“... before Abraham was, I am”

(Wednesday, April 24, 2013, 3:58 AM)

In the Gospel of John, we read:

₅₂ Then the Judeans responded, “Now we know you’re possessed by a demon! Both Abraham and the prophets died, and yet you say, ‘If anyone obeys my teaching, he will never experience death.’ ₅₃ You aren’t greater than our father Abraham who died, are you? And the prophets died too! Who do you claim to be?” ₅₄ Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory is worthless. The one who glorifies me is my Father, about whom you people say, ‘He is our God.’ ₅₅ Yet you do not know him, but I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know him, and I obey his teaching. ₅₆ Your father Abraham was overjoyed to see my day, and he saw it and was glad.”

  ₅₇ Then the Judeans replied, “You are not yet fifty years old! Have you seen Abraham?” ₅₈ Jesus said to them, “I tell you the solemn truth, before Abraham came into existence, I am!” ₅₉ Then they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out from the temple area. (John 8:52-59)

This is what a highly respected theologian says:

“To say that Jesus is “before” him [Abraham] is not to lift him out of the ranks of  humanity but to assert his unconditional precedence. To take such  statements at the level of “flesh” so as to infer, as “the Jews” do  that, at less than fifty, Jesus is claiming to have lived on this earth  before Abraham (8:52 and 57), is to be as crass as Nicodemus who  understands rebirth as an old man entering his mother’s womb a second  time (3:4).” -- J. A. T. Robinson, The Priority of John, 1987, p. 384.

Jesus existed, somehow, “before Abraham came into existence”. The question is, HOW?

w. Some claim "in the Father's mind", from eternity;

x. Some claim, before creation, even before the beginning of time, BUT as an "inferior deity" (deuteros theos);

y. Trinitarians claim, as a "pre-existing, co-eternal, co-equal person".

z. I claim, as God's Eternal Logos, an Essential Attribute of God.

w and x are, respectively, inadequate (w) and incompatible with scriptural monotheism (x).
I do not agree with y, because I don't think it is objectively attested in the Scripture, but, even more so, because I believe, and I have amply argued, that it is incompatible EITHER with the reality of the Resurrection, OR with the unchangeability of God.