Quote:
Originally Posted by Trapped
I think you are saying "they knew exactly what He meant" to mean "they thought He claimed to be God", am I correct in understanding you? If I'm not reading accurately, please correct me.
That was their thought, as shown in John 10. But that was their wrong thought. They told Him they were stoning Him because He claimed to be God, and He responded that He stated He is the Son of God.
I do understand the link to Abraham and I AM, but Jesus stated explicitly two chapters later that His claim was to the Son of God, not to God.
Jesus isn't saying here that He was the God who told Abraham that His name is "I AM". Jesus is saying that before Abraham even existed, Jesus existed. And that's supported by other Scripture - God created everything through Jesus, so Jesus existed before creation.....which includes before Abraham.
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Note that Jesus did not answer the Jews, "Yep I've seen Abraham," or "Of course I'm older than Abraham." Jesus responded very strangely, I believe, to make a striking statement. How could Abraham have "
exulted to see My day, then saw it and rejoiced?" This was not the first time Jesus completely shocked and baffled the Jewish leaders in an attempt to make them reconsider their false conceptions.
I believe Jesus' answer was two-fold. First that He existed before Abraham. Second that He appeared to Moses in the burning bush as the "I am." Did that mean He claimed to be God? It was quite shocking to these Jews that Jesus identified with both Abraham and Moses. Later on Jesus also identified Himself with David, as both His son and His Lord.
And I also have a question. It seems many assume that references to Yahweh/Jehovah are to God the Father. But is that really so? Is Yahweh / Jehovah the son of God?
My conclusion is that God is knowable to us. In fact, that is part of the New Covenant. Yet, God is not understandable. The "theology of God" just does not exist in the Bible as we all wish it would. That's why people loved the creeds. Knowing a creed about God fools us into thinking that we can understand God. I have learned to believe each and every verse about God whether I understand them or not.