
Jean-Léon Gérôme (d. 1904)
(Please click to enlarge.)
It’s difficult not to see a reference to Exodus 3:14 in the otherwise curious present tense “I am” (ἐγώ εἰμί ) of John 8:58.
And understanding that Christ’s Jewish audience understood it that way — and recognized in it an audacious theological claim — certainly helps to explain their reaction.