The key error of the "pre-incarnate" Christ understanding of John 8:58 is in translating Jesus’ statement about Abraham in the past when it refers to Abraham coming to be in the future.
In all other occurrences in John of the word under consideration (γενέσθαι genesthai) does not communicate something in the past tense but rather denotes someone or something that potentially could be or will be in the future. This is strong evidence that the word in John 8:58 relates to Abraham coming to be in a future context.
In John 8:58 Jesus is making a Messianic claim to be the channel through whom God’s promises to Abraham will be fulfilled. Jesus’ claim is not a claim to be God, but to be the Messiah Light through whom God is at work to fulfill God’s promises to Abraham.
Abraham is dead and buried in Hebron, yet to become, yet to experience the fulfillment of God’s promises to him, including resurrection from the dead.
The “I am” statement of Jesus in John 8:58 is not about what Jesus was in the past before Abraham was born around 2000 BC. Rather, the “I am” statement in John 8:58 is about what Jesus is at the time he was on the earth before Abraham comes to be in the future: “I am (he, the Messiah-Light of world) before Abraham comes to be.”
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