Re: More questions on Mark

From: Mike Adams (mikadams@ix.netcom.com)
Date: Tue Sep 26 1995 - 18:10:26 EDT


I agree with Bruce and the others who say that egw eimi does not bear
the same force as the OT Yaweh (sp?). In the context in Mark 6, it is
probably "It is I."

The uses in John seem to me a bit stronger. I read them as "I (myself)
am The Way." "I (myself) am The Truth." It is my understanding that
the emphasis is stronger in sentences which combine egw and eimi, when
grammatically eimi would suffice.

However, in the section in John 10, when he said "Before Abraham was I
am," the context causes it to be an extremely forceful statement, which
I agree might be tantamount to Yaweh.

I am also aware that B-Greek discussed in length the language of
Christ. My own suspicions are that Jesus was intelligent enough to be
bi or even tri lingual, as is not uncommon in areas with a native,
trade and official language. It is also common for someone who is
comfortably multi-lingual to speak in whichever language would be most
meaningful to the hearers, such as in the case of the healing of
Jairus's daughter. So I suspect that at the temple that Jesus spoke
Hebrew, and considering the reaction he could very well have used that
"forbidden" phrase concerning himself.

Just my thoughts.

Ellen



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