In Exodus 3, when Moses asked God for His name, God told Moses “I AM WHO I AM” and stated that Moses was to tell Israel that “I AM” had sent him. Indeed, the sacred name of God, YHWH (Often translated as the LORD, Yahweh, or Jehovah) is derived from the Hebrew verb for “I AM.” So, what exactly does this phrase mean? And why does God name and define Himself in this way?

I Am Who I Am: The verse and its context

God called Moses from the burning bush and commanded him to go speak to Pharaoh on Israel’s behalf. In this context, the relevant conversation occurred:

“Then Moses said to God, ‘Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, “The God of your fathers has sent me to you.” Now they may say to me, “What is His name?” What shall I say to them?’ 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.”‘ God, furthermore, said to Moses, ‘Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, “The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.” This is My name forever, and this is My memorial-name to all generations,'” (Exodus 3:13-5).

As we can see, God says of Himself “I AM WHO I AM,” then uses the abbreviated “I AM” as a name or title for Himself, then reveals the name “the LORD” (YHWH) as His name forever, a name which is rooted in the verb “I AM.” Thus, the phrase “I AM WHO I AM” is central to how God has made Himself known to Israel. It says something crucial about Him, something God did not want them to ever forget, and it is worth thinking on what exactly that is.

The only God who really is

When we think about the Israelites languishing in Egypt among the worship of its many gods, and consider the variety of idols in the other surrounding nations, it is not hard to recognize an incorrect assumption in the question posed in this passage. Moses is essentially asking, “which god exactly am I supposed to tell the Israelites has sent me?” The Israelites have heard of many gods which go by many names and allegedly rule over many domains. There are gods like Isis, Anubis, Ra, and Horus. There are gods of the sun, storms, rivers, or even death. Who is the god of Israel’s forefathers? What is that god’s name? What is his domain? Which god is he?

These questions flow from a polytheistic worldview, and God’s answer knocks out the erroneous foundation. Which God is He? The God that is. He is not one among many gods with one name among many divine names. He is the true and living God, and there is no other. There is none like Him. We don’t name Him as one specific example within the general category of “the gods.” He alone is, and all other pretenders are not.

We see this understanding in the ancient Jewish translations of this text. The Septuagint (a Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures from centuries before the New Testament) renders “I AM THAT I AM” as “I am the being one” or, in plainer English, “I am the one who is.”¹See the Benton Translation for the woodenly literal “I am the Being” and the more recent NETS version for “I am the one who is”.” In the Rabbinic era, the Aramaic Targums translated it as:

“I AM HE WHO IS, AND WHO WILL BE” (Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, Exodus 3:14)²http://targum.info/pj/pjex1-6.htm (Accessed 12/09/2021)

The late-second-century Christian writer Clement of Alexandria expounds this title as saying:

“Who alone is ‘who was and is and is to come'” and ‘He who alone is God,'” (The Instructor, Book 1, Chapter 8).

The early English Wycliffe Bible likewise preserves this basic understanding, rendering the phrase “I AM has sent me to you” as “He that is sent me to you”. The most basic and straightforward meaning, which both Jewish and Christian translators and commentators have seen since ancient times, is that the phrase “I AM WHO I AM” is a statement of monotheism. What fundamentally sets the LORD apart from other gods is that, in the truest sense, there are no other gods and the LORD alone actually is!

The God who is and by which all things are

Nevertheless, theologians have long seen further implications of this. When God says that He and He alone is uniquely the one who truly “is,” they have recognized that this says something about the very nature of God. God does not merely happen to be the “I AM,” this is definitional to God. He is, as to His very being, the one who is! He is self-existent. He does not owe His existence to anyone or anything else. And, since nothing else in existence can say that, that means everything else owes it’s being to God. This is what it means for God to be the “I AM.” As John Calvin explained:

“This is very plain, that God attributes to himself alone divine glory, because he is self-existent and therefore eternal; and thus gives being and existence to every creature. Nor does he predicate of himself anything common, or shared by others; but he claims for himself eternity as peculiar to God alone, in order that he may be honored according to his dignity.” (John Calvin, Harmony of the Law, Volume 1)³https://ccel.org/ccel/calvin/calcom03/calcom03.iv.iii.iii.html (Accessed 12/10/2021)

No one else can say “I AM WHO I AM.” We must say, “I am because God is and because He has willed me to be.”

I Am Who I Am: Unchangingly faithful

One more view that is worth briefly stating is that of Alfred Edersheim, a famed 19th-Century scholar and Jewish convert to Christianity, who understood “I AM WHO I AM” to mean that God does not change.⁴Alfred Edersheim, Bible History: Old Testament (Hendrickson Publishing, 1995 reprint in one volume, originally a seven-volume set published from 1876-1887) pg 176 It was a declaration, not merely of God’s existence, but of His faithfulness; that He has been and always will be exactly who He is, and thus will keep His covenant promises to Israel. This corresponds to what God says elsewhere through Malachi:

“For I, the Lord, do not change; therefore you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed,” (Malachi 3:6).

Conclusion

As we have seen, the most basic meaning of “I AM WHO I AM” in context is that God is the only true and living God. He is not one among many deities. He alone is God. We also saw that many theologians have also seen in this title the deeper reality that God is self-existent. It is a necessary part of God’s nature to be. Everything else owes its being to God, but God Himself simply is. Lastly, we saw that this reflects God’s faithfulness. Because God is eternal and self-existent, He does not change and therefore remains faithful to all His promises. The notes in the 16th-century Geneva Bible put all of these views together nicely, explaining that this title means:

“The God which ever have been, am, and shall be: the God almighty, by whom all things have their being, and the God of mercy, mindful of my promise,” (Geneva Bible Notes, Exodus 3:14)

This is what God means by “I AM WHO I AM.”