Did Jesus claim Diviity?

There are fundamentally two views of Jesus.  If people talk about him in an academic setting, he is set forth as a great moral teacher.  However in a church setting he is seen as the second person of the Trinity, and co-eternal with God.  Since these two views are incompatible, you are invited to decide for yourself by examining these two innocuous seeming titles Jesus used and asking: Did Jesus claim divinity with these two phrases?


1. "Son of Man"
2. "I am"

1. The Son of Man
The title Jesus used most often for himself was "son of man.  It occurs 81 times in the four gospels.  Yes, people keep track of  things like this.  Here is an example.

For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.
--Mark 10:45

  At first it may seem that this is a way of expressing humility, but it isn't.  You may have noticed that Jesus most often used this title in the third person, leaving some vagueness as to whom he is referring to.  However at the end of his ministry there is less vagueness:

Judas, betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?
--Luke 22:48

To whom else could Jesus be referring to other than himself?  Finally Jesus leaves on ambiguity: 

...the high priest asked him, and said unto him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?62 And Jesus said, I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.63 Then the high priest rent his clothes, and saith, What need we any further witnesses?
64 Ye have heard the blasphemy: what think ye? And they all condemned him to be guilty of death.
--Mark 14:61-64


Now we finally see that the "Son of Man" is a reference to Daniel 7:13.  which describes  how he will be given an everlasting kingdom and glory, something normally reserved for God Himself.  This is why the high priest declared his answer blasphemous.


13 I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.14 And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.
--Daniel 7:13-14

2. I Am

John's gospel highlights at least eight times when Jesus used the special phrase "I am", or "ego eimi" in the original Greek.  An example of this is found in John 8:58:

58 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.
--John 8:58

The way this verse is translated in the King James version  (before Abraham was, I am), is grammatically awkward. It would read smoother if it read I existed, or I was.  However, the translators chose to preserve the peculiar nature of the phrase in the original language. 

It is  not widely known that the Jews in Jesus' day were not as familiar with Hebrew as they were with Greek.  Therefore their scriptures were most often read from a translation called the Septuagint"

The Septuagint uses this exact phrase in Exodus 3:14 to translate God's response to Moses, when asked for God's name in the burning bush passage.  God's response:

14 And God said unto Moses, I Am (ego eimi) That I Am: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I Am hath sent me unto you.
--Exodus 3:14