I am (biblical term)

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The

• I am the Bread of Life (John 6:35)
• I am the Light of the World (John 8:12)
• I am the Door (John 10:9)
• I am the Good Shepherd (John 10:11,14)
• I am the Resurrection and the Life (John 11:25)
• I am the Way and the Truth and the Life (John 14:6)
• I am
  the Vine
  (John 15:1,5)

Without predicate nominative

"I am" is also used without a predicate nominative, which is not very common in

and not Greek grammar.

With predicate nominative

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There are other times the phrase is used in the New Testament, but with a predicate nominative and/or adjectives in between ἐγώ and εἰμι: a

ἐγώ εἰμι also occurs without an explicit or implicit predicate nominative in the Septuagint, but instead either with a prepositional phrase such as in "μὴ ἀντὶ θεοῦ ἐγώ εἰμι ..." ("Am I in place of God ...") Genesis 30:2, or with a predicative clause such as in "πάροικος καὶ παρεπίδημος ἐγώ εἰμι μεθ' ὑμῶν" ("As a foreigner and a sojourner I am with you") in Genesis 23:4, or with the idiomatic meaning 'It is I' such as in "καὶ εἶπεν Ἰωαβ ἀκούω ἐγώ εἰμι" ("And Joab said: I hear; it is I.") in 2 Samuel 20:17.^[7]

It has been suggested that the unique expression of the Tetragrammaton יהוה (YHWH) is a verbal cognate noun derived from היה (hayah), the Hebrew copulative otherwise known as the verb 'to be'. Translations often render this word in compliance with the tradition of the Septuagint, "Lord". Later^[when?] it has been pointed with the vowels of the word Elohim and transcribed as "Jehovah". Finally the Tetragrammaton was vocalized as Yahweh. But often found in apposition, if not in construct state (there is no way of telling) with elohim, it suggests "the being" or the "I AM" of God.

In Christian philosophy

The philosopher Joseph de Torre, commenting on the philosophical implications of "I am" as the name of God, wrote:

Aristotle conceived God as the First Mover but outside the world, because of his defective concept of "act", which is more physical than metaphysical. What St. Thomas did was to take this concept and raise it to a metaphysical plane, and then he combined it with Plato's concept of "participation". But he did all this under the guiding light of the faith, since it is the Bible that describes God as HE WHO IS (Exodus, 3): he saw that God is the fullness of being, the very Act of Being, the perfection of being, the subsistent act of being; and everything else is a participation in the act of being, which must be created by God "out of nothing", since God cannot share His infinite act of being.^[8]

See also

• I AM (book)
• I Am that I Am
• Ego eimi
• Holy Name of Jesus
• Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament
• The Thunder, Perfect Mind
• Dinanukht

Further reading

• The "I am" of the fourth Gospel by Philip B. Harner
  ISBN 0-8006-3060-2
  , 1970