A note from the NET Bible at John 8:58 reads: "I am! is an explicit claim to deity. Although each occurrence of the phrase “I am“ in the Fourth Gospel needs to be examined individually in context to see if an association with Exod 3:14 is present, it seems clear that this is the case here."
Reply: It is true that many Bibles like to translate both Scriptures as "I am" but is that the best translation? I have dealt with John 8:58 at http://newworldtranslation.blogspot.com/2018/07/egw-eimi-ego-eimi-i-am-and-john-858.html but in this post I want to look mainly at Exodus 3:14. The Hebrew word there is `hyh (ehyeh). I have looked at all the occurences of the Hebrew word `hyh (ehyeh) with the pronoun that I could find, and the results are overwhelming that "I AM" is a poor translation of this word. Unless otherwise stated, the Bible used is the Revised Standard Version:
Exo 3:12 And he said, Certainly I will be with thee ASV
Exo 3:14 snip
Exo 4:12 Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak."
Exo 4:15 And you shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth; and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and will teach you what you shall do.
Deu 31:23 And the LORD commissioned Joshua the son of Nun and said, "Be strong and of good courage; for you shall bring the children of Israel into the land which I swore to give them: I will be with you."
Jos 1:5 No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you.
Jos 3:7 And the LORD said to Joshua, "This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.
Jdg 6:16 And the LORD said to him, "But I will be with you, and you shall smite the Mid'ianites as one man."
Jdg 11:9 Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, "If you bring me home again to fight with the Ammonites, and the LORD gives them over to me, I will be your head."
1Sa 18:18 And David said to Saul, "Who am I, and who are my kinsfolk, my father's family in Israel, that I should be son-in-law to the king?"
1Sa 23:17 And he said to him, "Fear not; for the hand of Saul my father shall not find you; you shall be king over Israel, and I shall be next to you; Saul my father also knows this."
2Sa 7:14 I will be his father, and he shall be my son. When he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men;
2Sa 15:34 But if you return to the city, and say to Ab'salom, 'I will be your servant, O king
2Sa 16:18 And Hushai said to Ab'salom, "No; for whom the LORD and this people and all the men of Israel have chosen, his I will be
2Sa 16:19 so I will be in your presence. NASB
Isa 3:7 in that day he will speak out, saying: "I will not be a healer; in my house there is neither bread nor mantle; you shall not make me leader of the people."
Isa 47:7 You said, "I will be the mistress for ever," HCSB
Jer 11:4 which I commanded your fathers when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, Listen to my voice, and do all that I command you. So shall you be my people, and I will be your God,
Jer 24:7 I will give them a heart to know that I am the LORD; and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.
Jer 30:22 And you shall be my people, and I will be your God."
Jer 31:1 "At that time, says the LORD, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people."
Jer 32:38 And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
Eze 11:20 that they may walk in my statutes and keep my ordinances and obey them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
Eze 14:11 and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, saith the Lord Jehovah. Darby Bible
Eze 34:24 And I, the LORD, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them; I, the LORD, have spoken.
Eze 36:28 You shall dwell in the land which I gave to your fathers; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.
Eze 37:23 They shall not defile themselves any more with their idols and their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions; but I will save them from all the backslidings in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
Hos 1:9 Then He said, Call his name Not My People, for you are not My people, and I will not be for you. LITV [RSV has "I am"]
Zec 2:5[9] And I will be to her a wall of fire all around, and I will be for glory in her midst, declares Jehovah. LITV
Zec 8:8 and I will bring them to dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and they shall be my people and I will be their God, in faithfulness and in righteousness."
Psa 50:21 You have done these things, and I have kept silence; you thought that surely I would be like you LITV
Job 3:16 Or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been, As infants that never saw light. ASV
Job 10:19 I should have been as though I had not been ASV
*Job 12:4 I am as one that is a laughing-stock to his neighbor ASV
[Compare NIV "I have become a laughingstock to my friends"]
*Job 17:6 He has made me a byword of the peoples, and I am one before whom men spit.
[Compare NKJV "I have become one in whose face men spit."
KJV "and aforetime I was as a tabret."
DARBY "and I am become one to be spit on in the face."]
Song 1:7 for why should I be like one who wanders beside the flocks of your companions?
Rth 2:13 though I am not one of your maidservants
[Compare KJV, ASV "though I be not like unto one of thine handmaidens."
NET "though I could never be equal to one of your servants."
1Ch 17:13 I will be his father, and he shall be my son
1Ch 28:6 I will be his father
For this reason, many other Bibles do not translate Exodus 3:14 as I AM, but rather "I will be," such as The James Moffatt Translation and Smith & Goodspeed's An American Translation. Forget the mainstream establishment "swamp" Bibles you see on the Lifeway bookshelf and go online and get a real Bible by real translators.
Moffat,,,i will,, be but Goodspeed has,,i am
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DeleteBut at least Goodspeed has "I existed" at John 8:58. Smith translated the Old Testament portion of that Bible.
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