Exod 3:14 – TIPs

I am who I am

The Hebrew in Exodus 3:14 that is translated in English as “I am who I am” or in various other ways is translated in Lisu as ꓥW., Jꓵ: ꓥW., MU., — ngaw dzhy ngaw mu, verbatim translated as “I — govern — I — make.” (Or: “I will do as please” or “My control my decision.”) This construction follows a traditional four-couplet construct in oral Lisu poetry that is usually in the form ABAC or ABCB. (source: Arrington 2020, p. 58 and 211)

The Name of God and Salvation of Humanity

Painting by Soichi Watanabe, used with permission by the Overseas Ministries Study Center (OMSC) at Princeton Theological Seminary. You can purchase this and many other artworks by artists in residence at the OSMC in high resolution and without a watermark via the OSMC website .

“A resident of Koshigaya City, Saitama, Japan, Soichi Watanabe was the 2008-09 OMSC artist in residence. Watanabe graduated in 1982 from the Ochanomizu Art School in Tokyo after having earned, a decade earlier, an economics degree from Tohoku Gakuin University in Sendai. He teaches at a private art school that he started in 1982. Following his 1982 graduation, Soichi founded a private art school where he and his wife work together to help others experience the joy of art.

“Soichi was drawn to God as an undergraduate student during a home Bible study when he encountered Mark 8:35: ‘Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.’ Further study of the New Testament led him to realize that he was both ‘stubborn and self-centered.’ He recalls that ‘the richness of the biblical world overwhelmed me and at the same time tortured me.’

“Shortly thereafter he chose to submit his life to God at an evening worship service. ‘I really heard a voice telling me to accept the salvation of Jesus on the cross and to follow him,’ remembers Soichi. From that point on he has been determined to serve God through his abilities. As a follower of Jesus, Soichi points to his faith as the foundation from which he works as an artist. In his art book Jesus Walking With Us (2004), he writes, ‘I realize that [my works] are my own humble responses to God’s calling in my life… . The images are often given to me through the words of God at worship services on Sundays and during my daily devotion. I have the earnest hope that I will go on painting to praise the Lord.'” (Source )

About this image, Watanabe says: “The name of God, the ‘I AM’ or the ‘I AM WHO I WILL BE,’ can provide the context for our individual, human ‘I am.’ This is something that I learned from a book by Dr. Kenichi Kida. On this canvas I have expressed some of the salvation stories related to the name of God. The white squares symbolize the voice of God and the Ten Commandments. God freed the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, and after the Egyptian army sank into the sea, Miriam led the people in dancing and singing praise to God.” (Source: OMSC 2010, p. 16)

See other images of Soichi Watanabe.

complete verse (Exod. 3:14-15)

The translation into Pijin (published in 2008) translates Exodus 3:14-15 this way:

¹⁴ God answered like this, “My name is like this, I [Myself] I Live Always. You must tell them like this, ‘God who sent me to you, his “taboo” name is I [Myself] I Live Always.’ ¹⁵ And you must tell them like this, ‘Yahweh, who is the God of our ancestors before, he is the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and he [himself] he sent me to you.’ My name is Yahweh, and all people must call me by this name always.

Two footnotes in the translation add the following information (also back-translated from Pijin):

3:14: ‘I [Myself] I Live Always’ In the Hebrew language, the words that mean I [Myself] I Live Always, it is the taboo name of God. (…) 3:15: ‘Yahweh’ In the Hebrew language, this name is like YHWH, and it means something like ‘He [himself] he lives always,’ which is a taboo name of God. Before, the people of the line of Israel believed that this name of God was very taboo, so they were afraid to say it, and because of this, the way to say the name was lost. But many people think the way to say this name is, ‘Yahweh.’ In our Bible, we use ‘Yahweh’ to say the name YHWH. In some English Bibles they use ‘Lord‘ to mean YHWH. This is the name that God gave to us to call him, because only God can allow us to use his taboo name.

Bob Carter (former Translation Advisor, Solomon Islands Pijin Old Testament Project) who back-translated the verses and footnotes above, adds this:

“The translation of the Divine Name in verse 14 was decided on many years ago based on what the translation team understood at that time. We would likely not make the same decision now because of new input from scholars. The ‘taboo name’ is an ancient cultural concept having to do with people having a special name that is known or shared with only trusted people, because with the knowledge of the taboo name comes power. At the time of translation, the concept was broad enough to use in this context.”

The original of Exodus 3:14-15 in Pijin:

¹⁴ God hemi ansa olsem, “Nem blong mi hemi olsem, Mi nao Mi Stap Olowe. Yu mas talem olketa olsem, ‘God hu hemi sendem mi kam long yufala, tambu nem blong hem nao, Mi nao Mi Stap Olowe.’ ¹⁵ An yu mas talem olketa olsem, ‘Yawe, hu hemi God blong olketa grani blong yumi bifoa, hemi God blong Ebraham, an Aesak, an Jekob, an hem nao hemi sendem mi kam long yufala.’ Nem blong mi nao Yawe, an bae evri pipol mas kolem mi long disfala nem olowe nao.

translations with a Hebraic voice (Exodus 3:14)

Some translations specifically reproduce the voice of the Hebrew text of the Old Testament / Hebrew Bible.

English:
God said to Moshe:
Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh/I will be-there howsoever I will be-there.
And he said:
Thus shall you say to the Children of Israel:
Ehyeh/I-Will-Be-There sends me to you.

Source: Everett Fox 1995

German:
Gott sprach zu Mosche:
Ich werde dasein, als der ich dasein werde.
Und er sprach:
So sollst du zu den Söhnen Jissraels sprechen:
Ich bin da schickt mich zu euch.

Source: Buber / Rosenzweig 1976

French:
Elohîms dit à Moshè: « Èhiè ashèr èhiè ! Je serai qui je serai »
Il dit: « Ainsi diras-tu aux Benéi Israël:
‹ Je serai, Èhiè, m’a envoyé vers vous ›. »

Source: Chouraqui 1985

For other verses or sections translated with a Hebraic voice, see here.

complete verse (Exodus 3:14)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Exodus 3:14:

Kupsabiny: “God said, ‘I am the one who is everlasting. Tell those people that, ‘The one who has sent me is called, ‘The one who is everlasting’.’” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
Newari: “Then God said to Moses, ‘I am the one who is, I am that very one.’ He said again, ‘You speak like this to the Israelites, The one who is called ‘[The] I AM’ has sent me to you.’” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
Hiligaynon: “God answered Moises, ‘I (am) the God who is the same as-always. This is what you (sing.) are-to-answer them: ‘The God who is the same as-always is-the-one (who) sent me to you (plur.).’ ’” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
Bariai: “And then God said to Moses, ‘I Am Just Like This. And so you will say to the Israel people, ‘God calls his own name like this: I Am Just Like This. And so he sent me, Moses, to come to you.’ ’” (Source: Bariai Back Translation)
Opo: “Therefore, God said to Moses «That which I be, it is that which I be!» And he said to him «be present go say people of Israel like this ‹Be Yahweh that sent me here to you!›»” (Source: Opo Back Translation)
English: “God replied, ‘I AM who I AM.’ And he said, ‘Tell the Israeli people that the one who is named ‘I AM’ has sent me to you.’” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Moses

The name that is transliterated as “Moses” in English is signed in Spanish Sign Language and Polish Sign Language in accordance with the depiction of Moses in the famous statue by Michelangelo (see here ). (Source: John Elwode in The Bible Translator 2008, p. 78ff. )

“Moses” in Spanish Sign Language, source: Sociedad Bíblica de España

American Sign Language also uses the sign depicting the horns but also has a number of alternative signs (see here ).

In French Sign Language, a similar sign is used, but it is interpreted as “radiance” (see below) and it culminates in a sign for “10,” signifying the 10 commandments:

“Moses” in French Sign Language (source )

The horns that are visible in Michelangelo’s statue are based on a passage in the Latin Vulgate translation (and many Catholic Bible translations that were translated through the 1950ies with that version as the source text). Jerome, the translator, had worked from a Hebrew text without the niqquds, the diacritical marks that signify the vowels in Hebrew and had interpreted the term קרו (k-r-n) in Exodus 34:29 as קֶ֫רֶן — keren “horned,” rather than קָרַו — karan “radiance” (describing the radiance of Moses’ head as he descends from Mount Sinai).

In Swiss-German Sign Language it is translated with a sign depicting holding a staff. This refers to a number of times where Moses’s staff is used in the context of miracles, including the parting of the sea (see Exodus 14:16), striking of the rock for water (see Exodus 17:5 and following), or the battle with Amalek (see Exodus 17:9 and following).

In Vietnamese (Hanoi) Sign Language it is translated with the sign that depicts the eye make up he would have worn as the adopted son of an Egyptian princess. (Source: The Vietnamese Sign Language translation team, VSLBT)

“Moses” in Vietnamese Sign Language, source: SooSL

In Estonian Sign Language Moses is depicted with a big beard. (Source: Liina Paales in Folklore 47, 2011, p. 43ff. )

“Moses” in Estonian Sign Language, source: Glossary of the EKNK Toompea kogudus

For more information on translations of proper names with sign language see Sign Language Bible Translations Have Something to Say to Hearing Christians .

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Moses .

1st person pronoun referring to God (Japanese)

Click or tap here to see the rest of this insight.

Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.

One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a first person singular and plural pronoun (“I” and “we” and its various forms) as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. The most commonly used watashi/watakushi (私) is typically used when the speaker is humble and asking for help. In these verses, where God / Jesus is referring to himself, watashi is also used but instead of the kanji writing system (私) the syllabary hiragana (わたし) is used to distinguish God from others.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

formal 2nd person plural pronoun (Japanese)