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I'm going to bring out a couple of points that are easy to grasp. On more than one occasion, Jesus says "I am" (John 4:26; 6:20; 8:24,28; 13:19; 18:5-6,8), and most of these verses fit into what is called idiomatic Greek expressions and make perfect sense in context. Now here's the rub----"someone at some point noticed that this perfectly ORDINARY combination of the first person pronoun 'I' and the present tense verb 'am' just happens to read the 'same' as what God says at Exodus 3:14!!" Lo and behold! Never mind that the rendering of John 8:58 is pitifully sloppy, and the expression at Exodus 3:14 doesn't even read "I Am" in many versions!
"I Shall Prove To Be What I Shall Prove To Be" (Ehyeh 'Asher 'Ehyeh) is one rendering.
"I Will Be That I Will Be" is the rendering by Leeser.
"I Will Become Whatsoever I Please," the rendering by Rotherham.
So how do those translations fit John 8:58? Whoever thought that one up didn't know too much.
The correct translation of John 8:58 is what The Living Bible offers:
"The absolute truth is that I was in existence before Abraham was ever born!"
And Moses said to HaElohim (i.e. all the Gods), Behold, I shall come to the sons of Israel and say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you; and they will say to me, What is His name? What shall I say to them? And Elohim said to Moses, I AM THAT I AM; and He said, You shall say this to the sons of Israel, I AM has sent me to you. And Elohim said to Moses again, You shall say this to the sons of Israel, Yahweh, The Elohim of your fathers, The Elohim of Abraham, The Elohim of Isaac, and The Elohim of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My Name forever, and this is My memorial from generation to generation. (Exo 3.13 - 15)
Interestingly, The NT ‘I Am’ statements have their genesis in the OT.
Observe that Moses speaks to ‘HaElohim’ (literally, all the Gods), named as the singular Yahweh.
This is borne-out by the three successive ‘I Am’ statements, and the quintessential thrice repetition of The God of Abraham, The God of Isaac, and The God of Jacob – clearly indicating The One Triune God.