Behold The Lamb of God

Jesus’ use of “ἐγώ εἰμι” Lit. “I am” without “He” in the New Testament parallels the Hebrew “I am, or I am He” and the LXX exactly (though never repeated) so consistently that no Jew could hear Him say *that* about Himself and not understand that He was merely carrying out and establishing a locus of data points that were exactly in line with Divine usage in the Old Testament.

= = = = = = = = = = OLD Testament = = = = = = = = =

“See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.” (Deut. 32:39)

ἴδετε ἴδετε ὅτι ἐγώ εἰμι καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν θεὸς πλὴν ἐμοῦ (Deut. 32:39 LXX )  “I am” w/o He.

‎ רְא֣וּ׀ עַתָּ֗ה כִּ֣י אֲנִ֤י אֲנִי֙ ה֔וּא (Deut. 32:39 WTT)

I, even I am He …
– – – – –

“Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he.” (Isa. 41:4 KJV)

ἐγὼ θεὸς πρῶτος καὶ εἰς τὰ ἐπερχόμενα ἐγώ εἰμι (Isa. 41:4 LXX) “I am” w/o He.

‎ אֲנִי־הֽוּא׃ (Isa. 41:4 WTT)

I am He.
– – – – –

“Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.” (Isa. 43:10 KJV)

ὅτι ἐγώ εἰμι (Isa. 43:10) “… that I am” w/o He.

‎ כִּֽי־אֲנִ֣י ה֔וּא (Isa. 43:10 WTT)

“I am He”
– – – – –

“Yea, before the day was I am he; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall let it?” (Isa. 43:13 KJV)

[ ego eimi ] absent but implied

‎ אֲנִ֣י ה֔וּא (Isa. 43:13 WTT)

“I am He”
– – – – –

“I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. (Isa. 43:25 KJV)

ἐγώ εἰμι ἐγώ εἰμι (Isa. 43:25 LXX) Lit. “I am, I am” twice.

‎ אָנֹכִ֙י אָנֹכִ֥י ה֛וּא (Isa. 43:25 WTT)

“I, I am He”
– – – – –

“And even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you. (Isa. 46:4 KJV)

ἐγώ εἰμι (Isa. 46:4 LXX)  “I am”

‎ אֲנִ֣י ה֔וּא (Isa. 46:4 WTT)

“I am He”
– – – – –

“Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I am he; I am the first, I also am the last.” (Isa. 48:12 KJV)

ἐγώ εἰμι πρῶτος καὶ ἐγώ εἰμι εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα (Isa. 48:12 LXX) “I am .. I am ...”

‎ אֲנִי־הוּא֙ אֲנִ֣י רִאשׁ֔וֹן אַ֖ף אֲנִ֥י אַחֲרֽוֹן׃ (Isa. 48:12 WTT)

“I am He, I am first and I am last”
– – – – –

“I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass;” (Isa. 51:12 KJV)

ἐγώ εἰμι ἐγώ εἰμι (Isa. 51:12 LXX) “Iam, I am…” twlce

‎ אָנֹכִ֧י אָנֹכִ֛י ה֖וּא (Isa. 51:12 WTT)

“I am, I am He”
– – – – –

“Therefore my people shall know my name: therefore they shall know in that day that I am he that doth speak: behold, it is I. (Isa. 52:6 KJV)

ἐγώ εἰμι αὐτὸς (Isa. 52:6 LXX ) “I am He”

‎ כִּֽי־אֲנִי־ה֥וּא (Isa. 52:6 WTT)

“I am He”

= = = = = = = = = = New Testament = = = = = = = = =

I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins. (Jn. 8:24 KJV)

ἐγώ εἰμι (Jn. 8:24 ) “I am” w/o He

“Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. (Jn. 8:28 KJV)

ἐγώ εἰμι (Jn. 8:28) “I am” w/o He

“Now I tell you before it come, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am he.” (Jn. 13:19 KJV)

ἐγώ εἰμι (Jn. 13:19) “I am” w/o He

“For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.(Mk. 13:6)

ἐγώ εἰμι (Mk. 13:6) “I am” w/o He

“And he said, Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am [Christ]; and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them.(Lk. 21:8)

ἐγώ εἰμι (Lk. 21:8) “I am”
– – – – –

One need only to read these passages in succession to see the commonality of expression from the Old to the New Testament to realize that Jesus was claiming equality with the Father, even in kenosis, i.e., Incarnate submission as Son of man.   In first century Judaism, for Jesus to take up that moniker and apply it to himself was claiming equality of essence with the Father.

Christ’s claims to “be he of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets did write” (Jn 1:45) at the beginning stirred hopes that he was Messiah, the one to deliver Israel from their enemies so that they could worship God in holiness without fear, their aspirations swept him up.  The Jews knew that Messiah was going to make intensely personal claims on their allegiance, but there appears to be widespread ignorance of the full implications of dignity of identity of Messiah as shown in may Old Testament passages, e.g.,

“Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord (הָאָד֣וֹן), whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts (Mal. 3:1 KJV)

Yet as time went on, Jesus began to reveal the full import of who He was as shown in passages like these:

“All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.” (Matt. 11:27 KJV)

“For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: ²³ That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him. ²⁴ Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. ²⁵ Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. ²⁶ For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; ²⁷ And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man. ²⁸ Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, ²⁹ And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.” (Jn. 5:22-29 KJV)

Honor the Son, EVEN AS, they hour the Father?  Clearly over the top for a mere mortal to say about themselves.

But in the end, the Chief Priests, Pharisees and Elders of the people chose to reject Christ as that august Personage because Jesus ‘ presence and teaching incited the hatred of exposure that their deeds were evil.  It can be truly said that “they hated Him without cause” and so took away his justice and denied that He had a valid claim as “Son of the Blessed”.  A claim he owned so emphatically that they pretended that in his case he were a mere man claiming to be God.   That does not excuse them from the evidence that they did know that Messiah was Son of God in a unique and unparalleled way.

The apostles knew that Jesus was making a claim to unity with the Father in an unparalleled way for they also refer to him as:

“…the Lord of glory…”  1 Co. 2:8, Jam 2:1.

I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images (Isa. 42:8 KJV)

That the Scripture gives witness to the Plurality of Persons as what it means to be God, it is not surprising that the proud heart of man would reject the notion that God could be manifest in the flesh because they have already relegated the glory of His essence to be finally controlled by a mathematical hermeneutic.  I. E., God could only, by definition, be One in the cardinal sense of the number “1”.

The Apostolic witness of Who Christ was (and is) was brilliantly, and strategically stated in the Apostle John’s “prologue” in an unambiguous challenge to the god’s of this world.

“1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word *was God.

² The same was in the beginning with God.

³ All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. (Jn. 1:1-3 KJV)

* That is, all that it means to be in the same exclusionary class of God.

ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος.

“The Word was with God, and the Word was God. Again, a subset proposition is envisioned here. The λόγος belongs to the larger category known as θεός. The force of this construction is most likely to emphasize the nature of the Word, not his identity. That is to say, the Word is true deity but he is not the same person as the θεός mentioned earlier in the verse.” [1]

1.) Wallace, Daniel, “Beyond the Basics”,  II Predicate Nominative, 3.The Semantics and Exegetical Significance of the Subject-Predicate Nominative Construction. pg 45.