A few months ago a man called me on the phone after he had been on this website and was asking some questions and was quite insistent that I tell him where in the Bible Jesus ever said that He was God. He let me know that he had knowledge of Greek. When he called I had a friend waiting for me and I had to let the man go without answering his question, at least to his satisfaction.
I did e-mail him a few days later and quoted John 8:58 where Jesus stated “Before Abraham was I AM” in response to his question about Jesus ever claiming to be God. Since he seemed quite comfortable telling me he had a knowledge of Greek I asked him a couple of questions. He told me that it was obvious by my questions that I had no knowledge of Greek or something to that effect. He did not make me feel much like taking my time to respond again and although I guess I should have, I didn’t.
This man’s response included sighting a number of Bible translations that translated the text ” I have been” or a similar meaning, not “I AM” at John 8:58. The religious leaders asked Jesus how He had seen Abraham when He was not fifty years old, and Jesus replied “before Abraham was I AM.” John 8:58.
While I can’t dispute how these translators arrived at their interpretation of the Greek, I can look at the context and have to wonder why the religious leaders that Jesus was speaking with would have reacted the way they did if Jesus had simply said that “before Abraham existed I have been”.
Jesus had already told them that He had seen Abraham and their response simply sounded like mockery to me. So why then if he simply said he was alive before Abraham, did they suddenly want to stone Him?
Unless I am totally misunderstanding the entire text then this makes no sense. On the other hand if Jesus really did say “before Abraham was, I AM” and the religious leaders, like the man I was speaking with on the phone, did not believe that Jesus was the Great I Am of Exodus and therefore wanted to kill Him for blasphemy!
I can simply quote other Bible translators who do say Jesus claimed to be God when He announced that before Abraham was “I AM” because He was applying to Himself the title Jehovah God used for Himself in Exodus 3:14.
Since it appears that some translators say Jesus was not claiming to be God and that He was only saying that He existed before Abraham, while other translators say Jesus was claiming to be God, where do we go from here?
Well, since I assume that the man I spoke with on the phone is one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, why not see what the Watch Tower has had to say about the translation of these verses?
Let’s start with ‘The New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures’ published by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society in 1950.
On page #312 explaining John 8:58 in foot note C. “I have been…and hence rendered in the perfect indefinite tense.”
Later in 1969 in ‘The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures’ also published by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society on page #467 in foot note 58a “I have been … and hence rendered in the perfect tense.”
You can see photos of the full footnotes below.
As I said, I do not know Greek but I know that these are opposing explanations of John 8:58, both made by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society.
My father was an English teacher and I had asked him one time years ago what he thought of the Watch Tower’s 1950 explanation of the grammar for John 8;58. My father does not know Greek either but said that it made no sense in English and would not make sense in any language.
For those of us who must trust others for Greek interpretation, I think it would be foolish to trust a group of men who together made a ‘mistake’ in such an important text that ‘coincidentally’ supported their theology. I was informed by someone who does know Greek that the second Watch Tower explanation is equally as wrong as the first.
It should be noted that in the word for word translation under the Greek text in the ‘The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures’, used for both of these Watch Tower publications, the Greek is simply translated ‘I am’.
New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures Page #312
The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures Page # 467
The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures John 8:58 Page# 467
The following actually appears to be a third and different explanation again, by the Watch Tower, of the Greek in John 8:58.
‘New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures’ Page #1582 Appendix 6F ( A 1984 edition published by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society)
- The man who called me on the phone insisting that I tell him where Jesus said He was God should consider Jesus’ words to the religious leaders in the same conversation He was having with them in John 8:58. When they asked Him “who do you claim to be?” Jesus answered ” If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father that glorifies me, He who you say is your God; and yet you have not known Him. …” John 8:53-55
- So where does the Father glorify the Son? Here is an example in Hebrews 1:6 But when He brings his First-Born into the inhabited earth, He says: And let all God’s angels worship Him. …” ( The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures published by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society)
- For the next quote in Hebrews I have to quote any one of the eight translations bound together in the ‘Eight Translation New Testement’ that I believe many Jehovah’s Witnesses are familiar with. I can’t quote the Watch Tower here because it makes no sense to me. (Hebrews 1:7 “God is your throne forever,…”)
- Hebrews 1:8 But of the Son He saith, Thy throne O God, is for ever and ever: a septre of righteousness is the septre of thy kingdom. …” (King James version)
- I would like to at least try to give an answer that might satisfy the question asked by the man on the phone. Where did Jesus ever say He was God?
- Revelation 1:7 Look! He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, and those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will beat themselves in grief because of Him. Yes Amen. 8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says Jehovah God, the One who is and who was and who is coming, the Almighty.”
- I know that Jehovah’s witnesses are told that this is Jehovah the Father in this text and that the Father is also coming in some capacity. Please consider verses 17-18 where you know that it is Jesus speaking. “Do not be fearful. I am the First and the Last, 18 and the living one; and I became dead, but look! I am living for ever and ever, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.”
- Jesus is the First and the Last and is coming. Almighty God is coming and is the Alpha and the Omega. You know that Alpha and Omega means the First and the Last and vise verse.
- OK, we agree that the Almighty God is coming and we agree that Jesus is coming. Verse 7 says He is coming with the clouds. The scripture also says He will be visible.
- In Acts 1:8 while standing on the Mount of Olives Jesus tells the apostles that they will be witnesses of Him to the most distant part of the earth. In verse 9 “And after He had said these things, while they were looking on, He was lifted up and a cloud caught Him up from there vision.
- Let’s take a look at Zechariah’s prophecy of the same event. Zechariah 14:3 “And Jehovah will certainly go forth and war against those nations as in the day of His warring, in the day of fight. 4 And His feet will actually stand in that day upon the mountain of the olive trees, which is in front of Jerusalem, on the east…”
- Who’s feet left the Mount of Olives in Acts 1:9? In Acts 10 when the disciples were gazing up into the sky where Jesus was caught out of their sight two men in white garments stood beside them. Verse 11 and they said “men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This same Jesus who was received up from you into the sky will come thus in the same manner as you beheld Him going into the sky.”
- Jesus is returning to the Mount of Olives, He was seen leaving and He will be seen coming back.
- If this seems confusing, Jesus leaving, Jehovah coming back, Jesus and Jehovah both coming in Revelation, then let’s ask the question; what event was Jesus speaking about to the religious leaders when He told them in John 8: 56 “Abraham your father rejoiced greatly in the prospect of seeing my day and he saw it and rejoiced.”? When did Abraham see Jesus?
- Genesis 18: 1 Afterward Jehovah appeared to him among the big trees of Mamre, while he was sitting at the entrance of the tent about the heat of the day. When he raised up his eyes, then he looked and there three men were standing some distance from him. When he caught sight of them he began running to meet them from the entrance of the tent and proceeded to bow down to the earth. 3 Then he said: “Jehovah, if, now, I have found favor in your eyes, please do not pass by your servant. ” I would suggest reading until you come to Genesis 19:24 Then Jehovah made it rain down sulphur and fire from Jehovah, from the heavens, upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah.
- It is the Watch Tower that says that they have ‘restored’ the name Jehovah where it belongs in the text of the Bible. In keeping with the use of the name ‘Jehovah’ as Almighty God’s name, please consider this: Jehovah the Father, who is in Heaven in the above scripture, is in nature not man, not angel but in nature is God. Another of like kind, One who is also not man , not angel but also in nature God, is also referred to in the Old Testament by the same name as the Father. In the New Testament at Matthew 1:21 an angel tells Joseph that He will be called ‘Emmanuel’, meaning ‘God with us’ and that he is to call His name Jesus after being begotten of God and taking on the nature of man. Mary is also told that He is to be given the name Jesus.
- The man on the phone asked where in the Bible did Jesus ever say that He was God?
- I would ask where in the Bible did Jesus ever say that He was the archangel Michael?
- God asks the rhetorical question at Hebrews 1:13: But with reference to which one of the angles has He ever said: “Sit at my right hand, until I place your enemies as a stool for your feet.” The answer to God’s rhetorical question is not one!
- Please do not think to sight I Thessalonians 4:16 as proof that Jesus is an archangel, especially after just reading what Jehovah God says about that in Hebrews.
- Even earthly Kings or Queens and presidents have an official announce in a loud voice their presence as they arrive at an event. There are often trumpets sounded as well. When Jesus arrived as a baby, as the lamb of God, there were choirs of angels announcing His birth. When He arrives as King of Kings would He not be announced by an official, by an archangel’s call and with the trumpet of God? Jesus is no more the archangel announcing Him than He is God’s trumpet. Picture it; the King of Kings with no one to announce Him so He calls out Himself, “I am here!” That is disturbing to say the least.
- Revelation 22:12 -“Look! I am coming quickly, and the reward I give is with me, to render to each one as his work is. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the beginning and the end. ( Jehovah is the Alpha and the Omega in Rev. 1:8, Jesus is the First and the Last in Rev. 1:17, who is speaking here?)
Revelation 22:16- “I Jesus, sent my angel to bear witness to you people of these things for the congregations. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and the morning star.
Revelation 22:20 “He that bears witness of these things says, ‘yes; I am coming quickly.’ “Amen! Come, Lord Jesus.”