The Trinity: I AM

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. John 14:6 NASB

I am – A lot has been made of the “I am” sayings in the gospels. In fact, the translation of the text has been so influenced by Trinitarian doctrine that sometimes the words “I am” are actually put in capitals and bold, “I AM,” clearly indicating that the translators take the phrase as a declaration of the personal, holy name of God from Exodus 3:14. With this sort of translation, Trinitarian proponents argue that Yeshua declared himself to be God.

But there are just a few messy problems.

First, of course, is that these “I am” statements are in Greek, not Hebrew. Ego eimi is the Greek phrase and it is typically used as a self-identifier, something like, “It’s me” (literally translated “I am he” or “I am the one”). So we would have to back-translate these Greek words into Hebrew in order to get something akin to the divine name. That isn’t a problem since it is fairly obvious that Yeshua was not speaking Greek when he said “I am.” But it is a problem when we construct the Hebrew text because the divine name from Exodus 3:14 doesn’t say “I am.” The Hebrew of Exodus 3:14 is ‘eheye(h)’ ‘asher ‘eheye(h)’, which does not mean “I am.” If anything, it means something like “I will be who I will be.” The verb is a Qal imperfect indicating continuing action, not a state of being like the Greek tense or the English translation. It is the first person singular equivalent of “I come to pass, I occur, I happen, I become or I will be.” The translation “I am” is not dynamic. It is a statement of static existence. So even if we back-translate to Hebrew, we don’t find the equivalent of the divine name. What we find is a forced English translation of the Exodus text to make it fit a Greek construction.

But that isn’t the only issue. It should also be obvious that Yeshua adopts the first century Jewish convention of avoiding the use of the divine name. For example, he uses the phrase “kingdom of heaven” as a circumlocution of the name of God. In fact, he regularly substitutes idioms rather than use God’s divine name, as any orthodox Jew would have done. In Luke’s gospel, these circumlocutions are not employed but that isn’t because Yeshua didn’t use them. It’s because Luke is writing to a Greek audience, not a Hebrew audience. It is highly probable that Yeshua did not use the divine name. He was Jewish, in a Jewish culture and speaking to orthodox Jews. To use the divine name would have been quite scandalous. Therefore, to suggest (in translation) that Yeshua applied the divine name to himself goes against everything else we know about his respect for the name and his cultural situation. Unless we come to these texts with Trinitarian translations already in mind, we do not find Yeshua making declarations that he is God Himself. What we find is that Yeshua declares himself to be God’s chosen one, God’s Messiah, God’s sent one, God’s Son and God’s messenger. But that is not the same as claiming he is God.

Finally, the audiences who heard his words and saw his deeds did not draw the conclusion that he was God. They said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world” (John 6:14). Even when they acknowledged him as the Messiah, they did not claim that he was God the Father or the equivalent of God the Father. In fact, Yeshua steadfastly refuses to allow others to worship him. That should give us some clues.

Once again we are faced with theological appendicitis, the dangerous inflammation of a useless anatomical appendage.

Topical Index: Trinity, I am, ego eimi, ‘eheye(h)’ ‘asher ‘eheye(h)’, John 14:6, Exodus 3:14