 Did Jesus claim to be God? He most certainly did and was crucified for it. Exodus 3 records an Old Testament interaction between Moses and God. There, God reveals himself to Moses saying, I am has sent me to you. The title, I am, was a reference to the timeless nature of God himself. Since we know that I am is a title for God, it's clear that Jesus was claiming to be God when he declared, I tell you the truth before Abraham was even born, I am. Later in John 10, the people in the temple wanted to stone Jesus saying, you, a mere man, claim to be God. No doubt, Jesus absolutely claimed to be God and he is God. Anyone who insists on the sensationalist idea that Jesus never claimed to be God is either unaware of what the scripture records, is intentionally avoiding the obvious truth or working very hard at trying to force the scriptures to fit their agenda.