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[joyful]

Exodus 3:14 (King James Version)

 14And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.

According to this verse, God's name is I am. Why does it not say YHWH?

hitomi

[dreese]

Hi Joyful,

God used several names and titles to describe himself to humans and in this case to Moses and the Hebrews.

'I Am who I Am' is a proclaimation by God that he is the true God and is alive and ready to act and help his people.

After 400 years of slavery they needed to hear this message.

God uses his name YHWH for more personal recognition and identity and distinction from any other god.

Blessings

dreese

[RRD]

Exodus 3:14 (King James Version)

 14And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.

According to this verse, God's name is I am. Why does it not say YHWH?

hitomi

Yahweh and Ehyeh (most often "translated" as "I am" in Exodus 3:14) are variations of the one holy name. Both Yahweh and Ehyeh are verb in form, but used as a nounal "name". The infinitive of the verb is hayah, to be (active). Ehyeh is in the first person singular, meaning an active "I am", "I will be", "I become",  etc.  Yahweh is in the third person singular form of the same verb, meaning "He [who] is", "He [who] will be", "He [who] becomes", etc.  Ehyeh and Yahweh should not be considered two different names, but a variation of the one holy name of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The Bible never refers to holy names [plural].

The scripture itself does not tell us why God gave his name in two forms, but it appears that it probably has to do with perspective. From God's perspective, his name is Ehyeh, but for our perspective, it is Yahweh.

Further:

http://reslight.net/forum/index.php/topic,501.0.html

http://tinyurl.com/lac3u8

http://tinyurl.com/ldwtwl

Christian love,
Ronald

[joyful]

thank you dreese and ronald.

h

[joyful]

Exodus 3:14 (King James Version)

 14And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.

I just found this one too.  Why does He say this?  I just dont understand.

hitomi

[dreese]

Hi Joyful,

A couple of things are being addressed here by God to Moses.  God is telling Moses that he is about to act dynamically on behalf of the Hebrews.  God expects the Hebrews to also act in response to what He is going to do.  Moses must come before his people, whom he hasn't seen in many years and prove that he is the chosen one to be their leader.  The title I Am That I Am will be recoginzed by the Hebrews.  Actually the more accurate translation is 'I Will Be As I Will Be' which contains parts of the Divine Name- YAH or YAHU.  It is an Exclaimation of Divine origins.  Only such an Exclaimation could unit a slave nation to unity and action and overcome their fear. They knew YAH.

Many claim that Jesus was quoting Exodus 3:14 in John 8:58.  From a Hebrew language point of view this seems remote as it really says 'I Will Be As I Will Be'.  I would seem odd for Jesus to say in John 'before Abraham was I Will Be.

Blessings

dreese

Exodus 3:14 (King James Version)

 14And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.

I just found this one too.  Why does He say this?  I just dont understand.

hitomi

[joyful]

thank you dreese

h

[RRD]

Exodus 3:14 (King James Version)

 14And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.

I just found this one too.  Why does He say this?  I just dont understand.

hitomi

Yahweh is here using an variation of  his holy name in the first person.  EHYEH ASHER EHYEH. Why did he say this? Yahweh said this in response to Moses question: "Behold, when I come to the children of Israel, and tell them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you;' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' What should I tell them?" (Exodus 3:13)

I believe the phrase in Exodus 3:14 this should be more correctly rendered into English as:

God said to Moses, "EHYEH ASHER EHYEH" and he said, "You shall tell the children of Israel this: "EHYEH has sent me to you."

We should not assume, as many have, that the Israelites had never heard the name 'Yahweh' before. I presented evidence that the holy name was known as the name of the true God all through Genesis. The Israelites would certainly recognize the EHYEH as the first person form of YAHWEH, and know recognize this as the name of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. (Exodus 3:6,15)
http://reslight.net/genesisyahweh.html

As to the meaning of the name, it is an active verb, meaning in the first person, "I am", "I will be", etc. By expressing the name in a fuller sense as EHYEH ASHER EHYEH, Yahweh was stating that he will be who he is, in effect, he cannot deny who he is, and thus his promises are sure to be fulfilled. (2 Timothy 2:13; Hebrews 6:18) Yahweh is in the third person, "He is", "He will be", etc. Yahweh is generally used in context relative to God's covenants and promises, and the carrying out of his promises, as well as to his identification, while forms of EL (God) are used mostly concerning God's power, his mightiness, although both are also often used together.

Ehyeh and Yahweh are but two forms of the same name as seen by comparing Exodus 3:14 with Exodus 3:15. ""You shall tell the children of Israel this: 'Ehyeh has sent me to you.'" (Exodus 3:14) "You shall tell the children of Israel this, 'Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.' " -- Exodus 3:15.

See also:

http://reslight.net/forum/index.php/topic,501.0.html

Christian love,
Ronald

[joyful]

thank you ronald,

BTW, why the first person and third person?  is there second person too?

hitomi

[RRD]

thank you ronald,

BTW, why the first person and third person?  is there second person too?

hitomi

The reference is to the first person and third person conjugation of the Hebrew verb usually transliterated as hayah, (active) to be. As I stated before, the Bible does not directly state why Yahweh used the first person, EHYEH, and the also spoke of his name in the third person Yahweh, but it is reasonable to assume that from the first standpoint, it is His name and He would view Himself, and the third person is his name as we, his creatures, would view Him.

One site claims that Hayita (transliterated) is given as the second person masculine singular form of hayah. The aspectual form of Hayita evidently, however, denotes a past ongoing situation, not an active present ongoing situation as suggested by ehyeh and Yahweh, or as we would say in English, a form of the present tense. The Englishmen Lexicon only presents a sample of the usages of Hayah (Assigned by Strong under at least five different numbers, #3050, $3068, #3069 -- as representing the holy name, #1934 [Aramaic] and #1961 [Hebrew], so it is very difficult to determine its usages in the singular second person. (Would that I could find an searchable Hebrew Old Testament interlinear similar to the W&H Interlinear that is on the Bible Students Library DVD.) The only place I have found so far that Hayah is used in the Bible in the second person singular is Daniel 2:31,34, where it is evidently in a past form and it is translated by the KJV as "sawest (margin, wast seeing)" and "Thou sawest". I cannot find the voweled transliteration of these verses, but one online site gives the unvoweled tranliteration as "hvyt" in both verses.

I have searched for a list of conjugations for the Biblical Hebrew Hayah (Havah), but as yet have not found such. While the moods and aspects of Hebrew verbs are often called "tenses", they are not "tenses" in the sense that the word "tense" would be applied to most languages. 

As yet, I am still trying to determine what exactly the masculine singular second person of Hayah would be, and if and how it is used in the scriptures.
http://strongsnumbers.com/hebrew/1961.htm
http://strongsnumbers.com/hebrew/1934.htm
http://strongsnumbers.com/hebrew/3050.htm
http://strongsnumbers.com/hebrew/3068.htm
http://strongsnumbers.com/hebrew/3069.htm

The Lexical Aids in the back of the [amazonsearch]Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible[/amazonsearch] states under #1961:

Hayah: probably related to 1933, "to breathe." This verb means to exist, to be, to become, to come to pass, to be done, to happen, to be finished. It is notable that this verb was not used in a copulative construction in Hebr. Bowman maintains that the Hebrews thought only in dynamic categories, not static ones. The key to the meaning Jehovah/Yahweh is undoubtedly found in this verb.

If I come across something more definite concerning this, I will, Yahweh willing, post such here.

Christian love,
Ronald