Jesus and Yahuwah in John

Analyzing “Ego Eimi” in John
The phrase “Ego Eimi” is quite a common phrase in Greek. It is used as a normal phrase in common Diakonia Greek of the first century. It basically means “It is I” or “I am the one”. However perhaps because of its relationship to being and existence it took on a religious use in the Greek speaking world. This was especially in the case of the LXX, pagan Greek religious writings and Gnostic literature.[1] These were some of the worlds surrounding the gospel of John but it is what the eyewitness John[2] claims to have heard from the lips of Jesus which interests us right now. Did this phrase take on a more than common meaning in the sayings of Jesus?
Because of the variety and the significance of the way the phrase is used various scholars have analyzed its use. Bultmann classified it into four distinct uses. Firstly simply as an introduction answering the question “Who are you?” eg “I am (Ego Eimi) Jesus”, secondly as Descriptive, “I am a prophet” that is according to Brown answering a second question “What are you?” Thirdly where the person is identified with something else, so Jesus says “I am the bread of life’[3], finally there is the form which help recognition of a person, i.e Who is it? “It is I” as can be seen “I” in this case is the predicate.[4] So we have four forms according to Bultmann: Presentation, Qualification, Identification and Recognition.
We are really interested in analyzing the use in John into two categories “I am” as applying God’s name to Jesus and “I am” as used in other ways which are not our particular concern at this time. Does the Gospel of John apply the term “I am” in its meaning as a name of God to Jesus?
This clearly begs the question how will we know that Jesus is applying the name to himself in this way? And the answer has to be through the language, the context of the situation which the saying is set in, and allusions to other literature circulating in the first century particularly the Old Testament which Jews of the first century would have been familiar with. If Jesus says “I am” And the audience cry out blasphemy, we can ascertain from their reaction that he was probably alluding to the name of God, for according to the Mishnah a blasphemer had to actually say the name of God to be blaspheming.[5]
There are many uses of “I Am” in John but clearly where it is being used as the subject with a separate predicate there is no question of it referring the name “Eheyeh” or “Ani Hu” directly to Jesus, for in these cases the phrase is simply a way of pointing to the roles of Jesus.[6] When Jesus says
I am…the bread of life, the light of the world, the gate, the good shepherd, the resurrection and the life, the way the truth the and life and the vine, he is clearly using the verb to establish his role in relation those who believe in him or the world and he is using metaphor in this respect. In saying he is all these things although he is not using the term “Ego Eimi” as an absolute name for him. Rather he is pointing to the roles he plays in relation to life, the world, the sheep, the dead, man and the Father. He is definitely connecting with the meaning of Yahwah’s statement to Moses, “I am he who is” but not in its Greek form with the focus on existence but in its Hebrew form with the focus on Yahwah being what ever he chooses to be. Thus even as “Eheyeh asher Eheyeh” in the context of Exodus 3 probably means “I will be whatever I will be”, this is expressed concretely in the Old Testament with Yahwah later saying to Israel “I will be to you an Elohim and you will be to me a people”. Or saying to David regarding his Son “I will be to him a father and he will be to me a son” So Jesus comes in that spirit but not in potentiality in actuality. Instead of Jesus saying I will be, imperfect, he says “I am”, this is a present reality. We might compare Luke where Jesus says of a scripture “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing”. It was potential until that day. The Law was all potential until Jesus came to fill it out. The fact that Jesus is using this mode of speech points more to his role in relation to various things not to his absolute identification with God in his name, so all the sayings do not show us that the name of God was applied to Jesus, absolutely.
The next group we could look at are the sayings where it is possible he was applying the name to himself but it is possible he was just speaking in the mode of recognition.
These tend to be the places where the I becomes the predicate. When Jesus speaks we expect him to finish his sentence but he leaves us hanging because he has finished. You might say he has identified himself absolutely with the verb to be. It is in this arena we will final John claims to have heard Jesus applying the name of God to himself absolutely.































Jesus coming in his Father’s name
The build up to these sayings which can help us discern that Jesus was saying more than simply “I am the person referred to” is perhaps started with Jesus saying 5:43:
I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive
This saying is in a context where we are driven to look at various scriptures and characters to see what Jesus alludes to, The section runs from John 5:17 to John 5:47. He first calls God the creator his Father so we are referred to the promises of Yahwah to David about his son. For Yahwah said to David about his seed
He will be a son to me and I will be to him a Father
There is also an allusion to Psalm 89
He shall cry unto me “My Father My God[7]

The Psalm describes how Yahwah spoke in “vision” to David and Jesus says that he does what he “sees” his Father doing. Jesus then goes on to the resurrection which could point us to Ezekiel or Daniel. In Ezekiel the prophet called the “son of man” prophesies unto the bones and the dead live. So the Son in John will raise the dead. His connection in the speech with the title Son of Man and Judgment points to Daniel 7 where the Son, Bar Enosh receives the Judgment. As the speech progresses we come to his Mosaic role. Moses too judged as he heard, when there was a problem in the wilderness. Not only so but we see Jesus say a number of things which place in line with the prophet like unto Moses from Deuteronomy 18.[8] Firstly the works that he does testify of him[9], even as Moses was given the sign of the water to blood so Jesus was given the sign of the water to the blood of the grape, wine. Secondly Jesus says of the Father to the group of Jews he was talking to “”Ye have neither heard his voice at any time nor seen his shape”[10] This allusion to seeing his shape or form parallels a reference to Moses seeing Yahwah’s form in a dispute about his role in Numbers 12. Here Miriam and Aaron dared to challenge the authority of Moses and Yahwah said a distinctive role of Moses was that he speaks mouth to mouth and he see’s the form or shape of Yahwah. The ordinary prophets had visions and dreams and learned through dark sentences or parables. The prophet like Moses would also see the shape or form of Yahwah. After all these allusions Jesus tells them to search the scriptures for they testify about him, and refers to the fact that the life which the scriptures promised come through him.[11] It is at this point the name of the Father first gets its mention. The fact that they reject him as the prophet Moses prophesied means they will come into judgment with Moses as their hostile witness for Moses wrote
I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee and I will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I command him. And it shall come to pass that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him[12]
We see here some parallels with the language of Jesus in John. He says often this commandment I received of my Father, and we have just seen him say that he came in his father’s name. Coming in his Father’s names in first century Israel would be difficult. For although the name was in use possibly daily at the temple[13] by the priests and possibly even in some groups greeting one another with “Yahwah imaq”[14] there were groups of Jews who considered that naming the name Yahwah could be a blasphemy worthy of death.[15] Jesus in his speech appears to be combining the role of the prophet with the role of the Messiah for in Psalm 89 where the allusion is to “my Father” the writer also emphasizes the name Yahwah and what can only be described as eternal life
My Faithfulness and my mercy shall be with him
And in my name shall his horn be exalted…
He shall cry to me “Thou art my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation. Also I will make him my first born, higher than the kings of the earth. My mercy I will keep for him for ever more and my covenant shall stand fast with him, His seed I will make to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven[16]
Allusions to these scriptures are possibly the background to the usage of “Ego Eimi” pointing to the name of God being, Jesus[17].
So John alludes to the Father’s name being connected uniquely with Jesus in his generation, in the context as described. The idea of the Father’s name being the driving force behind all of Jesus activity is confirmed by the later references to it.

The Use of Onoma in the Gospel of John
Now before we go on to the actually application of the name to Jesus an analysis of the use of the term name (onoma) in the Gospel of John will be helpful again in helping us to see if the name is actually applied to Jesus and in what form.
We find the word is used in various ways according to who is speaking whether Jesus or the author. The 25 uses of the term onoma, translated name it seems that they are all speaking of an actual proper noun. The five times the term does not refer to the Father or the Son it refers to John (1:6), Nicodemus (3:1), another coming in his own name as opposed to the Father’s name (5:43), which makes it clear we are not only dealing with name as a reference to reputation, and the sheep of the good shepherd are called by their names and the name of the High Priest’s slave (Malchus).
The rest of the uses are referring to the Father’s name and the Son’s name. Here we find quite particular usages. For example Jesus says to the Jews that he came and did his work in his Father’s name. He says to the Father “I have manifested thy name (17:6)… I have made known to them [the ones given to him by the Father] thy name (17:26), I have kept them in thy name (17:11). So in the second person he speaks to the Father about his name. But in the whole Gospel we never see any one being told to believe into the Father’s name. We see the name is manifested by Jesus, made known by Jesus and used to guard the disciples by him. We are reminded, especially by the term “made known”, of the prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. They often used to say “And you shall know that “I am Yahwah”[18] or “Therefore my people shall know my name this time they will know my might and my power”. So Jesus is witnessed as coming to fulfill these repeated messages of the prophets.
We also find Jesus praying to the Father to “glorify his name”, that is the very name in which Jesus came, worked in, manifested and made known. When Jesus is speaking to the Jews in general he speaks of them rejecting him although he came in his Father’s name.
John himself explains the benefit to those who actually receive him and that they receive the power to be children of God (1:12), and receive life in his name (20:31). These two references act almost as an alpha and omega of the purpose of the Gospel. The name they believe in is that of Jesus, the Christ (Messiah), the only Son of God.
Finally we have Jesus talking to the disciple, given to him by the Father and here he never tells them to believe in the Father’s name but rather to ask the Father in his name. First they are taught that if they ask anything in his name he will do it (14:13-14). The Holy Spirit will come in his name and finally if they ask the Father anything his (the Son’s) name he will do it (15:16, 16:24, 16:26). The name then is quite important in terms of prayer in relation to the disciples. There is a development in the relationship of the disciples to the name. In chapter 16 Jesus says that they had not asked anything in his name to that point. This would have been right up until near the end of his earthly ministry in AD 30[19]. Then he tells them to “ask and receive that their joy might be complete”. The context of their asking is the fruitfulness of the disciples in producing believers. They would bear lasting fruit and so they could ask for anything and it would be done for them.[20]
We still need to look at the passage linked with name or onoma which might tell us what the actual name was that they were to believe in and ask in. It was according to Jesus “my name” according to John “his name” or “the name”. Then we have to wonder was “my name” distinct from “my Father’s name”. Unfortunately we only have one passage based on onoma, to help us clarify what the name was which was being referred to. Here we are looking the difference between the name of so and so and the name so and so. To make it clear we can see an illustration. Is the name Jesus the name above every name or is the name of Jesus (that is the name he as a person bares) the name above every name? In the first case we are dealing with the name written, Jesus, in the second case we are dealing with a name owned by the person Jesus which could be Yahwah or Lord or Son. The passage in John which seems to clarify the situation is John 12:13.
In the first passage we find that John fills out Jesus statement that he came in his
Father’s name. For the crowds in Jerusalem sing

Blessed is the King of Israel who comes in the name Yahwah[21]

The text refers, with slight addition to Psalm 118:26[22] and in that Psalm the word in the text is definitely Yahwah. So Jesus says he comes in his Father’s name and “much people” sang he came in the name Yahwah. This is consistent with everything we have discovered so far. The Fathers name is Yahwah, and that is the name Jesus came in. That was the name he manifested and made known and worked in. There are other hints in John that one name being applied to Jesus in the gospel was Yahwah. Later in John chapter 12:41 John said “These things Esaias said when he saw his glory and spake of him” The context of the things Isaiah said point us to Isaiah 6 where Isaiah saw Adonai sitting on a throne high and lifted up and the Seraphim crying
Holy holy holy, is Yahwah Tzevaoth : the whole earth is full of his glory

His glory in Isaiah 6 is referred to Jesus in John 12, making him Yahwah Tzevaoth.

According to some scholars Yahwah is related to an ancient form of the verb to be either hayah or hawah. Eheyeh is a form and “Ani hu” is related to it. We come now to the scriptures which appear to indicate “Ego Eimi” as a divine name applied to Jesus:
Unless you believe that EGO EIMI, you will die in your sins (8:24)…
When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will realize that EGO EIMI (8:28) …
Before Abraham was, EGO EIMI (8:58)
When it does happen, you may believe that EGO EIMI (13:19)_

The first statement stands out because of the serious consequences of not believing or should we say the amazing consequences of believing. Jesus is saying that to die not believing he was Ego Eimi meant that they would die in their sins. The reverse implies that to believe that he was Ego Eimi would mean they would live in their righteousness. The statement gives one condition as the difference between death and life, belief that Jesus is Ego Eimi. Here is one place where he does not give the expected predicate. They expect him to say Believe that I am the bread of life or some other things but he simply says Ego Eimi. This Ego Eimi could represent either Ani Hu or Eheyeh both are translated by the term in the LXX. The context of John 8:24 with Jesus saying he was from above and that when they have lifted up the “son of man” seems to point to the writings of Moses. This would put weight on Eheyeh over Ani Hu. In 8:32 the theme of freedom is brought in pointing to his role as a deliverer like Moses.

[1] p533 Brown, R., Anchor Bible Dictionary
[2] For convenience sake we will call our author John
[3] The predicate sums up the identity of the subject. I am not clear how this class is truly distinct from the second class they appear to me to over lap.
[4] These are all listed I Brown p533
[5] Tractate Sanhedrin 7:5 “The blasphemaer is not culpable until he pronounces the name”
[6] This kind of used can be seen in Hellenistic religious literature of the period. Brown cited Bultmann as citing Isis “I am all that has been , that is and that will be”, p 533 Anchor Bible Commentary
[7] We see a clear reference to this in John 20 :17 where Jesus refers to my father and my God. We also find parallels with the development of the promises in the Psalms and the speech of Jesus in John
[8] We must remember it was Moses to whom Yahwah revealed the name “Eheyeh” and a prophet like Moses would at least have that level of revelation.
[9] John 5:36
[10] John 5:37 cf Deu 4:12, John 1:18
[11] cf. Deu 30:15
[12] Deu 18:19-20
[13] Mishnah Tamid 7:2
[14] Mishnah Berakoth 9:
[15] The crime of the blasphemer in wilderness is translated not as blasphemy but as naming the name of Yahwah in the LXX. This kind of attitude is also reflected in the Mishnah with Abba Shaul who said that he whe spoke the name Yahwah as it is written would have no place in the world to come.
[16] Ps 89:24-29
[17] We must remember that Eheyeh is tied to the verb to be as is Yahwah.
[18] We have already noted, above, one place where “I am Yahwah’, is translated as Ego Eimi in the LXX
[19] In the Synoptic Gospels we see the disciples casting out demons the his name but we do not see this ministry in John. It is clear however that John being an eyewitness saw many deliverances but he clearly does not see that executing a deliverance is the same as asking in Jesus’ name.
[20] It appears to me that the asking is really an allusion to the Messiah, son of God in Psalm 2. There the Messiah is told to “Ask of Me and I will give you the nations as your inheritance and the ends of the earth as your possession”, the disciples then are being encourages to ask to be fruitful and to be more fruitful. The connection between fruitfulness and perhaps the possession of the earth goes back to the promises to what Luke calls the ‘the son of God” Adam. There in Genesis 1 he is told to be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it” perhaps prayer to the nations and the earth in Psalm 2
[21] Yahwah is the way the name is transliterated in cuneiform inscriptions of ancient of the 5th or 6th century BC, Babylon, according to David Weisberg from Hebrew Union College, Cincinnatti Ohio,in a lecture at Jerusalem University College, on may 4th 2000, “The Impact of Assyriology on Biblical Studies”. Vetus Testamentum has and article “Det Gottename Yahwa” from some in year 2000 or 2001.
[22] This event and this song is referred to in all four of the gospels eg Matt 21:8ff, Mark 11:8ff, Luke 19:35ff