John 4:25-26 25The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming, the one who is called Christ; when that one comes, he will explain all things to us.” 26Jesus said to her, “I am, the one who speaks to you.”
The Samaritan woman was smart and searching for the truth even though her life had been in chaos. It is difficult to know how much of Jesus’ deep teaching she understood, but her curiosity was peeked, and so she kept up the conversation. Some of her thinking was influenced by the local and traditional Samaritan folk theology. Jesus was correcting this and pointing her to the truth, which was found in himself. Verse 25 gives the Hebrew letters for Messiah transliterated into Greek and then gives the Greek equivalent Christ. John may have included this note as the narrator for the sake of his readers. Modern translations indicate this by using parentheses.
Somehow, the woman had heard the predictions of a coming Messiah. Even though the Samaritans had a narrower selection of writings they accepted as sacred and inspired, various teachings and traditions had circulated throughout the areas of Judea, Samaria, and Gailee. Many people lived with a sense of expectation that God would do something new. They hoped God would send a special person to explain everything and restore Israel as a nation. Like many people today, the Samaritans had a sense of hope for something better in the future. They believed in the God of Abraham but were missing God’s full revelation. They were looking for answers but did not know where to find them.
Jesus’ response to her was simple but profound. Most English translations miss the significance of what Jesus said. Jesus’ answer begins with two words in Greek, I am (egō eimi). Translations often change the simple translation into “I am he,” but the “he” part is not in the Greek text. John records a number of “I am” statements from Jesus. Some of those, like in this verse, lack any predicate and are simply two words, a pronoun and a verb. The pronoun is not needed with the verb in Greek because all Greek verbs assume a subject, in this case, in the first person singular. The pronoun is added on purpose and for emphasis. Other “I am” statements in John will include a predicate in the form of a metaphor or description (for example, “I am the bread of life”; 6:35).
The uniqueness of this grammatical construction has led interpreters to conclude that Jesus (as recorded by John) said this phrase on purpose. Immediately, our minds are taken back to when Moses encountered God in the burning bush in Exodus 3. When Moses asked who God was, God answered, “I am” (אֶֽהְיֶ֖ה, Exodus 3:14). From that point onwards, God is known as the “I am.” God’s sacred name Yahweh is related to the Hebrew words for “I am.” The first words God spoke to Moses in Exodus 3:14 in the Septuagint, translated as “I am,” were the same that Jesus used here: egō eimi. Taking all the evidence together, it becomes clear that Jesus is claiming to be the “I am” on earth. The woman was expecting God to do something great, but the incarnation of God was right before her. The answer she was looking was standing right before her.
For older posts, click here.