A Fascinating Consideration on the Name "YHWH"
I searched "Can I say 'I am' in Hebrew?" Got linked to I Am that I Am on Wikipedia. Found something both fascinating and enlightening.
Confirmed that you cannot actually say, "I AM" in Hebrew. Said the article, "...there is no present tense of the verb "to be" in the Hebrew language...to say 'I am a sailor' in Hebrew would be Ani Malakh (literally in English is 'I sailor')."
Then, under the heading, "Scholarly explanation," it said:
In her Open Yale Course, Lecture 7, Chapter 5 ("Descriptions of God ['Elohiym] in the Bible"), professor Christine Hayes considers the possibilities and is tempted to read "Ehyeh asher ehyeh" as God's ['Elohiym] reluctance to tell Moses his name, paraphrasing: "...'Who am I? I am who I am, and never you mind.' The word possibly was 'Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh Asher' meaning 'I am That I am That.' Moses in his ecstasy and bliss wanted to share this state with the people of Israel and so it was a need to give a name to this experience, to this state, hence he gave a name to 'That' and 'Ehyeh' became 'Yahweh.' The seed of duality, the Creator being different from the Creation was sown, the Creator received a name 'Yahweh,' so a form, dimensions and time of Creation were naturally subsequent.'
Ah! The creation of dualism. Purely a misunderstanding. Maybe. What I placed in bold above are two hints that there is no name in "YHWH."
Then, in "Why did God call Himself, 'I AM THAT I AM'?" Mr. Chicago said, "God wanted to assure Moses and Israel that God would become what they would need Him to become. In using the words 'I AM THAT I AM,' God used an expression to reveal to Moses a promise and pledge found in His name."
Note the idea that God would become -- phenomenally -- whatever Israel needed Him to become. In that article was a link to “I Will Be What I Will Be,” Beauties of the Truth, Volume 17 Number 2 May 2006. I went there and found a wonderful note about Exodus 3:14 at the bottom of page 86: "Hayah (the word rendered above 'become') does not mean 'to be' essentially or ontologically, but phenomenally. He will be whatever we need Him to be: "helper, strengthener, deliverer." (I think this fits in well with Moses’ underlying question of Jethro, God’s Excellence. Whereas Ahiyeh in the Aramaic Ahiyeh Ashur hiyeh is first person, hiyeh is third: “I become ... his becoming.”)
My point is that God did NOT say, "I AM THAT I AM." That wasn't even a possibility. Yes, He is the Super Whoop-de-doo Who Is, but His point was that the Super Whoop-de-doo Who Is will become phenomenally whatsoever He pleases.
An idle thought of mine inspired by the first paragraph of Chapter IV of the Introduction: If Y, yod, is the initial of the Divine Name, then:
Y = I, H = AM, W = That, H = AM. Unnamed, but IS.
And yes, I am aware (belatedly) that Chicago Bible Students are related to Charles Taze Russell and Judge Rutherford (Jehovah’s Witnesses.).
Confirmed that you cannot actually say, "I AM" in Hebrew. Said the article, "...there is no present tense of the verb "to be" in the Hebrew language...to say 'I am a sailor' in Hebrew would be Ani Malakh (literally in English is 'I sailor')."
Then, under the heading, "Scholarly explanation," it said:
In her Open Yale Course, Lecture 7, Chapter 5 ("Descriptions of God ['Elohiym] in the Bible"), professor Christine Hayes considers the possibilities and is tempted to read "Ehyeh asher ehyeh" as God's ['Elohiym] reluctance to tell Moses his name, paraphrasing: "...'Who am I? I am who I am, and never you mind.' The word possibly was 'Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh Asher' meaning 'I am That I am That.' Moses in his ecstasy and bliss wanted to share this state with the people of Israel and so it was a need to give a name to this experience, to this state, hence he gave a name to 'That' and 'Ehyeh' became 'Yahweh.' The seed of duality, the Creator being different from the Creation was sown, the Creator received a name 'Yahweh,' so a form, dimensions and time of Creation were naturally subsequent.'
Ah! The creation of dualism. Purely a misunderstanding. Maybe. What I placed in bold above are two hints that there is no name in "YHWH."
Then, in "Why did God call Himself, 'I AM THAT I AM'?" Mr. Chicago said, "God wanted to assure Moses and Israel that God would become what they would need Him to become. In using the words 'I AM THAT I AM,' God used an expression to reveal to Moses a promise and pledge found in His name."
Note the idea that God would become -- phenomenally -- whatever Israel needed Him to become. In that article was a link to “I Will Be What I Will Be,” Beauties of the Truth, Volume 17 Number 2 May 2006. I went there and found a wonderful note about Exodus 3:14 at the bottom of page 86: "Hayah (the word rendered above 'become') does not mean 'to be' essentially or ontologically, but phenomenally. He will be whatever we need Him to be: "helper, strengthener, deliverer." (I think this fits in well with Moses’ underlying question of Jethro, God’s Excellence. Whereas Ahiyeh in the Aramaic Ahiyeh Ashur hiyeh is first person, hiyeh is third: “I become ... his becoming.”)
My point is that God did NOT say, "I AM THAT I AM." That wasn't even a possibility. Yes, He is the Super Whoop-de-doo Who Is, but His point was that the Super Whoop-de-doo Who Is will become phenomenally whatsoever He pleases.
An idle thought of mine inspired by the first paragraph of Chapter IV of the Introduction: If Y, yod, is the initial of the Divine Name, then:
Y = I, H = AM, W = That, H = AM. Unnamed, but IS.
And yes, I am aware (belatedly) that Chicago Bible Students are related to Charles Taze Russell and Judge Rutherford (Jehovah’s Witnesses.).
posted by Daniel C. Branham-Steele at
12:49 AM
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