James White Explains What Scholars Ignore

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Interesting, because we went over a lot of this stuff. But this is really where the

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Muslim struggles terribly, is right here, the word became flesh.

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They say, no, that's just simply not a possibility. So the prologue of John begins by establishing a lens that directly asserts the eternal nature of the

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Logos, his unique relationship to the Father, and the fact that he is monogenes theos.

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And so it's not overly surprising then, that when you turn to the end of the book, that we have the confession of Thomas at the resurrection.

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You know that Thomas was not present at the first appearance of the

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Lord, and he has expressed his doubts, hence the phrase doubting

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Thomas. And so when Jesus appears again the second time, he says to Thomas, to stretch forth your finger, put here my side, my hands, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.

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So Jesus gives evidence that he knew exactly what Thomas had said, hey, unless I put my finger in the wound, so on and so forth,

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I won't believe. By the way, there's nothing in the text that says he ever did either of those things. He was invited to do so, but there's nothing that says that he then did.

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Instead, when Jesus says, and do not be unbelieving, but believe, Thomas answered and said to him.

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Now let me just emphasize, the Greek term auto means to him, it is singular, does not say to them.

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Why? Well, you'll see in a moment. There's really only one way to try to escape the way of this passage, and it doesn't work, but it's tried all the time.

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Thomas then said to him, Hakuriasmu kaihathiasmu, Hakuriasmu kaihathiasmu.

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Now there isn't any question about the text, it's not a matter of textual variation. You don't have some manuscripts say this, some manuscripts say that.

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I remember one Muslim apologist who argued that this reading was not reliable in light of the fact that it doesn't appear in a particular manuscript of the

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Gospel of John, it's called P66. Well, the problem is, P66 is fragmentary.

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And when you get into these last chapters, as what happened in a lot of books, the beginning and the end of the book could become damaged, because those are the outer pages.

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It's fragmentary, we don't have all the pieces. There's no reason to believe it didn't read this way, and what's called a lacuna, a hole in a manuscript, is not an argument against a reading, at least not a scholarly argument against a reading.

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And every other early papyri contains it, so there's no truly scholarly question about this reading.

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It says, Hakuriasmu kaihathiasmu, my Lord and my God. My Lord and my

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God. That's what Thomas says. And again,

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I emphasize, it says, Aipen auto, and he said to him, Hakuriasmu kaihathiasmu, there is no place, there is no way to break this up into, my

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Lord, my God, but that's what people do. You want to see an example of it? Go catch the video of the debate

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I did at the University of Johannesburg about four years ago, maybe, with a

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Muslim apologist, and that was his explanation of John 2028, what we've got here is, my

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Lord, my God, but what would that mean? He said, my Lord, to Jesus, and then, upwards to heaven or whatever else it might be, he says, my

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God, but what did I emphasize? The Greek term auto is singular. What was said was to Jesus, and what was said was,

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Hakuriasmu kaihathiasmu, because the next word is legai auto, Jesus said to him.

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So the entire quotation of Thomas is

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Hakuriasmu kaihathiasmu. There's no way to break that up. There's no way to say, part of it was said to Jesus, part of it was said to somebody else.

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No. One person was addressed. What he said was, my Lord and my God, and Jesus' response then was, because you have seen me, have you believed?

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Blessed are the ones who, though not seeing, have also believed. And so, on any fair basis, any fair basis of reading, language, interpretation, exegesis, what is said here is when

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Thomas says to Jesus, my Lord and my God, if Jesus was a

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Muslim prophet, then he would have to rebuke

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Thomas and say, no, no, no, no, Thomas, no, no, no. If he was Michael the archangel, pretending to be in flesh, because at this point in Jehovah's Witness theology,

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Jesus' body has been put off, and so he's only manifesting a body basically to fool his disciples, then likewise, he could never accept this description as my

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Lord and my God. But Thomas identifies him as my Lord and my

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God, and Jesus' response is, blessed are you? You've believed?

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He identifies Thomas' confession as an act of faith, as an act of belief.

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That's a highly significant reality. He does not rebuke him. He blesses him and says, even more blessed are those who did not see.

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You've believed because you've seen. Blessed are those who not seeing yet will believe, is what

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Jesus says. And so, beginning and end of the gospel, you have these clear references to the deity of Christ, but there is then a constant weaving of threads through the gospel of John.

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I've often likened it, that's one of the reasons I like my coogies, I love multi -colored stuff.

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I always have. And it lends itself to a neat illustration that I like of the fabrics, the threads in a fabric that are woven together to create all these beautiful patterns.

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And in my vest here, there's red, and then there's orange, and there's blue, and some of these threads come up over here, and some of the blue disappear, and it'll change emphasis and what color predominates, but then some of those threads will still continue on, they just become somewhat muted.

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When you look at God's truth as a whole and any individual book in a singular fashion, you learn to identify the threads of meaning and topic as they're woven together.

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And this is certainly the case in the gospel of John. And if you want to see a particularly really cool aspect of this, then let's go back to John chapter 8.

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I was tempted to pop into John chapter 6 for a while, because just a few weeks ago,

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I led a Bible study on John chapter 6 on the shore of the Sea of Galilee at Capernaum, only a matter of yards or meters, depending on where you live, away from where John 6 took place, the synagogue at Capernaum.

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And that would have been the very beach that Jesus and the disciples would have pulled the boat up onto after walking upon the water.

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And that was a real blessed experience, but that's not the best place to go to establish this particular fact.

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So we will not go there. John chapter 8. There are a number of times in the gospel of John where John utilizes a particular phrase that we mentioned earlier.

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I mentioned that in Exodus 3 .14 of the burning bush, Yahweh identifies himself to Moses as Ego Aimee Ha 'on.

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I am the one being. I am that I am. It's how that ends up coming over into most

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English translations. So that phrase,

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Ego Aimee, in a lot of your study Bibles, for example, will be identified at least at John 8 .58.

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Unfortunately, the other places that it's utilized in the gospel of John will often be not hidden, but not brought out as clearly as they should be because of a concern for a stilted or uneven translation.

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But the reality is that the Apostle John uses this phrase in a number of different contexts to point us to the connection to the

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Old Testament. And what do I mean by this? Well, look at John 8 .24. John 8 .24.

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Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins.

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For unless me pustuseta hati ego aimee, you will die in your sins.

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So unless you believe, that's in what's called the subjunctive. So unless you believe hati ego aimee, that I am, you will die in your sins.

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Now, most translations will say that I am he, and it'll put he in italics or something along those lines.

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But simply hati ego aimee, you will die in your sins. Now we sort of need to know what that means because we don't want to die in our sins.

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And so since dying in your sins sounds very, very final to me, this is a non -negotiable.

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This is a definitional aspect of Christian truth that we are going to be looking at here.

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And we are. So in verse 24, we have the use of ego aimee.

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I am. Now, if that's all we had, you couldn't build a whole lot on it. But keep that in mind.

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Keep that in mind. Because only a few verses later, verse 30, while speaking these things, many believed in him.

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Now, it's interesting that term believe there is in the aorist. And that's not the normal terminology that John uses for saving faith.

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He uses a present participle for real faith. When he uses the aorist, it's almost always false faith.

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It's a surface level faith. And this becomes obvious because Jesus then says to them, if you continue my word, you're my disciples indeed, you should know the truth.

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The truth shall set you free. And as soon as he intimates to them that they need to be set free, that's offensive.

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And so by the end of the chapter, these same Jews who believed in him are picking up stones to stone him.

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So much for true saving faith. But Jesus in verse 56 has said that Abraham, our father rejoiced to see my day.

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Rejoiced to see my day. And they're like, you're not yet 50 years old.

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How could Abraham have seen your day? And Jesus answered and said to them, truly, truly,

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I say to you, Pren abraham, genestai ego ai me. Before Abraham was,

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I am. Before Abraham came to existence, I am. Same phraseology he used in verse 24,

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I am. But now he's saying that before Abraham was,

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I am. And what's the Jewish response? Therefore they took up stones they might cast upon him, might stone him.

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But Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple. So the Jews immediately understand exactly what he's claiming.

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He's claiming to be the I am, to be before Abraham.

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Now, if you have John 8 58 and they pick up stones, stone him.

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John 8 24 then says, unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins. So a

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Jesus who is less than the Jesus of the New Testament will of necessity not exist and therefore leave you in your sins.

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Now you probably know one other fairly famous reference in the gospel of John to this issue of I am.

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And it's found in chapter 18 verses five and six. And there at the arrest of Jesus, the soldiers come and Jesus says to them, who are you seeking?

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And they answered him, Jesus the Nazarene. And he said to them,

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Ego Aime. Ego Aime, same phrase. They say, ah, yeah, but he's just identifying himself.

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Hold on. Ego Aime. And there was standing with them

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Judas, the one who was betraying him. Therefore, when he said to them, Ego Aime, they fell back upon the ground.

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When Jesus said Ego Aime, they fell over. They fell over.

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Now, I've heard some incredibly horrible excuses on the part of Unitarians, be who deny the deity of Christ, subordinationist, whatever.

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Well, you know, the soldiers were just, the soldiers were taken aback by his moral purity.

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Yeah, soldiers fall over in the face of moral purity every day. Happens all the time. In fact, they've developed some special protectors for when they fall back in the place.

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It's ridiculous. It's absurd. They fell back because Jesus said,

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Ego Aime, I am. And the soldiers fell on the ground. You tie this together with John 8, 58,

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John 8, 24. You're starting to get the pattern. You're starting to get to see what's going on here. But this is where even good study

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Bibles, I haven't checked all of them. I'm not a big study Bible person. And I would imagine that it's probably, it's in the

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Reformation study Bible, maybe the ESV study Bible. I don't know. I've never looked. But when most people talk about the

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I am things, they pretty much just focus on John 8, 58. They don't tie in 8, 24. They might talk about this one, maybe.

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But the one that cinches the deal that is so important is normally skipped over.

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And that is John chapter 13. John chapter 13, the night of Jesus' betrayal.

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When Jesus is specifically stating that Judas' betrayal is going to fulfill scripture.

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Verse 18, but in order that the scripture might be fulfilled, he's talking about Judas' betrayal of him.

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Then he says in verse 19, and it's because we're focused upon the betrayal of Judas and the whole story.

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We rarely see this, yet we should. But from now on,

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I'm telling you before it comes to pass, in order that you may believe when it happens,

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Hati Ego Aimi, that I am, that I am. Now, I've told this story many times before, so I'll be brief.

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I remember years ago when I was in,

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I think I was still in Bible college, had my first computer, compact, portable, weighed 35 pounds, size of a

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Singer sewing machine, and a six inch green screen. It was great. But hey, you got to have respect for us folks that work with those things.

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I remember, and I don't remember whether I was looking at the Old Testament text or New Testament text, but when

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I looked at that phrase, in order that you might believe when it comes to pass,

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Hinnah Pestusetum. I was like, I've seen this somewhere before.

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This is ringing a bell. That night, by the flickering lamp, it's one of those old lamps, those bulbs that never quite seated right.

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And so they flicker on you. Some of you don't know what that is, but some of you have only lived with LED bulbs.

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I made the connection and realized, and if I just looked over at the side margin, at least a numeric,

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I'm sorry, that's the Olin text. It gives the reference. Jesus is quoting

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Old Testament text here again. And he's quoting with great irony, the verse from which

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Jehovah's Witnesses get their name. This is the verse that Jehovah's Witnesses get their name from.

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Isaiah 43 .10, which most of us have memorized. Before me, there is no God form. There should be none after me.

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But before it says that you are my witnesses, declares Yahweh, my servant whom

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I've chosen, so you may know and believe and understand that I am he. Before me, there is no God form.

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There should be none after me. When you look at that in the Greek Septuagint, Jesus is quoting it here.

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And the I me of Isaiah becomes the I me of John. That's where the connection is.

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So that's where the link is broken. When you try to jump from John 8 .58 back to Exodus 3 .14,

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you've missed the proper step. You got to stop in Isaiah first, because that's what

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Jesus does. He makes the application. Quotes from the verse from which Jehovah's Witnesses get their name.

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You are my witnesses, says Jehovah, my servant whom I've chosen. That's where they get Jehovah's Witnesses, Isaiah 43 .10.

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So here, and remember in Isaiah 43, the context of this is

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Yahweh revealing future events, because he's in control of what happens in time.

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That's what makes him the true God over against the false gods. And so that's what you have in Isaiah.

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Now in John, Jesus is revealing the future event of Judas's betrayal.

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And in that context, identifies himself as the I am. So now that you see the

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John 13, you can trace 8 .24, 8 .58, 13 .19, 18 .5

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-6. Here are the threads, and they're not in every chapter. You know, in my

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Coogee here, there's a little bit of a red thread here, but it's primarily blue in this area. But you know, you get up here and the red just explodes out.

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That's how you make material that has different patterns and yet comes together to make something glorious.

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And that's what John's doing. 8 .24, 8 .58, 13 .19, 18 .5

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-6, the I am passages being used of Jesus. Now, again, you go into a

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Christian bookstore and you look up commentaries, and they may make some reference to this, but you need to understand most of the commentary is being written today.

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Not all, most of the commentary is being written today. Do not treat the

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Bible as a whole, the New Testament as a whole, the writings of a particular writer as a whole, or even any particular book as a whole, as being a self -consistent woven tapestry of divine revelation.