John 6:20

It is I. Gr. ego eimi, “I am.” These words are found repeatedly in the LXX as the translation of the Heb. ’ard hu\ “I [am] he,” a declaration by Jehovah that He is God (see Deut. 32:39; Isa. 43:10; 46:4). John records Jesus as having made use of this statement repeatedly at crucial points in His life. Thus in asserting His divine pre-existence, He declared, “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58); when foretelling His betrayal, He told His disciples, “Now I tell you before it come, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am” (ch. 13:19); and when accosted by Judas and the soldiers in the garden, in answer to their declaration that they sought Jesus of Nazareth, again He asserted, “I am” (ch. 18:5). Regarding this last instance John adds, “As soon then as he had said unto them, I am [he], they went backward, and fell to the ground” (v. 6). While in many contexts the simple words, “I am,” probably should not be taken as especially significant (such as chs. 6:35; 8:12), yet when used alone by Jesus at a time of crisis in declaring His identity, they appear to have a meaning similar to that in the OT, and thus to be an assertion of His deity. This seems quite clearly to be true in chs. 8:58; 13:19; 18:5. While in the present context such an interpretation perhaps is not quite so clearly indicated, nevertheless the reaction of the disciples in declaring, “Of a truth thou art the Son of God” (Matt. 14:33), implies that Jesus’ words ego eimi, “I am,” here too implied more than a simple statement of His human identity.