“Who are you?” they asked. “Just what I have been claiming all along,” Jesus replied.
Jesus has made a bold claim and the Jews would like to pin Him down to exactly what He means so that they could have grounds for charges of blasphemy against Him. The pronoun “who” is placed at the beginning of the sentence and could better be translated as “You, who are you to be saying such things?” Plummer remarks that it “is scornfully emphatic.” Their reply is undoubtedly made with a sneer.
Unfortunately for them, their question condemns them instead of Jesus. He had stated that the only thing which could save them from dying in their sin was to believe in Who He is and their question proves that after all of this time, they still don’t know.
“all along” = “from the beginning” (KJV) = can refer to either:
- the beginning of creation
- the beginning of His ministry