I AM — two ordinary words that can mean simply 'I'm he,' and that are also the Septuagint's phrase for God's self-naming. John 4:26 is the first time in this Gospel that Jesus says it to anybody, and the hearer is a Samaritan woman alone at noon. Whether the loud sense is audible there is a genuine question; by 8:58 ('before Abraham was, I am') it cannot be anything else. Most versions supply a 'he' to make an English sentence, which quietly closes the question. → first discussed at John 4:26