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Re: John 8:58
Regarding JoRiz's message earlier,
I think it's interesting that all of the verses you listed where ego eimi
is found were translated in the present active indicitive. This is
appropritae, for they clearly are in that tense and the context leads us
to believe that this is what the authors intended. However, you break
your pattern in John 8:58 when assert that we shouldn't translate it in
the present active indicitive, but as a perfect or and aorist.
The verb here simply is a present active indicitive that stands in
tension with the prin Abraam genesQai, which indicates an action that
obviously took place in the past. This tension is resolved when we see
the play on words coming from the reference in the Septuagent.
If John did mean a different tense, he would have used one. Neither him,
nor the later scribes who copied the texts seemed to want to resolve this
tension, as is evidenced by the lack of textual variants on this
passage. There seems to be an inconsistency in your argument when you
want to cite other instances of ego eimi in the New Testament as examples
that Jesus did not have a monopoly on this phrase, yet indicate that
Jesus (John's quote of Jesus :) ) used this phrase to mean something other
than anyone else did.
Travis Bauer
Jamestown, North Dakota
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