Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh
Examines the grammar of God's enigmatic self-description to Moses at the burning bush, showing how the incomplete-action form of the Hebrew verb h-y-h allows Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh to be read as four distinct, mutually exclusive philosophical positions on divine constancy and change, and connects the shift between the first-person Ehyeh and third-person Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh to how God and humanity each refer to the divine name.
Sachs unpacks the grammar behind God’s answer to Moses at the burning bush, noting that the Hebrew verb h-y-h’s incomplete-action form allows Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh to be rendered in four different, even contradictory, ways describing divine constancy versus change. He connects this ambiguity to the shift in perspective between God’s own first-person “Ehyeh” and humanity’s third-person Tetragrammaton.
Gerardo G. Sachs is a retired educator living in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Cite this article
Gerardo G. Sachs. "Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh." Jewish Bible Quarterly 38, no. 4 (October – December 2010): 245–246.
Gerardo G. Sachs. "Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh." Jewish Bible Quarterly, vol. 38, no. 4, 2010, pp. 245–246.