John 8:58
is the third person singular aorist active indicative from the verb EIPON, which means “to say: said.”
The aorist tense is a constative/historical aorist, which looks at the action in its entirety as a fact.
The active voice indicates that Jesus produced the action.
The indicative mood is declarative for a simple statement of fact.
Then we have the dative of indirect object from the third person masculine plural personal use of the intensive pronoun AUTOS, meaning “to them” and referring to the Jewish unbelievers. This is followed by the nominative subject from the masculine singular article and proper noun IĒSOUS, meaning “Jesus.” Then we have the doubling of the asseverative particle AMĒN, meaning ‘Truly, truly’,always used with LEGW, beginning a solemn declaration but used only by Jesus, meaning: I assure you that, I solemnly tell youMt 5:18,26; 6:2,5,16; 8:10and many other passages.”[1] This is followed by the first person singular present active indicative from the verb LEGW, meaning “to say, tell, assure: I say.”
The present tense is a descriptive present, which describes what is happening right now.
The active voice indicates that Jesus produced the action.
The indicative mood is declarative for a simple statement of fact.
This is followed by the dative of indirect object from the second personplural personal pronoun SU, meaning “to you” and referring to the Jews.
“Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you,”
is thetemporal conjunction PRIN, meaning “before” plus the accusative of measure of extent of time from the masculine singular proper noun ABRAAM, meaning “before Abraham.”[2] Then we have the aorist deponent middle infinitive from the verb GINOMAI, meaning “to become; to be; to be born.”[3]
The aorist tense is a constative/historical aorist, which looks at the action in its entirety as a fact.
The deponent middle voice is middle in form, but active in meaning with the subject (Abraham) producing the action.
The indicative mood is declarative for a simple statement of fact.
Finally, we have the nominative subject from the first person singular personal pronoun EGW, meaning “I” and referring to Jesus plus the first person singular present active indicative from the verb EIMI, meaning “to be; to exist.”[4] The Louw-Nida lexicon translates this: ‘before Abraham came into existence, I existed’.[5]
The present tense is a historical present,[6] which views the past state of being as a present state of being for the sake of emphasis and vividness. A. T. Robertson (Grammar, section XVIII.III.1(a)(α)) calls this an absolute progressive present, meaning that the state of being began in the past and continues in the present. Thus the complete translation of the idea would be: “I existed in the past and exist now.” Since the Jews know that He exists now (He is standing before them) the emphasis of what Jesus is saying is on His past existence before Abraham existed.
The active voice indicates that Jesus produced the action of existing before Abraham.
The indicative mood is declarative for a simple statement of fact and reality.
“before Abraham was born, I existed.’”
Jn8:58 corrected translation
“Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you,before Abraham was born, I existed.’”
Explanation:
1. “Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you,”
a. Jesus replies to the incredulous question of the Jewish unbelievers with another absolute truth.
b. The reply of Jesus is dogmatic, but not offensive. He is not trying to bait these Jews into anger; they are already there. He is not trying to insult them; they have insulted Him. He is not committing any verbal sin; they are doing all the sinning.
c. We have seen several “Truly, truly” statements used by John to describe the words of Jesus (Jn 1:51; 3:3, 5, 11; 5:19, 24, 25; 6:26, 32, 47, 53; 8:34, 51, 58), which means Jesus used this attention getting device on many occasions in His teachings.
2. “before Abraham was born, I existed.’”
a. The dogmatic statement of Jesus is that He existed before Abraham was born. This is a clear and absolute statement of the fact that Jesus existed before His birth on earth in the First Advent. This is a clear and absolute statement of the fact that Jesus must therefore be the God of Abraham, which means He is also the God of Israel, and therefore, God incarnate, the Son of God, and their Messiah. These unbelievers recognized this as the meaning of the words of Jesus, which is why their reaction is to kill Him immediately.
b. The phrase “I existed” in the Greek is the phrase , meaning “I am” or “I existed.” The meaning of the verb EIMI is “to be” or “to exist.” The present tense of EIMI is almost always used as an aoristic present, which emphasizes the factuality of the state of being. That can certainly be its use here. But we should also consider that this might be a unique use of the historical present, meaning that the state of being occurred in the past, but is stated as existing now for the sake of emphasis. In the case of a divine being such as Jesus, there never was a time when He did not exist. Therefore, the statement “I exist” includes past, present, and future; it is a never-ending state of being. Since Jesus is unique, we may have a unique use of the present tense here. “The tense is again important to notice. Before Abraham was born, Christ was continuously existing.”[7]
c. The Greek is the phrase was also the famous translation into the Greek Septuagint of Ex 3:13-14, “Then Moses said to God, ‘Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, “The God of your fathers has sent me to you.” Now they may say to me, “What is His name?” What shall I say to them?’ God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM’; and He said, ‘Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, “I AM [] has sent me to you.”’”
(1) “The Greek formula EGW EIMI (lit ‘I am’; RSV ‘It is I’ or ‘I am he’) echoes a divine self-affirmation found in Isaiah (Jn 4:26; 6:20; 8:24, 28, 58; 13:19; Mk 6:50; 13:6; 14:62; Isa 43:10; 48:12). It also echoes the revelation of the divine name to Moses (Ex 3:14).”[8]
(2) “This formula [EGW EIMI] is found in Second Isaiah [the second half of Isaiah; some biblical scholars assert that Isaiah wrote two books that were combined into one] as a self-affirmation of God (Isa 43:10; 48:12), and the use of it by Jesus is consequently deeply significant.”[9]
d. The Jews quickly recognized and understood that Jesus was referring to Himself as the person named “I am” or “I exist,” who spoke to Moses. Since that person was none other than God, then Jesus was saying directly and dogmatically that He was God. The actions of the Jews which follow prove that this is what Jesus meant and what the Jews understood. “The I am here must be understood as a divine claim and was taken in this way by the Jews.”[10]
e. “Undoubtedly here Jesus claims eternal existence with the absolute phrase used of God. The contrast between (entrance into existence of Abraham) and (timeless being) is complete. See the same use of in Jn 6:20; 9:9; 8:24, 28; 18:6.”[11]
f. “Christ claims all I-predications for himself and reveals himself to be God’s definitive representative in the absolute EGW EIMI—the purest and fullest expression of his incomparable significance.”[12]
g. “Furthermore, He Himself claimed to be preexistent, for He said, ‘Before Abraham [came to be], I am’. The statement, ‘I am,’ is not only a claim to existence before Abraham but also is a reference to the sacred name of God, Yahweh, and thus a claim to be God (Ex 3:14–15).”[13] “Christ claimed eternality when He declared, ‘Before Abraham was, I am’. This is more than limited existence before Abraham was born because He said ‘I am.’ ‘I was’ might indicate that He existed for several centuries before Abraham, but I am states eternality.”[14]
h. “Certainly the juxtaposing of the past tense concerning Abraham with both the prior time and the present tense as they relate to Jesus explodes all natural reasoning concerning time. Extending the present into the past does not compute in most of our minds. It is a confusion to the way we think. But God does not fit into the teacups of our minds. More pertinent for our purposes, however, is the fact that Jesus claimed to be ‘I am’ over against Abraham. The claim of Jesus, therefore, was clearly recognized from the Jews’ perspective to be a blasphemous statement they could not tolerate.”[15]
i. “Jesus’ climactic replywas nothing less than a claim to full deity. The Lord once again took for Himself the sacred name of God. Obviously, as the eternal God, He existed before Abraham’s time. Homer Kent explains, ‘By using the timeless ‘I am’ rather than ‘I was,’ Jesus conveyed not only the idea of existence prior to Abraham, but timelessness—the very nature of God himself.’”[16]
j. “If Jesus merely wished to imply that he existed before Abraham, he should have said, ‘Before Abraham was, I was’ [imperfect tense of EIMI]. But ‘I am’ was a title for God (Ex 3:14), which suggests that Jesus is claiming more than that he merely existed before Abraham.”[17]
1
[1] Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., & Bauer, W. (2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature. (3rd ed.) (p. 53). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
[2] BDAG, p. 863.
[3] BDAG, p. 197; ‘to be born’ is the number translation of the verb!
[4] BDAG, p. 282f. ‘to exist’ is the number translation of the verb.
[5] Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996, c1989). Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on semantic domains (electronic ed. of the 2nd edition.) (1:157). New York: United Bible societies.
[6] Wallace disagrees that this is a historical present (p. 530 of his Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics) because this use of the historical present is not found elsewhere for the verb EIMI. My retort is, “Of course it is not found elsewhere. The Lord Jesus Christ is the unique person of all time, and therefore, this title for Him is also unique, and should not be found elsewhere.
[7] Enns, P. P. (1997, c1989). The Moody Handbook of Theology (p. 215). Chicago, Ill.: Moody Press.
[8] Bromiley, G. W. (1988; 2002). The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Revised (3:797). Eerdmans.
[9] Bromiley, G. W. (1988; 2002). The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Revised (2:1086). Eerdmans.
[10] Carson, D. A. (1994). New Bible Commentary: 21st century edition. (Jn 8:48). Leicester, England; Downers Grove, Ill., USA: Inter-Varsity Press.
[11] Robertson, A. (1997). Word Pictures in the New Testament. (Jn 8:58). OakHarbor: Logos Research Systems.
[12] Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. (1995, c1985). Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. (p. 199). Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans.
[13] Ryrie, C. C. (1995, c1972). A Survey of Bible doctrine. Chicago: Moody Press.
[14] Ryrie, C. C. (1999). Basic Theology: A popular systemic guide to understanding biblical truth (p. 275). Chicago, Ill.: Moody Press.
[15] Borchert, G. L. (2001, c1996). Vol. 25A: John 1-11 (electronic ed.). Logos Library System; The New American Commentary (p. 309). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[16] MacArthur, J. (2006). The MacArthur New Testament Commentary John 1-11 (p. 384). Chicago: Moody Press.
[17]Keener, C. S., & InterVarsity Press. (1993). The IVP Bible background commentary : New Testament (Jn 8:57). Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press.