paxchristi on Nostr: Not sure about that. Though I had to give it a run through Claude to clarify. The ...

Not sure about that. Though I had to give it a run through Claude to clarify.

The phrase in question comes from **Exodus 3:14** — God's response to Moses at the burning bush when asked for His name. The actual Hebrew reads:

**וַיֹּאמֶר אֱלֹהִים אֶל־מֹשֶׁה אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה**

*Vayomer Elohim el-Moshe: Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh*

("And God said to Moses: I Am That/Who I Am")

The transliteration "ĕlôhîym âmar mo-sheh hâyâh hâyâh" contains two errors that likely stem from pulling Strong's Concordance root forms rather than the actual conjugated words in the text. First, **hâyâh** (הָיָה) is the dictionary root of "to be" (third person perfect — "he was"), but the text actually uses **ehyeh** (אֶהְיֶה), the first person imperfect — "I am" or "I will be." That distinction matters: it's God speaking about Himself, not a third-person description. Second, the relative pronoun **asher** (אֲשֶׁר), meaning "that," "who," or "which," is missing entirely. It's the word that links the two “I Am” declarations together.

As for the English translation, three valid readings exist because the Hebrew is deliberately rich and open-ended. **"I Am That I Am"** (KJV and older translations) emphasises God's absolute, self-existent nature — pure being, uncaused and self-defined. **"I Am Who I Am"** (NIV, ESV, NRSV) carries a more personal tone, emphasising identity and relationship. **"I Will Be What I Will Be"** is also valid, since *ehyeh* as an imperfect verb can express ongoing or future action, emphasising God's faithfulness and unfolding self-revelation. The ambiguity is widely considered intentional — it resists being pinned down to a single, neat definition, which is fitting for what it's expressing.


Myself responding:
“… deliberately rich and open-ended.” I see ‘who’ and ‘that’ collapse into, What he is (pure act/being “that”) is a Who [Person] (setting Him distinct from say Advaita Vedanta), and later is revealed to be three persons [Love]. God is pure Being, who is a tri-personal perichoresis of love.