Irenaeus07
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Faith: Orthodox Catechumen
Jurisdiction: Greek Orthodox
Posts: 204
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« Reply #2 on: July 10, 2008, 12:10:11 PM » |
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I have the Gospel of John - Beholding the Glory by him, and I think it is pretty good.
There are things in this Commentary that I could not find in The Explanation of The Holy Gospel According to John by Blessed Theophylact. I'll give an example,
Jesus said to them, "Amen amen, I say to you before Abraham came to be, I Am." (John 8:58)
My personal question that I had, is this same I Am (in the Greek New Testament) is the same I Am in the Septuagint? Blessed Theophylact does NOT really say that, because he assume you can read greek and have a copy of the Septuagint. While Lawrence R. Farley does not assume that you know Greek, and explains that the Greek I Am (in the Greek New Testament) is the same greek I Am in the Septuagint.
Lawrence R. Farley says, "Christ has one last claim for them, like the others, it was prefaced with a solemn, Amen, Amen, I say to you. They could be sure of this. Not only was He greater and older than Abraham. Before Abraham even came to be, He Himself eternally existed.
The Greek for Jesus claim "I Am" is ego eimi. In other contexts , the words ego eimi could mean no more than, "I am the one" -- compare its use by Christ in 4:26; 8:24; and and by the blind man in 9:9. In this context, however, it clearly means more, since Christ's hearers responded by trying to stone Him for alleged blasphemy.
It is, in fact, a reference to the Divine Name of God, which He revealed to Moses at the burning bush in Exodus 3. At that time, Yahweh was asked by Moses what His Name was, and He responded, "I am that I am" -- in the Greek Setpuagint, ego eimi o on (Ex. 3:14) -- shortened in that verse, "I Am - Greek o on. By declaring to the Jews, "I am," Christ was claiming nothinbg less than that He was the One who revealed Himself to Moses at the burning Bush, that He was one with the Father, the eternal I Am. No wonder the Jews took up strones to cast at Him for what they thought to be the highest blasphemy. His hour, however was not yet, and so He was out of the Temple safe and sound after His foes has dispersed.
The controversy after those festal days have reached its climax with the Jews ready to lynch Him, hearing and rejecting His highest claims.
We may add a final word about the Greek words indicating the Lord's divinity. The words denoting the Name of Yahweh in Exidus 3:14 in the Greek were, as we have seen, o on -- literally "the being or He who is." The letters are 0, the Greek letter omicron, meaning "the," followed by on, that is the Greek letters omega nu, meaning "being," a particple of the word eimi, "to be." It is these three Greek letters which adorn the head of Christ in our Orthodox icons, looking like "o wv" THese letters in the icons refer to the Divine name in Exodus 3:14, as rendered in the Greek Septuagint."
(The Gospel of John, Beholding the Glory by Lawrence R Farley)
My Comment:
I think the commentary is good. And highly recommend it.
In fact, I just order his commentary on Romans. And I look forward to reading it.
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