Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Shoshanna Walker" <rosewalk AT concentric.net>]

I've just looked up a fourth commentator - the "Baal Haturim"

You are simply wrong.

Shoshanna



> 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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