Note 23 at Jn. 8:58: Jesus didn't seek to clarify the Jews' misunderstanding of His previous statements. Instead, he made a new statement that anyone who would not accept that Jesus was God in the flesh (1 Tim. 3:16) could not possibly understand. "Before Abraham was, I am." He not only said that He existed before Abraham, but He was again associating Himself with the great "I AM" statement of Exodus 3:14 (see note 5 at Jn. 8:24, p. 230). This statement could leave no doubt that Jesus was claiming deity in the highest sense of the word.