Jehovah's Witnesses, Ex. 3:14 says..God said to Moses, " I Am Who I AM,?

Question

This is what you are to say to the Israelites; I AM has sent me to you.."
John 8:58 says.." I tell you the truth, Jesus answered, " before Abraham, was born, I AM!"..

Why do you think the translators of your Bible, felt the need to change John 8:58 to say Jesus said to them: “Most truly I say to YOU, Before Abraham came into existence, I have been."

Does that not change the whole meaning of the scripture. Why do you think they did that?

Answer 1

The increasingly popular "I AM" as a reference to the Judeo-Christian God is not entirely incorrect, but it is an oversimplification. An expression which more accurately approximates the flavor of the original Hebrew is "I Shall Prove To Be What I Shall Prove To Be"; the Almighty is more than a 'snapshot' in time, but an ongoing manifestation of His own ability to do and be anything.

(Exodus 3:13-14) Moses said to the true God: “Suppose I am now come to the sons of Israel and I do say to them, ‘The God of your forefathers has sent me to you,’ and they do say to me, ‘What is his name?’ What shall I say to them?” 14 At this God said to Moses: “I SHALL PROVE TO BE WHAT I SHALL PROVE TO BE.” And he added: “This is what you are to say to the sons of Israel, ‘I SHALL PROVE TO BE has sent me to you.’”

Leeser, “I WILL BE THAT I WILL BE”
Rotherham, “I Will Become whatsoever I please.”


That Exodus 3:14 expression is rich in meaning, but the Scriptures themselves actually include the Divine Name itself nearly 7000 times. The name "Jehovah" is an English translation of the Hebrew name pronounced as or similar to "Yahweh" or "Yehowah"; the exact original pronunciation is unknown. The four Hebrew characters corresponding to the letters "YHWH" are well-recognized as the biblical personal name of Almighty God, and are universally designated as "the Tetragrammaton" or "the Tetragram".

For centuries, most Jews have superstitiously refrained from pronouncing aloud any form of the divine Name. They base that superstition on the third of the Ten Commandments given to Moses:
(Exodus 20:7) You must not take up the name of Jehovah your God in a worthless way
http://watchtower.org/e/bible/ex/chapter_020.htm?bk=Ex;chp=20;vs=7;citation#bk7

Over the centuries, that Jewish superstition has expanded to also forbid writing or engraving any form of "YHWH", even when simply copying from one of the nearly 7000 occurences in the Hebrew Scriptures. In recent centuries, some superstitious Jews have even forbade unabbreviated EUPHEMISMS for "YHWH"; capitalized terms such as "Tetragrammaton" and (amazingly) even "the Name" are forbidden by such superstitions.

More recently, the Jewish superstition has ballooned out of all reasonableness by also forbidding respectful impersonal TERMS referring to the Almighty; thus many Jews insist upon writing "G-d" or "G~d" rather than "God". They may even refrain from capitalizing impersonal terms such as "Creator" and "Almighty".

Naturally, the religious and superstitious practices of a person are between him and his Creator. However, in recent decades these superstitious Jews have worked to impose their superstitious sensibilities beyond their religious communities, and onto the entire populace. Thus, although "YHWH' is unanimously recognized as the personal name of God, few today use any form of it in their writings and conversation.

Interestingly, Christendom has largely joined with superstitious Jews in suppressing the use of "Yahweh" and "Jehovah". However, it seems that Christendom's anti-YHWH bias largely devolves from their hatred of Jehovah's Witnesses, the religion almost single-handedly responsible for the growing public recognition that the Almighty God of Judaism and Christianity actually does a personal name.

It seems that too many are more interested in coddling superstition than in allowing intellectual honesty and respect for the Almighty.

Learn more:
http://watchtower.org/e/na/
http://watchtower.org/e/20040122/


Interestingly, Encyclopaedia Judaica says that “the avoidance of pronouncing the name YHWH ... was caused by a misunderstanding of the Third Commandment.”
http://www.jehovantodistajat.fi/e/20040122/article_02.htm

(Psalms 83:18) That people may know that you, whose name is Jehovah, You alone are the Most High over all the earth

(John 17:26) [Jesus said] I have made your name known to them and will make it known, in order that the love with which you loved me may be in them

Answer 2

The 'immoral' and 'mentally diseased' feedback are advert hominem assaults (attacking the character alternatively than answering any argument they maybe making). This is finished to indicate that someone who disagrees with the Watchtower Society has an ulterior rationale at the back of the selection to not consider. In this example, they are both sexually-promiscuous satan worshippers or they are simply undeniable loopy. And that is all performed to quit present JWs from asking the query "why do not those humans consider?". It additionally creates a fake dichotomy because the idea is that you are both a well JW otherwise you are a sexually-promiscuous, satan-worshipping nutcase. After years of this variety of indoctrination, such a lot JWs are left with a phobic reaction to someone or whatever external of the service provider - and for that reason have a developing dependency at the service provider for safety and salvation.

Answer 3

Both translations are saying the same thing, that Jesus existed prior to Abraham.

"Thou art not yet fifty years old,"

Scriptures go on to say Jesus is the second Adam, a man. No mention of Deity, or half god half man.

1Cr 15:47 - "Adam, the first man, was made from the dust of the earth, while Christ, the second man, came from heaven."

Answer 4

JWs are missing out on so much evidence of the deity of Christ, it is tragic. It is implied in Ex 3:14. The translation "I will be what I will be" is valid and makes explicit the suggestion that God's character would be disclosed as events unfolded. That is precisely how Jesus' deity was revealed - as events unfolded, culminating in him taking this divine title unto himself, and almost getting stoned to death for blasphemy for it. The Jews of his day had more wits about them than the JWs.

Consider also Jn 18:3-13. Jesus asked the soldiers in Gethsemane, "Whom seek ye?" They said "Jesus of Nazareth." Jesus said unto them, "I am he". Immedieately he said that, they went backward and fell to the ground. Notice that "he" is in italics. Most of the translators follow the example of the KJV and use "I am he". Yet the JW Kingdom Interlinear translates "Ego eimi" here (3 times) by "I am", the same name Jehovah gave to Moses - the same name the soldiers fell backwards at - the same name Jesus applied to himself!

But they refuse to pay attention to all this unfolding revelation.

Answer 5

A gentleman named Benjamin Wilson is the first person to translate the bible from Hebrew and Greek to English from word to word accurately its is called the Interlinear Diglot.

But the bible has been changed many many times because people thought they were unworthy to say Gods name (Jehovah Psalms 83:18) so instead they made it seem as though Jesus (God's son and the second most powerful being in the universe). Before he died he gave the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society (Jehovah's witnesses) the rights to it.

So if you want an extremely accurate bible get one from Jehovah's Witnesses. Watchtower.org

Answer 6

For Jesus to quote Ex 3:14 in Greek, he would have had to say, "Before Abraham was, The Being" because that is how it is written in the Greek Septuagint, which is what Jesus used.

Next, "I am who I am" is a poor translation of the word Jehovah used, as shown in the Greek Septuagint.

Finally please note, that to mix tenses in English is poor translating.

Ask your English teacher if it is proper to say, 'Before you came, I am."

Jesus was asked how old he was, not what is his name.

"The truth is, there is no way to translate this Greek passage into English in a strictly literal way, because Greek is an aspectual language and English is not. ...In comparing the above translations we can see that ["I am"]..does not fulfill any of the four requirements[of grammaticality, intelligibilty, faithful conveyance of the message, addition of elements] while ["I was"] and ["I have been"] fulfill three out of the four. My personal preference is for ["I have been"]....as it does not distort the message as ["I was"] does."(The Role of Theology and Bias in Bible Translation, pp.237, 238)

Furuli then points out McKays translation of this passage as, "I have been in existence since before Abraham was born."

edit..

Proper english dictates if the greek expression is translated 'I am' or 'I have been' or 'I am (he). NOT a preconceived false teaching.

.

Answer 7

If you can, check out Strong's Concordance. The word is hayah
( haw yaw' ) H1961 . It means: to exist. It did not always only mean God ( for there are many times that the word is used ) . But in the sense that Jesus meant it, it was used conjuctively, " I am that I am. " The Jews knew what He was saying, just look at their reaction!
John 8
59 At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.

So the term was blasphemous unless Jesus was telling the truth.

I like the way the translators used the literal form to translate it. It removes those who simply do not have the Spirit of God leading them to Jesus. People who don't believe may just gloss right over it and think nothing about it.

So I am saying that they did it because they were merely translating; the words had a particular meaning to the translators already, perhaps they didn't think much of it because it is so plain to what God said to Moses.

The Jehovah's Witnesses have some " 'splainning " to do though! lol

Answer 8

An inaccurate translation of Exodus 3:13 by the King James Translators leads to a faulty understanding of this verse.
When Moses asked God: ‘What is your name?’ God gave the explanation ‘I shall [prove to] be who (or what) I shall [prove to] be’ (èhyèh ashèr èhyèh). Even here, regrettably, numerous translators are influenced by Greek philosophy on The Being as existing that was developed by Plato in some of his works, including ‘Parmenides.’ For example, the Septuagint translated this passage as ‘I am the Being (égô éimi o ôn in Greek), or, ‘I am He who is.’ Yet Aquila's Translation (which is more faithful to Hebrew) translates this sentence as, I shall be: I shall be (ésomai ésomai in Greek).
As you can see from a study on the translation of this sentence, the difficulty results from translators who want to explain this translation by means of their personal beliefs, which are very often influenced by Greek philosophy; otherwise there is no difficulty. For example, one finds the word èhyèh just before Exodus 3:12 and just after Exodus 4:12, 15, and here translators have no problem translating it as ‘I shall [prove to be] with you.’ Moreover, the Talmud retains this explanation for the meaning of the Name.

A better translation of Exodus 3:13, 14 would then be: Then Moses said to God, ‘Look, I’ll go to the children of Israel and tell them the God of our ancestors has sent me to you, but they’re going to ask, How is his name? What should I tell them?’ And God told Moses, ‘I shall [prove to] be what I shall [prove to] be! Just tell the children of Israel that I shall [prove to] be has sent you."

John 8:58--"So, Jesus replied, ‘I tell you the truth, I existed before Abraham was born."
LOBT

Answer 9

Some believe what ever they want...it this is called itching ear syndrome having a form of Godliness and never conforming to the truth...do not waste your time Titus 2 be bold...God is...and Jesus came.

John 3:16.

Answer 10

I notice a lot of bible translations reword the quotes..so we will get a better understanding. The bible wasn't written in English anyhow..so perhaps it would have been translated a number of ways..depending on the language of the translaters.

I think most bible translations..mean..to do one thing..and that is to help us understand the bible.

When I don't understand a verse..I read it from more than one translation.

I would never rely on a bible that was translated by only one religion..as my only source.

Answer 11

they Had to change some of the scriptures...They could not leave it like that...
These are the questions that hit home for me as an exJW.....If I had seen this sooner, I would have investigated to prove that questions like this were wrong....and been unable to do so....I never had anyone ask such things before....it is so good to do this because somewhere some honest Jehovah"s Witness is going to go into the scriptures to address these issues and find that their theology is lacking...I pray for this every day....

Witnesses..Keep looking into your faith as to whether it really is the TRUTH...we are not here to confuse you we are pleading for you to just look up to the Lord for guidance...amen



I have an old JW diaglot printed in the 1950's...John 1:1 is correctly translated..."In the beginning was the Word, and the Word, was with God and the Word was God" ...The WBTS quickly changed it when they came out with their interlinear bound volumes