Biblical Hebrew Forum

[cornelis den hertog <cok17 AT hotmail.com>]

From: bjwvmw AT com-pair.net
Date: Wed, 9 Jan 2013 09:08:23 -0800

[...] I would think that the question, "What is his name?," that the Israelites would ask is necessary and would be duely required from ANY person claiming he had been sent by that "God." This is due to the fact of the last 429 years that the Israelites have been in Egypt. Every "god" or "goddess" had a name that also reflected the nature of the "god" or "goddess" that was worshipped. Exodus 6:3 is quite clear that the Israelites would NEED to know this name (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as El-$aday NOT as YHWH). (NOTE: I think progressive revelation is also at play here). [...]

 

Dear Bryant,

 

According to Exod 3:13 Moses says how he will introduce his sender to the Israelites, namely as ‘the God of your fathers’. In the narrative of the call of Moses, this is in line with the self-introduction by his sender as ‘I am the God of your father, the god of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob’ (v. 6). Therefore, in his imagined conversation Moses is not talking  about ‘God’ / Elohim without any specification. When the Israelites ask subsequently ‘What is his name?’, what does that suppose? Does it suppose that they do not know the name (or any name) of the ancestral God? Or are there other possibilities? And why exactly do they need the divine name in their particular situation? As I indicated, in my view we should not jump to the conclusion. Probably we will miss then the particularity of the narrative of Moses’ call and its context, and, more specifically, of these specific verses in it.

 

Cornelis den Hertog