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NASB | Exodus 3:14 God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM"; and He said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'" |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Exodus 3:14 God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM"; and He said, "You shall say this to the Israelites, 'I AM has sent me to you.'" |
Subject: God refers to himself as "The great I Am |
Bible Note: Part 3 meaning (and being so accented), and not being a mere copula In neither is there any possibility of inserting an emphatic ego. So the emphatic ords used by Jesus in the passages referred to above are perfectly natural in their contexts, and they do not echo the words of Exodus 3:14 in the normally quoted Greek version. Thus they are quite unlikely to have been used in the New Testament to convey that significance, however much the modern English versions of the relevant passages, following the form of the Hebrew words, may suggest it. 1 I have seen one such speaker try to impress his audience by writing the words on a blackboard, only to demonstrate that he was ignorant of even the simplest details of Greek. 2 Its position is unemphatic, but the degree of emphasis could be reduced by its omission, which would make no difference to the meaning. The omission of the copula is quite common in Greek, especially, but not exclusively, in the third person. 3 The fact that this is a reported statement, in a hoti clause, does not affect the grammar, but only the degree of emphasis. 4 In translation, if as is likely, the original reply was the equivalent in Aramaic. 5 Note that with this meaning the verb is differently accented in Greek E)GW\ E)MI/ instead of E)GW E)IMI ). 6 For the construction see K. L. McKay, A New Syntax of the Verb in New Testament Greek: An aspectual approach (Peter Lang, 1994), 4.2.4. 7 For extensive modern discussion of the problems of interpretation see Brevard S. Childs, Exodus: A Commentary (OTL, SCM, 1974) and John 1. Durham, Exodus (WBC 3, Word, 1987). See also Martin Noth, Exodus (OTL, SCM, 2nd ed. 1966); U. Cassuto, Commentary on the Book of Exodus (Magnes Press), 1. P. Hyatt, Exodus (NCB, Oliphants, 1971); Alan Cole, Exodus (TC, IVP, 1973); J. W. Wevers, Notes on the Greek Text of Exodus (Scholars Press, 1990). 8 As Noth mentions in a footnote. 9 Cf. the Vulgate translation of 14b: Qui est misit me ad vos. 10 English has lost the full range of inflections, and the relative pronoun is now treated as if it were always third person. Tara1 |