PHOTO: ANN RICKSON
Then the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old,
and have you seen Abraham?”
Jesus said to them, “Very truly , I tell you,
before Abraham was, I am.
Jn 8, 58
Many scholars look to the Old Testament prophets for a background for John’s use of “I am” in passages like the one we read today. Deutero- Isaiah uses the same Hebrew form “ego eimi that John uses in this verse, and the form is used to express YHWH’s revelation of the Divine Self to the people.
When Jesus tells those who are questioning him about his claim to have seem Abraham, Jesus uses the same words as Dt-Isa to identify himself as the one who reveals the One who sent him. As Barrett says in “Essays,” Jesus is not instructing the Jews to “…Look at me because I am identical with the Father,” but “Look at me for I am the one by looking at whom you will see the Father, since I make him known” (As quoted in the New Jerome Biblical Commentary, Johannine Theology 83:4).
Jesus continues to reveal the face of God to us, pointing not to himself, but to the one who sent him and to the work of brining God’s kingdom.
We can live our lives in a way that points not to ourselves, but to God. Read More
Then the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old,
and have you seen Abraham?”
Jesus said to them, “Very truly , I tell you,
before Abraham was, I am.
Jn 8, 58
Many scholars look to the Old Testament prophets for a background for John’s use of “I am” in passages like the one we read today. Deutero- Isaiah uses the same Hebrew form “ego eimi that John uses in this verse, and the form is used to express YHWH’s revelation of the Divine Self to the people.
When Jesus tells those who are questioning him about his claim to have seem Abraham, Jesus uses the same words as Dt-Isa to identify himself as the one who reveals the One who sent him. As Barrett says in “Essays,” Jesus is not instructing the Jews to “…Look at me because I am identical with the Father,” but “Look at me for I am the one by looking at whom you will see the Father, since I make him known” (As quoted in the New Jerome Biblical Commentary, Johannine Theology 83:4).
Jesus continues to reveal the face of God to us, pointing not to himself, but to the one who sent him and to the work of brining God’s kingdom.
We can live our lives in a way that points not to ourselves, but to God. Read More