John’s gospel at the end of chapter 8: Fame and joyful knowledge foreseeing Christ was there in the time of Abraham. Abraham had insight and inspiration and knowledge of prophetic revelations to rejoice when foreseeing and hoping the Christ would come and save Abraham’s descendants from their sins one day. Glorious day. Abraham rejoiced to see it. Jesus proclaimed this. Jesus proclaimed it was him himself who was this one foreseen with joy by Abraham. The Jews could not imagine how this would be possible unless Jesus had been there in the flesh at the time of Abraham. How else could anyone be so famous and glorious unless they physically existed as a living person. Jesus would not be shut down but such lack of knowledge of spirit of prophecy and power of God to make the future known. He restated it. “Before Abraham was born, I am.” It is just a fact, he was saying. Abraham did rejoice in the day of Jesus because the reality of Jesus was spreading joy through all time. Jesus did not need to be physically alive for this. Abraham knew God would provide a lamb for his many children. God could raise the dead to do so. Abraham, in his faith, had hope and love to be assured of it. The Dead Sea Scrolls, Epistle of Jude and the church fathers Tertullian and Justin Martyr also show us that prophecies of Enoch were known among scriptures in Jesus’ time and had been enlightening Noah, Abraham and his descendants from the very distant past as they had been preserved through time. So here too Abraham had access to prophecies of the Christ coming eventually to help the righteous of Abraham’s seed and open eyes. In later times, a year or so after Jesus discussed this view of history and his place in it, the Holy Spirit was given to Jesus’ disciples and by this spirit we know that even Nature’s processes run by the power of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, just as Enoch’s writings taught. Angels before the Flood were helped by this name in running Nature and resisting temptations to quit, knowing that the Christ would one day come and would be righteous, and he would save righteousness from being wiped out by evil, saving from sins. Even from those very ancient times, Jesus is.
