Jesus spoke to the people again, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me won’t walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” Then the Pharisees said to him, “Because you are testifying about yourself, your testimony isn’t valid.” Jesus replied, “Even if I testify about myself, my testimony is true, since I know where I came from and where I’m going. You don’t know where I come from or where I’m going. You judge according to human standards, but I judge no one. Even if I do judge, my judgment is truthful, because I’m not alone. My judgments come from me and from the Father who sent me. In your Law it is written that the witness of two people is true. I am one witness concerning myself, and the Father who sent me is the other.” They asked him, “Where is your Father?” Jesus answered, “You don’t know me and you don’t know my Father. If you knew me, you would also know my Father.” He spoke these words while he was teaching in the temple area known as the treasury. No one arrested him, because his time hadn’t yet come. Jesus continued, “I’m going away. You will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I’m going, you can’t come.” The Jewish leaders said, “He isn’t going to kill himself, is he? Is that why he said, ‘Where I’m going, you can’t come’?” He said to them, “You are from below; I’m from above. You are from this world; I’m not from this world. This is why I told you that you would die in your sins. If you don’t believe that I Am, you will die in your sins.” “Who are you?” they asked. Jesus replied, “I’m exactly who I have claimed to be from the beginning. I have many things to say in judgment concerning you. The one who sent me is true, and what I have heard from him I tell the world.” They didn’t know he was speaking about his Father. So Jesus said to them, “When the Human One is lifted up, then you will know that I Am. Then you will know that I do nothing on my own, but I say just what the Father has taught me. He who sent me is with me. He doesn’t leave me by myself, because I always do what makes him happy.” While Jesus was saying these things, many people came to believe in him. (John 8:12-30, CEB)
ἐγώ εἰμι. I am.
Jesus said to those questioning him, “If you don’t believe that I Am, you will die in your sins.” If you don’t believe that ἐγώ εἰμι. This is the name of God given to Moses in Exodus.
Jesus just said to the religious leaders If you don’t believe that (name of God) you will die in your sins. Jesus just plainly said in public he is God.
This happens a lot more than we realize in John. It is translated differently or wrong.
For instance in the garden when the guards come to arrest Jesus, usually it is translated as I am he. The temple guards fall on their faces when Jesus says this because he says, “ἐγώ εἰμι” and the guards recognize it as God’s name!
Those who opposed Jesus knew who he was and who he claimed he was.
Do we?
Know that Jesus is God and he came to show us love and to help us love the world.
Loving People. Loving God.
aSacredRebel 