Translating
Exodus 3:4
Excerpt
God said shows the narrator’s insistence that it is God who is about to reveal his name. But I am who I am is not the name; it is an intentional play on the word I am, the word on which the name [YHWH]in verse 15 is based. This roundabout reply is not as difficult to translate as it is to understand. Various attempts have been made to translate the meaning: “I am; that is who I am” (NEB); “I am who am” (nab); “I am he who is” (NJB). One translation (tan) even transliterates from the Hebrew: “Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh.” Another way to express this is “ ‘I Am’ is who I am.” In languages that have different verbs for permanent and temporary being, the permanent one should be used.
Osborn, Noel D., and Howard A. Hatton. A Handbook on Exodus. New York: United Bible Societies, 1999. Print. UBS Handbook Series.
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