I am He
The Interpretation of 'ANI HU' in Jewish and Early Christian Literature
by Catrin H Williams
New Testament scholars often claim that the interpretative key to Jesus’ pronouncement of the words ego eimi in the Gospel of John lies in the use of this phrase in the Septuagint of Isaiah to render the Hebrew expression ‘ani hu’ . While previous studies have paid particular attention to the New Testament usage of ego eimi , Catrin H. Williams sets this evidence within a broader framework by offering a detailed analysis of the interpretation of ‘ani hu’ in biblical and Jewish traditions. She examines the role of ‘ani hu’ as a succinct expression of God’s claim to exclusiveness in the Song of Moses and the poetry of Deutero-Isaiah, and attempts to reconstruct its later interpretative history from the substantial body of evidence preserved in the Aramaic Targumim and several midrashic traditions. Biblical ‘ani hu’ declarations are cited by rabbinic authorities as proof-texts against a variety of heretical claims, particularly the ‘two powers’ heresy, but new ‘ani hu’ formulations, not necessarily confined to divine speeches, are also attested. In the concluding chapters Catrin H. Williams considers the role of ‘ani hu’ when seeking to interpret Jesus’ utterance of the words ego eimi in Synoptic and Johannine traditions.
- By (author) Catrin H Williams
Other Titles in this Series
Teaching through Song in Antiquity
Didactic Hymnody among Greeks, Romans, Jews, and Christians
Volume 302
The Baptismal Episode as Trinitarian Narrative
Proto-Trinitarian Structures in Mark's Conception of God
Volume 535
Veranderte Endzeitvorstellungen
Die Rezeption der Offenbarung des Johannes beim ersten christlich-lateinischen Dichter Commodian
Volume 504
The Use of Scripture in the Apocryphon of John
A Diachronic Analysis of the Variant Versions
Volume 441
Jesus Tradition in the Apostolic Fathers
Their Explicit Appeals to the Words of Jesus in Light of Orality Studies
Volume 311
Scribal Habits and Theological Influences in the Apocalypse
The Singular Readings of Sinaiticus, Alexandrinus, and Ephraemi
Volume 218
Paul and Sacrifice in Corinth
Rethinking Paul's Views on Gentile Cults in 1 Corinthians 8 and 10
Volume 623
The Formative Stratum of the Sayings Gospel Q
Reconsidering Its Extent, Message, and Unity
Volume 545
Similar Books
Athanasius of Alexandria, Epistula ad episcopos Aegypti et Libyae
Old Slavonic Version and English Translation
Volume 261
Cyril of Alexandria’s Christological Exegesis
Explorations of Partitive Exegesis in the Dialogues on the Trinity
Volume 70
Epiphanies of the Divine in the Septuagint and the New Testament
Fifth International Symposium of the Corpus Judaeo-Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti (CJHNT), 14-17 May 2015, Nottingham
Extracanonical Traditions and the Holy Land
Texts, Rituals, and Material Culture in Late Antique Palestine
From Joseph to Jesus
The Joseph Narrative as a Compositional Template from Old Greek Esther to the Gospel of Luke
Volume 125
Paradise Lost in Transmission
The Return to Eden in the Apocalypse of Peter within Its Ethiopic and Early Christian Contexts
Punning in Odd or Elegant Constructions in Jeremiah
The Convergence of Linguistics, Rhetoric, and Textuality in the Hebrew Text of Jeremiah
Shame in the Worlds of the Hebrew Bible and Akkadian Texts
A Linguistic Study and Its Implications
Volume 33
Tabernacle, Table, Ark, and Text
Richard of Saint Victor on the Interpretation of Scripture
Volume 67
The Anglo-Norman Bible’s Books of Kings, a Critical Edition
(BL Royal 1 C III, fols 234r-274v)
Volume 37
The Biblical Tale of Judah and Tamar in Fourteenth-Century Iran
A Judeo-Persian Versified Account by Shāhīn with Scholarly Edition, Annotated Translation and Persian Transliteration
Volume 94, 951
The Body
Lived, Cultured, Adorned: Essays on Dress and the Body in the Bible and Ancient Near East in Honor of Nili S. Fox
The Compositional History of the Book of Kings
An Analysis of the Evaluative Frameworks in 1 Kings 14–2 Kings 25
The Discourse of Rites
Shaping and Reshaping the (Counter-)Priestly Rituals Conducted Outside the Tabernacle
