Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Eric Weiss" <eweiss AT gte.net>]

In my response to Rolf Furuli's response to me re: I AM THAT I AM, I asked 
if those who read a reference to Exodus 3:14 in John 8:58 are in error, 
which I guess led to this post by Greg.

Re: the assumption that Jesus spoke Hebrew/Aramaic to the Jewish leaders 
(assuming John's gospel transmits to us Jesus' words), I understand that 
the ANWQEN "again/above" wordplay in John 3:3 in Jesus' discussion with 
Nicodemus does not work in Hebrew or Aramaic (i.e, they don't have a single 
word with these two meanings), which suggests that Jesus spoke with 
Nicodemus in Greek - and, as my 1st-year Greek teacher mentioned, Nicodemus 
is a Greek name (I never verified this, though).

If Jesus spoke Greek, then the LXX translation of Exodus 3:14 as EGW EIMI 
hO WN might have been the referent for John 8:58 and the other EGW EIMI 
statements in GJohn. Is that possible?

Of course, that raises other problems, i.e., if the LXX of Exodus 3:14 is 
perhaps NOT a good rendering (which is what I believe what Rolf Furuli is 
suggesting - BTW, what does "fientic" or "semi-fientic" mean?), then the 
author of GJohn or Jesus himself operated from a misunderstanding of Exodus 
3:14!

I gather from the responses to my original I AM THAT I AM/I WILL BE THAT I 
WILL BE question that there are other, better ways to say "I AM THAT I AM" 
in Hebrew so that a good case could be made that the future sense of EHYEH 
was meant by the author of Exodus 3:14

On 12/24/98, "GregStffrd AT aol.com" wrote:
> Dear List Members:
> 
> Some have recently expressed their view regarding a connection between 
> Jesus'
> words in John 8:58 and God's words to Moses in Exodus 3:14. It appears that
> this view is primarily based on a perceived relationship between the Greek
> words found in John 8:58 and the Greek LXX of Exodus 3:14.
> 
> However, given the fact that Jesus actually, likely, spoke in Hebrew/Aramaic
> to the Jews in John 8:58, what could he have said, in Hebrew/Aramaic, that
> would have made his Jewish audience relate his words to _Hebrew_ of Exodus
> 3:14?
> 
> If Jesus had actually used 'ani hu then I can see how his words might have
> some relationship to the Isaianic passages where 'ani hu is used, but it 
> seems
> unlikely that Jesus could have said anything, given the context of John 
> 8:58,
> that would have inferred a relationship with the Hebrew of Exodus 3:14.
> 
> Greg Stafford