“That You May Know and Believe”: Allusions to Isaiah 43:10 LXX in Jesus’ “I Am” Sayings in John 1 Robert M. Bowman Jr. Paper presented to the 75th annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society San Antonio, TX, Nov. 14, 2023 Johannine scholars have long noted that several of Jesus’ “I am” (ἐγὼ εἰμι) sayings in the Gospel of John allude to Yahweh’s “I [am] he” (ʾanî hûʾ or ʾanokî hûʾ) sayings in Isaiah 41–52. 2 In this paper, I argue that all of the ἐγὼ εἰμι sayings of Jesus in which no predicate is expressed allude to Isaiah 43:10, specifically as expressed in the Septuagint (LXX) or Old Greek (OG) version. Some of the sayings allude to other passages as well—in some instances more prominently—but Isaiah 43:10 is the focal point of these sayings in John. A couple of common misunderstandings, especially in popular discourse about these “I am” sayings, may be set aside quickly. First, the words “I am,” in and of themselves, do not express or imply deity, and their mere occurrence in the New Testament does not necessarily allude to statements by God in the Old Testament. Angels and human beings can and do use these words in speech reported in the Bible (e.g., Luke 1:18; John 9:9). As Catrin Williams points out, “It is the way in which ἐγώ εἰμι is employed and the contexts in which it occurs that imbues it with theological significance.” 3 Second, Christ’s “I am” sayings probably do not allude directly or primarily to the famous self-declaration of God in Exodus 3:14, “I am who I am” (in the LXX, ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ὤν). Any such allusion likely would be mediated through the “I [am] he” sayings of God in later parts of the Old Testament (cf. Exod. 3:14 with Deut. 32:39; Isa. 41:4). 4 1 Some of the material in this paper will later appear as parts of chapter 26 in Robert M. Bowman Jr. and J. Ed Komoszewski, The Incarnate Christ and His Critics: A Biblical Defense (Grand Rapids: Kregel, forthcoming 2024). 2 Notably, Ethelbert Stauffer, Jesus and His Story, trans. Richard and Clara Winston (New York: Knopf, 1959), 174–95; Philip B. Harner, The “I Am” of the Fourth Gospel: A Study in Johannine Usage and Thought, Facet Books (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1970); David Mark Ball, “I Am” in John’s Gospel: Literary Function, Background and Theological Implications, JSNTSup 124 (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1996), esp. 177–203; Catrin H. Williams, I am He: The Interpretation of ʾAni Hûʾ in Jewish and Early Christian Literature, WUNT 2.113 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2000), esp. 255–308; John Ronning, The Jewish Targums and John’s Logos Theology (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2010), esp. 194–223. 3 Williams, I am He, 256. 4 John Goldingay and David Payne, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Isaiah 40–55, ICC (London: T&T Clark, 2006), 1:150; similarly, Gary Smith, Isaiah 40–66, NAC 15B (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2009), 130. For a nuanced discussion of the relationship between the ʾanî hûʾ sayings and Exod. 3:14, see Sean M. McDonough, YHWH at Patmos: Rev. 1:4 in Its Hellenistic and Early Jewish Setting, WUNT 2.107 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1999), 138–41.