“Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” (John 8:58)
If you type this statement, “before Abraham was, I am”, in Grammarly or any grammar checking app it will show you an error for sure. Any person who is well acquainted with grammar can immediately sense that something doesn’t sound well with the tenses. The grammar checking apps suggest that there should be ‘was’ instead of ‘is’ at the end of this sentence. So, is that a typo or did Jesus made a grammatical mistake while saying that statement? What did he really mean by that statement? Did people who listened to him got what Jesus really said? How did they respond to that? In this article we will explore what Jesus meant by saying “before Abraham was, I am”.
It might not make any sense if that statement is just perceived in a grammatical sense. However, understanding it from a theological perspective will make a whole lot of difference. Jesus did not just turn the grammar upside down but the whole world of the Jews. We can see from the context of this verse that Jesus was speaking to the Jews as he was uttering these words.
Jesus, Abraham and the Jews
In John 7 we can see that Jesus enters Jerusalem and openly teaches in the temple knowing that the leaders in Jerusalem are trying to arrest him and kill him (7:1, 25, 30, 44). Then in John 8, a lengthy heated conversation takes place between Jews and Jesus, and as Jesus speaks many “believed” in him (verse 30). However, after hearing more from him they immediately change their minds and turned against him. They did not continue to believe him but instead accused him of being a Samaritan and a demon possessed man (verse 31).
It is in this context, that the topic turns toward Abraham out of whom the nation of Israel came into existence. Indeed, Abraham is a great fatherly figure to all the Jews who identify themselves with him whom God has chosen to be a channel of blessing to this world. Responding to them, Jesus comparing himself to Abraham made many claims which made the Jews very angry. He said that anybody who keeps his word will never see death (John 8:51). To such a statement, the Jews angrily questioned him saying that their father Abraham died, even so the prophets, so what makes Jesus special over Abraham? “Who do you make yourself out to be?” (John 8:53) Even the Jews who spoke directly to Jesus realized that Jesus was showing himself to be someone special and greater than Abraham.
In response to that, Jesus makes an astonishing statement saying, “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” (John 8:56). To that the Jews got furious and said, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” It is to this question Jesus makes an even greater astounding statement saying “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am”. Those Jews who listened to him had no more words to say but only stones to throw at Jesus, for they perceived it as a blasphemy which deserves punishment by death according to the Jewish law. Now this raises few important questions: How did Abraham see Jesus’ day and rejoice? How was Jesus before Abraham? What did Jesus mean when he uttered the words “I am”?
Jesus, The Joy of Abraham
In Genesis 12 we see that God calls Abraham and promises him to make him a blessing to many nations. But Abraham wonders how? In Genesis 15, God promises him a son through Sarah. And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6). Talking about Abraham seeing Jesus’s day and rejoicing in it, Hendriksen says that it was possible because God promised him a son through Sarah. Asking the question why, he goes on to say that there still is a deeper reason to it, that is, Abraham interpreted that promise to mean,
that in the line of Isaac that Blessed One would at length arrive through whom God would bless all the nations. Thus, as is stated specifically in Heb. 11:13, he (and others before and after him) died in faith, not having received (the fulfilment of) the promises, but having greeted them from afar. It was thus that Abraham saw the day of Christ and rejoiced.
So, it is in this sense that Abraham rejoiced. “He saw it and was glad seems to point to Abraham’s foresight, which resulted from his faith”, says Guthrie
2. What Abraham saw when Jesus was not present in body before him, the Jews could not see even when Jesus was present bodily before them. It is because they lacked the faith that Abraham had. However, the question that still remains is, where was Jesus when Abraham saw his day?
Jesus, Unlike Abraham
When Jesus made that extraordinary claim by saying “before Abraham was, I am”, he is not simply saying that he came into being before Abraham did or that he was created before Abraham was created. We are here dealing with two different categories of existences. One was a created being and the other uncreated being. Jamieson et al., puts it well saying, “The words rendered “was” and “am” are quite different. The one clause means, “Abraham was brought into being “; the other, “I exist.””3
Jesus never came into being like Abraham, but was always there, eternally existing with the Father and the Holy Spirit. He is unlike Abraham in this sense. That’s the divine side of Jesus in his pre-incarnate state. While on earth, Jesus was truly divine and truly human in his personhood, which the Jews couldn’t grasp. It was necessary for him to be so in order to be a mediator between a Holy God and a sinful people, for whom he died on the cross to redeem them from their sins.
The Jews were only looking at Jesus as a mere human being. But Jesus on the other hand was revealing his eternal and divine personhood by equating himself with God the Father. Even though Jews understood Jesus’ claim, they could not digest that thought looking at Jesus who grew up in their neighbourhood right before their eyes. They understood what Jesus said, but could not believe him. They could not see him as more than a human being.
Jesus, More Than Abraham
Looking at the grammatical construction of the sentence, Hendriksen comments on it saying, “To emphasize this eternal present he sets over against the aorist infinitive, indicating Abraham’s birth in time, the present indicative, with reference to himself; hence, not I was, but I am… his existence transcends time.4 In other words it can be put simply like this, ‘before Abraham came into existence (aorist infinitive), I exist (present indicative)”. That really puts Jesus in a position where he is infinitely greater and eternally superior to Abraham. Indeed, he is the Creator who created Abraham.
To the claims of Jesus, the Jews could no longer tolerate him, so no wonder they picked up stones to kill him, for they regarded his statement as a blasphemy. Guthrie commenting on this says that: “In no more dramatic way could Jesus have claimed superiority over Abraham. The Jews could think of no other treatment but stoning for anyone so indisputably claiming pre–existence to Abraham.5 However, that’s what Jesus claimed!
In Conclusion, Jesus’ grammatical construction of the sentence, his claiming of the divine name, the contrasting of his eternality with that of Abraham’s brevity of life, and not less, the reaction of the Jews who wanted to kill him, shows us that Jesus made an extraordinary claim which the Jews understood as equating himself with God. There might be people today who say that Jesus never claimed himself to be God, but we saw that’s not true.
So, who do you think Jesus is? Do you believe what Jesus claimed himself to be – the God-man who can save you from your sins? You would do good if you believe so!