Language of the Day-W.G.Beck: "I was before Abraham"

The Simple English Bible: "I was alive before Abraham was born"

The Twentieth Century New Testament: "before Abraham existed I was"

The New Testament in the Language of the People- C.B.Williams: "I existed before Abraham was born"

The Bible-An American Translation-E.Goodspeed(NT): "I existed"

The Unvarnished New Testament-A.Gaus: "I have already been"

The Authentic New Testament-H.J.Schonfield: "I existed"

The Complete Gospels-R.J.Miller(Editor): "I existed"

New American Standard Bible 1963-1970 editions: "I have been"-alternative rendering

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I am is poor english, Tell an English teacher,

'Before you came, I am' and they will correct you because in English you can not mix tenses.

Jesus was answering the question 'how old are you?

His answer is based on the fact that Jesus is the firstborn of all creation.

Jesus was created before the universe, and before any of the other son's of God. (Job 1:6)


.

Answer 6

He is claiming to be God.

Joh 8:58 Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, Before Abraham came to be, I AM!

The name "I AM" was used by God in Exodus.

Exo 3:14 And God said to Moses, I AM THAT I AM; and He said, You shall say this to the sons of Israel, I AM has sent me to you.

Jesus was claiming that He is the eternal God, He existed before Abraham. The Jews knew what He was saying, hence their actions in the next verse.

Joh 8:59 Because of this, they took up stones that they might throw them on Him. But Jesus was hidden, and went forth out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.

I think it is interesting that Jesus walked right through them, without getting touched. It wasn't His time yet.

Answer 7

Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. He is the second person of the Trinity. He created all things. (John 1:1) Thus, he was in existence before Abraham was born. Jesus became fully man when he was born of the Virgin Mary.

Answer 8

This one is the most powerful statements uttered by Jesus. This is where he calls himself the great I AM. Undeniably proclaiming his divinity being born before Abraham. He not only proclaims divinity over Abraham he claims equality to God. The Jewish leaders tried to stone Jesus for Blasphemy because he claimed equality to God.

Answer 9

Shalom Sister -- I think... He was speaking hyperbolically (as Paul seems to readily acknowledge in 1 Cor 13:2), but the point is still extremely significant. Believers can do amazing things if they do it by faith; conversely, without faith it is impossible to please God. I take it that the most significant thing God permits us to is to participate in the salvation message. When Jesus spoke of believers doing greater works than he did (John 14:12), it is my understanding that he was speaking especially about bringing the lost to Christ. Now I don’t mean by this that we can effect someone’s salvation; rather, I mean that God uses us to be the instrument by which someone believes (cf. John 1:7; Rom 10:14-15). What is truly remarkable about this is that our salvation and our sanctification are described in scripture as the work of God’s strong arm or as a miracle on the level of God raising Christ from the dead (cf, e.g., Exod 6:6; Eph 1:18-20). It is precisely because God raised Christ from the physical dead that we, too, can be raised from the spiritual dead. I can think of no greater miracle than such a transformation!

Answer 10

This is actually Jesus' claim to be God-and it was fully understood to be so by the folks listening to Him speak, because they tried to kill Him for what they perceived to be blasphemy. Compare John 8:58 with Exodus 3:13-14. Jesus accepted the title of "God" when it was confessed to Him by the Apostle Thomas in John 20:28,29.