Semantics of YHWH?

Question

What does Yahweh mean? Is it just me or do the words "I am who am" not fall into the category of correct english? Is it simply meant that God is all that is? and what of Elohim? What does it mean and why did jeses himself use it if YHWH is the sacred name of The Lord? Comprehensive answers involving linguistic analysis welcome. Monotheist bashing, unsupported claims, and information gleamed from wikipedia are not.

Answer 1

I have seen it in the NIV as Exd 3:14 God said to Moses, "I am who I am.* This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'IAM has sent me to you.' " in Exodus 3:14.

The JPS version has it as: 14
And G-d said unto Moses: 'I AM THAT I AM'; and He said: 'Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel: I AM hath sent me unto you.'

If this is what you are referring to--it means that YHWH is all, and is for ALL TIME...AM being present tense, so whether it was 4,000 years ago, today or in the future, He IS still there, and IS all there IS---He IS Melech Ho'olom--King of all the Universe.

Elohim-Look at
Genesis 1:1-Bereshit bara Elohim-In the Beginning, YHWH created--We have the plural noun (Elohim, not Eloheynu, which is singular) but we have the singular verb (bara, not barot which is plural).
In Genesis 1:26-26
And G-d said: 'Let US make man in OUR image, after OUR likeness;"-so, from the very beginning, YHWH is speaking in the Tenakh of more than 1 within the Sh'ma---a unity of One.

Look at what YHWH says in Ezekiel 34 (I will not be able to put it all here because of space, but the whole chapter explains why YHWH was upset with the rabbis, as YESHUA speaks against them in Matthew 23, and what will happen with the sheep),


Ezekiel 34: 15-16 says
15 I will feed My sheep, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the L-rd GOD.
16 I will seek that which was lost, and will bring back that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick; and the fat and the strong I will destroy, I will feed them in justice.

And He will not do it alone, as it says in Ezekiel 34:20-25
20 Therefore thus saith the L-rd GOD unto them: Behold, I, even I, will judge between the fat cattle and the lean cattle.
21 Because ye thrust with side and with shoulder, and push all the weak with your horns, till ye have scattered them abroad;
22 therefore will I save My flock, and they shall no more be a prey; and I will judge between cattle and cattle.
23 And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even My servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd.
24 And I HaShem will be their G-d, and My servant David prince among them; I HaShem have spoken.
25 And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause evil beasts to cease out of the land; and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods.

So, YHWH will come to lead His flock back into the pasture, and He will personally do all these things, but He will bring His servant David, a prince (Meshiach ben Yoseph, the Suffering Servant, who will be a Prince, the Son of the King of the Universe)-Yeshua, who will be the Good Shepherd.

And, in Matthew 15:24 what does Yeshua Himself say when the Gentile woman approached Him? " But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel."

So, YHWH says in Ezekiel He would tend personally to the sick, the injured, the searching, the lost sheep--He says it in the Tenakh, the Book meant for the People of Israel,

Look at Isaiah 63: Read it all, though I have little space left, but especially these verses:
8 For He said: 'Surely, they are My people, children that will not deal falsely'; so He was their Saviour.
9 In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them; in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bore them, and carried them all the days of old.
10 But they rebelled, and grieved His holy spirit; therefore He was turned to be their enemy, Himself fought against them.

So, as water does not change from being H20 whether it is solid (ice), liquid (water fluid) or gas (steam, fog), neither does YHWH change, whether He is Outside (where we pray to Him and the Word is With GD as John 1:1 says), BESIDE (as Yeshua, come as the servant David, and yet to come again as the King David-the Meshiach ben David and the Word Is G-D) and INSIDE (where the Ruach HaKodesh, as per the New Covenant, now dwells in the hearts of the loyal and re-found sheep).

Answer 2

The whole thing with the Lord's name being Yahweh is that a truth is trying to be illustrated about the nature of God through this story. Obviously on a theological level one cannot say God told so-and-so, "My name is Yahweh." The writer of the story was explaining a theological truth and that is the idea that one cannot attempt to define God. During the days of the ancient Hebrew a name was incredibly significant and even today it provides the backbone for our identification. What is being said in this story is that since God is so all consuming human beings cannot attempt to understand Him; a name being one way of doing so. So, we are told that God's name is "I am who I am," and from that we should learn that we cannot put God in a proverbial box. Basically it's a general way of saying that due to the fact God (on a theological level) is an abstraction human beings may want to "know" him- but that would defeat the point of faith which if you look from a linguistic standpoint is related to the words belief and trust. The whole point of having faith in God is that you do not comprehend him by definition, you believe in him from description.

Sorry if this is kind of all over the place; I took the class awhile ago and there was a lot more to it than that, but you seem like a smart person and can understand what I have attempted to say here.

Hope that helped for the first part of the question!

Answer 3

Actually the translation 'I am' is a poor translation of the Hebrew.

http://www.scripture4all.org/OnlineInterlinear/OTpdf/exo3.pdf

Please notice in the Hebrew to English interlinear the meaning of the word is

"I shall become" and "I am becoming" at Ex 3:14.

People like to use "I am" because it reinforces the false teaching of the 'Great I am' and the incorrect translation of John 8:58.

"I am" in John's Gospel
The Expository Times, 1996, page 302 by Kenneth Mckay.

"The verb 'to be' is used differently, in what is presumably its basic meaning of 'be in existence', in John 8:58: prin Abraam genesthai ego eimi, which would be most naturally translated 'I have been in existence since before Abraham was born', if it were not for the obsession with the simple words 'I am'. If we take the Greek words in their natural meaning, as we surely should, the claim to have been in existence for so long is in itself a staggering one, quite enough to provoke the crowd's violent reaction."

I really enjoy the reading of Ex. 3:15 in the above bible:

'Yahweh Elohim is God's name as a rememberence of me to generation to generation.'

.

Answer 4

I understood that it meant "I am who I am," which would be correct English, however, if YHWH doesn't read correctly in English, perhaps it's because it is not originally written in English. I understand it to be saying that God is who he is, that his "name" is unpronounceable and his being unfathomable by humans. "Here is a designation for that which is sacred beyond mere expression," if you will.
Elohim, as it was explained to me, expresses that God is plural (three) in one being.
Jesus used I AM to explain that he was and is God, which was shocking to many of his listeners in his time.
It's been a while since I did any linguistic analysis of Scripture, but I did find this site interesting: http://www.ldolphin.org/Names.html
and another: http://www.geocities.com/cherryhillrose/WhoisGod.html

Answer 5

It depends on who you ask. There are a lot of ways of interpreting it. Personally, I strongly doubt the "I am..." connection since the Yahwist was very fond of etymological puns, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if this is one of them.
As usual, the wikipedia article is pretty comprehensive, though it's not very well composed in parts.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yhvh#Derivation)

Answer 6

you mean YMCA?