Joh 8:58, 18:5-6 | JFB | STEP | 58. Before Abraham was, I am —The words rendered "was" and "am" are quite different. The one clause means, "Abraham was brought into being "; the other, " I exist. " The statement therefore is not that Christ came into existence before Abraham did (as Arians affirm is the meaning), but that He never came into being at all, but existed before Abraham had a being; in other words, existed before creation, or eternally (as ). In that sense the Jews plainly understood Him, since "then took they up stones to cast at Him," just as they had before done when they saw that He made Himself equal with God ( ). hid himself

John 8:58

58. Before Abraham was, I am—The words rendered "was" and "am" are quite different. The one clause means, "Abraham was brought into being"; the other, "I exist." The statement therefore is not that Christ came into existence before Abraham did (as Arians affirm is the meaning), but that He never came into being at all, but existed before Abraham had a being; in other words, existed before creation, or eternally (as Joh 1:1). In that sense the Jews plainly understood Him, since "then took they up stones to cast at Him," just as they had before done when they saw that He made Himself equal with God (Joh 5:18).

hid himself—(See on Lu 4:30).

John 18:5-6

5. They answered . . . Jesus of Nazareth—just the sort of blunt, straight forward reply one expects from military men, simply acting on their instructions.

I am He—(See on Joh 6:20).

Judas . . . stood with them—No more is recorded here of his part of the scene, but we have found the gap painfully supplied by all the other Evangelists.

6. As soon then as he said unto them, I am He, they went backward—recoiled.

and fell to the ground—struck down by a power such as that which smote Saul of Tarsus and his companions to the earth (Ac 26:14). It was the glorious effulgence of the majesty of Christ which overpowered them. "This, occurring before His surrender, would show His power over His enemies, and so the freedom with which He gave Himself up" [MEYER].