Exodus 3:14 and Exodus 6:3: how the name was revealed

Two passages in Exodus carry the weight of the name Jehovah. In Exodus 3:14, at the burning bush, God answers Moses’ question about his name with “I AM THAT I AM” and then, in verse 15, gives the name itself as his name for ever. In Exodus 6:3, a few chapters later, God says that he appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as God Almighty, “but by my name Jehovah I was not known to them”. The first passage gives the meaning of the name; the second raises a puzzle, because Genesis uses the name from its earliest chapters. The answer, held by most careful readers, is that Exodus 6:3 speaks of knowing the name in its full meaning: the patriarchs had the word, but the exodus was the event in which God showed what it meant for him to be the one who is present to redeem. The two passages together tell how the name was revealed, first in words and then in acts.

At the bush: the name explained

Moses’ question in Exodus 3:13 was not idle curiosity. In the ancient world a god’s name carried his character and his claim; to ask the name was to ask who this God was and what he could be relied upon to do. The answer came in two forms.

And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.

— Exodus 3:14 (ASV)

The Hebrew behind “I AM THAT I AM” is a doubled form of the verb “to be”. It has been translated “I am who I am”, “I will be what I will be”, and “I am because I am”; each rendering catches part of it. God is not defined by anything outside himself, and he will be, for Israel, what he chooses to be. Then the third-person name follows:

And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, Jehovah, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.

— Exodus 3:15 (ASV)

Notice that the name is tied at once to the fathers. God is not introducing a new deity but identifying himself as the God the patriarchs worshipped, and now giving the meaning of the name they had used. The entry What does the name Jehovah mean? draws out that meaning; here the point is simply that the name was explained, not invented, at the bush.

Exodus 6: the name and the promise of redemption

Between chapter 3 and chapter 6, Moses went to Pharaoh, and things became worse for Israel, not better. Moses complained, and God answered with a speech that begins and ends with the name.

And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am Jehovah:

— Exodus 6:2 (ASV)

and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, as God Almighty; but by my name Jehovah I was not known to them.

— Exodus 6:3 (ASV)

Then comes the content of what the name will now mean, a chain of promises each introduced by “I will”:

Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am Jehovah, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with great judgments:

— Exodus 6:6 (ASV)

and I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah your God, who bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.

— Exodus 6:7 (ASV)

The speech itself explains verse 3. “Ye shall know that I am Jehovah” is the goal of the exodus. Israel will know the name by seeing what the God who bears it does: he brings out, he rids, he redeems, he takes a people for himself. That knowledge was not available to Abraham, who received promises and died holding them. The patriarchs knew the God of promise; the exodus generation would know the God of fulfilment, and would know his name accordingly.

The puzzle of Genesis, and its answer

The puzzle is real. Genesis 4:26 says that in the days of Enosh people began to call upon the name; Abram addresses God by the name in Genesis 15; the name appears hundreds of times before Exodus 3.

And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enosh. Then began men to call upon the name of Jehovah.

— Genesis 4:26 (ASV)

And Abram said, O Lord Jehovah, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless, and he that shall be possessor of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?

— Genesis 15:2 (ASV)

Three explanations have been offered. Some hold that Moses, writing Genesis after the exodus, used the name the reader knew, even in accounts of people who had not used it; on this view Exodus 6:3 is a plain statement that the word was new. Others hold that the Hebrew of Exodus 6:3 can be read as a question expecting the answer yes: “and by my name Jehovah was I not known to them?” The most widely held view, and the one this site follows, is that “known” in Hebrew usage often means known by experience. God was known to the patriarchs as El Shaddai, God Almighty, the God who could make promises against every likelihood; he was not yet known as Jehovah, the God who keeps them in history. The exodus filled the old name with new meaning, and Exodus 6:3 says so.

All three explanations agree on what matters: the name was not a newly coined label but the name of the God of Abraham, now revealed in power.

What the two passages teach together

The name Jehovah is revealed in two ways, and both are needed. It is revealed in a word, at the bush, when God explains it as “I AM”. It is revealed in an act, at the Red Sea, when God shows what it means for him to be present with his people. The Old Testament never separates the two. To know the name is to know the meaning and the deeds; the Psalms praise both.

For Christian readers there is a further step. The New Testament tells of a greater exodus, in which God’s Son brings his people out of a deeper slavery. When Jesus says “before Abraham was born, I am”, he takes the words of Exodus 3 on his own lips; the entry Jesus and the divine name considers what that means.

Where Christians differ

The three readings of Exodus 6:3 are all held by Christians who take Scripture as fully authoritative; the difference is one of interpretation, not of doctrine. Readers who follow certain modern theories about the composition of the Pentateuch make more of the verse than this site thinks it will bear, treating it as evidence of separate sources with separate names for God. The text as it stands, read with Exodus 6:6–7, gives a sufficient explanation without that.

For reflection

Read Exodus 3 and Exodus 6:1–8 in one sitting, and mark every “I will”. The name Jehovah is, in these chapters, a promise with a name attached. Then pray Psalm 105, which retells the exodus as praise, and ask that you may know God’s name not only as a word but as something you have seen him do. A congregation that reads these Scriptures aloud is the place where that knowledge is best kept alive.

References

Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906).
Gesenius, Hebrew Grammar (ed. Kautzsch, 1910).
Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710).
John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (1559).
The Preface to the American Standard Version (1901).