Texts in Conversation
In John 8, Jesus says that when he is lifted people will know that he is sent by God, using the phrase “I am he.” This may be based on an Aramaic tradition similar to Targum Neofiti, where God through the “Memra” says “I am he” to show authority.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
John 8:28
New Testament
21 Then Jesus said to them again, “I am going away, and you will look for me but will die in your sin. Where I am going you cannot come.” 22 So the Jewish leaders began to say, “Perhaps he is going to kill himself because he says, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’” 23 Jesus replied, “You people are from below; I am from above. You people are from this world; I am not from this world. 24 Thus I told you that you will die in your sins. For unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.” 25 So they said to him, “Who are you?” Jesus replied, “What I have told you from the beginning. 26 I have many things to say and to judge about you, but the Father who sent me is truthful, and the things I have heard from him I speak to the world.” 27 (They did not understand that he was telling them about his Father.) 28 Then Jesus said, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and I do nothing on my own initiative, but I speak just what the Father taught me.
Date: 90–110 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
Neofiti Exodus 29:46
Targum
41 Offer the second lamb at twilight, with a grain offering and a libation like those of the morning lamb. It will be accepted as a pleasing aroma, an offering before the Lord. 42 This is a regular burnt offering throughout your generations at the entrance of the tent of meeting before the Lord, where I will meet you to speak with you there. 43 My Memra will meet the sons of Israel there, and it will be sanctified within my Glory. 44 I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar. I will consecrate Aaron and his sons to serve before me in the high priesthood. 45 I will make my Shekinah dwell among the sons of Israel, and my Memra will be their redeeming God. 46 They will know that I am he, the Lord their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt so that the Glory of my Shekinah might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God.
Date: 300–1000 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... We can also compare John 8:28 to similar sayings of Targum Neofiti where eight times in Exodus the Lord says, "you/they will know that I am he, the Lord", usually spoken by the divine Word (as in John 8:28) ... John 8:58 is often related directly to Exodus 3:14, where the Hebrew is often interpreted "I am who I am" ... Such a notion would explain why the Jews took up stones. But as I argued in chapter 3, Exodus 3:14 is better understood as "I will be who I have been, and John is more likely to be related to the divine "I am he of Deuteronomy 32:39 and Isaiah as well as the additional "I am he" sayings in the Palestinian Targums ..."
John L. Ronning, The Jewish Targums and John's Logos Theology (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2017), 209–210.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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