Moses Wants to Know God’s Name

Dr. Rabbi Zev Farber — the Senior Editor of TheTorah.com

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God speaks to Moses for the first time at the burning bush:

God then tells Moses that he has taken note of the suffering of the Israelites and has decided to free them from bondage and bring them to a good land and that he is sending Moses to tell Pharaoh about this and take charge of Israel’s release.

Unsurprisingly, Moses is nervous about whether he can accomplish this goal (v. 11). God reassures Moses that, “I will be with you” (כִּי אֶהְיֶה עִמָּךְ, v. 12). Moses then expresses another reservation:

Elohim is a generic term for “god(s),” and Moses is concerned that he will have no credibility among the Israelites if he tells them only that their ancestors’ elohim appeared to him, and he doesn’t know God’s personal name. Thus, in v. 13, he is asking God a very specific and pointed question: “What is your name?” God’s answer, however, is anything but straightforward:

Ehyeh asher Ehyeh: God’s Non-Sequitur

God’s answer seems like a non-sequitur. Ehyeh asher ehyeh is not God’s name. As God will soon make clear, and as is obvious throughout the Hebrew Bible, God’s name is YHWH. In fact, nowhere else in the entire Hebrew Bible is Ehyeh asher Ehyeh—or even just Ehyeh—used as a name for God. That YHWH is, in fact, God’s name is made clear in the very next verse:

According to this, the answer to Moses’ question is actually “YHWH” and God specifically tells Moses that this is what he should say to the Israelites. God even emphasizes that this name, YHWH, is his one name forever and for all time.

Moses is told to use the name YHWH again in v. 16, when he is told to give this message to the Israelite elders, and again in v. 18, when he is told that this is how God should be introduced to Pharaoh.

An Explanation of the Name YHWH?

Most commentators, ancient and modern, assume that God’s initial answer “ehyeh asher ehyeh” (v.14) is a foreshadowing introduction explaining the meaning of the name God is about to reveal.^[1] This is a cogent interpretation of the passage, nevertheless, the text never actually says that ehyeh asher ehyeh is an explanation of the name YHWH. In fact, nowhere does Moses use this information to explain the name YHWH to anyone else—not to the Israelites and not to Pharaoh (even when the latter asks in 5:2). Moreover, the second half of verse 14 implies that Moses was supposed to introduce God as Ehyeh.

The fact that v. 14 does not fit its context well—Moses did not ask about the meaning of God’s name, only what it was—and that no later verses make use of this name or etymology, implies that the verse may not have been original to the text. In fact, removing v. 14 entirely yields a coherent text.

This reads smoothly and offers the expected answer to Moses’ question; it also fits with the rest of the story, in which God is always introduced as YHWH. Thus, v. 14 should be considered a redactional supplement.

On one level, this scribe may simply have wanted to offer his thoughts on what was and has remained an important question for millennia – what is the meaning of God’s name? Picking up on the apparently obvious connection between YHWH and the root of the Hebrew word “to be”^[2] (ה-ו-י or ה-י-ה), the author of this supplement offered a philosophical midrash of sorts, suggestion that God “is what God is,” in other words, an unknowable being.

“I Will Be with You” (אהיה עמך)

‍The scribe may have been inspired by the use of the word ehyeh which appears three other times in this account, once before v. 14 and twice after, all in response to Moses’ fear that Pharaoh would not listen to him.

^{Exod 3:12} I will be with you.

^{Exod 4:12} Now go, and I will be with you as you speak (lit. with your mouth) and will instruct you what to say.

^{Exod 4:15} I will be with you and with him (Aaron) as you speak (lit. with your mouth and with his mouth), and tell both of you what to do.

Dr. Rabbi Zev Farber’s article continues and I encourage you to read the other half on www.TheTorah.com .

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This is the best explanation that I have read. He describes the Documentary Hypothesis, which he describes here.

The Rabbi says in another place, “The most famous hypothesis based on the source critical method is the Documentary Hypothesis, and, … it offers a good explanation for why the Torah contains …” different versions of various stories. He says, “Nevertheless, source criticism on its own, does not seem to hold promise for solving …” all of the internal textual problems. “Redaction criticism posits that the editor or redactor would add material, like explanatory glosses or other changes, into the text.”

I agree with this. But, I take it further and say, a later deviant priesthood departed from the diet of “Veganism” into animal butchery and bloody sacrificial rituals along with the eating of animal flesh. They also adopted the brutal mutilation of the penis, called, circumcision — these were also rites of the surrounding “pagan” nations. They promoted this and edited the texts to legitimize themselves and these “pagan” practices. The Melchizedekian Hebrews were Vege-Fruitarians and caretakers of the animals — not their murderers! They were later called, Essenes and Ebionites.
This is what is referred to in The Book of Judges beginning in Chapter Two, Verse 10:

10 Also all that generation [of Joshua and the Elders and the Yi-s’ra-el] were gathered to their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, who [except for a remnant] didn’t know Yahuweh^[1]the name first revealed to Mosheh, meaning: The Eternal Being, and previously only known to them by the names: Elohiym, El, El-Shaddai, El-Elyon, Adonai…, nor yet the work which he had worked for Yi-s’ra-el. 11 The children of Yisrael did that which was evil in the sight of Yahuweh, and served the Baals [Ba’alim]; 12 and they forsook Yahuweh, the God [Elohiym] of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed themselves down to them: and they provoked Yahuweh to anger. 13 They forsook Yahuweh, and served Baal and the Ashtaroth.
14 The anger of Yahuweh was kindled against Yisrael, and he delivered them into the hands of spoilers who despoiled them; and he sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies. 15 Wherever they went out, the hand of Yahuweh was against them for evil, as Yahuweh had spoken, and as Yahuweh had sworn to them: and they were very distressed.
16 Yahuweh raised up judges, who saved them out of the hand of those who despoiled them. 17 Yet they didn’t listen to their judges; for they played the prostitute after other gods, and bowed themselves down to them: they turned aside quickly out of the way in which their fathers walked, obeying the commandments of Yahuweh. They didn’t do so.
18 When Yahuweh raised them up judges, then Yahuweh was with the judge, and saved them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge: for it grieved Yahuweh because of their groaning by reason of those who oppressed them and troubled them. 19 But it happened, when the judge was dead, that they turned back, and dealt more corruptly than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down to them; they didn’t cease from their doings, nor from their stubborn way. 20 The anger of Yahuweh was kindled against Yisrael; and he said, “Because this nation have transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and have not listened to my voice; 21 I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations that Joshua left when he died; 22 that by them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of Yahuweh to walk therein, as their fathers kept it, or not.” 23 So Yahuweh left those nations, without driving them out hastily; neither delivered he them into the hand of Joshua. The World English Bible (WEB) 1997
[Emphasis and [brackets] mine. I have changed the form of the name, Yahweh to Yahuweh. Both are acceptable, but I prefer the latter. Also, I changed the form of Israel to Yisrael (Yi-s’ra-el), which means, Yi =He will; S’ra = rule; {before} El or Elohim = God.]