Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Doug Belot" <dbelot AT bigpond.net.au>]

And is that not what Jesus claimed to be who he was , in John 8:24 and 8:58 
,

doug belot


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Uri Hurwitz" <uhurwitz AT yahoo.com>
To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Friday, September 11, 2009 11:09 AM
Subject: [b-hebrew] Biblical Hebrew


Harold,

The explanation of the meaning YHWH in verse 14 is:
"I AM ('ehyeh) WHAT I AM ('ehyeh)", ... ('ehyeh) I AM
has sent me to you." These verbs are all given in the
standard biblical verb HYH for 'to be' . The biblical
commentator could have used the verb HWH here, but
did not.

One possible explanation is that when the need arose
to understand the deity's name, its root HWH has become
archaic, and the author used the current verb HYH to
explain it.

Thus an argument can be made that by the time the
explanation was given, the original meaning had been
forgotten. But this is a different subject.

Uri Hurwitz


13 And Moses said to God, When I come to the children of Israel and say
to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you: and they say to me,
What is his name? what am I to say to them?
14 And God said to him, I AM WHAT I AM: and he said, Say to the children
of Israel, I AM has sent me to you. 15 And God went on to say to Moses,
Say to the children of Israel, The Lord, the God of your fathers, the
God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has sent me to you: this is my
name for ever, and this is my sign to all generations.

HH: The English could be obscuring a bit what is happening in the text.
The form of the verb is the same in several instances, and it is a form
that can also mean "I will be." It occurs in verse 12: "Truly, I will be
('ehyeh) with you. Then it occurs in verse 14: "I AM ('ehyeh) WHAT I AM
('ehyeh)." "Say to the children of Israel, I AM ('ehyeh) has sent me to
you." So one could translate "I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE." But the Hebrew
could convey both the present or the future, and the translator felt
that the present has some implications that the future does not (God
does not only exist in the future).

Yours,
Harold

* Previous message: [b-hebrew] Biblical Hebrew
* Next message: [b-hebrew] Biblical Hebrew
* Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ]

Mo



_______________________________________________
b-hebrew mailing list
b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 8.5.409 / Virus Database: 270.13.90/2361 - Release Date: 09/10/09 
18:12:00