How many times do you believe the words of Jesus were misunderstood, even by the Apostles?
How many times did you consider that perhaps he never uttered those words?
The Germans assumed no one could ever break their Enigma Code. But they never considered the possibility that someone might steal it! Think outside the box.
FK: What other reason could they have possibly had for immediately wanting to stone Him than for claiming to BE God?
How many times do you believe the words of Jesus were misunderstood, even by the Apostles?
The Apostles misunderstood Jesus several times, such as when He spoke of the Temple being destroyed and built again in three days. However, in every such example I can think of the context shows us this plainly. In the case of Jesus' claim of being "I AM" there is no indication whatsoever that the listeners were misunderstanding. Further evidence would be that Jesus said nothing to correct them. Why would Jesus not have corrected them and stopped them from trying to kill Him if He didn't really mean to be making the claim?
Just two chapters later we have this:
I would think that given this golden opportunity to clear the air by clarifying that He was not claiming to be God He would have taken it. Instead, He does nothing of the sort, claims to be God again, and they try to stone Him again.
To support the idea that He was indeed claiming to be God we have the positive evidence of the OT reference, plus the reaction of the unbelieving Jews wanting to stone Him for blasphemy, plus other NT scripture showing that Jesus did not attempt to repair any misunderstanding. To support the idea that Jesus was not claiming to be God, but that the Jews misunderstood we have no evidence whatsoever from the context and have to make a baseless assumption.