[lit-ideas] Re: The tetragrammaton
- From: Omar Kusturica <omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 2 Mar 2015 07:58:59 +0100
I thought that I already pointed out that Hebrew does not have the present
tense of 'to be,' hence it cannot express I AM THAT I AM.
O.K.
On Mon, Mar 2, 2015 at 3:16 AM, Redacted sender Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx for
DMARC <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> O. K. writes wonders (if that's the verb) that "whether God originally
> spoke to Moses in some language other than Hebrew, such as Egyptian - is a
> matter of conjecture."
>
> re: his previous quotation
>
> "is the common English translation (JPS among others) of the
> response God used in the Hebrew Bible when Moses asked for his name
> (Exodus 3:14)."
>
> Mmm. So let's revise -- after all, Emerson said that conversation is not
> permitted without tropes. I shall hypothesise that a conversation did take
> place between Moses and Good. Let's revise Exodus 3:13 and 3:14. 3:15 is
> mainly Moses's counter-move in the conversation, "Yet they won't believe
> me."
>
> But in 3:13 we have Moses's question:
>
> "Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to
> them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What
> is
> his name?’ what shall I say to them?”"
>
> This is clear as can be.
>
> It's not as if Moses himself is interested to know the name. It's just in
> case the people of Israel _wonder_.
>
> 3:14 opens:
>
>
> 14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.”[a] And he said, “Say this to the
> people of Israel, ‘I am has sent me to you.’”
>
> Here there is a use-mention distinction:
>
> i. "I am" has sent me to you.
>
> Note that that differs from
>
> ii. "I am who I am" has sent me to you.
>
> God is advising Moses what his conversational move in reply to a possible
> question by the people of Israel to Moses as to what the name of 'the God
> of
> your fathers'.
>
> This possibly struck Kripke in "Names and descriptions". For consider:
>
> iii. If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your
> fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what
> shall
> I say to them?
>
> In the above, Moses is distinguishing between what Donnellan has as a
> definite description:
>
> (D) "The God of your fathers".
>
> and
>
> a proper name.
>
> Note that it does not occur to Moses to have as a ready answer, "And why is
> THAT relevant. I'm saying HE is the God of your fathers. What does a name
> add to HIM?"
>
> Exodus 3:15 continues with what God thinks is the best reply for Moses to
> give, in case they ask for the name of the God of the fathers of the people
> of Israel.
>
> "15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘The
> Lord,[b] 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 thus I am
> to
> be remembered throughout all generations."
>
> So, it does seem as, to echo Emerson, God is using a trope when he utters:
>
> v. Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I am has sent me to you.’”
>
> vb. Say this to the people of Israel: "I am" has sent me to you.
>
> As Geary notes, Moses was careful about this, since when he faced the
> people of Israel and they asked for the NAME of the God of their fathers,
> "he
> must have been emphatic in the quotation marks".
>
> Postulating Egyptian as the source of the tetragrammaton does not seem to
> fit that it's FOUR letters, and four letters only, which are involved here
> -- unless in Egyptian only four letters are involved, too?
>
> Cheers,
>
> Speranza
>
>
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