THE NAMES OF GOD

NAMES OF GOD IN THE BIBLE: A DISPENSATIONAL APPROACH : PROF. M. M. NINAN
According to Rosenzweig, the third chapter of Exodus shows Divine self-testimony, which allows to
elucidate the Tetragrammaton’s dull surface. God doesn’t name Himself as the "Essent Being" (der
Seiende), but as the "Existent Being" (der Daseiende), He Whom exists not only in Himself, but also
"for you", Who exists for you in the face to face (metaphor which be held dear by Emmanuel Lévinas),
He Whom approaches to you and helps you.
Martin Buber (1923-1938 ca.),
In Ex. 3,14, we have to try to keep the doubleness of Divine Promise included into the repetition of term
"èhyèh": "I will be present and I will remain present in your way" [...]. Dialogue’s importance is given to
"ashèr", which joins the two promises and the two interlocutors each other.
Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh (often contracted in English as "I AM") is one of the Seven Names of God
accorded special care by medieval Jewish tradition. The phrase is also found in other world religious
literature, used to describe the Supreme Being, generally referring back to its use in Exodus. The
word Ehyeh is considered by many rabbinical scholars to be a first-person derivation of the
Tetragrammaton,
In the Indian Upanishads which is the product of Dravidians who were the children of Abraham
through Keturah there is an upanishad called the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. It says:
“In the beginning was the Self alone… He, the Self, reflected and saw nothing but the Self. He first
said, 'I am He'. Therefore He came to be known by the name aham 'I'.”
Aham in sanskrit is I. 'I' thus became the first name of God.
The first letter in Sanskrit is 'A' and the last letter 'Ha' and 'aha' thus includes everything from
beginning to end. The word ayam means 'that which exists', Self-shining and Self-evident. Ayam,
atma and aham all refer to the same thing. “I am the existence”. This is again reminiscent of creation
of cosmos with the alphabets in Judaism.
The following tree of life diagram shows how all the four dimensions of the universe is actually part of
the YHVH.
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