Sunday Morning Greek Blog

As I was reflecting on the seven “I am” statements today on a round trip to Lincoln, Nebraska, to have lunch with my family, I recalled something from very early in my seminary days about another set of “sevens” in John. I was contemplating how I would put each of the “I am” statements in their respective contexts when I remembered that John also records seven specific miracles of Jesus throughout his Gospel. These are the things that make me go “Hmm,” and when something makes me say that, you can bet I will not sit still long hmming about it. Could all seven “I am” statements be tied to the seven signs? One cannot doubt, for example, that Jesus’ statement “I am the resurrection and the life” in John 11:25 ties in directly with Jesus’ last and greatest sign, raising Lazarus from the dead. However, not all of them fit in that nicely.

I did discern a distinct connection between the first sign (2:1–11, turning water into wine) and the final “I am” statement (15:1, “I am the true vine”). In biblical studies, when an idea, phrase, or word is found at the beginning and end of a section of Scripture (regardless of the length of the section), such a feature is called an inclusio. Inclusios usually reveal something important about the theme of a section or book and should not be ignored. I had really hoped to find a chiastic pattern (ABC… C′B′A′) of statements and signs, but it was not to be. However, I can safely say that John does seem to have some sort of scheme in mind, but I may not discern it fully until after I’ve done some leg work on these blog posts. (The connection between John 4:43–54 and John 14:6 may be simply that it is “an inclusio within an inclusio.”

With that in mind, I put together a short table of how I think the “I am” statements tie in with the signs. I find obvious connections with five pairs, but two of the connections are admittedly tentative, and I indicate as such with an asterisk (*) in front of the respective verses. I will use Table 1 as a starting point for placing the “I am” statements in their historical, cultural, and literary contexts. (2/13/2012: You can click the “I Am” statement to open the blog post on that statement.)

Table 1: Linking the “I Am” Statements with Jesus’ Miracles

Jesus’ first “I am” statement comes in the midst of his teaching that he himself is the bread of life (John 6:22–59). This comes at the end of the same chapter in which he has fed a crowd of 5000 men plus the women and children with five loaves of bread and two fish, and his teaching forms an inclusio with this fourth sign around Jesus’ fifth sign, walking on water.

I have written elsewhere on the feeding of the 5000, so I won’t go into all that again, except to say that John introduces the event (6:2) by saying the people had seen him do “signs” (σημεῖον sēmeion /say MAY on/ ‘miracle’, ‘sign’), most recently the healing of the man at the Sheep Gate (Bethesda/Bethzatha/Bethsaida) pool. At the end of the event (6:14), John calls the feeding of the 5000 a “sign” as well. None of the other Gospel authors call the miraculous feeding events “signs” in their accounts. However, after the accounts of the feeding of the 4000 (Matthew 15:32–39; Mark 8:1–10), the Gospel authors have the story of the Pharisees demanding a sign from Jesus. You have got to love those Pharisees; twice Jesus feeds some 20,000 people with a few loaves of bread and some fish, and they still want a sign!

Now let us fast-forward to 6:22–59, where we find the “I am” statements. Twice in that pericope, John uses the word σημεῖον (vv. 26, 30, so four times total in chapter 6). In v. 26, Jesus tells his followers that they’re not hanging around because he is a miracle worker, but because he met their physical needs. In v. 30, the crowd becomes the Pharisees of the Matthew and Mark accounts after the feeding of the 4000: they ask for another sign. Never mind that Jesus has already done five signs at this point: walking on water and turning water into wine just isn’t enough for them. Could it be that the crowd is saying (see v. 31): “Big deal. Moses and the Israelites ate manna every day. What’s feeding 5000 people once compared to that?” Jesus sets them straight, though, telling them that God was the one who provided the manna, and God will give the true bread from heaven.

Before I get to the first version of the “I am” statement, I must point out the parallels between chapters 4 and 6. Even though in chapter 4 Jesus never does a miraculous “sign,” save for his word of knowledge about the woman’s marital status and never says “I am the living water,” the stories have some uncanny similarities (see Table 2 below). I could spend two or three blog posts just talking about these comparisons, but in some respects they speak for themselves. Besides, I want to get to the heart of the matter.

Table 2: Comparison of John 4 and 6

In John 6:35, we have the first of four “I am the bread” statements: “I am the bread of life” (Ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ἄρτος τῆς ζωῆς egō eimi ho artos tēs zōēs). Jesus ties this in with both chapter 4 and 6 with his follow-up statement about never being hungry or thirsty again. He also picks up on the statement of the crowd and the quotes from Exodus 16:4 and Psalm 78:24–25 and speaks of himself as the one who has come down from heaven. (This may also inform the translation of John 3:3; Jesus is not saying “born again,” but “born from above.”) Verse 41 is interesting, because John seems to put words in Jesus’ mouth, but that is not the case. John is just letting us in on how the crowd interpreted Jesus’ first “I am” saying: “I am the bread that came down from heaven” (Ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ἄρτος ὁ καταβὰς ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ egō eimi ho artos ho katabas ek tou ouranou). Jesus is the true manna from heaven, only this manna has a real name (the Hebrew word for manna is made up of an interrogative prefix and a suffix that together mean “What is it?” so it doesn’t even have a real word base).

Jesus repeats his initial “I am” statement in v. 48 and again ties it in with discussion about the manna. In v. 51, however, his final statement is slightly different, but different enough that it eliminates any doubt about a connection to chapter 4. “I am the living bread” (ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ἄρτος ὁ ζῶν ὁ ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καταβάς egō eimi ho artos ho zōn ho ek tou ouranou katabas) brings together his first two statements, but instead of using the genitive phrase “of life” (τῆς ζωῆς), he uses the participle (ὁ ζῶν), which puts emphasis on the fact that he is living now and will be living when he “raises them up in the last day” (vv. 39, 40, 44).

As if all this information isn’t enough to blow you away (I feel like I’m writing a term paper here, and I’ve still got six more statements to go!), Jesus takes the whole metaphor a step further and starts equating his flesh with the bread! Jesus here prophesies that he will give his flesh for the life of the world, and anyone who eats his flesh “will live forever” (6:51, 58; ζήσει εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα zēsei eis ton aiōna). Although this is presumably where the Catholics get the major theological underpinnings for transubstantiation, keep in mind that when Jesus breaks the bread at the last supper, he is specifically referring to the unleavened Passover bread and what that represented: deliverance from the enemies of God and his people. When Jesus says, “This is my body,” he is really saying, “This is how I’m going to deliver you.” When he says “This cup is the new covenant in my blood,” he is saying “And this is how I am going to pay for that deliverance.”

Now I don’t want to brush off transubstantiation too quickly. I believe there is a power in immersion (baptism) that is greater than the water in the baptistery. In the same way, I think there is more power in the little piece of bread and small cup of juice that we pass each week that surpasses the flour and grapes used to make those elements. In immersion, we come into contact with the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. In communion, or the Lord’s Table, we come into contact with the living bread, who was sacrificed on a cross for our sins. I truly believe that communion brings us into the very presence of Christ, because he is the one who invites us to the table, and he is there in person waiting for us to come. Maybe that makes me a consubstantiationist!

At this point I might usually say “finally,” because I’m getting ready to wrap this up, but I don’t feel like I’ve even scratched the surface in some respects, so there’s no “finally” about it. Twelve times (there’s that number twelve again!) in chapters 4 through 6, we find the phrase “eternal life” or “into eternity.” We have eternal life, and it begins the moment we believe! Just as drinking the living water of chapter 4 will cause us never to thirst again, so will partaking of the living bread of chapter 6 cause us never to go hungry again. John 6:39 reveals the comfort in all of this: “And this is the will of him who went me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.” We could walk away of our own accord (Jesus doesn’t “lose” us if we decide to lose ourselves), but why would we want to? “To whom can we go, Lord? You have the words of life!”

A big helping of peace to all of you! Go and feast on the Word of God!

Scott Stocking