Translation commentary on John 8:58

Jesus replied is literally “Jesus said to them.”

The verb translated was born (so also New English Bible, Moffatt) may have the general sense of “come into being” (New American Bible “before Abraham came to be”; Revised Standard Version “before Abraham was”). It is the same verb used in 1.3 (see there). In the present context the more specific sense of “to be born” is “to be preferred.” The passive expression was born may be modified in some languages as “before Abraham’s mother gave birth to him.” However, it is better in many instances to translate “before Abraham existed.”

Here again I Am is used in the absolute sense in which it identifies Jesus with God the Father. The same distinction is made in this verse between Jesus and Abraham as was made in the prologue between the Word and the created order (John 1.1-2).

In many languages it is impossible to preserve the expression I Am in this type of context, for the present tense of the verb “to be” would be meaningless. To make sense, one must say “Before Abraham existed, I existed” or “… I have existed.” It may be useful to introduce a marginal note calling attention to the special form of the Greek text and its relation to other passages containing I Am.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

SIL Translator’s Notes on John 8:58

8:58a

Truly, truly, I tell you: The Greek expression that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Truly, truly, I tell you introduces something important that Jesus would say. It is the same expression as is used in 8:51a. For example:

I tell you the truth (New International Version)
-or-
In all truth I tell you

8:58b

before Abraham was born, I am!: Jesus said that he existed before Abraham was born. By this he implied that he was not just a human being and that he had existed before he was born on earth. Here are other ways to translate this clause:

before Abraham came into existence, I am! (NET Bible Bible)
-or-
before Abraham began to exist/live, I exist/live!

I am: This phrase refers to the name by which God revealed himself in Exodus 3:14:

God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” (New Revised Standard Version)

When Jesus used this phrase, he indicated that he was God. If you use footnotes, it is good to include a footnote about this and refer your readers to Exodus 3:14.

© 2020 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.