Jesus did claim to be GOD. In fact, he made it very obvious
in
Using that very distinct name God reserved for Himself in Exodus
3:14 and throughout the OT, to leave no room for
misunderstanding.
In fact, it was so obvious that the Jews stoned him (refer to
Lev 24:16), cuz that was the punishment for those guilty of
blaspheming the name of God. I dont think Jews would stone him just
because they thought he meant he existed before
Abraham.
Ok, let's find some common grounds first. Things that are
indisputable:
1. Jesus, like the rabbis in Jewish tradition, spoke in
parables. So they won't reply you directly, instead they
answer a question with another question, until we have more
questions than before.
If Jesus were to be interrogated by our police today, he'd
probably get few tight slaps for not answering the question whether
He is God or not.
2. The Pharisees in the Gospels did not understand Jesus,
neither did they truly understood God.
Regardless of the identity of Jesus, the above point is *always*
correct. Jesus may or may not be God, but the Pharisees did not
understand God, this there can be no dispute.
Ok, let's go on to your verses.
It is incorrect to say that God reserved Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh for
Himself in Exodus 3:14 and throughout the OT. I leave you to browse
through the concordance - http://cf.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H01961&t=KJV
Throughout the OT, the only name God reserved for Himself is the
sacred Tetragammaton. God did not even reserve Elohim.
Technically, Jesus did not even quote Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh in full
(in Aramaic or Greek).
I quote you the
view of certain scholars:
However, against this view it has also been argued that few
scholars today would say that there is a connection between the “I
am” in this context and the divine name. Edwin Freed explains, “the
meaning of the sentence in the mind of the writer was: 'Before
Abraham was, I, the Christ, the Son of God, existed.” William
Loader notes that the “text need mean no more than I am and was in
existence before Abraham, still a majestic unique claim but not an
allusion to the divine name.” The Simple English Bible paraphrases
it as, “I am the Messiah.” K.L. McKay notes, “The emphatic words
used by Jesus in the passages referred to above [including John
8:58] are perfectly natural in their contexts, and they do not echo
the words of Exodus 3:14 in the normally quoted Greek version.”
This argument, however, only negates a direct link between
Jesus' utterance of "I Am" and the divine name of the tetragrammaton. The phrase
itself, "I am," is stated by Yahweh independently of the
tetragrammaton, and is literally repeated by Jesus.
Jesus goes on throughout the New Testament ascribing his deity
by the use of this word: I am… bread of life, I am… light of the
world, I am… from above, I am… the door, I am… good shepherd, I am…
resurrection and the life, I am… way, the truth and the life, I am…
true vine, I am… Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending,
saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the
Almighty, I am… first and the last, I am… he that liveth, and was
dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, I am… he which
searcheth the reins and hearts, I am… root and the offspring of
David, and the bright and morning star.
Back to my point 2, it is also presumptous to use the Pharisees'
reaction to determine whether Jesus claimed to be God, or not.