Abraham, maybe 1800 BC or thereabouts, could ‘see’ the day of Jesus the Christ of God, and rejoice. Of this, Jesus could say, “Before Abraham was born, I am”. So this day of Jesus was knowable, foreseeable, a matter of rejoicing, before Abraham was born. There is much prophesying of it in a book of prophecy claiming to come from as far back as the time of a patriarchal leader long, long before Abraham: the Book of Enoch, part of which the book attributes to Noah, and his own ancestors Enoch and Methuselah. This would put its origins around 3000 to 2800 BC. So yes, given belief in this history of prophecy concerning the Christ and his wondrous day, the times in which people were rejoicing at it was happening even three thousand years before Jesus spoke of it. So indeed, before Abraham was born, and even before Noah was born, Jesus is. He could speak of his existence in this regard in the continuous present tense, as spanning, even transcending, the ages. We should not go beyond his truly intended meaning, as many do when referring to his words of this in John 8. His day was affecting those blessed with a spirit by which they could ‘see’ by the joy it was giving them, even thousands of years before he came in the biological flesh. Because of this he could use the phrase “I am”. Let’s just leave it at that, when looking at this saying of Jesus. Yes, apostles of Jesus later wrote more about what many call the preexistence of Jesus, as of it being a matter of rejoicing but also a matter considered divine in itself. (John 1, 1 Corinthians 8, Philippians 2, Colossians 1). But it can be pushed too far and distorted to the spiritual detriment of those doing so (2 Peter 3). Peter notably stopped short of such distortion of this when he wrote of how the prophets by the spirit of the Christ were inspired to prophesy the day of Jesus, and how Jesus was manifested in the flesh, without implying much else at all about his existence before that manifestation. In 1 Peter 1:10–20 where he writes about this most clearly, Peter is remarkably restrained. So we too should exercise similar restraint, respecting that Peter was one of those whose hearts Jesus, after being resurrected, opened to all the scriptures concerning himself.
