Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Charles David Isbell" <cisbell AT cox.net>]

Lew Osborne writes: "The point is, can Exodus 3:14 be linked honestly to
John 8:58?"
************
Whose point?  I again grow weary of attempts to determine the meaning of a
classical Hebrew text by reference to a NT text in Greek several centuries
later. Please try to understand the linguistic point [this is a list about
BIBLICAL Hebrew!] about the grammatical FUNCTION of EHYEH in Exod 3.14.  I
personally have no need to theorize a universal meaning that just happens to
suit one possible Christian doctrine, and such attempts are most definitely
NOT "the point" for me.  Nor do I find it appropriate on a Biblical Hebrew
list to say that one does not know the meaning of a Hebrew passage until one
puts on the Christian lens of faith. Whatever one believes Greek eimi means
in the NT, it has NO bearing on what the Hebrew text of Exodus means.

Incidentally, with all due immodesty, I disclose two articles written by me
in 1978:
[A] "The Divine Name EHYEH as a Symbol of Presence in Israelite Tradition"
[Hebrew Annual Review 2 (1978)], 101-118.

[B] “Initial ’Alef-Yod Interchange and Selected Biblical Passages,” Journal
of Near Eastern Studies 37 (1978): 3:227-236.

Outside the Bible, EHYEH as an allomorph for YHWH is well attested in
rabbinic literature [Talmud, midrashim], in Aramaic magic texts, and
elsewhere.

Charles David Isbell