9th page of 10 pages
Chapter 3
"I am who I am" and a comparison
Exodus 3,12-14: Translation
He said, "But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain." Then Moses said to God, "If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' what shall I say to them?" God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." And he said, "Say this to the people of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'"
4. Interpretation of Exodus 3,12-14
4.1. I and the formula of self-presentation
The entire text is written in direct speeches:
| Moses | Yahweh |
|---|---|
| Verse 3: I want to go (asurah-nah) | Verse 6: I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob |
| Verse 5: Here I am (hinenni) | Verse 7: I have seen the affliction of my people in Egypt… and heard their cries of complaint against their slave drivers, so I know well their suffering |
| Verse 8: I have come down to rescue them from the hand of Egypt and lead them out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey, …. | |
| Verse 11: …Who am I that I could go to Pharaoh and lead the Israelites out of Egypt? | Verse 12: And he said , “I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who have sent you.. |
| Verse 13: But Moses said to God: “When I come to the Israelites 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 tell they”? | Verse 14: God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." And he said, "Say this to the people of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'" |
| Verse 15: God also said to Moses, "Say this to the people of Israel, 'Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. |
God introduces himself as Yahweh, God of the fathers and defines his relationship to his people. He has mercy on his people and descends into the realm of misery, like a sun god who rises in the evening into the night boat and glides through the underworld of wailing and weeping. But the author of Exodus has clearly grown out of this myth.
Because the fathers had worshiped expressly El Shaddaj before, the text looks like the metamorphosis of a god into a new shape, not El Shaddaj, divinity of the Mother’s Breast but Yahweh is God, who leads the Israelites out of Egypt.
But Moses writhes against the divine order. He sits in the trap. Do not go unpunished, he has left the path. Now is charged with the burden which pulls him out of a contemplative life of a shepherd and of a rich priest’s son of law.
Verse 14 “I am who I am” acts like a insertion. “I am who I am” brings together past, present and future: “I was”, “I am” and “I’ll be”. According to Werner H. Schmidt hjh means “a being who is in relation to someone else, in the sense of “being for somebody”. Because Exodus 3 promises deliverance from the distress and assures divine assistance, ähiäh may be translated in future tense “I’ll be” (1).
What strikes me, is the similarity of the name YHWH and HWJH.
and 
Joerg Winner writes in his essay “Yahweh” (2):
The original reading of “Yahweh” is developed without doubt from the ancient Hebrew verb “hajah” or “hwh.
The verb “hajah” means “be”, “to be here” and hwh “to give live”. In Genesis 3,20 the first women is named by her husband “Eve”, “because she would become the mother of all the living”. But “mother of all living” cannot be a human being, certainly not one who has been created from the rip of another person. The "Mother of all livings" can only be a goddess who creates life. Eve is therefore the mother goddess, who is treated here in the text as the wife of the man, as his subject.
In Genesis 3,14 Adam calls his wife Hawjah (in English: Eve), because she is the mother of all livings. In Exodus 3,14 God calls himself Yahweh. This word consists of the same consonantes like Hawjah. In Exodus 3,14 Yahweh names himself as well as "I am who I am" (ähiäh aschär ähiäh). This phrase is self-centered and male, Hawjah, the mother of all livings prefers the other, is altruistic and female. Eve is displaced of all her divine functions and Adam's subservient exactly like Israel is subordinate to Yahweh. Yahweh has heard her crying and suffering and wants to help her. But how does his help look like? An inflation of violence and terror: Yahweh himself hardens Pharaoh's heart to punish him and his people with desease and plague. After the Pharaoh drowned together with all his army, ultimately, there's been thought, the god Yahweh is satisfied. But the fear of God spreads over the neighboring people legitimately (Exodus 15). Israel is suffering from hunger and thirst (Exodus 16), but any rebellion is punished with vengeance and death. Or the positive promise that Israel will come to a country, where milk and honey is flowing, can only be conquered with merciless violence.
Text and Design: Esther Keller-Stocker, Horgen, Zürich (Switzerland)
Last correction on 09.02.2010.
I'm looking forward to your comments and your suggestion!
Contact me at esther@estherkeller.ch
