JOHN 14.4-6: And you know the way to where I am going.” (5) Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” (6) Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (ESV)
I would like to continue the discussion of Jesus as the subject of the sentence of verse six wherein Jesus spoke, “I Am”, or “I Myself Am.” In the Septuagint Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament conducted in the third century B.C., the translators use the words, “ego eimi” where God revealed His name to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM” in Exodus 3.14. It is literally translated as, “I AM THE ONE BEING”. At the end of the verse God spoke His name in the shortened form of “I AM”, and in this case it is literally, “THE ONE BEING”.
“Ego” is the pronoun for the word “I”, and “eimi” is the verb of being that is grammatically linked to the pronoun “I”, which is translated “I AM”. The pronoun is not actually needed to express the thought “I AM”, so the full expression is interpreted as intending to communicate an identical meaning resulting in: “I MYSELF AM”.
The Jewish leaders during Jesus’ time on earth understood very well what Jesus meant when He spoke to them saying, “Ego eimi”. It was in keeping with the translation and usage in the Septuagint and they knew Jesus was asserting to them that He is God.
In the Gospel of John, chapter 8, verse 48 and following, Jesus encountered opposition from the Jewish leaders. And at verse 58 Jesus said to the Jewish leaders, “Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was, I am” (ESV). Jesus used the expression, “Ego eimi” and it infuriated these leaders to the extent that they picked up rocks with the intent of stoning Jesus. Jesus escaped, but it does indicate that they knew very well that Jesus was asserting to them that He is God, using the same words that the Septuagint used in Exodus 3.14. Jesus is God in the same way that God the Father is God.
There is a great discussion of Jesus using “Ego eimi” in the introductory section of the International Critical Commentary for the Gospel According to St. John, written by J. H. Bernard, found in volume 1, at pages cxvii to cxxi.