Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Trevor & Julie Peterson" <speederson AT erols.com>]

It's an interesting suggestion, and one that I've never heard.  But I don't
know that I'm sold on it just yet.  First, it seems like the standard way to
identify oneself in BH is through a verbless clause:
)a:NI or )aaNooKI + PN.  Granted, if He had said, )a:NI )eHYE, this would be
potentially confused with the usual construction for a general present; but
I suppose it's questionable whether anyone would have seriously expected a
general present ("I exist as a general rule") used in an assertion of
self-existence, so the oddity would probably have suggested some other
meaning.  The follow-up instruction, which uses
)eHYE as a fronted subject, would also help to clarify that it is
functioning as a noun, rather than a verb.  For that matter, I would think a
clearer statement on the order of the follow-up instruction would have
sufficed to make the point.  I'm not saying your suggestion is out of the
question, but you have to admit that it's an odd way to form a predication.
Do you know of any other instances where )a:$eR is used this way?

Trevor Peterson
CUA/Semitics

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Daniel Wagner [mailto:dan.wagner AT netzero.net]
> Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2001 2:59 PM
> To: Biblical Hebrew
> Subject: Re: I AM
>
[snipped]

> 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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