significance of this saying would be more plainly expressed were the
sentence punctuated and pointed as follows: "Verily, verily, I say unto
you, Before Abraham, was I AM;" which means the same as had He
said--Before Abraham, was I, Jehovah. The captious Jews were so offended
at hearing Him use a name which, through an erroneous rendering of an
earlier scripture,[90] they held was not to be uttered on pain of death,
that they immediately took up stones with the intent of killing Him. The
Jews regarded _Jehovah_ as an ineffable name, not to be spoken; they
substituted for it the sacred, though to them the not-forbidden name,
_Adonai_, signifying _the Lord_. The original of the terms _Lord_ and
_God_ as they appear in the Old Testament, was either _Yahveh_ or
_Adonai_; and the divine Being designated by these sacred names was, as
shown by the scriptures cited, Jesus the Christ. John, evangelist and
apostle, positively identifies Jesus Christ with Adonai, or the Lord who
spoke through the voice of Isaiah,[91] and with Jehovah who spoke
through Zechariah.[92]

The name _Elohim_ is of frequent occurrence in the Hebrew texts of the
Old Testament, though it is not found in our English versions. In form
the word is a Hebrew plural noun;[93] but it connotes the plurality of
excellence or intensity, rather than distinctively of number. It is
expressive of supreme or absolute exaltation and power. _Elohim_, as
understood and used in the restored Church of Jesus Christ, is the
name-title of God the Eternal Father, whose firstborn Son in the spirit
is _Jehovah_--the Only Begotten in the flesh, Jesus Christ.

Jesus of Nazareth, who in solemn testimony to the Jews declared Himself
the _I Am_ or _Jehovah_, who was God before Abraham lived on earth, was
the same Being who is repeatedly proclaimed as the God who made covenant
with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; the God who led Israel from the bondage
of Egypt to the freedom of the promised land, the one and only God known
by direct and personal revelation to the Hebrew prophets in general.

The identity of Jesus Christ with the Jehovah of the Israelites was well
understood by the Nephite prophets, and the truth of their teachings was
confirmed by the risen Lord who manifested Himself unto them shortly
after His ascension from the midst of the apostles at Jerusalem. This is
the record: "And it came to pass that the Lord spake unto them saying,
Arise and come forth unto me, that ye may thrus