I Am that I Am

For other uses, see I Am Who I Am.
For the song by Peter Tosh, see Equal Rights (album).
"Hayah" redirects here. For the village in Iran, see Hayyeh.

I Am that I Am (אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה, ehyeh ašer ehyeh [ehˈje aˈʃer ehˈje]) is the common English translation (JPS among others) of the response God used in the Hebrew Bible when Moses asked for his name (Exodus 3:14). It is one of the most famous verses in the Torah. Hayah means "existed" or "was" in Hebrew; ehyeh is the first person singular imperfect form and is usually translated in English Bibles as "I am" or "I will be" (or "I shall be"), for example, at Exodus 3:14. Ehyeh asher ehyeh literally translates as "I Am Who I Am." The ancient Hebrew of Exodus 3:14 lacks a future tense as modern English does, yet a few translations render this name as "I Will Be What I Will Be", given the context of Yahweh promising to be with his people through their future troubles.[1] Both the literal present tense "I Am" and the future tense "I will be" have given rise to many attendant theological and mystical implications in Jewish tradition. However, in most English Bibles, in particular the King James Version, the phrase is rendered as I am that I am.

Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh (often contracted in English as "I AM") is one of the Seven Names of God accorded special care by medieval Jewish tradition.[2] The phrase is also found in other world religious literature, used to describe the Supreme Being, generally referring back to its use in Exodus. The word Ehyeh is considered by many rabbinical scholars to be a first-person derivation of the Tetragrammaton, see for example Yahweh.

Judaism

Hebrew Bible

The word Ehyeh is used a total of 43 places in the Hebrew Bible, where it is often translated as "I will be" – as is the case for its first occurrence, in Genesis 26:3 – or "I shall be," as is the case for its final occurrence in Zechariah 8:8. Used by God to identify himself in the burning bush, the importance placed on the phrase stems from the Hebrew conception of monotheism that God exists by himself for himself, and is the uncreated Creator who is independent of any concept, force, or entity; therefore "I am who I am" (ongoing).

Some scholars state that the Tetragrammaton itself derives from the same verbal root, following a rabbinical interpretation of Exodus 3:14, but others counter that it may simply sound similar as intended by God, such as Psalm 119 and the Hebrew words shoqed (watching) and shaqed (almond branch) found in Jeremiah 1:11-12. Whether the Holy Name (written as YHWH) is derived from Ehyeh or whether the two are individual concepts is a subject of debate among historians and theologians.

In appearance, it is possible to render YHWH (יהוה) as an archaic third person singular imperfect form of the verb hayah (אהיה) "to be" meaning, therefore, "He is". It is notably distinct from the root El, which can be used as a simple noun to refer to the creator deity in general, as in Elohim, meaning simply "God" (or gods). This interpretation agrees with the meaning of the name given in Exodus 3:14, where God is represented as speaking, and hence as using the first person — ehyeh "I am". Other scholars regard the triconsonantal root of hawah (הוה) as a more likely origin for the name Yahweh.

Hellenistic Judaism

In the Hellenistic Greek literature of the Jewish Diaspora the phrase "Ehyeh asher ehyeh" was rendered in Greek "ego eimi ho on ", "I am the BEING".

This usage is also found in the Christian New Testament:

Kabbalist interpretation

The response given by God is considered significant by many Kabbalists, because it is seen as an indication of the divine nature of God's name, a central idea in Kabbalah (and to a lesser degree Judaism in general).

Roman Catholicism

The Roman Catholic Church's interpretation has been summarized in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The interpretation is found in numbers 203-213.[8]

Some of the salient points are the following:

203
God revealed himself to his people of Israel by making his name known to them. A name expresses one's essential identity and the meaning of one's life. God has a name; he is not an anonymous force. To disclose one's name is to make oneself known to others; in a way it is to hand oneself over by becoming accessible, capable of being known more intimately and addressed personally.
206
In revealing his mysterious name, YHWH ("I AM HE WHO IS", "I AM WHO AM" or "I AM WHO I AM"), God says who he is and by what name he is to be called. This divine name is mysterious just as God is mystery. It is at once a name revealed and something like the refusal of a name, and hence it better expresses God as what he is - infinitely above everything that we can understand or say: he is the "hidden God", his name is ineffable, and he is the God who makes himself close to men.
207
God, who reveals his name as "I AM", reveals himself as the God who is always there, present to his people in order to save them.
210
After Israel's sin, when the people had turned away from God to worship the golden calf, God hears Moses' prayer of intercession and agrees to walk in the midst of an unfaithful people, thus demonstrating his love. When Moses asks to see his glory, God responds "I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you my name 'the LORD' [YHWH]." Then the LORD passes before Moses and proclaims, "YHWH, YHWH, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness"; Moses then confesses that the LORD is a forgiving God.
211
The divine name, "I Am" or "He Is", expresses God's faithfulness: despite the faithlessness of men's sin and the punishment it deserves, he keeps "steadfast love for thousands"... By giving his life to free us from sin, Jesus reveals that he himself bears the divine name: "When you have lifted up the Son of man, then you will realize that 'I AM'."
212
...In God "there is no variation or shadow due to change."...
213
The revelation of the ineffable name "I AM WHO I AM" contains then the truth that God alone IS. The Greek Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, and following it the Church's tradition, understood the divine name in this sense: God is the fullness of Being and of every perfection, without origin and without end. All creatures receive all that they are and have from him; but he alone is his very being, and he is of himself everything that he is.

Other views

Some religious groups and theologians regard this phrase or at least the "I am" part of the phrase as an actual name of God, or to lesser degree the sole name of God. It can be found in many listings of other common names of God.

As discussed above, depending on how it is rendered (a subject of much debate among historians), the Hebrew name for God (YHWH) bears some similarity to an archaic form of "he is". In Biblical Hebrew, ehyeh is the first person singular imperfect "to be". In other world religions also the "I AM" part is the actual name of God.

The conceptualization of the omnipresence of the divine being has led to the consideration of simplicity. The unified perspectival concept of "I" combined with the supposition of omnipresence creates an atmosphere in which the unity of divine being and self can be easily understood.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge predicates much of the theoretical frame of his Biographia Literaria on what he calls 'the great I AM' (that is, God the Father) and 'the filial WORD that re-affirmeth it ...' (Christ, reaffirming his father's statement') '...from Eternity to Eternity, whose choral Echo is the Universe.' Coleridge's argument is that these two things together work to create the ground for all meaning, especially poetic and artistic meaning.

The South Indian sage Ramana Maharshi mentions that in the Hindu Advaita Vedanta school, of all the definitions of God, "none is indeed so well put as the biblical statement 'I am that I am'". He maintained that although Hindu scripture contains similar statements in the Mahavakyas, these are not as direct as given in Exodus.[9] Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj explains the "I am" as an abstraction in the mind of the Stateless State, of the Absolute, or the Supreme Reality, called Parabrahman: it is pure awareness, prior to thoughts, free from perceptions, associations, memories.

Victor P. Hamilton suggests "some legitimate translations [...]: (1) 'I am who I am'; (2) 'I am who I was'; (3) 'I am who I shall be'; (4) 'I was who I am'; (5) 'I was who I was'; (6) 'I was who I shall be'; (7) 'I shall be who I am'; (8) 'I shall be who I was'; (9) 'I shall be who I shall be.'"[10]

The Bahá'í Faith reference to "I Am" can be found in on page 316 of The Dawn-Breakers: Nabíl's Narrative of the Early Days of the Bahá'í Revelation. “I am,” thrice exclaimed The Bab, “I am, I am, the promised One! I am the One whose name you have for a thousand years invoked, at whose mention you have risen, whose advent you have longed to witness, and the hour of whose Revelation you have prayed God to hasten. Verily I say, it is incumbent upon the peoples of both the East and the West to obey My word and to pledge allegiance to My person.”

See also

References

  1. ↑ "The New English Translation Bible Study Environment". Translation note 47 on Exodus 3:14: NET Bible. Retrieved 2/1/2016. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  2. ↑ The Reader's Encyclopedia, Second Edition 1965, publisher Thomas Y. Crowell Co., New York, editions 1948, 1955. Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 65-12510, page 918
  3. ↑ Brenton, Septuagint
  4. ↑ English translation: Yonge, Philo Complete Works, Grand Rapids 1998
  5. ↑ Greek text: per Logos Software, licensed from Philo Concordance Project 2000 Cohn & Wendland, Colson, Petit, and Paramelle
  6. ↑ F.H. Colson Philo Works Vol. VI, Loeb Classics, Harvard 1941
  7. ↑ Rev 1:4 Ἐγώ εἰμι τὸ Α καὶ τὸ Ω ἀρχὴ καὶ τέλος, λέγει ὁ κύριος ὁ ὢν καὶ ὁ ἦν καὶ ὁ ἐρχόμενος ὁ παντοκράτωρ
  8. ↑ Archived March 3, 2010, at the Wayback Machine.
  9. ↑ Talks with Ramana Maharshi, Talk 106, 29th November, 1935
  10. ↑ Hamilton, Victor P. (2011). "If God Knows Your Name, Do You Need to Know His? (3:13-22)". Exodus: An Exegetical Commentary. Baker Books. p. 64. ISBN 9781441240095. Retrieved 2015-08-09.
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