Before Abraham Was

The Hard Texts · Article 2 of 13

After John 1:1, this is the verse we hear most. Jesus is arguing in the temple, the crowd asks how a man not yet fifty could have seen Abraham, and he answers: “Most certainly, I tell you, before Abraham came into existence, I AM.” (John 8:58). The next verse says, “Therefore they took up stones to throw at him” (John 8:59). For many readers, that settles it: Jesus took God’s own name, and the crowd knew it. For readers who grew up with I have been in their Bibles, it settled something else: Jesus lived in heaven before Abraham.

Here the verse gets its own space, with two related sayings: the Son of Man “ascending to where he was before” (John 6:62), and “he who descended out of heaven, the Son of Man” (John 3:13). Read in their chapters, all three confirm what Jesus said of himself: he is the promised Christ, sent by “the only true God” (John 17:3).

Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB), current eBible.org edition, checked word for word. The WEB prints God’s name as Yahweh. Notes on the Hebrew and Greek are at the end.

Our Case, Stated Plainly

The question of John 8 is who Jesus is. “unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.” (John 8:24). They ask, “Who are you?” (John 8:25). John’s answer for the whole book: “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God” (John 20:31).

Jesus answers as the one the Father sent. “I do nothing of myself, but as my Father taught me, I say these things.” (John 8:28). “For I haven’t come of myself, but he sent me.” (John 8:42). He calls himself “a man who has told you the truth which I heard from God” (John 8:40).

Abraham saw his day, by faith. “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day. He saw it and was glad.” (John 8:56). The patriarchs “died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and embraced them from afar” (Hebrews 11:13).

The Messiah stood first in God’s purpose. He “was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but was revealed in this last age” (1 Peter 1:20). God “calls the things that are not, as though they were.” (Romans 4:17).

Our conclusion, stated at the start: in John 8:58 Jesus says he is the promised one, first in God’s purpose before Abraham came to be. The verse does not make him Yahweh, and it does not make him a spirit who lived before his birth.

A Fair Question

Here is the question for this article: When Jesus says before Abraham came into existence, I AM, and speaks of going up to where he was before, does Scripture teach that he personally existed before he was born?

The Text in Its Setting

John 8:58 is the last line of a long argument. Read John 8:21-59 in one sitting before going further. Here is its course.

Who he is. Jesus warns, “unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.” (John 8:24). They ask, “Who are you?” (John 8:25). He answers, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and I do nothing of myself, but as my Father taught me, I say these things.” (John 8:28).

Whose children they are. They claim Abraham (John 8:33). Jesus answers, “now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth which I heard from God. Abraham didn’t do this.” (John 8:40). And: “For I haven’t come of myself, but he sent me.” (John 8:42).

Who is greater. Jesus says, “if a person keeps my word, he will never see death.” (John 8:51). They hear a boast: “Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? The prophets died. Who do you make yourself out to be?” (John 8:53). He answers that the Father glorifies him (John 8:54), and then: “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day. He saw it and was glad.” (John 8:56).

The misunderstanding. “You are not yet fifty years old! Have you seen Abraham?” (John 8:57). Notice that they turn his words around. Jesus said Abraham saw my day. They ask whether he has seen Abraham.

The answer and the stones. Jesus answers with 8:58, and they take up stones, “but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple” (John 8:59).

Three things here are explicit. First, the question running through the chapter is who he is, asked outright in 8:25 and 8:53. Second, the claim under dispute in 8:52-53 is that Jesus is greater than Abraham. Third, in the verse just before 8:58, it is Abraham who does the seeing, and what he sees is a day.

The Words in Greek, Simply Put

The Greek of John 8:58 is prin Abraam genesthai ego eimi. Word for word: before Abraham to-come-to-be, I am (see the Notes). The major Greek editions agree on these words; there is no textual difference here to lean on.

Two verbs are set side by side. For Abraham, John uses genesthai, from ginomai, to come into being, be born. Abbott-Smith’s New Testament lexicon gives that sense and lists John 8:58 under it. For Jesus, he uses eimi, the plain present of to be: I am.

“I Am” Across John

Ego eimi is ordinary Greek. It means I am, and it often stands without a word after it, where English adds he or it. John uses it many times, and the WEB translates it differently depending on the setting:

• The man born blind, asked if he is the beggar: “He said, “I am he.”” (John 9:9). Same two words, from a man claiming nothing divine.
• To the Samaritan woman, who has just spoken of the coming Messiah: “I am he, the one who speaks to you.” (John 4:26).
• “unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.” (John 8:24).
• “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he” (John 8:28).
• Before the betrayal: “I tell you before it happens, that when it happens, you may believe that I am he.” (John 13:19).
• In the garden, to those seeking “Jesus of Nazareth”: “Jesus said to them, “I am he.”” (John 18:5). And then: “When therefore he said to them, “I am he,” they went backward and fell to the ground.” (John 18:6).

So the words alone do not carry a divine name; the blind man shows that. But in some sayings the setting gives them more weight.

Exodus 3:14 and Isaiah

The case that John 8:58 is a divine claim rests on two places in Israel’s Scriptures.

Exodus 3. Moses asks God’s name (Exodus 3:13). “God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM,” and he said, “You shall tell the children of Israel this: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”” (Exodus 3:14). The Hebrew is ehyeh asher ehyeh, from the verb hayah, to be, in a form that can be rendered I am or I will be (see the Notes). The very next verse gives the name Israel would use: “Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever” (Exodus 3:15).

The Septuagint, the old Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, renders Exodus 3:14 ego eimi ho on, I am the one who is. The name it gives Moses to say is ho on, the one who is, not ego eimi (see the Notes). Jesus does not say ho on.

Isaiah. Isaiah comes much closer to John’s wording. In the Hebrew, Yahweh says ani hu, I am he, several times:

• “I, Yahweh, the first, and with the last, I am he.” (Isaiah 41:4).
• “that you may know and believe me, and understand that I am he. Before me there was no God formed, neither will there be after me.” (Isaiah 43:10).
• “Yes, since the day was, I am he.” (Isaiah 43:13).

The Greek translation of Isaiah 43:10 reads hina gnote kai pisteusete kai synete hoti ego eimi, that you may know and believe and understand that I am (see the Notes). Put that beside John 13:19, hina pisteusete... hoti ego eimi, that you may believe that I am he, and beside John 8:24 and 8:28, believe and know that I am. The likeness is real, and the same verse tells us who is speaking to whom; we come back to it below.

The Verb Tenses

Abraham came into being; Jesus says I am. What does the contrast do?

The Trinitarian answer: it is the contrast between a creature and God, the pattern of a psalm about God himself: “Before the mountains were born, before you had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.” (Psalm 90:2). In the Greek translation of that psalm, the mountains came to be (genethenai), and God simply is (su ei, you are) (see the Notes). On this reading Jesus did not say I was before Abraham, which a very old creature could say. He said I am, which only the eternal God can say.

The Jehovah’s Witness answer: Greek often uses a present verb with a phrase of past time for something that began in the past and still continues. John has an example. Jesus says to Philip, tosouto chrono meth’ hymon eimi, word for word so long a time with you I am, which the WEB rightly renders in English with a past: “Have I been with you such a long time” (John 14:9). So before Abraham came into existence, I am means I have been in existence since before Abraham, and the New World Translation prints I have been.

Our answer: both observations about the grammar are true, with one limit. John 14:9 has a phrase of duration, so long a time; John 8:58 has a before clause instead, and grammarians disagree whether that works the same way. So the tenses do not decide the verse. John decides it, by what I am means in his Gospel and by what Abraham saw.

Our Reading

Our conclusion: in John 8:58 Jesus says that he is the promised one, the Messiah, and that he stood in God’s purpose before Abraham ever came to be. Abraham saw his day from afar, by faith, and rejoiced. The crowd, who had misheard Abraham saw my day as you have seen Abraham, heard him claim to be greater than Abraham, and they reached for stones.

Four lines of Scripture support it.

First, the chapter’s own I am he. Twice in the same argument, Jesus says “I am he” (John 8:24; 8:28), and the WEB translates it that way because the question is who he is. Our conclusion: 8:58 is the climax of the same answer, I am he, and not only now; before Abraham came to be. The words I am answer the chapter’s question, who are you; the words before Abraham answer the crowd’s challenge, “Are you greater than our father Abraham” (John 8:53). Neither half stands alone, and together they say exactly what John wrote his Gospel to say.

Second, Abraham saw a day. John 8:56 is explicit. Jesus is the one Abraham looked forward to. God had promised, “All the nations of the earth will be blessed by your offspring” (Genesis 22:18). Our conclusion: the one who is Abraham’s offspring and is also before him is first in God’s purpose, not older in years.

Third, Scripture speaks of the Messiah as known and given before the world. He “was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but was revealed in this last age” (1 Peter 1:20). God’s grace “was given to us in Christ Jesus before times eternal” (2 Timothy 1:9), before any of us existed. He was delivered up “by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23). God said to Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.” (Jeremiah 1:5). In Scripture, what God has determined beforehand is real and stands (Isaiah 46:10).

Fourth, the Jesus of John 8 receives everything from the Father. He does nothing of himself (John 8:28), did not come of himself (John 8:42), and is glorified by the Father (John 8:54).

Our conclusion again, clearly labeled: Jesus did not personally exist before his conception. Before Abraham came to be, he was in God’s purpose, the promised one whose day Abraham saw.

Answering the Trinitarian Reading

At its strongest it runs like this. Jesus uses ego eimi absolutely, with nothing after it, in a sentence about time before Abraham. That is Isaiah’s ani hu of Yahweh, the God who was there “since the day was” (Isaiah 43:13), joined to the Psalm 90 contrast between what comes to be and God who is. John 8:24, 8:28 and 13:19 echo Isaiah 43:10 nearly word for word in Greek, and a few verses later the Greek of Isaiah has Yahweh say ego eimi ego eimi, I am, I am, the one who blots out sins (Isaiah 43:25). In the garden, the soldiers fall to the ground when he says ego eimi (John 18:6). And the crowd picked up stones, which is what the Law commands for blasphemy: “He who blasphemes Yahweh’s name, he shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall certainly stone him.” (Leviticus 24:16). Two chapters later they say why: “We don’t stone you for a good work, but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.” (John 10:33).

We take this seriously, and we answer it from John and Isaiah.

• Not the name of Exodus 3. The Greek name in Exodus 3:14 is ho on, and Jesus does not say it. God’s name in Exodus 3:15 is Yahweh. The blind man says ego eimi in John 9:9 and claims nothing divine.
• Isaiah 43:10 names a servant. The verse the Trinitarian reading quotes says, “You are my witnesses,” says Yahweh, “With my servant whom I have chosen; that you may know and believe me, and understand that I am he.” (Isaiah 43:10). The I am he is Yahweh’s; those called to know and believe it are his witnesses and “my servant whom I have chosen” (Isaiah 43:10). Isaiah calls Israel that servant, “Jacob my servant, and Israel, whom I have chosen.” (Isaiah 44:1), and the New Testament gives the servant’s title to Jesus: “Behold, my servant whom I have chosen” (Matthew 12:18, quoting Isaiah 42:1), and “the God of our fathers, has glorified his Servant Jesus” (Acts 3:13). Our conclusion: if John intends the echo, Jesus speaks as the chosen servant in whom Israel’s calling is fulfilled, not as the God who speaks in Isaiah 43:10, and in the same breath he says, “I do nothing of myself, but as my Father taught me, I say these things.” (John 8:28).
• John 18:6. John shows Jesus in command of his own arrest. He goes out “knowing all the things that were happening to him” (John 18:4), names himself, and protects his disciples: “I told you that I am he. If therefore you seek me, let these go their way,” (John 18:8). Earlier “no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.” (John 7:30), and Jesus said of his life, “No one takes it away from me… I received this commandment from my Father.” (John 10:18). Our conclusion: the soldiers fall before the one whose hour is in his Father’s hands; John does not say they heard a divine name, and we do not add it.
• The stones. John 8:59 gives no charge. Before 8:58 was said, Jesus told them, “you seek to kill me” (John 8:37), and they had called him a Samaritan with a demon (John 8:48). When John 10 gives a charge, Jesus answers it by restating his claim: “because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’” (John 10:36). The crowd heard a claim greater than Abraham, and it was; the crowd’s summary is not Jesus’ claim.

Answering the Jehovah’s Witness Reading

At its strongest the case is this. The crowd asked a question about age: “You are not yet fifty years old! Have you seen Abraham?” (John 8:57). Jesus answers about age: he existed before Abraham. Greek allows I have been, as John 14:9 shows. And the chapter does not make Jesus God: he calls the Father the one “of whom you say that he is our God” (John 8:54). So, the reading concludes, Jesus is a mighty spirit who lived in heaven before Abraham.

We share the conviction that the Father is the one God, and we say this with respect, because many of our readers once read I have been in their own Bibles and believed it sincerely. But this reading does not fit the chapter.

• It reads 8:58 against 8:56. Jesus did not say I saw Abraham. He said Abraham “rejoiced to see my day. He saw it and was glad.” (John 8:56). The crowd turned that around. Paul says, “The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the Good News beforehand to Abraham” (Galatians 3:8). That is how Scripture says Abraham saw: from afar, by faith in a promise.
• It sets a formed god beside Yahweh. On the JW reading, I have been makes Jesus a created spirit who existed before Abraham. Isaiah 43:10 stands in the middle of the very passage both sides quote: “Before me there was no God formed, neither will there be after me.” (Isaiah 43:10). Our conclusion: a formed, mighty, god-like spirit beside Yahweh is what that verse rules out.

John 6:62 and 3:13: The Son of Man in Heaven

The texts

When many disciples find the bread teaching hard, Jesus asks, “Does this cause you to stumble? Then what if you would see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before?” (John 6:61-62).

Earlier, to Nicodemus: “No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended out of heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven.” (John 3:13).

Trinitarian and JW readers both take these as plain: was is past, and in the same chapter Jesus says, “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.” (John 6:38). So, they say, he was in heaven before he was on earth.

What John 6 itself says

The bread came down too. In the same chapter, coming down out of heaven is said of bread: “For the bread of God is that which comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world.” (John 6:33). Jesus says, “I am the living bread which came down out of heaven.” (John 6:51), and in that same verse, “the bread which I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” (John 6:51). His hearers knew his parents: “Isn’t this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?” (John 6:42). Our conclusion: John 6 itself shows that from heaven means from God, by his gift and sending. The bread that came down from heaven is flesh that Jesus will give.

John uses sent and not of the world for the disciples too. John the Baptist was “a man sent from God” (John 1:6). Jesus prays, “As you sent me into the world, even so I have sent them into the world.” (John 17:18), and “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” (John 17:16). Our conclusion: came from the Father (John 16:28) speaks of origin and mission, the same words Jesus uses of disciples who did not live in heaven before their birth.

The Son of Man is a human title. “What is the son of man, that you care for him?” (Psalm 8:4). Jesus says the Father gave him authority to judge “because he is a son of man.” (John 5:27). In John 6:62 it is the Son of Man who goes up to where he was before. The one ascending is named as a man.

Where he was before. Daniel saw, in vision, “one like a son of man, and he came even to the Ancient of Days, and they brought him near before him.” (Daniel 7:13). “Dominion was given him, and glory, and a kingdom” (Daniel 7:14). Jesus applies this to himself: “you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of the sky.” (Matthew 26:64). Our conclusion: where he was before is the place God’s purpose had already given the Son of Man, shown to Daniel before the Ancient of Days. John 6 does not quote Daniel; the answer from John 6 itself stands without this link.

John 3:13 has a textual difference. The WEB reads “the Son of Man, who is in heaven.” (John 3:13). Tregelles, Tischendorf, the Byzantine text and the Textus Receptus have those last words; the SBL, Westcott-Hort and Nestle editions end at the Son of Man (see the Notes). We do not build on either. On the WEB’s own reading, the Son of Man is in heaven while he stands on earth talking with Nicodemus, so even on that reading the words speak of more than his bodily location. Our conclusion: John’s in heaven and from heaven are about where he is from and to whom he belongs, as “He who comes from above is above all.” (John 3:31).

Revelation 13:8: A Text We Set Aside

Many who share our view quote Revelation 13:8 as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. The WEB reads, “everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been killed.” (Revelation 13:8). The Greek allows either link (see the Notes), but Revelation 17:8 says the same of names, “written in the book of life from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 17:8). So we do not lean on it, even though the other reading would suit our view. 1 Peter 1:20 carries the point alone.

Objections Answered

Objection: I am is God’s name, so Jesus claimed to be Yahweh. God’s name in Exodus 3:15 is Yahweh, and the Greek of Exodus 3:14 gives ho on, the one who is, as the name to say. The blind man says ego eimi in John 9:9 and claims nothing divine. And the one who says I am he in John 8 says he does nothing of himself (John 8:28).

Objection: nothing in 8:58 supplies the he. The chapter supplies it. The question “Who are you?” (John 8:25) runs through the argument, and Jesus has already answered it twice with I am he (John 8:24, 28). The before clause answers the challenge of 8:53. Our conclusion: John 8:58 is read with its chapter, not apart from it.

Objection: if he only existed in God’s plan, so did Abraham. Why say before Abraham? Because the dispute was who is greater (John 8:53). God’s purpose has an order. The promised offspring is the goal of the promise to Abraham, and so first in the plan though later in time. That is our conclusion, and it answers the question the crowd asked.

Objection: John 17:5 says he had glory with the Father before the world. It gets its own article, The Glory I Had With You. The same prayer calls that glory given, “for you loved me before the foundation of the world.” (John 17:24).

Summary of Tested Claims

1. Abraham came to be; Jesus says I am (John 8:58). Explicit, from the Greek.
2. Abraham saw Jesus’ day; the crowd reversed it (John 8:56-57). Explicit.
3. The WEB renders ego eimi as I am he in John 4:26, 8:24, 8:28, 9:9 and 13:19. Explicit as translation; in 9:9 and 4:26 the setting requires it, and in 8:24, 8:28 and 13:19 the sense is debated.
4. The Greek name in Exodus 3:14 is ho on; Isaiah 43:10 in Greek is close to John 8:24 and 13:19, and the same verse names Yahweh’s chosen servant. Explicit; the echo is a likely canonical connection.
5. The present tense can mean I have been (John 14:9). Explicit.
6. Christ was foreknown before the foundation of the world (1 Peter 1:20). Explicit.
7. In John 6, came down out of heaven is said of bread that is Jesus’ flesh (John 6:33, 51). Explicit.
8. Jesus is the promised one, first in God’s purpose before Abraham, and did not personally exist before his conception. Our conclusion.
9. Where he was before (John 6:62) is the place God’s purpose gave the Son of Man, as Daniel saw (Daniel 7:13-14). Our conclusion; John 6 does not quote Daniel.

Verify It Yourself

• Read John 8:21-59 in one sitting, and mark every time the question who are you is asked or answered.
• Read John 8:56 and 8:57 side by side, and notice who sees whom.
• Read Exodus 3:13-15 and Isaiah 43:10-13, then John 8:24, 8:28 and 13:19. Ask who the servant is in Isaiah 43:10.
• Read John 6:32-63 and mark everything said to come down from heaven.

Where We Stand

Our conclusions: In John 8:58 Jesus says he is the promised one, I am he, already in God’s purpose before Abraham came to be. Abraham saw his day by faith and rejoiced (John 8:56; Hebrews 11:13). I have been reads 8:58 against 8:56 and sets a formed god beside Yahweh, against Isaiah 43:10. In John 6, from heaven means from God, as the bread shows. Jesus did not personally exist before his conception.

Counter-texts, answered:

• John 8:58, I AM: the chapter’s own I am he (John 8:24, 28) and Abraham seeing his day (John 8:56). Our conclusion.
• Isaiah 43:10 in Greek: the verse names Yahweh’s chosen servant, and the New Testament gives Jesus the servant’s title (Matthew 12:18; Acts 3:13). Our conclusion.
• John 18:6: the arrest happens at the Father’s hour and on Jesus’ word (John 18:8; 10:18); John names no divine title. Our conclusion.
• John 8:59, the stones: no charge given; the charge of John 10:33 Jesus answers himself: “I am the Son of God” (John 10:36).
• John 6:62 and 6:38: down from heaven is bread language for the flesh Jesus gives (John 6:51); the one ascending is the Son of Man. Our conclusion.
• John 3:13: on the WEB’s reading he is in heaven while on earth; John speaks of origin and belonging (John 3:31).

What Scripture does not say: God the Son; that ego eimi is a divine name; that Jesus saw Abraham; that Jesus is Michael; that the Son of Man lived in heaven before he was born; why the crowd picked up stones in John 8:59.

Notes

• John 8:58: eipen autois Iesous, Amen amen lego hymin, prin Abraam genesthai ego eimi (SBLGNT). Genesthai, aorist infinitive of ginomai; eimi, present indicative. BibleHub parallel texts: SBL (2010), Westcott-Hort (1881), Nestle (1904), the Byzantine Majority Text (2005), Tischendorf 8th and the Textus Receptus all read prin Abraam genesthai ego eimi (the Byzantine and TR add ho before Iesous).
• Ginomai: Abbott-Smith (1922; TEI text, github.com/translatable-exegetical-tools/Abbott-Smith), sense 1: of persons, things, occurrences, to come into being, be born, arise, citing John 1:15, 8:58 and 1 Corinthians 15:37; in LXX chiefly for Hebrew hayah.
• Ego eimi in John: 4:26; 8:24, 28, 58; 9:9 (ekeinos elegen hoti Ego eimi); 13:19 (hina pisteusete hotan genetai hoti ego eimi); 18:5, 6, 8.
• Exodus 3:14: Hebrew ehyeh asher ehyeh; ehyeh is qal imperfect first person of hayah, to be (OSHB), which may be rendered I am or I will be. Greek translation (Septuagint, via BibleHub): Ego eimi ho on, and the name to say: Ho on apestalken me, The one who is has sent me.
• Isaiah 41:4; 43:10, 13, 25: Hebrew ani hu (OSHB). Septuagint (BibleHub /sepd/, rechecked): 41:4 ego theos protos, kai eis ta eperchomena ego eimi; 43:10 hina gnote kai pisteusete kai synete hoti ego eimi; emprosthen mou ouk egeneto allos theos. 43:13 eti ap’ arches, with no ego eimi in the edition we checked; 43:25 ego eimi ego eimi ho exaleiphon.
• Psalm 90:2: Septuagint (Psalm 89:2, via BibleHub): pro tou ore genethenai... kai apo tou aionos heos tou aionos su ei.
• John 6:62: hopou en to proteron, where he was before; en, imperfect of eimi.
• John 3:13: SBL, Westcott-Hort and Nestle end at ho huios tou anthropou; Tregelles, the Byzantine Majority Text, Tischendorf 8th and the Textus Receptus add ho on en to ourano, who is in heaven (BibleHub parallel texts). The WEB includes it.
• Daniel 7:13: Aramaic kevar enash, like a son of man; ve‘ad attiq yomayya meta, and he came to the Ancient of Days (OSHB).
• 1 Peter 1:20: proegnosmenou men pro kataboles kosmou, phanerothentos de, foreknown before the foundation of the world, but revealed.
• Revelation 13:8: en to biblio tes zoes tou arniou tou esphagmenou apo kataboles kosmou; the phrase apo kataboles kosmou follows esphagmenou but may go with gegraptai, written, as in Revelation 17:8.

Previous article: The Word Was God
Next article: My Lord and My God
Series: All 13 articles in The Hard Texts

© 2026 Elvis Lucas, Open the Text. Original: https://openthetext.com/series/the-hard-texts/02-before-abraham-was/
Quoting and Sharing