Did Jesus claim to be God, or God's Son, in John 4:26?

First, the word "son" does not occur in John 4:26 nor in the immediate surrounding verse. Therefore, Jesus was NOT claiming to be God's Son.

However, what Jesus did claim was two things:

• that He was the great "I Am"
• that He was also the Messiah of the OT prophets in answer to the woman's statement

That is, Jesus uses the unpredicated "ego eimi" as both a statement of existence and identification as He does on 14 other occasions in the NT - see appendix below.

The same unpredicated "I Am" occurs in the LXX and always refers to YHWH in the OT (Deut 32:39, Isa 41:4, 43:10, 13, 25, 45:19, 46:4, 48:12, 51:12, 52:6, LXX) and is used in the same two ways:

• a claim to be the "I Am" of YHWH as stated in Ex 3:13-15, and
• a claim of self identification as God

APPENDIX - Unpredicated "I Am" in the NT

It is better to understand this "I am" statement in a larger context. Let us examine the unpredicated use of the exact phrase ἐγώ εἰμι, in the NT.

• Matt 14:27, Mark 6:50 – “Be encouraged. I am.” [To the frightened disciples in the boat.] That is, Jesus claimed to be the source of their safety as God is.
• Mark 13:6, Luke 21:8 – “Many will come in my name saying, ‘I am’”.
• Mark 14:62, Luke 22:70 – “Jesus replied, ‘I am’”. [He was then accused of blasphemy by the Jews and condemned.]
• John 4:26 – “Then Jesus said, ‘I am.’” [To the Samaritan woman at the well. Here Jesus uses the "I Am" to confirm He is both the Messiah and the I Am of the OT.
• John 6:20 – “But then [Jesus] said to them, ‘I am. Fear not.’” [To the frightened disciples in the boat.] This assured them that Jesus was their source of safety because Jesus was the I Am
• John 8:24 – “If you do not trust/believe that I am, you will die in your sins.” Jesus, as the I Am is the source of salvation.
• John 8:28 – “When you will lift up the Son of Man, then you will trust/know that I am.” Jesus, as the I Am is the source of salvation.
• John 8:58 – “Truly, truly, I say to you; before Abraham existed, I am.” [The Jews then tried to stone Him for blasphemy.] Note that this and the previous two mean that Jesus, in the space of this chapter of John 8 uses the unpredicated “I am” idea in the present (v24), future (v28) and past sense (v58). V24 & 28 appears to be tied to believers’ salvation as well.
• John 9:9 – “Some were saying that, ‘this is [that one]’, and others were saying ‘no, it is like him.’ But he was saying, ‘I am [that one].’” (This instance is clearly identification rather than existence.)
• John 13:19 – “From now [on] I tell you before the occurrence, that you may believe when it occurs that, I am.”
• John 18: 5, 6, 8 – “He said to them, ‘I am.’ …Therefore, when He told them, ‘I am’, they fell backward to the ground.” [This occurred when the Jews tried to arrest Jesus in the garden. It could be reasonably argued that this is a case of identification. However, the fact that the arresting mob fell backward suggests that much more is intended here.]

It is interesting that, according to Mark 13:6 and Luke 21:8, one of the distinguishing characteristics of false christs is their claim to be “I AM”. Unfortunately, there has been a historical parade of charlatans making such false claims.

Thus, with the obvious and rather trivial exception of John 9:9 (and self-exclusory Mark 13:6 and Luke 21:8), all of the “I am” existence statements in the New Testament, including the 7 in John, were spoken exclusively by Jesus, and all were either the basis for absolute trust/belief and reassurance in Jesus, or were a clear declaration of His claim to be the “I AM.”

These unpredicated "I am" claims of Jesus are clear allusions to the same phenomenon in the LXX of the OT, namely, Deut 32:39, Isa 41:4, 43:10, 13, 25, 45:19, 46:4, 48:12, 51:12, 52:6. In these cases, YHWH is using the name He specified in Ex 3:13-15 as,

God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” … This is My name forever, and this is how I am to be remembered in every generation.

Anyone with reading comprehension level of high school or higher who reads Jn 4:25-26 understands from the context that what Jesus is saying is that He is the Messiah, not God or the Son of God. Quoting the verses from the Berean Literal Bible:

The woman says to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming, who is called Christ; when He comes, He will tell us all things.”

Jesus says to her, “I who am speaking to you am He.”

Who is "He" in the 3 instances? Obviously "Messiah, who is called Christ".

Sincerely, this question causes real embarrassing.

This should be fun! You said, "Did Jesus claim to be God, or Gods Son? The answer is both, and John 4:26 has nothing to do with the claim, let me explain.

The Jews have what is called "idioms." One of those idioms is called the "son of" idiom and can be found both in the Old Testament and New Testament.

For example, in the OT you have "Sons of prophets." (1 Kings 20:35; 2 Kings 2:3, which refers to men belonging to a prophetic band. "Prophethood" (that which distinguishes "prophets" from "non-prophets") is the very nature that unites the "sons of the prophets" with their metaphorical fathers, "the prophets."

The same holds true for the following examples. "Sons of the goldsmiths" at Nehemiah 3:31. Sons of the troop (2 Chronicles 25:13) are men of the army. Sons of affliction (Proverbs 31:5) are afflicted ones. Hopefully I think you get the idea.

In the NT, "Son of peace (Luke 10:6 refers to a peaceful person.) Who was the son of perdition?" (John 17:12, 2 Thessalonians 2:3) is the lost one and this applied to Judas and the antichrist. One more, "Sons of thunder" was the appellative applied by Jesus to James and John at Mark 3:17 because it signified something outstanding about their character.

What about Jesus Christ who identified Himself on numerous occasions as "the Son of Man" and as "the Son of God." The idiom DOES intend the meaning of a shared nature between ANY father, and his son and thus between "THE Father and THE Son."

The "Son of God" title is entirely consistent with trinitarian doctrine which states explicitly that the Son is of the same NATURE of the Father. Christ really IS the "son" of God and therefore, BY DEFINITION shares the distinctive nature of his father just as ALL sons bear the distinctive nature of their fathers.

That Jesus is ALSO the "Son of Man" (obviously in the metaphorical sense, given the fact that his actual father was NOT any man) is also consistent with the doctrine of the trinity which claims that Christ was indeed truly a man.

There was a reason why the Apostle John ends his gospel account by stating his authorial intent at John 20:30-31. "Many other signs therefore Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; vs31, but these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is (1) Christ/Messiah, (2) the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name."

If you read the context of the following verses you will notice a pattern or trend in what the Jews conclude by Jesus' words. John 5:18, John 10:30, John 19:7 and the trial record at Matthew 26:57-65. It boils down to, "Are you the Christ/Messiah, and are you the Son of God?"

This is the question the high priest Caiaphas said to Jesus at Matthew 26:63. "And the high priest said to Him, "I adjure You by the living God, that You tell us whether (1) You are the Christ/Messiah, (2) the Son of God." Caiaphas puts Jesus under oath to swear as to His true identity. Jesus answers at Luke 26:70 by saying, "Yes, I am."

Now, you OGOL said this: "Nobody ever asked Jesus if he was God! And if they did, he never would have said, "I am He", because he is not God, but God's Son! This is why he responded "I am He" to being God's Son and Messiah." You could not be more wrong.

Getting back to the trial at Matthew 26 the Jews did not just ask him if he was the Christ. Had they done so there could have been no charge off "blasphemy". The High Priest said: "Art thou the Christ, THE SON OF THE BLESSED." ("The Blessed" being a circumlocution for God). The conjunction of these two titles in a single person shows that he (the high priest) understood that the Christ was to be "The Son of God."

It is not "blasphemy" to claim to be the Messiah. there is no scholarship which supports such a weird interpretation. Furthermore, MANY people before and after Jesus claimed to be the Messiah and were never charged with, let alone convicted of "blasphemy". IT IS, however, "blasphemy" to claim to be THE "Son of God."

In closing this was your very first sentence. "When Jesus says the iconic "ego eimi" (I am He) phrase, it is clearly done in response to being asked if He is the Messiah or Christ, not if He is God." And in like manner if someone yelled, "who ate the Matzah Balls," and the answer came back "I am He" does not mean he is the Messiah or God."

John was saying something with Jesus' “I am” (ἐγώ εἰμι) statements. I dropped the few cases were ἐγώ εἰμι was in a paraphrasing thus not meaning "I am."

The first time Jesus used ἐγώ εἰμι in John was 4:26, in the op's question. "I am he [the Messiah], who speaks to you." Jesus is saying he is the Messiah in response to the woman saying "Messiah is coming" in the previous verse. That is a fitting first I am statement. The next statement is Jesus telling is disciples "It is I" when walking on the water (John 6:20). At that point the purpose is to alleviate their fears, but who can walk on water?

John liked sevens. John recorded seven of Jesus' "I am" statements that figuratively described his attributes.

"I am the Bread of Life" – John 6:35,41,48,51

"I am the Light of the World" – John 8:12; 9:5

"I am the Gate/Door for the Sheep" – John 10:7

"I am the Good Shepherd" – John 10:11,14

"I am the Resurrection and the Life" -- John 11:25

"I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life" – John 14:6

"I am the True Vine" John 15:1,5

In John 8 Jesus had three ἐγώ εἰμι statements translated "I am he," which is fitting for Aramaic when there is no predicate, "I am he" with "unless you believe" (v24), with "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that." (John 8:28, ESV2016) While these statements don't specifically state eternal preexistence, they do imply deity. To make this perfectly clear Jesus followed with, "before Abraham was, I am.” (v58)

The final appropriate ἐγώ εἰμι statements were Jesus saying "I am he" to Jesus of Nazareth. (John 18:5.6,8) This showed that Jesus controlled the situation.

But John's best expression of the eternal preexistence of Jesus is the Prolegomena at the beginning of the Gospel.