John 8.58 New World Translation

[Jhn 8:58 KJV] 58 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.

Jehovah Witnesses claim in their NWT, the Greek word for "I AM" is "I have been" (eimi) also found in John 14.9 to indicate that Jesus merely only existed before Abraham not that He always existed.

My Apologetics Study Bible says for Ex. 3.14, the "I AM" is a reference to Exodus 13 "I AM THAT I AM".

However, "I have been" in Greek is past tense, not present tense. "I AM" is present tense.

JW's will retort that this past tense is "still in progress". I think that is stretching it. For the past is the past, the past is not still in progress.

JW's also claim several ancient manuscripts treat "I AM" as "I have been". I looked through a dozen Bible versions and could not find one that uses "I have been" for John 8.58.