In this article I will provide further proofs for Christ being identified as the God of Israel.
The Gospels record Jesus’ riding on the foal of a donkey as he made his way to the Temple for the express purpose of fulfilling [O]ld [T]estament prophecy:
“And when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Beth′phage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples,saying to them, ‘Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find an ass tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me.If any one says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and he will send them immediately.’This took place to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet, saying, ‘Tell the daughter of Zion, Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on an ass, and on a colt, the foal of an ass.’ The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them;they brought the ass and the colt, and put their garments on them, and he sat thereon.Most of the crowd spread their garments on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.” Matthew 21:1-8
Here is the specific prophecy which Christ fulfilled:
“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on an ass, on a colt the foal of an ass. I will cut off the chariot from E′phraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall command peace to the nations; his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth. As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your captives free from the waterless pit.” Zechariah 9:9-11
Israel’s King comes to reign over the whole earth as he sets the captives free from the pit of death due to the covenant that God had made, which had been instituted by the blood that had obviously been shed for the atonement of sins (cf. Leviticus 17:11).
Elsewhere in Zechariah, this King who rides on a donkey into Jerusalem is actually YHWH God Almighty!
“Behold, a day of the LORD is coming, when the spoil taken from you will be divided in the midst of you. For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken and the houses plundered and the women ravished; half of the city shall go into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then the LORD will go forth and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle. On that day HIS FEET shall stand on the Mount of Olives which lies before Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley; so that one half of the Mount shall withdraw northward, and the other half southward. And the valley of my mountains shall be stopped up, for the valley of the mountains shall touch the side of it; and you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzzi′ah king of Judah. Then the LORD your God will come, and all the holy ones with him… And the LORD will become king over all the earth; on that day the LORD will be one and his name one… Then every one that survives of all the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of booths. And if any of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, there will be no rain upon them.” Zechariah 14:1-5, 9, 16-17
Note that the prophet further predicts the time when YHWH’s feet will physically split the mount of olives, thereby splitting it half, as he descends with his holy ones to begin reigning over all the earth from Jerusalem.
Remarkably, not only did Jesus institute a covenant ratified by his blood, which was shed for the forgiveness of sins,
“Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, ‘Take, eat; this is my body.’And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink of it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.’” Matthew 26:26-28
He is also said to be the One who will descend upon the mount of olives with his holy ones at his second coming!
“And when he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.’ Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey away;” Acts 1:9-12
“so that he may establish your hearts unblamable in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.” 1 Thessalonians 3:13
All this shows that Christ is none other than that very God whom Zechariah foretold would physically descend upon the mount of olives in order to begin ruling over the world from Jerusalem!
This is further brought out by what the crowds and children shouted as they saw Jesus entering into Jerusalem on a foal of an ass:
“And the crowds that went before him and that followed him shouted, ‘Hosanna TO the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!’And when he entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, ‘Who is this?’And the crowds said, ‘This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth of Galilee.’… And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, ‘Hosanna TO the Son of David!” they were indignant; and they said to him, ‘Do you hear what these are saying?’ And Jesus said to them, ‘Yes; have you never read, “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast brought perfect praise”?’” Matthew 21:9-11, 14-16
Notice that the youngsters apply the phrase Hosanna to Jesus in praise of him, which angered his religious enemies. This expression comes directly from the following Psalm, where it is applied to YHWH God himself!
“We beg you, O Yahweh (anna YHWH), save us (ho’oshiah ‘na)! We beg you, O Yahweh (anna YHWH), give us success! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of Yahweh. We bless you from Yahweh’s house. Yahweh is El, and he has given us light. March in a festival procession with branches to the horns of the altar. You are my El, and I give thanks to you. My Elohim, I honor you highly. Give thanks to Yahweh because he is good, because his mercy endures forever.” Psalm 118:25-29 Names of God Bible (NOG)
We now can understand why Jesus’ religious foes were livid at the children’s praise. Seeing that they didn’t think that Christ was God in the flesh they could not help but view this as blasphemy.
Jesus then quoted the following Psalm to justify the children glorifying him:
“O LORD, our Lord, how magnificent is your reputation throughout the earth! You reveal your majesty in the heavens above. From the mouths of children and nursing babies you have ordained praise on account of your adversaries, so that you might put an end to the vindictive enemy.” Psalm 8:1-2 New English Translation (NET)
Astonishingly, the Psalm which Christ cited speaks of YHWH enabling children to magnify him in order to silence his enemies.
And yet Jesus applied it to his own situation for the express purpose of embarrassing his own foes for failing to realize who he truly was, even though the youngsters who were supposed to be less intelligent than they knew that the Person before them is none other than the God whom the Psalmist says is praised by infants and nursing babes!
In other words, Christ was claiming to be YHWH God Almighty in the flesh whom youngsters can’t help but worship!
Here’s where it gets even more amazing!
At the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry, the Jews would recite Psalm 118:25 during the Feast of Tabernacles, which lasted for eight days. On the seventh day of the festival there was the water-drawing ceremony where the Jews would draw water from the pool of Siloam and then make a procession to the altar to encircle it. During the first six days, the Jews would encircle the altar one time, but on the seventh day they would do so seven times. Each day as they encircled the altar they would say: “Ani Waho! Save us we pray! Ani Waho! Save us we pray.”
The phrase Ani Waho was used in place of the words anna YHWH in Psalm 118:25, thereby functioning as a synonym or substitute for God’s sacred covenant name.
Here’s what the Talmud states in respect to this issue:
מַתְנִי׳ מִצְוַת עֲרָבָה כֵּיצַד? מָקוֹם הָיָה לְמַטָּה מִירוּשָׁלַיִם וְנִקְרָא ״מוֹצָא״, יוֹרְדִין לְשָׁם וּמְלַקְּטִין מִשָּׁם מוּרְבִּיּוֹת שֶׁל עֲרָבָה, וּבָאִין וְזוֹקְפִין אוֹתָן בְּצִדֵּי הַמִּזְבֵּחַ, וְרָאשֵׁיהֶן כְּפוּפִין עַל גַּבֵּי הַמִּזְבֵּחַ. תָּקְעוּ וְהֵרִיעוּ וְתָקְעוּ. בְּכׇל יוֹם מַקִּיפִין אֶת הַמִּזְבֵּחַ פַּעַם אַחַת וְאוֹמְרִים: ״אָנָּא ה׳ הוֹשִׁיעָה נָּא, אָנָּא ה׳ הַצְלִיחָה נָּא״. רַבִּי יְהוּדָה אוֹמֵר: ״אֲנִי וָהוּ הוֹשִׁיעָה נָא״. וְאוֹתוֹ הַיּוֹם מַקִּיפִין אֶת הַמִּזְבֵּחַ שֶׁבַע פְּעָמִים. בִּשְׁעַת פְּטִירָתָן מָה הֵן אוֹמְרִים: ״יוֹפִי לְךָ מִזְבֵּחַ, יוֹפִי לְךָ מִזְבֵּחַ!״ רַבִּי אֶלְעָזָר אוֹמֵר: ״לְיָהּ וּלְךָ מִזְבֵּחַ, לְיָהּ וּלְךָ מִזְבֵּחַ״.
MISHNA: How is the mitzva of the willow branch fulfilled? There was a place below Jerusalem, and it was called Motza. They would descend there and gather willow branches [murbiyyot] from there. And they would then come and stand them upright at the sides of the altar, and the tops of the branches would be inclined over the top of the altar. They then sounded a tekia, a simple uninterrupted blast, sounded a terua, a broken sound and/or a series of short staccato blasts, and sounded another tekia. Each day they would circle the altar one time and say: “Lord, please save us. Lord, please grant us success” (Psalms 118:25). Rabbi Yehuda says that they would say: ANI VAHO, please save us. And on that day, the seventh day of Sukkot, they would circle the altar seven times. At the time of their departure at the end of the Festival, what would they say? It is beautiful for you, altar; it is beautiful for you, altar. Rabbi Elazar said that they would say: To the Lord and to you, altar; to the Lord and to you, altar. (Babylonian Talmud, Sukkah, The William Davidson Edition, Chapter 4, 45a; capital emphasis mine)
Here’s another rendering of the aforementioned tradition:
Talmud – Mas. Sukkah 45a
‘Does one then need to dry them?1 Say rather, Upon the portico’.2 Rehaba citing R.3 Judah stated, The Temple Mount had a double colonnade, one colonnade being within the other.4
MISHNAH. HOW WAS THE PRECEPT OF THE WILLOW-BRANCH [CARRIED OUT]? THERE WAS A PLACE BELOW JERUSALEM CALLED MOZA.5 THEY WENT DOWN THERE AND GATHERED THENCE YOUNG WILLOW-BRANCHES AND THEN CAME AND FIXED THEM AT THE SIDES OF THE ALTAR SO THAT THEIR TOPS BENT OVER THE ALTAR. THEY THEN SOUNDED6 A TEKI’AH [LONG BLAST], A TERU’AH [TREMULOUS BLAST] AND AGAIN A TEKI’AH.7 EVERY DAY8 THEY WENT ROUND THE ALTAR ONCE, SAYING, ‘WE BESEECH THEE, O LORD, SAVE NOW, WE BESEECH THEE, O LORD, MAKE US NOW TO PROSPER’.9 R. JUDAH SAID, [THEY WERE SAYING],10 ‘ANI WAHO,11 SAVE NOW’. BUT ON THAT DAY12 THEY WENT ROUND THE ALTAR SEVEN TIMES. WHEN13 THEY DEPARTED, WHAT DID THEY SAY? ‘THINE, O ALTAR, IS THE BEAUTY! THINE, O ALTAR, IS THE BEAUTY!’ R. ELIEZER SAID, [THEY WERE SAYING,] ‘TO THE LORD AND TO THEE, O ALTAR, TO THE LORD AND TO THEE, O ALTAR’.
(11) ani waho the numerical value of which equals that of the Hebrew for ‘we beseech Thee, O Lord’. For other explanations cf. Rashi, a.l.
(12) The seventh day of the Festival. (Rabbi Epstein translation, Sukkah.PDF; emphasis mine)
What makes this rather interesting is that the expression Ani Waho literally means “I and He.” As such, it points to YHWH being a multi-personal Deity!
Astonishingly it was during the conclusion of this Feast that Jesus promised to give all who would be believe in him rivers of living water,
“Now the Jews’ feast of Tabernacles was at hand… On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and proclaimed, ‘If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink.He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, “Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.”’Now this he said about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive; for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” John 7:2, 37-39
And where he identified himself as the light of the world and as the great “I AM” (in Hebrew Ani Hu), a variant on the phrase Ani Waho!
“Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’… Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone that judge, but I AND HEwho sent me.’… He said to them, ‘You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world.I told you that you would die in your sins, for you will die in your sins unless you believe that I am he.’… So Jesus said, ‘When you have lifted up the Son of man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority but speak thus as the Father taught me.And he who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what is pleasing to him.’As he spoke thus, many believed in him… They answered him, ‘Abraham is our father.’ Jesus said to them, ‘If you were Abraham’s children, you would do what Abraham did, but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth which I heard from God; this is not what Abraham did. You do what your father did.’ They said to him, “We were not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.’Jesus said to them, ‘If God were your Father, you would love me, for I proceeded and came forth from God; I came not of my own accord, but he sent me.’… The Jews answered him, ‘Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?’Jesus answered, ‘I have not a demon; but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me. Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it and he will be the judge.Truly, truly, I say to you, if any one keeps my word, he will never see death.’The Jews said to him, ‘Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, as did the prophets; and you say, “If any one keeps my word, he will never taste death.”Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you claim to be?’ Jesus answered, ‘If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing; it is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say that he is your God.But you have not known him; I know him. If I said, I do not know him, I should be a liar like you; but I do know him and I keep his word.Your father Abraham rejoiced that he was to see my day; he saw it and was glad.’The Jews then said to him, ‘You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?’Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.’So they took up stones to throw at him; but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple. John 8:12, 16, 23-24,28-30, 39-42, 48-59
And not only does Christ refer to himself as the “I AM,” he even reveals who the “I and He” are. I.e., the Father and the Son are the very Ani Waho whom the Jews were invoking!
Here, again, are Jesus’ words:
“But even if I myself should judge, my judgment is true, because I am not alone, but I and he who sent me.” John 8:16 Noyes(i) New Testament
28 Jesus therefore said, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then ye will know that I am He, and do nothing of myself, but speak these things as the Father taught me. 29 And he that sent me is with me; he hath not left me alone, for I always do the things that please him.” John 8:28-29 Noyes
What this shows is that Christ deliberately appealed to the practices and phraseology employed during the Feast to identify himself as that very God whom the Jews thought they were honoring!
As the following citations indicate:
John 7:37 sn There is a problem with the identification of this reference to the last day of the feast, the greatest day: It appears from Deut 16:13 that the feast went for seven days. Lev 23:36, however, makes it plain that there was an eighth day, though it was mentioned separately from the seven. It is not completely clear whether the seventh or eighth day was the climax of the feast, called here by the author the “last great day of the feast.” Since according to the Mishnah (m. Sukkah 4.1) the ceremonies with water and lights did not continue after the seventh day, it seems more probable that this is the day the author mentions. (NET Bible https://netbible.org/bible/John+7)
And:
The last day is either the seventh or the eighth. On the seventh day there was a procession with water from Siloam to the temple, and a ceremony of light in the women’s court (cf. Sukk. 3-5). These ceremonies were missing on the eighth day, but people could still mentally associate them with Jesus’ teaching (see vv. 37-9; 8:12), just as in chs. 4 and 6 one can see the connection with Isa 55:1, ‘Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters’. During the water ceremony people sang, ‘With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation’ (Isa 12:3; b. Sukk. 48b). The water was not drunk but was taken up to the temple. The combination of these two passages of Isaiah shows that the believer can now drink the water of salvation from Jesus. (The Oxford Commentary on the Bible, edited by John Barton, John Muddiman [Oxford University Press, 2001], p. 976; bold emphasis mine)
The above commentary goes on to write:
v. 24, the ego eimi has no complement (see JN 6:16-21). It is possible that this ‘I am he’, spoken as it is during the festival of Booths, is also an allusion to YHWH (cf Sukk. 4:5). v. 25, the words ten archen can mean ‘at all’ (NRSV) and be an expression of exasperation. But since arche is important in the theology of the Fourth Gospel {1:1-2; 2:11; 6:64; 8:44; 15:27; 16:4) the literal translation ‘at the beginning, which is what I tell you’ might be better, with the force, ‘I am the One at the beginning, which is what I keep telling you’ (see Miller I980). vv. 26-9, the judgement of condemnation supplements the promise of salvation in 3:17 and 12:32, 34. It will be more explicit with the sending of the Helper in 16:8. Jesus once again underlines his close link with the Father: he says what he has heard from him, he is not left alone, and he does what pleases the Father (see 5:19-47). But the ego eimi in v. 28 concerning the uplifted Son of Man, which extends the thought of v. 24, adds a new dimension to the question of Jesus’ identity. Only believers will be able to recognize the divine ‘I am’ revelation on the cross. v. 30, the Jews who believe in Jesus still need further teaching, as is shown by vv. 31-59… Since Abraham is the most important figure for the Jews, they now ask how Jesus can have met him. Jesus answers with an ego eimi formula different from that in vv. 24 and 28, because it is part of a normal sentence. He contrasts Abraham’s birth with his own sovereign being that transcends time. One might compare Ps 90:2, ‘Before the mountains were brought forth … you are God.’ Jesus has been able to see Abraham because he was before him. This assertion is considered as a blasphemy and therefore the Jews want to stone him (Lev 24:16). Jesus escapes from them in the same way as before (7:30, 32, 45). (Ibid., pp. 977-978; bold emphasis mine)
And:
In Mk 6:45-52 the evangelist shows that the disciples do not really recognize the saving epiphany of Christ, whereas in Mt 14:22-33 the scene is concluded with the disciples’ confession: ‘Truly you are the Son of God’. In John the epiphany is in the foreground, with the formula ‘it is I’, ego eimi. This sentence is used in John either with a complement, or without, as here. In three cases, in 8:24, 28, and 13:19, the absence of a complement makes the expression allude to ani hu which designates YHWH in Deut 32:39; Isa 43:10; 52:6. It is possible that even in Jn 6:20; 18:6, 8, there is more than a simple statement ‘it is I’. The miraculous landing during a storm is similar to that which is attributed to YHWH in Ps 107:23-30. There may also be an allusion to Jewish passover readings on the crossing of the Red Sea under Moses’ guidance (Giblin 1983). (Ibid., p. 972; bold emphasis mine)
Here’s what another scholarly source writes:
Judaism in General
Dodd takes the ani hu of the Old Testament as the starting point for understanding the ego eimi of John. However, he looks to Rabbinic texts to elucidate the words in John further. He refers to Pinchas ben Jair (c. 130-160 CE) who takes Isa. 52:6 in the following way: ‘Therefore my people shall know my name, therefore, that Ani-hu is speaking: here am I’. Dodd goes on to argue that the translation of certain verses in the LXX bear out an interpretation in which ani hu is seen as a name. He thinks that the LXX version of Isa. 45:19 (ego eimi ego eimi kyrios ho lalon dikaiosyne) has rendered YHWH twice, ‘once by ego eimi and once by kyrios‘. For Dodd, the second ego eimi becomes a name: ‘I am “I AM” the Lord, who speaks righteousness’. From a contemporary of Pinchas ben Jair, R. Judah ben Ilai, Dodd argues that the term ani wehu also became used in much the same way even before the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE. In the light of the Rabbinic interpretation of ani hu and the connected ani wehu…, which both came to refer to the secret name for God, Dodd suggests that the presupposition when Jesus uses ego eimi is that ‘the eternal glory of God is given to Christ, and in the same act the Name of God is glorified’.
Stauffer combines the rabbinic interpretation of ani hu with that of the Dead Sea sect and comes to a similar conclusion to that of Dodd. In regard to the Dead Sea sect’s understanding of ani hu, Stauffer asserts,
The Manual of Discipline states in 8.13 f.: ‘They are to be kept apart and to go into the wilderness to prepare the way of the HUAHA there, as it is written: “Prepare in the wilderness of…” Here the name Jahweh is replaced in the quotation by the four points (JHVH), and in the Dead Sea text itself by the secret name HUAHA. Presumably this is made up of the HUAH (HE) and A (signifying Elohim, God).
Using other references from Qumran (e.g. Damascus text 9.5) as well as rabbinical writings (e.g. Sukkah 53a1), Stauffer suggests that
Isaiah 40-55 was much read and quoted. The emphatic ‘HU’ was a favourite designation of God. Theology was occupied with the divine self-affirmation ‘ANI’ and ‘ANI HU’. The Hallel psalms, where ‘HU’ means ‘God’, belonged at that time to the regular features of the ritual for the two great pilgrimage feasts…
The very words ego eimi are full of meaning for both Dodd and Stauffer, and, because of rabbinic interpretation of them the implications would be automatically clear to the readers of John. This depends on whether the Rabbinic usage of such a term is pre-Johannine and whether John was aware of such traditions. (David M. Ball, I Am in John’s Gospel Literary Function, Background and Theological Implications [Sheffield Academic Press, 1996], pp. 36-37; bold emphasis mine)
The following scholar does an excellent job of bringing all the preceding points together:
“The ‘I AM’ expressions that we have just cited come from John 8. We shall now examine John 8 in its wider context of chapters 7-9. These chapters are to be read against the background of the Jewish Festival of Booths (cf. John 7:2, 10). (See Fig. 7) For our purposes three elements of this cultic celebration are particularly important: (1) Every morning of this week-long festival the ritual of water libation took place. The water was fetched from the Pool of Siloam and poured out on the altar; the rite itself seems to have anticipated the advent of the harvest rains. (2) The festival was also characterized by a grand Festival of Lights (Hanukkah) in the forecourt of the women, in the course of which the golden candlesticks were lit and the participants danced joyfully with torches in their hands. (3) Furthermore, there was a procession around the altar, in the course of which there was the divine proclamation – ’ani wehu’. On the last day of the festival this feature was repeated seven times.”
“Even a cursory reading of John 7-9 reveals a number of details that appear in special relief when beheld against the background of the Jewish festival. First, Jesus presents an alternative to the Jewish water libation with the words, ‘If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water’ (John 7:37-38). Jesus speaks these words of the Spirit. Second, Jesus palpably recalls the Jewish Festival of Lights when he heals the man born blind (9:1-12) and proclaims, ‘I am the light of the world’ (8:12; 9:5). These correspondences naturally lead us to wonder what Jesus has made of the rite in which this formula ’ani wehu’ is employed? The answer is quite simple: the formula repeatedly finds its counterpart in Jesus’ several ‘I AM’ expressions (cf. John 8:24 and 28 above). (Tryggve N. D. Mettinger, In Search of God – The Meaning and Message of the Everlasting Names [Fortress Press, 2005], 2. The God Who Says “I AM”: The Riddle of the Name YHWH, The New Testament: When Jesus Says “I AM,” Ibid., pp. 46-47; bold emphasis mine)
And:
“One detail needs special attention. As we have seen, in Isaiah the formula is ’ani hu’, ‘I (am) he,’ a phrase which was varied in the context of the Jewish Festival of Booths to ’ani wehu’, with the meaning ‘I and he.’ In John 8, we find yet another expression that provides a factual counterpart to the Jewish formula in all its multiplicity. The Greek text of 8:16 may be translated as follows: ‘Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone that judge, but I and he who sent me.’ Here the words ‘I and he who sent me’ look like yet another reference to the divine proclamation that took place in the Jewish Festival of Booths (cf. also John 10:30).
“Yet another passage in John 8 reads: ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am’ (John 8:58). Here, too, one suspects that it is the ’ani hu’ formula of the Prophet of Consolation and the divine ‘I AM’ of Exod 3:14 that form the background. Once this is acknowledged, the Jews’ reaction becomes intelligible: ‘So they picked up stones to stone him’ (8:59). Note what the law of Moses commands: ‘He who blasphemes the name of the Lord shall be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him’ (Lev 24:16). Thus, when Jesus uttered the Semitic revelatory formula that underlies the Greek ego eimi (‘I AM’) his Jewish listeners felt that he had gone too far; he had profaned the Name and deserved to die.
“Thus we now must deal with the arrest of Jesus in John 18. When the emissaries announce that they are seeking Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus proclaims his ego eimi (v 5), which could well mean, “I am he” (cf. John 9:9). The continuation, however, shows that here the formula also serves as a formula of self-revelation: ‘When he said to them, “ego eimi,” they drew and fell to the ground’ (v 6). The event takes place during the last week of Passover that occurred during Jesus’ earthly life. We are reminded of what the Jewish texts say about the Day of Atonement: when the priests and the people hear the high priest call out the divine Name, they fall to their knees with their faces turned towards the earth (m. Yoma 6:2).” (Ibid., pp. 47-48; bold emphasis mine)
If the data presented here still doesn’t convince someone that the inspired Scriptures emphatically proclaim in the clearest manner that Jesus is the eternal God YHWH who became a flesh and blood human being then no amount of evidence will ever be sufficient.
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