Dear StumpedByHisReply —

Your friend is wrong to argue this way. While he correct that it says ho on, it also says ego emi. Look up the Septuagint of Exodus 3:14 on StudyLight.org:

και ειπεν ο θεος προς μωυσην εγω ειμι ο ων και ειπεν ουτως ερεις τοις υιοις ισραηλ ο ων απεσταλκεν με προς υμας

It makes no grammatical sense for Jesus to say I Am unless He meant to connect Himself to this verse. He said, "Before Abraham was, I am". Grammatically, if He meant merely to say He, Christ, pre-existed he would have said, "Before Abraham was, I was.", but He didn't. The fact that they took stones to kill him — as was required by the law for blasphemy — proves that they knew exactly what He was saying: that He was God. Here is a tract which may help:

The Divinity of Christ, from our colleagues at Catholic Answers

Also there is an interesting verse in Zechariah 11:12-13:

12 "I told them, "If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it." So they paid me thirty pieces of silver. 13 And the LORD said to me, "Throw it to the potter" - the handsome price at which they priced me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD to the potter."

Zechariah 11:12-13

Notice that the field which the Scribes and Pharisees bought with the 30 pieces of silver, and that Judas betrayed Jesus (God) with was: the Potter's field. (Matthew 27:6-10)

Also look at Ezekiel 34:11ff:

11 ""'For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. 12 As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. 13 I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land. 14 I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. 15 I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign LORD. 16 I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice. "

Psalm 23 is also relevant.

Here the LORD (and LORD here means YHWH) says He Himself will shepherd His flock. Compare this to what Jesus says about being the Good Shepherd (John 10:11-16). Also see Matthew 26:31, Matthew 2:6, and Mark 6:34.

Jesus never said, "The Lord teaches thus-and-such.", He said, "I say to you thus-and-such."

He taught with His own authority, as God.

Eric