Was Jesus here claiming to be Ehyeh (First person of the Hebrew word Yahweh) of Exodus 3:14, as many claim? Actually, this idea has to be read into what Jesus said.

Nevertheless, instead of claiming equality Jesus humbly and plainly said: "My Father is greater than I am" (John 14:28). The apostles taught similarly, e.g., Paul plainly states that "the head of Christ is God [the Supreme, or Mightiest One]." --1 Corinthians 11:3.

How could Jesus come in the name of Yahweh and speak for Yahweh if he were Yahweh? -- Deuteronomy 18:15,18,19 [See Acts 3:22; 7:37; John 8:28; 12:49,50; 17:8]; Psalm 118:26; Matthew 21:9; 23:39; Mark 11:9,10; Luke 13:35; 19:38; John 5:25.

Some have replied that when the prophecy states that he would speak in the name of Yahweh, that this proves that Jesus is Yahweh. This line of reasoning would also make Jesus his own Father, since Jesus said he came in his Father's name. (John 5:43) But it is important to stay by God's Word in this matter. If one is the person in whose name he comes, then this would make every true prophet who came in the name of Yahweh to be Yahweh. (Deuteronomy 18:22; 1 Chronicles 21:19; James 5:10) This would also make the ten men who spoke in the name of David to be David himself. (1 Samuel 25:5) This would make the Levites Yahweh. (Deuteronomy 10:8; 18:5,7) Additionally, this would make David Yahweh, since he came in the name of Yahweh. (1 Samuel 17:45; 2 Samuel 6:18; 1 Chronicles 16:2) This would make Jeremiah the same being as Yahweh, since Jeremiah spoke in his name. (Jeremiah 20:9) Likewise this would make the church Jesus, for they are to gather in his name. (Matthew 18:20) Similarly with other scriptures that speak of Jesus' followers doing their works in the name of Jesus -- does this make them Jesus? (Matthew 18:5; Mark 9:37,39,41; 16:17; Luke 9:48) From all of these examples it should be clear that to come in the name of someone does not mean that you are that being; indeed the scriptures listed above show that when one comes in the name of a person, he comes as representative of that person. Thus when Jesus says he came in the name of Yahweh, his Father, he shows that he is not Yahweh.

Jesus sits at the right hand of his God, Yahweh. We have no reason to add to the scriptures that Jesus is one person of Yahweh sitting that right hand of another person of Yahweh. -- Psalm 110:1; Matthew 22:43-45; 26:64; Mark 12:35-37; Luke 20:41-44; Acts 2:34; 7:55: 1 Corinthians 15:25; Ephesians 1:20-22; Romans 8:34; Colossians 3:1; Hebrews 1:3,13; 8:1; 10:12,13; 12:2; 1 Peter 3:22.

That it is Yahweh who is identified as the Father can be seen from reading Ephesians 1:17-22. Thus the above scriptures give proof that the Father=Yahweh as well as that Jesus is Not Yahweh. The Father (Yahweh) is the only true God [Supreme, or Mightiest One] and Jesus is the only Lord [Master] over the church as he was made so by his Father, Yahweh, who sent him. -- John 17:1,3; Acts 2:36; 1 Corinthians 8:4; Galatians 4:4; John 8:42.

Since Jesus plainly declared that he was not his God and Father who sent him -- Yahweh, we need to look closely at John 8:58 to see what Jesus was saying. In the scriptures just before we read that the Jews were emphasizing, after Jesus told them they needed to be set free from the bondage of sin, that they never were in bondage, that Abraham was their great patriarch. In reply Jesus told them that therefore they should do the works of Abraham. When Jesus told them: "Abraham rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it, and was glad," they replied that He was not yet 50 years old, and how therefore could he have seen Abraham (who died over 2,000 years previously)? He then let them know that his existence was not limited to the years he was spending on earth. Jesus told them that his existence was unbroken from eons before Abraham's day, and was unbroken thereafter. Hence he could truly say: "Before Abraham was, I am." Now if he had said he "was", he would have implied that he existed, but no longer exists.

Regarding this, Paul Johnson [a Hebrew and Greek scholar] states in his book Creation: "Please notice the expression, `I am' -- present tense. Why this? The expression is a Hebrew idiom and is used to express a non-terminated existence, i.e., the existence that Jesus as the Logos had before Abraham lived had never up to the time of His speaking in this text come to an end." -- page 45.

The Greek present tense, used in a past setting, relates to an event in the past before the event spoken of. In English, we we would say something like: "I have/had been existing since before Abraham was." The only way to express such an idea in the Koine Greek was to use the present tense verb in a past setting. Jesus was saying that he had an existence before Abraham was. But he did not say that he was Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He claimed the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as his God, whom he worshiped. The idea that Jesus was saying that he was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob has to be added to and read into what Jesus said.

Jesus does not say in John 8:58 that his name is EGO EIMI, EHYEH, HO OHN, or any other name, as does the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in Exodus 3:14. Jesus is not talking about his "name" in John 8:58; he is talking about his existence "before Abraham was" -- an existence in the past.

Many trinitarian scholars have recognized that Jesus was indeed speaking of his existence at a time before Abraham, and have rendered John 8:58 accordingly. For instance, Kenneth L. McKay writes: "When used with an expression of either past time or extent of time with past implications (but not in past narrative . . .), the present tense signals an activity begun in the past and continuing to the present time" (Kenneth L. McKay, A New Syntax of the Verb in New Testament Greek: An Aspectual Approach [New York: Lang, 1994], p. 41). McKay gives examples of this kind usage in the Greek: Luke 13:7, 15:29; John 14:9; Acts 27:33; as well as John 8:58. --

The following is from The Expository Times, 1996, page 302 by Kenneth Mckay.

"The verb 'to be' is used differently, in what is presumably its basic meaning of 'be in existence', in John 8:58: prin Abraam genesthai ego eimi, which would be most naturally translated 'I have been in existence since before Abraham was born', if it were not for the obsession with the simple words 'I am'. If we take the Greek words in their natural meaning, as we surely should, the claim to have been in existence for so long is in itself a staggering one, quite enough to provoke the crowd's violent reaction."

The Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry tells us that there are times when the present tense in Greek can be translated into the English perfect tense:

Does the Bible ever legitimately translate the present tense 'ego eimi' into the English perfect tense "I have been."? Yes it does. In John 14:8-9 it says, "Philip said to Him, 'Lord show us the Father, and it is enough for us.' 9Jesus said to him, 'Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how do you say, 'Show us the Father?'" Where Jesus says, "I have been" is in the Greek present tense, 'ego eimi'. Literally, again, this is "I am." Here we have an example of the present being translated into the perfect tense. If we did not do this, then the English would say this in response to Philip's request for Jesus to show them the Father, "I am with you so long...." That is awkward in the English, so translators translate it as "Have I been so long with you...." It is legitimate to do this in some instances where it is warranted.