THE DEITY OF CHRIST
(Part 1)

(NWT) "On this account, indeed, the Jews began seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath but he was also calling God his own Father, making himself equal to God."

(KJV) "Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I AM."
(NWT) "Jesus said to them, Most truly I say to you, before Abraham came into existence, I HAVE BEEN."

     Why the obvious contrast in wording?

     From the time that the first edition of the NWT was published in 1950, the Society has gone to great lengths to avoid translating this verse properly. All other Bibles end this verse with the words "I am," which, in the Greek, is "ego eimi."

     Footnotes at this verse offered these 'grammatical' reasons for the "I have been" translation. The Society said that "ego eimi" was in the:
     1950 perfect indefinite tense - [There is no such tense in ANY language!]
     1969 perfect tense - [This is impossible for the verb "to be"]
     1985 perfect indicative tense - [This is also wrong - it's in the simple present tense.]

     In every instance in the Gospel of John where the Greek "ego eimi" appears, the NWT properly translates it as "I am," EXCEPT in John 8:58. Why? Because the Society knows that all reputable translators and Bible scholars cross reference this verse with Exodus 3:14 which reveals the Divine Name for God as "I AM." This was the Hebrew expression for absolute eternal existence. The Watchtower "translators" had to hide this fact.
     In John 8:58 Jesus took the divine name of God and applied it to Himself. We know this because in the very next verse(John 8:59) the Jews picked up stones and tried to kill Him for blasphemy.

     The specific phrase "ego eimi" occurs 27 times in the Gospel of John. Seventeen of these times it is followed by a clear predicate. What is left are 7 usages that have been described as "absolute", i.e., the phrase stands alone. The next section will focus on 4 of these phrases.

     In ENGLISH they are: (KJV) John 8:58 - Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.
John 13:19 - Now I tell you before it come, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am he.
John 18:5,6 - Jesus saith unto them, I am he....... As soon then as he had said unto them, I am he, they went backward, and fell to the ground.
     In the GREEK, these same verses are: (Kingdom Interlinear Translation)
John 8:58 - prin Abraam genethai ego eimi
John 13:19 - hina piseusete hoti genetai ego eimi
John 18:5 - legei autois Ego eimi
John 18:6 - hos oun eipen autois Ego eimi

     The closest and most logical connection between John's usage of "ego eimi" and the Old Testament is found in the Greek Septuagint (LXX) rendering of the Hebrew phrase "ani hu" in the writings primarily of Isaiah. The usage of "ani hu" is as a euphemism for the very name of God Himself.
     It is common for many to go directly to Exodus 3:14 for the background, but I feel that unless one first establishes the connection with the direct quotation of "ego eimi" in the LXX, the connection with Exodus 3:14 will be somewhat insignificant.

     The Greek Septuagint translates the Hebrew phrase "ani hu" as "ego eimi" in - Isaiah 41:4 - kai eis ta eperhomena ego eimi
Isaiah 43:10 - hina gnote kai pisteusete kai sinite hoti ego eimi

     These same verses in ENGLISH are: (KJV)
Isaiah 41:4 - "Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he."
Isaiah 43:10 - "that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he."

Now look at these GREEK parallels:
     Isaiah 43:10 - hina gnote kai pisteusete kai sinite hoti ego eimi
     John 13:19 "hina piseusete hoti genetai ego eimi."

When we remove the extraneous words, this is the result:

Isaiah 43:10 - hina pisteusete......hoti ego eimi - (spoken by Yahweh)
John 13:19 - hina pisteusete......hoti ego eimi - (spoken by Jesus)

     Even if one were to theorize that Jesus Himself did not make an attempt to make such an obvious connection between Himself and Yahweh, one must answer the question of why John, being obviously familiar with the LXX, would so intentionally insert this kind of parallelism.

     Another parallel can be found in the verse context:
Isaiah 41:4 - "Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he."
John 13:19 - "Now I tell you before it come, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am he."

     In John 13:19 Jesus is telling them the future - one of the very challenges to the false gods thrown down by Yahweh in Isaiah 41:4. Here, the "calling forth" of the generations - time itself - is part of the usage of "ani hu."

John 8:58,59 -      The phrase and significance of "ego eimi" was understood by the early Christian Church as well. Chrysostom wrote:

     "As the Father used this expression, "I Am," so also doth Christ; for it signifieth continuous being, irrespective of time. On which account the expression seemed to them [the Jews] to be blasphemous."

John 18: 5,6 -
     John repeats the phrase "I Am" in verse 6 to make sure that the reader understands the reason for the soldiers' falling backwards. Why would the soldiers fall backwards if not for the awesomeness of the words of Jesus? John's meaning cannot be mistaken.

     B.F. Westcott, whose Greek text is used by the Watchtower Society as a base for the Kingdom Interlinear Translation, had this to say about the usage of "I Am" in John 8:58:

     "The phrase marks a timeless existence. Thus there is in the phrase the contrast between the created and the uncreated; the temporal and the eternal."
The Gospel According to St. John , Brooke Foss Westcott, 1980, p.28

JOHN 10:28-29

28: "And I (Jesus) give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand."
29: "My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.

Jesus has given me eternal life.
Verse 28 says that no one can pluck me out of Jesus' hand.
Verse 29 says that I am also in the Father's hand and no one can pluck me out of His hand either.
     The problem is: If the Father and the Son are two completely separated beings, then I would somehow have to become 2 separate persons: one to be in the Son's hand and another to be in the Father's hand.
     But there is no problem at all if we agree that the Father and the Son are the same in nature and essence, even though they remain two distinct (NOT separated) persons.

JOHN 10:30

(KJV)
30: I and my Father are one.
31: Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him.
32: Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me?
33: The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.

     The New World Translation renders verse 33 this way:
     "The Jews answered him: "We are stoning you, not for a fine work, but for blasphemy, even because you, although being a man, make yourself a god."

     If Jesus was claiming to be just "a god," the Jews would have just laughed at him because there were all kinds of lunatics running around the landscape claiming the same thing.
     But the Jews knew full well what Jesus meant by the term "one." In the original Greek it denoted "one thing" - the same essence and nature as the Father. We know that the Jews considered what Jesus said to be blasphemy because they picked up stones to kill Him. They wouldn't have done this if Jesus was only making Himself to be merely "a god."

JOHN 20:28

(KJV) "And Thomas answered and said unto Him, My Lord and my God."
(NWT) "In answer Thomas said to him: "My Lord and my God!"

     Note that Thomas said these words to JESUS; not to the air, ground or himself!
     In the Greek it reads word for word:
     "The Lord of me and the God of me."

     The word "God" (O Theos) is with the definite article "O". This is, according to the Watchtower, an indicator that the Almighty God is meant.

ROMANS 9:5

(KJV) "Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen."
(NWT) "to whom the forefathers belong and from whom the Christ [sprang] according to the flesh: God, who is over all, [be] blessed forever. Amen."

     A doxology in both Old and New Testaments always placed the word "blessed" BEFORE the name of God. Here, Paul uses the reverse form, God blessed, indicating beyond doubt that he intentionally equates Christ with God. The antecedent of God is who, and the antecedent of who is Christ.

ROMANS 10:9

(KJV) "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved."
(NWT) "For if you publicly declare that 'word in your own mouth,' that Jesus is Lord, and exercise faith in your heart that God raised him up from the dead, you will be saved."

     In a footnote for this verse, the NWT refers to the Hebrew translations known as the "J" documents, specifically, "J" 12-14, 16-18, 22. These documents use Jehovah's name (Ha Adohn) at the part of the verse that says "the Lord Jesus." But the footnote flatly states "Not Jehovah" without any explanation.

     However, the NWT Appendix 1H p.1568 emphatically states:
     The use of the definite article 'Ha' before the title 'Adohn' limits the application of this title exclusively to Jehovah God."

     Therefore, if the Society followed its own rule, the verse should read:
     "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth that Jesus is Jehovah....."

PHILIPPIANS 2:6,7

(KJV) "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:"
(NWT) "who, although he was existing in God's form, gave no consideration to a seizure, namely, that he should be equal to God. No, but he emptied himself and took a slave's form and came to be in the likeness of men."

     The word "being" in the Greek means "never ceased being." Christ Jesus never stopped "being in the form of God," as cited in the KJV. He IS God in nature and substance. By putting on the form of a servant, He emptied Himself of the right to act as God and He relied completely on God the Father for all supernatural information and power. The definition of "morphe" (form) refers to the nature or essence of someone; not in the abstract, but as actually subsisting in the individual and retained as long as the individual itself exists. (Vine's Dictionary, p.463)

     John 1:14 tells us that "the Word became flesh." This is how Jesus took upon the form of a servant. Did he become how Jesus took upon the form of a servant. Did he become FULLY human or PARTIALLY human? The Son of God became a complete man! The word "form" in verse 6, to allude to Vine's Dictionary, means that Jesus was subsisting in the actual and complete "form" of God.

     God the Word emptied Himself to become one of us. He had no desire to strive for what was already His by nature. In the person of Christ there are 2 natures: true Deity and true humanity. These 2 natures and their functions are never confused with each other and Jesus will have this hypostatic union from the day he assumed it in the manger until throughout all eternity.
     This dualistic union is the key to understanding why he said what he said in the Gospels. He sometimes spoke with reference to His Deity (John 10:30). But most of the time He spoke from His humanity (John 14:28)

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