In John 8 Jesus (“the seed,” the descendant of Abraham, cp. Acts 3:25-26; Heb 2:16) says Abraham rejoiced to see my day! The saying is similar to a story in the Apocalypse of Abraham (a Jewish pseudepigraphal text from the early 2nd century A.D.) where Abraham is told to rejoice because salvation is coming through his descendants (ch. 10; cp. 27; 29-31).

In chapter 10 of this work the angel Yahoel is sent to Abraham as his heavenly guide. After Abraham has been prepared for his visionary ascent, Yahoel encourages him and tells him to rejoice because the eternal one has chosen him and because salvation will come through him.

“And the angel said to me, ‘Rejoice, Abraham! For you have been loved by the Eternal One. Go, complete the sacrifices of the commandments, for behold, I have been appointed with you and with your generation, to which salvation will be prepared.’” (Apocalypse of Abraham 10:15–17, translated by R. Rubinkiewicz in OTP, vol. 1).

Later, in chapter 27, Abraham is given a vision of the future, including the destruction of the Temple due to the idolatry of his descendants. In response to Abraham’s anguished question about this judgment, God explains that it is due to the sin of idolatry, but also provides a hint of coming salvation. The text suggests that men will come to care for Abraham’s seed, implying a future restoration or deliverance.

“And I said: ‘O Eternal, Mighty One! Wherefore hast Thou established such to be that it should be so?’ And He said: ‘Hear, Abraham, and understand that which I say unto thee… Because of the idolatry of thy seed, the Temple shall be destroyed… But those who escape I will bring to care for thy seed, and they shall be a remnant, and I will bring to pass My judgment.'”

This passage implies a remnant will be preserved, hinting at salvation for some of Abraham’s descendants despite judgment.

And in chapters 29–31, the text describes an eschatological vision where a figure, referred to as “a man” and later the “Chosen One” (interpreted as the Messiah), appears. This figure is associated with the judgment of the wicked and the salvation of the righteous. At the sound of a trumpet, the Chosen One is sent to fight the enemies, and judgment passes on the heathen and the wicked, with a promise of liberation for the chosen people from oppression. While the text does not explicitly state that an angel tells Abraham to “rejoice” over salvation, the assurance of salvation and deliverance is a central theme in these apocalyptic visions.

“And I looked and saw a man going out from the left side of the heathen, and there went out men and women and children, from the side of the heathen, and they worshipped him… And while I still looked, there came many from the right side, and some of these insulted him, and some struck him, but others worshipped him. And I saw as they worshipped him, that the Almighty was joyful because of them.”

This describes the appearance of a messianic figure, the “Chosen One,” associated with salvation, as some worship him, and God rejoices, indicating a redemptive outcome.

“And then I will sound the trumpet out of the air, and I will send Mine Elect One, having in him all My power, one measure… And he shall gather together Mine own, and those who are his shall be saved from the hand of the enemy, and those who are against him shall be destroyed.”

This explicitly references the sending of the “Elect One” (Messiah) to save God’s people, emphasizing deliverance from oppression and destruction of the wicked.

The point of all this is to show that the earliest Jewish-Christian view was of the Messiah as foreordained, foreknown even before the foundation of the world.

Nothing to do with a literal preexistence of a so-called pre-human Jesus or “God the Son”!

The British Anglical priest and scholar Maurice Wiles was right to say that:

“Within the Christian tradition the New Testament has long been read through the prism of the later conciliar creeds. Speaking of Jesus as the Son of God had a very different connotation in the first century from that which it has had ever since Nicaea. Talk of Jesus’ preexistence ought probably in most, perhaps in all cases, to be understood, on the analogy of the preexistence of the Torah, to indicate the eternal divine purpose being achieved through him rather than preexistence of a full personal kind.”