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answer , that as bis mission was settled in the Divine counsels before Abra * ham ' s time ; it : might well have been prophetically made known to him * The interpretations which suppose Christ to assert his eternal independefik existence , or at least his real and personal existence , before the time of Abraham , by no means so well suit the 56 th verse , because it is not there said that Abraham saw or conversed with Christ , but that he saw his day , the circumstances of his coming , which , whether Christ existed previously or
not , could only have been seen by the Patriarch prophetically and with the eye of faith . Thus strong in the connexion , we proceed to examine the words . In the translation of the first clause , ^ p h * Afyaap . yeveo-Oxi , " Before Abraham was born , " we agree with Mr . Bloomfield , and with most commentators , in opposition to Socinus and his followers , and we have already given our reasons . - We pass to the important words kyd > el / ju . Here there can be no allusion to Exod . iii . 14 , "I am that I am , " as many suppose ; because in the Hebrew the verb is future , and the expression ought to be understood as a declaration not of eternal existence but of faithfulness in the
performance of what had been promised to the people of Israel . It seems to be an application of the name Jehovah , which may have been originally used to express eternal existence , to the particular circumstances of the ? people of Israel . The LXX . did , indeed , understand the expression of eternal independent existence , rendering it iyu etui o av , whence it is nearly certain that if our Lord had intended to convey that sense , we should have found the same words in the Greek gospel . But the true sense of the words iyec zlfju is sufficiently determined by their occurrence twice in the same
chapter , and altogether nine times in the gospels , where it is universally agreed that there is an ellipsis , and that we must understand " the Christ . " Ch . viii . 24 , " If ye believe not that I am" our translators supply he , meaning the Christ , as the general sense suggests , though neither this nor any other title had been mentioned in the preceding verses : " Ye shall die in your sins ; " and in ver . 28 , *• When ye have lift up the Son of Man , then
shall ye know that I am Ae , and that I do nothing of myself , but as my Father hath taught me I speak these things . " There can be no possible reason for rendering iyd > dyu in these places , and in ver . 58 , differently . It , at least , cannot be denied , that to render the words in the same manner in both places is the most natural method , and not to , be departed from without some strong and special grounds . We , therefore , assume that I am he , meaning the Messiah * is the correct translation of the words . As to the time expressed by d ^ , Mr . Bloomfield justly remarks , " The present is often so put as to have the force of the imperfect , especially when the thing which is said some time to have been still continuesto be" of which he gives
example s * The application we should make of this remark is somewhat dif- * ferent from our author ' s , We understand " before the birth of Abraham I have been appointed to that office which I am now filling—I have been as I mow am , the Messiah . " Mr . Bloomfield refers to Is . xliii . 13 , and it is an important passage , which might remove all doubt respecting the meaning of our Lord ' s words . We should keep in mind in this inquiry , as Dr . J . P .
Smith has observed , *< that Jesus , speaking in . the dialect of his ountry , most probably wsed no verb at alL The idiom of ths Hebraic languages would have required I he , as it ogcurs in several passages of the Old Testament ; Kin Otf Deut . xxxii . 39 ; Is . xli . 4 , xliii , 10 , 13 , xlvi . 4 , xlriii . 12 . In these passages the translation of the LXX . is the very phrase , iyd t dt * H I am . " ( Smith ' s Script . Test . Vol . II . p . 169 , and note . ) We add , that in all these places the common and unquestioned translation is , «• I
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Review . —Bhotnfield * s Recemio Synoptica Annotatxoms Sacra * 745 m ^
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voii . i . 3 c
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1827, page 745, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1801/page/33/
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