The Other Face of God: 'I Am That I Am' Reconsidered

365 Pages·2012·4.745 MB·English

by  Cornelis den Hertog

THE OTHER FACE OF GOD

Hebrew Bible Monographs, 32
Series Editors
David J.A. Clines, J. Cheryl Exum, Keith W. Whitelam
Editorial Board
A. Graeme Auld, Marc Brettler,
Francis Landy, Stuart D.E. Weeks
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T O F G
HE THER ACE OF OD
‘I A T I A ’ R
M HAT M ECONSIDERED
Cornelis den Hertog

SHEFFIELD PHOENIX PRESS
2012
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Copyright © 2012 Sheffield Phoenix Press
Published by Sheffield Phoenix Press
Department of Biblical Studies, University of Sheffield
45 Victoria Street, Sheffield S3 7QB
www.sheffieldphoenix.com
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information
storage or retrieval system, without the publishers’ permission in writing.
A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library
Typeset by the HK Scriptorium
Printed by Lightning Source
Hardback 978-1-907534-17-1
ISSN 1747-9614
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C
ONTENTS
Preface ix
Abbreviations xiv
Chapter 1
The Sign of Sinai: Exodus 3.12b
as Part of a Call Narrative and Beyond 1
1. The Category of Prophetic and Call Signs 3
2. Two Particular Signs 6
3. Recognition Sayings and the Sign of Exodus 3.12 11
4. The Function of Call Signs,
in Particular That of Exodus 3.12 15
5. The Nature of the Sign and That of the Narrative 22
6. Final Remarks 25
Chapter 2
The Prophetic Core of the Divine Name:
On Exodus 3.14a, Its Context and Syntax 28
1. The Coherence of the Text 30
2. Theophanies and the Question of the Divine Name 33
3. Analysis of the Question of Moses 37
4. The Divine Names in Exodus 1–3 and Genesis 42
a. The Names Yhwh and Elohim in Exodus 3 42
b. The ‘God of the Fathers’ 45
c. Divine Names and Genesis 47
d. The Names Ehyeh and Yhwh in Exodus 3 50
5. The Pragmatic Intent of the Request for a Name 59
a. Typology and Evaluation of Existing Interpretations 59
b. A New Investigation of the Request and its Context 65
6. The Statement of Exodus 3.14a:
Its Construction and Its Function 71
a. A Name and an Explicative Subordinate Clause 71
b. An Identifying Sentence with a Congruent Relative Clause 72
c. An Idem per idem Sentence 80
d. A Correlative ‘Copulative’ Sentence 93
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vi The Other Face of God
e. Tense, Aspect and/or Modality (TAM) 94
f. The Discourse Function of Exodus 3.14a 105
7. Final Considerations 116
Chapter 3
The Withdrawal of God Himself:
Hosea 1.9 as the Invalidation of Exodus 3.14
and Other Interpretations 132
1. (Lo-)Ehyeh as a Divine Name 133
2. Another Original Text? 138
3. Hyh le as a Clue to the Interpretation 139
4. The Explanation of the Name ‘Lo-Ammi’
and Those of the Other Children 146
5. Final Remarks 152
Chapter 4
Exodus 3.14 in the Septuagint:
‘I Am the One “Being”’—A Metaphysical Statement? 155
1. A Preliminary: Philo on Exodus 3.14-15 157
2. Syntactical Approaches 165
a. The Syntax of Exodus 3.14 (LXX) 165
b. Differences in Syntax between Greek and Hebrew 171
3. On the Theological Background of Certain
Translation Changes 182
a. Isolated Translation Changes That Could Be
Related to Exodus 3.14 184
b. The Issues of Anthropomorphism and Seeing God 187
c. The Contrast between Kyrios and the Other Gods 191
d. The Rendering of the Divine Names 196
4. The Historical Context of the Translation (a Survey) 206
5. The Early Reception History 211
6. Final Considerations 217
Chapter 5
Other Remarkable Phases in the Translation
History of Exodus 3.14a 225
1. Daughter Versions of the Septuagint 226
a. Daughter Versions Requiring Only Syntactical
Considerations 226
b. Daughter Translations Also Requiring
Tradition-Historical Considerations 232
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Contents vii
2. The Translation of the Vulgate 256
3. Western European Daughter Versions of the Vulgate 262
4. The First Western European Translations
Based on the Hebrew Text 269
a. The German and Dutch Translations 270
b. The French Translations 273
c. The English Translations 281
5. General Conclusions 286
Chapter 6
The ‘Want-of-Being’ of the Divine Name:
Reading the Narrative of Moses’ Call with Lacan 294
1. Yhwh as Third 296
2. Yhwh’s Sending and Ego-Ideal 298
3. The Logic of the Name 299
4. The Miraculous Phenomena and the Real 308
5. The Word ‘God’ Used as Metaphor 314
6. Yhwh as a Subject Metaphor 317
7. Final Considerations 318
Bibliography of Jacques Lacan 322
INDEXES 324
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P
REFACE
The various studies in this book revolve around the enigmatic divine answer
in Exod. 3.14a: ‘I am who I am’ or ‘I will be who I will be’, according to
current translations. This statement is a classic text in theology regarding
the question of who or what God is. In the history of theology the divine
statement was understood mostly in a highly philosophical way: it would
point to God as true, absolute being. This view has changed, but this has
not resulted in a new consensus on its interpretation. On the contrary, the
divine statement of Exod. 3.14a is one of the most debated passages of the
Hebrew Bible. The discussion of it mainly concerns, however, only a few
alternatives, such as the question whether it has a present or a future sense,
or whether it expresses God’s presence or his hiddenness.
The aim of this book is to advance our understanding of the divine state-
ment by reviewing in a thorough way the sources of its understanding: first
of all, the original Hebrew text and the context of the narrative of the call of
Moses, but also supposed echoes of it in the biblical text (notably Hos. 1.9
and Rev. 1.4, 8), the rendering of the Septuagint, the interpretation by Philo
of Alexandria (as an influential interpreter of this translation), the daughter
versions, the Vulgate, and the early modern translations. The translations
are important as primary interpretations that shaped our understanding of
the statement in one way or another (among other things by opposing the
supposed meaning of their renderings) but also as far as they show differ-
ences in understanding. Finally, an unconventional approach to the state-
ment and its context is attempted by reading it psychoanalytically.
The various investigations have resulted in many new findings. The dif-
ferent chapters of this book describe them. An outline of these chapters will
now be given.
Chapter 1 starts with a verse in the immediate context of the divine state-
ment: Exod. 3.12. The sign given there to Moses, the serving of God by the
people on the mountain, is surprising in that it apparently takes place after
the execution of his commissioning: how can such a sign ever encourage
Moses? The issue will lead to a fresh study of many other signs (including
the famous, also heavily debated, Immanuel sign of Isa. 7.14) and of rec-
ognition sayings as comparable phenomena. Finally, the relation of the sign
to the narrative is investigated in detail. What appears to be crucial is that
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