Lexical Exigency

I once found myself wishing, "Wouldn't it be nice if the ancient patriarchs had left behind a dictionary, one outlining what certain terms meant for them?" The theological implications would be immeasurable.

But let us assume that they had made "the great dictionary of theological terminology". Where would they have derived their entries? They would have based each determination on usage. Usage is definition, that is, established patterns lay the boundaries of meaning and even allow for inspirational expansions.

Take for instance "soul". In modern English usage "soul" is used to refer to the 'spirit', but also to rhythmic music that at once states present art while connecting it with deep historical precedent; soul even refers to food that expresses the same as soul music, but as a culinary manifestation; soul even denotes charisma or an uncommonly precocious attitude of wisdom.

Let us take a journey with the word "soul" and see where it leads. We will reference no dictionary, but will instead look to usage as the delineation.

And the LORD GOD formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. (Genesis 2:7)

In the records as they have been transmitted to us, this is the first mention Moses made of "soul". In translation this soul is modified by an adjective, "a living soul", but it Hebrew "nefesh" 'soul' is juxtaposed to "khaya" 'life', "soul life" or 'soul of life'. Humanity's first was born into life as a soul.

That is the mention of the term, but its delineation then follows.

And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. (Genesis 2:23)

Now we have a definition: "a soul is a life that has both flesh and bones." But no definition would be entirely worthy without examples of current and/or historical usage.

Abram: Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister: that it may be well with me for thy sake; and my soul shall live because of thee. (Genesis 12:13)

Lot: Behold now, this city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one: Oh, let me escape thither, (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live. (Genesis 19:20)

Isaac: And make me savoury meat, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat; that my soul may bless thee before I die. (Genesis 27:4)

Jacob: And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. (Genesis 32:30)

These examples of the usage of "my soul" demonstrate that "flesh and bones" as well as "alive" are correct denotations. The examples also offer us our first connotation: "subject to death, mortal", insofar as Abram feared he would be killed unless Sarai covered for him, Lot feared death unless he fled from an imminent destruction, Isaac was at an advanced age and sensed his impending demise, and Jacob experienced God face to face and lived to tell the tale.

The power of a definition is that such a description allows us to discern meanings we otherwise might not have taken notice of. Let us first consider the issue of the Tabernacle, the portable temple that Ancient Israel was commanded to make shortly after being led out of bondage in Egypt:

And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying, 

And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.

And thou shalt put the mercy seat above the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee.

And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel. (Exodus 25:1,8,21,22)

In these passages we read of the instance when Jehovah, The LORD, commanded Moses to have Israel make a sanctuary unto Him, the Tabernacle, and Jehovah explained that He would be above the mercy seat and commune with Israel giving commandments unto them.

Now let us see what the power of a good usage-based definition is. In the next citation Jehovah will describe a future intention of His with regards to His "Tabernacle":

And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you.

And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people.

I am Jehovah your Elohim [the LORD your GOD], which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen; and I have broken the bands of our yoke, and made you go upright. (Leviticus 26:11-13)

Did we see it? Did we catch it? Initially Jehovah said he would commune with Israel from above the mercy seat from within the Tabernacle, the portable sanctuary. However, Jehovah then spoke of a future time when He would set His Tabernacle among Israel and, said He, "My Soul shall not abhor you [Israel]." What? Wait! Rewind! According to the author, Moses, "soul" means that the life has flesh and bones and is subject to mortality. Jehovah has now used "Tabernacle" to refer to a time when He would be housed in flesh and bones and, as Moses further recorded, "walk among you", an act that requires legs of flesh and bones. But furthermore, by so specifying "soul", Jehovah as much as stated He would be subject to mortality.

Now I would draw attention to a curious pronouncement made by an angel to King Benjamin, circa 124 B.C.:

For behold, the time cometh, and is not far distant, that with power, the Lord Omnipotent who reigneth, who was, and is from all eternity to all eternity, shall come down from heaven among the children of men, and shall dwell in a tabernacle of clay, and shall go forth amongst men, working mighty miracles, such as healing the sick, raising the dead, causing the lame to walk, the blind to receive their sight, and the deaf to hear, and curing all manner of diseases.

And he shall cast out devils, or the evil spirits which dwell in the hearts of the children of men.

And lo, he shall suffer temptations, and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can suffer, except it be unto death; for behold, blood cometh from every pore, so great shall be his anguish for the wickedness and the abominations of his people.

And he shall be called Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father of heaven and earth, the Creator of all things from the beginning; and his mother shall be called Mary.

And lo, he cometh unto his own, that salvation might come unto the children of men, even through faith on his name; and even after all this they shall consider him a man, and say that he hath a devil, and shall sourge him, and shall crucify him.

And he shall rise the third day from the dead; and behold, he standeth to judge the world; and behold, all these things are done that a righteous judgment might come upon the children of men. (Mosiah 3:5-10, The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ)

The Book of Mormon prophet, King Benjamin, reported that an angel from the Lord declared this message to him, a message of what The LORD Omnipotent was going to do at that time that He would "go forth among" (i.e. "walk among") the children of men, susceptible to pain, suffering and even death (mortality). The angel used a curious expression, "in a tabernacle of clay". Though "tabernacle of clay" is a unique expression that appears first in The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, the expression is Biblically accurate, as we saw in Leviticus 26:11-13.

A definition that is derived from usage and is replete with examples helps not only in the establishing of semantic parameters but also in revealing information that could easily be missed otherwise. We saw how Moses, or dare we say God, defined "soul" to be a "life that has flesh and bones". We saw that "soul" connotes "mortality", that is, a soul is first subject to mortality. Then we examined a key example where this understanding of "soul" revealed what The Lord was conveying to ancient Israel, that there would come a time when He, The Lord God Himself, would assume mortality via flesh and bones. This very precept was made explicit by angelic ministration as expounded in The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ. Readers, such as they may be, will be left to decide for themselves what the significance of these passages is, but however one chooses to see them, one thing is clear--they are actually textual.

One last point: Speaking of that future time when He would be housed in mortality The LORD said "my soul shall not abhor you". I put it to the reader that a forceful negation could be used as an emphatic affirmation. This is not unique to ancient Hebrew and is found in modern languages. The interpretation of "my soul shall not abhor you" may well be "in my mortal body I will demonstrate my ardent love for you." This is a direct reference to the Atonement, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, if the reader will have it.

Which Came First, 1829 or 1948?

In Luke, chapter 7:19-22 we read of an interesting encounter between Jesus and the disciples of John the Baptist:

7:19  And John calling unto him two of his disciples sent them to Jesus, saying, Art thou he that should come? or look we for another?
7:20  When the men were come unto him, they said, John Baptist hath sent us unto thee, saying, Art thou he that should come? or look we for another?
7:21  And in that same hour he cured many of their infirmities and plagues, and of evil spirits; and unto many that were blind he gave sight.
7:22 Then Jesus answering said unto them, Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached.

Many readers have puzzled over Jesus' response. I certainly have wondered myself. The Savior's response would doubtless have been inspired, revealed to Him by His Father. And yet Jesus' response seems a bit tepid by modern expectations.

Craig Evans, a brilliant scholar and defender of faith in Christ and the New Testament record, discusses the significance of the Dead Sea Scrolls in a video published on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIwV__gW5v4, from 10:13 to 16:03. Here Mr. Evans, himself a devout Roman Catholic, points out that Jesus' response to John the Baptist is not considered "Messiah-esque" (my expression) enough by many scholars. However, Mr. Evans adds that a document discovered among the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1948, Scroll 521 from Cave 4, a document now called 4Q521,dating to at least the first century BC, roughly 100 years prior to the New Testament events, sheds light on the context in which the encounter between Jesus and two of John the Baptist's disciples took place:


Scroll 521 from Cave 4 (4Q521)

1:   for the heavens and the earth shall listen to his Christ 
2:   and all that is in them will not turn away from the precepts of the saints. 
3:   Strengthen yourselves, ye who are seeking the Lord, in his service! 
4:   Will ye not in this encounter the Lord, all those who hope in their heart? 
5:   For the Lord shall consider the pious, and call the righteous by name, 
6:   and his Spirit shall hover upon the poor, and he will renew the faithful with his strength/priesthood.
7:   For he shall honour the pious upon the throne of an eternal kingdom,
8:   freeing prisoners, giving sight to the blind, straightening out the twisted.
9:   And forever shall I cling to those who hope, and in his mercy...
10: and the fruit of...
11: And the Lord will perform marvellous acts such as have not existed, just as he said,
12: For he shall heal the badly wounded and will make the dead live, he will proclaim good news [gospel] to the poor
13: and ... he shall lead the ... and enrich the hungry ... and all ...

The parallels between the record in Luke, dated to the mid first century AD and to 4Q521 dated to (at least) the first century BC are salient. Scroll 4Q521 attests to the beliefs of Jews regarding the coming Messiah. Little wonder that in the second century AD the Pharisees opted not to include this scripture in their canon of scripture that has since come to be known as The Old Testament. Imagine if they had included this passage.

Mr. Craig Evans has written and spoken of the importance of 4Q521 in understanding Luke 7:19-22 and the four Gospels in general. Certainly this discovery of 1948 is incredible not only for its merits as ancient Hebrew writs but for its powerful witness of truths that were commonly held in Judea before and during the time of Jesus Christ, but later rejected precisely because they did testify of Him. There is something curious about 4Q521--it is in Hebrew. If it had been written in the first century BC it might have been composed in Aramaic. Certainly other Dead Sea Scroll documents that testify of the coming "Son of God" are in Aramaic. I wonder if the Hebrew language of 4Q521 may suggest that the document was composed prior to the first century BC.

But I would have the reader consider something else: Before 4Q521 was discovered in 1948, another record came forward in 1829. This passage dates to 124 BC, so it was either immediately concurrent with 4Q521 or it soon came to be concurrent: Mosiah 3:3-11, The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ.

3:   And [the angel from God] said unto me: Awake, and hear the words which I shall tell thee; for behold, I am come to declare unto you the glad tidings of great joy.
4:   For the Lord hath heard thy prayers, and hath judged of thy righteousness, and hath sent me to declare unto thee that thou mayest rejoice; and that thou mayest declare unto they people, that they may also be filled with joy.
5:   For behold, the time cometh, and is not far distant, that with power, the Lord Omnipotent who reigneth, who was, and is from all eternity to all eternity, shall come down from heaven among the children of men, and shall dwell in a tabernacle of clay, and shall go forth amongst men, working mighty miracles, such as healing he sick, raising the dead, causing the lame to walk, the blind to receive their sight, and the deaf to hear, and curing all manner of diseases.
6:   And he shall cast out devils, or the evil spirits which dwell in the hearts of the children of men.
7:   And lo, he shall suffer temptations, and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can suffer, except it be unto death; for behold, blood cometh from every pore, so great shall be his anguish for the wickedness and the abominations of his people.
8:   And he shall be called Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father of heaven and earth, the Creator of all things from the beginning; and his mother shall be called Mary.
9:   And lo, he cometh unto his own, that salvation might come unto the children of men even through faith on his name; and even after all this they shall consider him a man, and say that he hath a devil, and shall scourge him, and shall crucify him.
10: And he shall rise the third day from the dead; and behold, he standeth to judge the world; and behold, all these things are done that a righteous judgment might come upon the children of men.
11: For behold, and also his blood atoneth for the sins of the those who have fallen by the transgression of Adam, who have died not knowing the will of God concerning them, or who have ignorantly sinned.

Notice the similarities between 4Q521 and Mosiah 3:

1. Both date to the 1-2 centuries BC.
2. Both mention "Christ".
3. Both mention "The Lord".
4. Both mention "heaven and earth".
5. Both "good news" and "glad tidings" respectively.
6. Both mention "healing the badly wounded" and "healing the sick/curing all manner of diseases" respectively.
7. Both mention giving sight to the blind.
8. Both mention "faithful" and "faith" respectively.
9. Both mention "strength" and "power" as Priesthood references respectively.
10. Both mention "name".
11. Both mention "hungry" and "hunger" respectively.
12. Both mention "marvellous acts" and  "mighty miracles" respectively.
13. Both mention "heart" and "hearts" respectively.
14. Both mention "eternal" an "eternity" respectively.

And upon closer analysis more similarities are to be discerned, such as "throne" and "reigneth" and "exist" and "was/is". Just as 4Q521 establishes the context for the entire Gospel of Jesus Christ, Mosiah 3 does so to an even greater and more astonishing extent.

As it happens, many critics claim that Joseph Smith merely lifted Gospel themes from The New Testament and ascribed them to a prior period, King Benjamin's angelic visitation in 124 BC. The Holy Ghost, however, bears witness that The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, is true. And if anyone wants a small corroboration from another record that has come out of the earth, there is 4Q521 that bears thematic and terminological relations to Mosiah 3, only they were separated by thousands of miles and thousands of years. Of the two, Mosiah 3 was the first passage to declare that these tidings of great joy existed two centuries before the Savior's ministry. So either Joseph Smith got the sequence of events uncannily correct 119 before the Dead Sea Scrolls discovery manifested through archaeology what the sequence of events had been (a clear understanding of the miracles that were to be performed by the coming Christ), or the witness of the Holy Ghost really is reliable.

However one chooses to see this, one thing is certain: the passages are "actually textual".

The Oldest Gospel and What Jesus Actually Said About Himself

"Read the source texts for yourself."

That is the advice I share with everyone. Why? Because through many hours of personal study I have found that quotations always wrest a passage from its source text. Even a quote that seems unmistakably incriminating (like the ones President Brigham Young is so prone to--BTW: I love President Young, his brusqueness notwithstanding) when read in their whole source discourse convey a totally different understanding. 

In scholarly circles The Gospel of Mark is very popular. "Why Mark?"--you wonder. The Gospel of Mark lacks key witness accounts like the genealogy of Jesus, the Virgin Birth, Jesus' priesthood lineage, His post-Resurrection appearance to the Eleven Apostles, and many deep doctrines on His relationship to His Father. 

Well, those points coupled with the belief that The Gospel of Mark was the first Gospel written are the very reasons many brilliant Biblical scholars love The Gospel of Mark. Many of these scholars argue that Jesus was a normal man, a teacher, who ran afoul of the Romans and was killed by them.  Decades later a narrative was spun, concocted, fabricated, that Jesus was The Son of God, even a God Himself. A leading scholar today has become a veritable celebrity arguing that over a span of 300 years Christians embellished the story of the humble Jewish teacher making Him their God. And such innovative scholars claim that The Gospel of Mark is their proof. Jesus, they argue, never claimed He was God, a God, The Son of The God, Who is God The Father.

There is much I can and would love to say about what Mark witnesses of, but I will focus on the key tenet: Does The Gospel of Mark witness that Jesus declared Himself to be a God or not? Many modern scholars say Mark does not. These erudite men and women are adamant. But what does Mark record?

Always read for yourselves.  The Lord said that the Comforter would bring His words to our remembrance.  The words must be in us already in order for them to be able to "return" to our recollection. 

In Mark 12:26 Jesus quotes Jehovah addressing Moses from the burning brush. The oldest New Testament, The Codex Sinaiticus, (circa 325-360 AD, remember that The New Testament was assembled and bound in the fourth century AD) actually uses the verb "am":

12:26 "...Have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I AM the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?"

That passage is a citation of Exodus 3:6 where Moses sees Elohim and His Angel Son Jehovah, a veritable Joseph Smith-esque First Vision. 

Moses' vision starts out with Moses going to Horeb, the mountain of "The Elohim", meaning the mountain of The God, God The Father (the Hebrews called The Father "The Elohim"). English translators, unaware of the critical importance of the article "the" when used with God routinely omit the article "the" in translation. 

In Exodus 3:2 our King James reads "the angel of Jehovah appeared unto [Moses] in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush". The Hebrew reads:

3:2 "And Angel Jehovah appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush..."

The Father was there as well:

3:4 And when Jehovah saw that [Moses] turned aside to see, Elohim called unto him out of the bush...

The exchange is the most astonishing witness of The Old Testament. Eventually God says, verse 14, "I AM that I AM" is His Name.

Back to Mark: In Mark 12:26 we have, chronologically speaking, the first or oldest New Testament usage of the Holy Deific title "I AM" in a quote of Exodus 3:6, again, in Mark 12:26 (cited above).

But if we say "first" we as much as say that at a minimum there was a "second". Indeed. I turn our attention to the Savior's sham trial before an illegal and illegitimate late night session of the Sanhedrin. Here the highest ranking Jewish ecclesiastical authority, the high priest, asks Jesus point blank if He is The Christ, The Son of The Blessed:

Now, before I cite the Savior's response, let us be clear on what the Jews understood "THE Christ" to mean.

Psalms 2-3 teach this:

Psalm 2, from the Hebrew:

2:2 "...against Jehovah and against His Christ"

2:7 "...Jehovah hath said unto Me: Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten thee."

2:8 "Ask of Me, and I shall give Thee the Gentiles for thine inheritance..."

2:12 "Kiss The Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish from the way...Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him."

3:4 "I cried unto Jehovah with my voice, and He heard me out of His holy hill. Selah."

3:5 "I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for Jehovah sustained Me."

3:7 "Arise, Jehovah; save me, O My God..."

These passages show that The Christ was to be The Son of God, Begotten of God, He was to inherit the Gentiles, Salvation would be dependent on the reliance upon Him, He was to die on a Hill, awake and arise in order to save us.

With that in mind, let us see Mark's witness of the trial's climactic moment:

14:61 "But [Jesus] held His peace, and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him, and said unto Him, Art thou The Christ. The Son of The Blessed?"

14:62 "And Jesus said, I AM; and ye shall see The Son of The Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven."

14:63 "Then the high priest rent his clothes, and saith, What need we further witness?"

Not since Jehovah had spoken to Moses and the other Hebrew prophets had those words "I AM" been uttered by Jehovah, by God, The Son of God, to mankind, in such boldness. To be clear, Jesus declared Himself to be Jehovah, A God, The Son of The God. And Mark recorded this witness shortly after the Resurrection. 

As a side note: Before Mark recorded his witness, Nephi recorded his (Third Nephi, The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ):

9:15 "Behold, I AM Jesus Christ, The Son of God.."

9:18 "I AM the light and the life of the world. I AM Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end."

11:10 "Behold, I AM Jesus Christ..."

11:11 "...I AM the light and the life of the world..."

15:9 "I AM the law, and the life. .."

When we read the records for ourselves we learn how the Hebrew prophets spoke, what those words meant to them, and the actual witness that the prophets bore. 

Jesus is the Christ. Some learned men approach even The Bible as a sealed book that they either cannot read or cannot comprehend. But through faith our eyes may be quickened by The Spirit to see and believe what is hidden from the world, that Jesus is The Christ, that He is The Son of God, and that God The Father lives and is real.

The Oldest Gospel and What Jesus Actually Said About Himself

"Read the source texts for yourself."

That is the advice I share with everyone. Why? Because through many hours of personal study I have found that quotations always wrest a passage from its source text. Even a quote that seems unmistakably incriminating (like the ones President Brigham Young is so prone to--BTW: I love President Young, his brusqueness notwithstanding) when read in their whole source discourse convey a totally different understanding. 

In scholarly circles The Gospel of Mark is very popular. "Why Mark?"--you wonder. The Gospel of Mark lacks key witness accounts like the genealogy of Jesus, the Virgin Birth, Jesus' priesthood lineage, His post-Resurrection appearance to the Eleven Apostles, and many deep doctrines on His relationship to His Father. 

Well, those points coupled with the belief that The Gospel of Mark was the first Gospel written are the very reasons many brilliant Biblical scholars love The Gospel of Mark. Many of these scholars argue that Jesus was a normal man, a teacher, who ran afoul of the Romans and was killed by them.  Decades later a narrative was spun, concocted, fabricated, that Jesus was The Son of God, even a God Himself. A leading scholar today has become a veritable celebrity arguing that over a span of 300 years Christians embellished the story of the humble Jewish teacher making Him their God. And such innovative scholars claim that The Gospel of Mark is their proof. Jesus, they argue, never claimed He was God, a God, The Son of The God, God The Father.

There is much I can and would love to say about what Mark witnesses of, but I will focus on the key tenet: Does The Gospel of Mark witness that Jesus declared Himself to be a God or not? Many modern scholars say Mark does not. These erudite men and women are adamant. But what does Mark record?

Always read for yourselves.  The Lord said that the Comforter would bring His words to our remembrance.  The words must be in us to already in order for them to be able to "return" to our recollection. 

In Mark 12:26 Jesus quotes Jehovah addressing Moses from the burning brush. The oldest New Testament, The Codex Sinaiticus, (circa 325-360 AD, remember that The New Testament was assembled and bound in the fourth century AD) actually uses the verb "am":

12:26 "...Have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I AM the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?"

That passage is a citation of Exodus 3:6 where Moses sees Elohim and His Angel Son Jehovah, a veritable Joseph Smith-esque First Vision. 

Moses' vision starts out with Moses going to Horeb, the mountain of "The Elohim", meaning the mountain of The God, God The Father (the Hebrews called The Father "The Elohim"). English translators, unaware of the critical importance of the article "the" when used with God routinely omit the article "the" in translation. 

In Exodus 3:2 our King James reads "the angel of Jehovah appeared unto [Moses] in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush". The Hebrew reads:

3:2 "And Angel Jehovah appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush..."

The Father was there as well:

3:4 And when Jehovah saw that [Moses] turned aside to see, Elohim called unto him out of the bush...

The exchange is the most astonishing witness of The Old Testament. Eventually God says, verse 14, "I AM that I AM" is His Name.

Back to Mark: In Mark 12:26 we have, chronologically speaking, the first or oldest New Testament usage of the Holy Deific title "I AM" in a quote of Exodus 3:6.

But if we say "first" we as much as say that at a minimum there was a "second". Indeed. I turn our attention to the Savior's sham trial before an illegal and illegitimate late night session of the Sanhedrin. Here the highest ranking Jewish ecclesiastical authority, the high priest, asks Jesus point blank if He is The Christ, The Son of The Blessed:

Now, before I cite the Savior's response, let us be clear on what the Jews understood "THE Christ" to mean.

Psalms 2-3 teach this:

Psalm 2, from the Hebrew:

2:2 "...against Jehovah and against His Christ"

2:7 "...Jehovah hath said unto Me: Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten thee."

2:8 "Ask of Me, and I shall give Thee the Gentiles for thine inheritance..."

2:12 "Kiss The Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish from the way...Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him."

3:4 "I cried unto Jehovah with my voice, and He heard me out of His holy hill. Selah."

3:5 "I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for Jehovah sustained Me."

3:7 "Arise, Jehovah; save me, O My God..."

These passages show that The Christ was to be The Son of God, Begotten of God, He was to inherit the Gentiles, Salvation would be dependent on the reliance upon Him, He was to die on a Hill, awake and arise in order to save us.

With that in mind, let us see Mark's witness of the trial's climactic moment:

14:61 "But [Jesus] held His peace, and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him, and said unto Him, Art thou The Christ. The Son of The Blessed?"

14:62 "And Jesus said, I AM; and ye shall see The Son of The Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven."

14:63 "Then the high priest rent his clothes, and saith, What need we further witness?"

Not since Jehovah had spoken to Moses and the other Hebrew prophets had those words "I AM" been uttered by Jehovah, by God, The Son of God, to mankind. To be clear, Jesus declared Himself to be Jehovah, A God, The Son of The God. And Mark recorded this witness shortly after the Resurrection. 

As a side note: Before Mark recorded his witness, Nephi recorded his (Third Nephi, The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ):

9:15 "Behold, I AM Jesus Christ, The Son of God.."

9:18 "I AM the light and the life of the world. I AM Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end."

11:10 "Behold, I AM Jesus Christ..."

11:11 "...I AM the light and the life of the world..."

15:9 "I AM the law, and the life. .."

When we read the records for ourselves we learn how the Hebrew prophets spoke, what those words meant to them, and the actual witness that the prophets bore. 

Jesus is the Christ. Some learned men approach even The Bible as a sealed book that they either cannot read or cannot comprehend. But through faith our eyes may be quickened by The Spirit to see and believe what is hidden from the world, that Jesus is The Christ, that He is The Son of God, and that God The Father lives and is real.