Using e-Sword confirms the mighty I AM

When I was in Bible college, I went with a small group of students to a Jehovah's Witness convention that was being held in Coconut Grove.  We endured the boring meeting and then we all fanned out through the crowd to pass out gospel tracts and engage in conversations with dedicated JW's.  Later, when it was time to go, I looked over to a small huddle and saw Kay, a frail slender student, surrounded by 4 large older guys who were obviously leaders.  She was holding up her Bible and pointing to John 8:24 and telling them over and over that they were going to died in their sins because they did not believe that Jesus was God in the flesh, the mighty I AM of the old testament.  They were getting pretty mad at her and I thought they might do here some harm.  So a buddy and I went over, took her by the arm and said, "Kay, it is time to go."  

In John 8:24 and again in John 8:58 Jesus claimed to be the I AM.  These are the same words that God used to describe Himself in the Old Testament (Ex. 3:14).  Christians are quick to point out that the word "he" is in italics and not in the original.  The Jews got mad because they thought Jesus was claiming deity, and He was.  That is what we were taught in Bible school and that is what "Greek scholars" such at A. T. Roberson say.  If you tell that to a JW, they will just come up with their own competing scholar and chose to believe him.  So now what do you do?  Dig out your copy of eSword or some other Bible software and research it yourself. (For this article I will use the iPad and the KJV).

Turn to John 8:24.  Lets start by running a search for "I am he."  Highlight the word and then click on search.  eSword will run a "Phrase" search and you will find that this phrase occurs only 18 times in the KJV.  Read each verse and you will find that in 12 out of the 18, the phrase refers to the almighty God Jehovah. It would reasonably follow that when Jesus used the phrase, he was claiming deity.  Those references are: Isa 41:4, Isa 43:10, Isa 43:13, Isa 46:4, Isa 48:12, Isa 52:6, Joh 8:24, Joh 8:28, Joh 13:19, Joh 18:5, Joh 18:8, Rev 1:18, Rev 2:23

But wait, there is a problem.  Remember that the word "he" is in italics and not in the original.  So, a determined person could still wiggle out of this argument.  So, lets do a search for "I am" and see if we do any better.  Follow the same procedure, highlight and search.  Oh my!  We find 737 matches in 693 verses and the phrase is used in lots of ways.  This is no help at all.  In fact you might think, "Gee, I AM is used so many times, why is John 8:24 such a big deal?"

Click to enlarge

Lets dig a little deeper and lets use the Greek text.  In e-Sword, install the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint).  This is a Greek translation of the Hebrew text and it was familiar to the Jews during the time of Christ.  It was written about the 3rd century BC.  If you have not done so already, you will also need to install the Greek New Testament and the KJV+ (with Strong's numbers). In "Lexicons" you need to install "Strong's Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries"  All of these things can be found if you click on "Resources" at the lower right corner of the screen.

Install extra stuff

Go back to the Bible view, go to John 8:24 and select the KJV+ Bible to view the verse with Strong's numbers.  It looks like this:

KJV+ with Strong's Numbers

Click on G1473, the number for "I", and then on G1510 for "AM".  Take careful note what the Greek words look like. (You do not really have to know Greek to do this and this is not meant to be a scholarly study.)  The words are ἐγώ εἰμι, (ego eimi).  While you are still on John 8:24, switch to the Greek NT, highlight the words "ἐγώ εἰμι" in the Greek text and run a search.  You will find 42 matches...but since you can't read Greek, this isn't much help.  You can TAG the verses and then read them in KJV.  Here is how.

a.  Copy ἐγώ εἰμι in the Greek Bible John 8:24

b.  Click the 3 lines in the upper left corner

c.  Select "Custom Categories" and add a new category called ἐγώ εἰμι

d.  Run the search again and then click on "Tag All".  Select ἐγώ εἰμι as the Category.  (It helps to turn the standard categories off.)

e.  Now switch your Bible back to KJV so you can read in English.

f.  Click the 3 lines again and select "Tagged Verses".  Then select ἐγώ εἰμι.

g.  You can now read all 42 verses in English

 

As you scroll through, you will find that most of the uses of ἐγώ εἰμι in the NT refers to Jesus or God.  This form is emphatic.  Normally in Greek you do not have to use the pronoun "I" because it is sort of included in the verb.  For example, "luo" means "I loose".  The word "I" (ἐγώ ) is often used to add emphasis.  (You may notice that John 8:58 is not included in the 42 hits.  That is because ἐγώ εἰμι in John 8:58 adds an accent mark to the end causing the search to fail.  So actually there are 43 verses, not 42.  Accent marks were not used in the original Greek.

Now lets check on the Old Testament.  Still on John 8:24, copy ἐγώ εἰμι from the Greek text.  Switch to KJV and go to any verse in the Old Testament.  Now, while in the OT, switch to the Septuagint Bible.  Click on the hour glass to run a search and paste in ἐγώ εἰμι and see what you get.  You should find only 30 occurrences in 28 verses.  Tag them using the same ἐγώ εἰμι tag.  You can now switch back to the KJV version and look at all the tagged verses.  When you examine the 28 verses, you will find that in most of them, ἐγώ εἰμι, refers to the Almighty God, Jehovah.

ἐγώ εἰμι (ego eimi) is used 43 times in the NT and 30 times OT for total of 73 times.
It is used as a clear reference to GOD in 47 of these verses, 36 of them in the NT.  Significantly it is used in Ex. 3:14, and in Isa. 45:18

In conclusion, it is pretty obvious that when Jesus referred to himself as "I AM" in John 8:24, 58, He was making no bones about the fact that He was God in the flesh.  Full Deity clothed in humanity.  The 2nd person of the Trinity.

I know all this key clicking is kind of tedious but my point in this study is two fold.  I want you to see that you can state with confidence that Jesus claimed to be God.  I also want you to improve your skills at using e-Sword, no matter what version you are using.