If it is a text of the Bible to know where to draw the meaning of the name of the God of Israel and by extension the Christian people, it is the passage in Exodus 3: 14.
Most Bible versions render the Hebrew asher Ehyeh ehyeh "in this verse" I am what I am "or" I am who I am. "
But some editions, as recent past, face either in the text or notes in a different translation.
Examples, it is of course a non exhaustive list:
"I'd be: I am" (New Bayard translation)
"I am who I am" (NIV)
"I am who I am" (French current note),
"I am who I am" (Osty, note),
"I will be what I am "(New World Translation, French 1995),
" I am who am "(The Bible newly translated by Sebastian Castellon, 1555)
" ehie ehie asher! - I am who I am "(Chouraqui)
" I Will Be What I Will Be "(The Bible - A new translation by James Moffatt)
" I Will Be What I Will Be "(The Bible in Living by Français Steven T. Byington)
"I am who I am and what I am, and I will be what I will be » (The Amplified Bible)
« I will be that I will be » (Isaac Leeser)
« I will be what I will be » (Living Bible Edition, note)
« I will be what I will be » (New International Version, note)
« I will be what I will be » (New Living Translation, note)
« I will be what I will be » (English Standard Version, note)
« I will be what I will be » (Contemporary English Version, note)
« I will be what I will be » (Holman Christian Standard Bible, note)
« I will be what I will be » (Today's New International Version, note)
« Ik zal zijn Ik zal zijn die "(Bijbel - From Statenvertaling)
" Yo el Seré that Seré (Nueva Versión Internacional note)
Some translators such as Samuel Cohen chose not to translate all the words by placing the Hebrew asher Ehyeh ehyeh "in the middle of the French text to read" Heie which (is) Heie, "a sentence incomprehensible to ordinary mortals.
Others choose not to translate the text literally, but to interpret the meaning such Zadok Kahn "I'm Being unchanging! "The Emphasized Bible by Joseph B. Rotherham "I Will Become Whatsoever I please" (French "I will become what I like ") or the New World Translation in English (1984)" I Shall PROVE To Be What I Shall PROVE to be "(in French according to the 1974 version" I reveal myself to be what I reveal be "). 
sometimes found as "I am who I am" or "I am: I am." The lesson "I am who I am" was popularized in Latin by St. Jerome (ego sum that sum). This lesson is based on the Septuagint, which gives "ego eimi o" that is to say word for word: "I am being" ie "I'm the one that exists by itself." Why
Greek-speaking Jews have they chosen to translate this passage as suggesting that the Hebrew translated to the future?
Antoine Fabre d'Olivet not hesitate to say that the Jews of the time of Ezra, who spoke in Aramaic, "hear more than their mother tongue", that is to say, had more understanding acute and subtle Hebrew spoken by Moses. (The Hebrew
returned
, Part I - Essay introductory III)
If it was true for the Jews returning from exile that would be even more true for those in the diaspora were speaking Greek.
But there's a reason even more evident.
When the Jews of Alexandria were translated their sacred books into Greek they had begun to accept some of the beliefs of Hellenistic philosophy including the belief in the immortality of the soul called metempsychosis - cf. Plato, Phaedo
.
The rabbis of the synagogue who shared this belief Greek later form the group of Pharisees - cf. Flavius Josephus,
History ancient Jews
, 18, II (according to the division of Arnold Andilly). Impregnated
philosophical world they saw their God as Plato.
The latter saw in the Godhead the moving cause, the supreme essence, the idea, calling it either one, or well being.
The Jews of Alexandria were designed before the Fathers of the Church that Plato approached the one God and have incorporated his ideas to their understanding of Scripture.
is the Alexandrian Jewish philosopher Philo, who will be the main representative of this trend Judeo-Platonic.
is why it is important not see Exodus 3: 14 of the Septuagint as a translation but rather as a philosophical interpretation of the revelation of the divine name.
Supporters of the form "I am what I am" call on the choice made by the translators of the Septuagint * and transcendence of God, a God "who is" opposed to other gods "not" being only in the imagination of men who worship them. * A
American pastor of the Evangelical Protestant Church said to me ironically
"Those who have made the New World Translation are
(meaning" to believe ")
stronger that the Jews who translated into Greek! .
What about when scholars who have made the same choice of translation? Why
everywhere "I am" and once "I am"?
In his critical examination of the doctrines of the Christian religion
* (1860) Patrice Larroque, former rector of the Academy of Lyon, offers an extraordinary essay on the passage in Exodus 3:14.
I am always sorry that the Trinity seems to be regarded as a doctrine universally recognized by all Christian denominations because it's absolutely not the case as history has now both demonstrated and as is still less so since IXXème century.
But this is obviously not the case here of Mr. Larroque lie on the question of universal acceptance or not of the Trinity but rather to demonstrate the absurdity in Volume I and exposing his conclusions on what he describes an incident in Exodus 3:14 in Volume II. He says
"the original text, translated exactly means:" I am the one who'll ... I WILL hath sent me unto you. "
Then follows a long explanatory note which is in itself a real first Hebrew grammar where you can read between the other that "interpretation received by theologians is the work of the Seventy First (...) and Saint Jerome, who has shared their infidelity"
and an overwhelming number of biblical texts indicate that the rabbi and translator Samuel Cahen Bible is mistaken in asserting that "Ehyeh indicates both the present and the future."
The author provided two dozen verses in which "Ehyeh" is translated throughout as "I'll be" starting with Exodus 3:12.
He says he found the Hebrew "Ehyeh"
that "almost always used with the meaning of the future, rarely with that of the past (...) but never with this one. "
He concluded his note of 3 pages long, with these words:
"It is therefore surprising that this passage is the only one where the word Ehyeh had that sense. "
As for me, I would add that one wonders how all the translators over the centuries have been able to translate" Ehyeh "with" I will "not only throughout the Bible but in verse 12 of Exodus chapter 3, and no longer able to do in verse 14?
* For the full two volumes on the site of the BNF.
there a report between 'asher Ehyeh ehyeh "of Exodus 3:14 and" ego eimi "in the mouth of Jesus?
has long prologue to the Gospel of John is no longer the favorite argument of the supporters of equality between Jesus and his Father.
It now prefers the phrase "I am" every time Jesus employment. The Trinitarians believe
find evidence that Jesus seeks to make a parallel between his human identity and divinity. According
them whenever he says "I am" it is as one who spoke to Moses, "El Shadday" the Almighty God of the Jews (see Genesis 17:1 and Exodus 6:2, 3).
Now almost every time Jesus said "ego eimi" the context indicates he is referring to his identity as Messiah and he is not God. That is why in many passages must be translated by the Greek phrase "I am."
This is clear in his conversation with the Samaritan woman in John 4:1-29 recorded: The woman said: "I know that Messiah is coming-the one called Christ. When it comes, it will tell us all things. " Jesus said: "I am, I who talking about. "- TOB
In John 8:24-29 the context still indicates that he speaks of his duties as envoy of God
is why I told you that you will die in your sins: for if you do not believe what I am, (literally "I am" Editor's note)
you die in your sins. Who are you? "they said. Jesus said to them: What I am saying from the beginning. (the beginning of his preaching, he was the Messiah! Editor's note) (...) So Jesus said: When you have lifted up the Son of man, then you know what I am, and I do nothing myself, but I speak just what the Father taught me. - Segond
In verses 24 and 28 Annotated Bible Darby and make it "ego eimi" with "it's me," Ostervald by "what I am" and "who I am," Clamp with "I am the Messiah . Surprisingly the NRSV, the Bible or the Bible Sword prefer we use the formula of Exodus 3:14 "I Am" is capitalized and please to make it clear that here Jesus identifies the God of Israel. The Bible Sword of Jean Leduc will even add in verse 24 " I AM the LORD!
And what about when Jesus referred to his years as compared to Abraham?
In John 8:58 Jesus says:
Verily, verily I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am ("I Am" in TOB and Jerusalem, "I AM" in Sword ).
Yet a number of ancient manuscripts that have survived from the fourth to sixth century Syriac, Georgian and Ethiopian, are said to Jesus "I was" or "I".
Thus saith G.
Winer in his book A Grammar Of The Idiom of the New Testament
(Andover, 1897, 7th ed., P. 267): "Sometimes this also includes a past (Mdv. 108), that is to say when the verb expresses a state that has begun to such earlier time but which is still growing - a state in its duration, as in John xv. 27 ἀπ 'ἀρχῆς μετ' ἐμοῦ ἐστέ [ap 'Arkhe mét' emu Este], viii. 58 πρὶν Αβραὰμ γενέσθαι ἐγὼ εἰμι [main Abraam Genesthai ego eimi]. "
Similarly, here is what J. say Moulton, N. Turner A Grammar of New Testament Greek (Edinburgh, 1963, vol. III, p. 62): "This indicates that the continuation of a share during the past and until there is, so to speak ie a perfective verb form, the only difference is that the action is conceived as still being (...). Is often found in the N [ew] T [estament]: Lk 248; 137 1529 (...) (...) Jn 56; 858 (...). "
As for those who think" ego eimi, whose Hebrew equivalent is "ani hou '", a term used by God in the Old Testament in the mouth can be used to identify Jesus with the God of Israel whenever it is employed, they scan and they will see that this expression can both serve God and men as is clear in 1 Chronicles 9:17 p.m., where we read:
And David said to God: "N 'Is it not I who said to number the people? This is me (Literally: "and I am him," Hebrew "wa'ani-hoo,'" Greek " ego eimi "Editor's note) who have sinned and done wrong, but these, these sheep, what have they done? Yahweh, my God, that your hand be against me and my father's house, but not on your people to ruin. "- Crampon
