Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Daniel Wagner" <dan.wagner AT netzero.net>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Shoshanna Walker <rosewalk AT concentric.net>
To: Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2001 1:57 PM
Subject: Fw: I AM


> If someone would remind me where exactly this pasuk (Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh) is,
> in the Torah, I will see if I can find if any of the commentaries comment on
> this.

It's Exodus 3, verse 15 i think. Also, it is a mistake to translate this as 
most translations do, "I AM THAT I AM" as if the entire clause were the 
divine name. Rather, God is answering the implied question, "Who are you?" 
(Who shall i say sent me?) by saying, "I am to be identified as I AM." So the 
name/appelative is not "I AM WHO/WHAT/THAT I AM", nor "I WILL BE WHO I WILL 
BE" or any such nonsence. (And i'm not really trying to comment on the verb 
tense here.) Rather, the name is simply "I AM" and the _asher_ clause serves 
merely to subordinate. It would not be appropriate to use an _)ETH_ as the 
sign of subordination for the verb, nor could any preposition go before a 
verb. But something had to show subordiation or rather identification of the 
predicate, so the function word _)aSHER_ is used to indicate a clause. Had it 
been some other (non-verbal) name, we would expect simply _)EHYEH_ followed 
by the predicate noun/adjective. 

So we should correctly translate it "I am I AM." This is supported by the 
following verse where he says simply "I AM has sent me."

Dan Wagner




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