The RAVYN Blog

Before Moses came on the scene, his early ancestors only knew God as ‘El’ or ‘Elohim’. He revealed Himself to Issac as the God of Abraham and later revealed Himself to Jacob as the God of Abraham and Issac.

While Abram was in Harran, God called to him and promised that he would be the father of many nations (Genesis 12:1-3). When Moses encountered God at the burning bush, everything he knew about God changed. The patriarchs always knew the Hebrew God, but they didn’t have a specific name for Him. Now that He was coming to rescue them from the oppressive hands of Egypt, He was about to introduce Himself officially…

What is God’s Name?

In Genesis 32, Jacob wrestled with God and asked for His name. Jacob wrestled with a divine entity (described as a man), and this man gave Jacob the name Israel, meaning ‘to struggle with God’.

The Hebrew name Israel comes from two words: ‘sara’ [שָׂרָה] meaning ‘to struggle with’ and ‘el’ [אֵל] meaning ‘God’.

The name appears in Ugaritic as ‘Yšrʾil’ [𐎊𐎌𐎗𐎛𐎍]. Israel also appears in c. 1208 BCE on the Merneptah Stele of Egypt as ‘Ysrỉꜣr’ [𓇌𓊃𓏤𓏤𓂋𓇋𓄿𓂋𓏤]^[a].

This name reveals that Jacob was wrestling with God Himself. Jacob, upon learning this, asked the man His name, but the man responded, “Why is it that you ask my name?”

Jacob named the place Peniel for ‘he saw the face of God and was spared’.

Many years after this, the Israelites became slaves of Egypt. Moses, a Hebrew who grew up in Pharaoh’s palace, would be the first to learn God’s name.

After escaping from Egypt, Moses stumbles upon a burning bush. Here, the Bible specifically says the Angel of the LORD appeared to Moses in this bush (v. 2). Later in the chapter, it says God calls to Moses (v. 4).

Out of the burning bush, God called Moses, introducing Himself as ‘the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’

God placed a mandate on Moses to go to Pharaoh to have the Israelites released from their captivity. However, Moses asked God for his name, insisting that the Israelites, in captivity of many gods, would want to know who Moses spoke for.

This time, God chose to answer Moses, saying:

God said to Moses, “Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh [I AM WHO I AM/I BE WHAT I BE].” And He said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘Ehyeh [I AM/I BE] has sent me to you.’”

God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘Yud-Heh-Vav-Heh’ [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 thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.”

Genesis 3:14-15 ESV

The Use of ‘Hayah’

The root word of God’s name ‘hayah’ [הָיָה] or ‘hawah’ [הָוָה] is often translated as ‘I AM’, but interestingly enough, there is a deeper (more accurate) meaning hidden within these words.

In most translations, you’ll see that this word ‘hayah’ translates to ‘I am’. In the Hebrew language, there are no tenses such as ‘am, are, or was’. Instead, context conveys the word’s tense. As an Afro-Semitic language, we also know that tenses denoting presence aren’t something widely used. Context usually determines the tense of a word.

In fact, such vernacular is still carried on today in Black and Brown cultures, particularly those of the African Diaspora (and yes, Ancient Hebrew and most of the Middle East were considered a part of the African continent).

The Invariant/Constant ‘Be’

In Black/Brown cultures, the refusal to use verb tenses in certain statements and opting for the verb ‘be’ usually means a constant state of action; something that takes place forever.  For example, ‘you be winning’ versus ‘you are winning’.

Both sentences are linguistically different. ‘You are winning’ indicates a present action that is still continuing. However, ‘You be winning’ implies a constant state, something that is never changing and exists in the past, present, and future.

This form or use of the word ‘be’ is considered the habitual be^[b][c].

The framework of the habitual be (also known as the constant action or the invariant be) traces back to West African languages, particularly those of the Niger-Congo languages^[d]. These languages choose their verbs based on the aspect of the situation rather than time.

In other words, verb tenses such as ‘is, are, am, and were’ suggest a temporary state, whereas the verb ‘be’ suggests a constant state.

Biblical Hebrew didn’t have past, present, or future tenses the way the English language does. Like West African languages, Hebrew chooses its verbs based on aspect, not time. Thus, Hebrew develops its tenses based on completion and continuance.

The Letters in God’s Name

The name of God [יהוה] contains three letters: Yud, Heh, and Vav (Heh is repeated). Two of the three letters make up hayah, which is spelled Heh-Yud-Heh.

All these letters come from the Semitic abjads, the writing system in which consonants are represented by letter signs, leaving the vowels to be inferred by the reader. 

Yud

The first letter, Yud (or Yodh) (י), is the tenth letter of the Semitic abjads, and it is the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet. In English, it represents the sound ‘Y’^[e].

The Phoenician letter is what gave us the Greek Iota (Ι), the Latin I and J, the Cyrillic I (І), and the Coptic Iouda (Ⲓ).

This letter derives from the Egyptian hieroglyph and the Hebrew word that means ‘hand’^[f].

In Hebrew, Yud can be used as a prefix that designates the masculine singular. As a prefix, it tends to turn any given verb into a ‘habitual’ verb, that is, an imperfective aspect tense. As a suffix, it indicates first-person singular possessive.

Yod is one of the four Hebrew letters that function as a ‘mater lectionis’ or a constant that may function as a vowel. The only three other letters to do so are Aleph, Vav, and Heh.

Heh

The letter Heh (or He) (ה) is the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads, representing the consonant sound ‘H’. As a vowel, it also represents ‘I’ or ‘E’^[g][h].

The proto-Canaanite/Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek Epsilon (Ε), Latin E, Ë, and Ɛ, and Cyrillic (Е, Ё, Є, Э, and Ҩ). The letter Heh is considered a voiceless fricative or a ‘breath sound’.

The letter Heh derives from an Egyptian Hieroglyph depicting a person raising his hands to the sky, perhaps in praise or adoration. This figure appears next to a seated figure, who represents ‘infinity’ or an uncountable number in the Egyptian hieroglyphic numbering system^[i].

The letter Heh can also represent ‘breath’ or ‘revelation’^[j].

In Hebrew, when Heh appears as the last letter in a word, it often indicates a vowel, and it is one of only four Hebrew letters that do so (Alpeh, Vav, and Yud). In this way, it functions as a ‘mater lectionis’.

When attached to words, Heh can hold three possible meanings:^[h]

• A preposition functioning like the definite article ‘the’
• A prefix indicating that the sentence is a question
• A suffix indicating movement towards the attached subject

Vav

The letter Vav (or Waw) (ו) is the sixth letter of the Semitic abjads, representing the consonant sound ‘W’ or ‘V’^[k].

It is the origin of Greek digamma (Ϝ) and upsilon (Υ); Latin F, V, and later the derived Y, U, and W; and also the derived Cyrillic У, Ѵ, and other Cyrillic letters.

The letter ‘Vav’ derives from the Hebrew word for ‘hook’^[l][m].

The letter Vav usually takes on the consonant sounds ‘V’ or ‘W’, of which modern Hebrew has no distinction. However, it can take the vowel sounds O (with a dot on top) or U (with a dot in the middle).

The letter Vav appears in the earlier Semitic word for hayah. This word, meaning ‘to be’, was once spelled ‘hawah’ or H-W-H.

When Vav is found at the beginning of words, it can mean several things:

• As Vav conjunctive, which connects two words together, like the word ‘and’.
• As Vav consecutive (mostly found in the Bible), indicating the consequence of actions, and reverses the tense of the verb that follows. For example, it can change a verb from imperfect tense to perfect tense and vice versa

Vav is one of the four Hebrew letters considered ‘mater lectionis’.

The Word ‘Hayah’ and God’s Name

When we go back to the word ‘hayah’ we see that this verb follows the aspectual usage of a verb tense, rather than a time-based one. In fact, the word ‘hayah’ [הָיָה] means ‘to become, to exist, to come to pass’.

This first introduction of hayah forms the root of God’s name later given to Moses in verse 14, when God says:

God said to Moses, “Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh [I AM WHO I AM/I BE WHAT I BE].” And He said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘Ehyeh [I AM/I BE] has sent me to you.’”

Genesis 3:14 ESV

Most people translate verse 14 as ‘I am that I am’ or ‘I will be what I will be’, but because Hebrew does not use tenses, this translation is inaccurate and doesn’t reflect the deeper, hidden meaning of God’s name. Instead, it flattens His name into something static.

The statement that God gave to Moses is dynamic, denoting a constant state of action. In other words, God is continuously and constantly present. He was there in the beginning and will be there in the end. God is not only a ‘static’ presence, but rather a ‘dynamic’ one.

It’s widely known in the scholarly community that the exact and proper statement in Exodus 3:14-15 cannot be properly translated into English or most other languages, due to the aspectual nature of Hebrew’s grammatical tenses.

In ‘The Linguistics of YHWH, the Ontology of The Existent, and the Integration of Universal Consciousness’, authored by Jimmy Y. Mahardhika, he states:^[n]

He also explains the meaning of Exodus 3:14 as well:

The name of God stems from an old archaic Semitic word ‘hawah’, meaning ‘to be’. Later, this word became the ‘hayah’ we see in Genesis 3:14. However, when the letter yod is added to the front, this word becomes an imperfect, dynamic, constant state of action^[o].

It converts the word ‘hawah’ into a masculine singular noun denoting constant or habitual action. The state is ‘incomplete’, but not in the way you’d normally think of ‘incompleteness’. Instead, this ‘incomplete’ state is actually eternal or infinite.

Interestingly, this is further supported by the letter ‘Heh’ in the name, which derives from Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs meaning ‘infinity’ or ‘uncountable’.

God’s Name and Nature

The name of God encompasses His nature. He is:

• Eternal/Timeless: The Yud (י) transforms into an imperfective aspect, a continuous, active, and eternal state of ‘being’
• Omnipresent/Limitless: The name is grammatically ‘incomplete’, suggesting continuous presence that is deliberately unattached to anything, having no bounds or limits
• Constant/Unchanging: The name suggests the ‘habitual be’, taking from the Hebrew language’s aspectual structure, suggesting constancy and invariance
• Uncreated/Formless: The very root word ‘HWH/HYH’ suggests ‘being’, meaning that it is the foundation of all that is done or created. Furthermore, the name is in the form of a verb, removing immateriality and form

Until Next Time…

Under the Faith Forum, we discuss topical situations and how our faith in Christ challenges our perspective on them. We also answer some of the most challenging questions in the For Inquiring Minds Only series.

I welcome healthy discussions in the comments section and encourage you to share your thoughts and insights on the blog.

Remember that our best teacher and guide is the Holy Spirit. Pray for clarity and understanding before reading through a session, and feel free to ask any questions that may arise.

Signed,

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Bibliography

^[a] Hasel, Michael G. Domination and Resistance: Egyptian Military Activity in the Southern Levant, ca. 1300–1185 B.C. Brill, 1998, pp. 194–95. Internet Archive, archive.org/details/domination-and-resistance_20220205/page/194/mode/2up.

^[b] Sidnell, Jack. “African American Vernacular English (Ebonics).” Language Varieties, University of Hawaiʻi, http://www.hawaii.edu/satocenter/langnet/definitions/aave.html.

^[c] “Invariant ‘Be.’” Merriam-Webster, http://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/invariant-be.

^[d] Aziaku, Vincent Erskine, and Princess Abla Goku. “Habitual Aspect Markers in Two Kwa Languages (Ga and Eʋe): The Form and Syntax.” International Journal for Multidisciplinary Research, vol. 6, no. 3, 2024, pp. 1–11. ResearchGate

^[e] Parsons, John J. “Yod.” Hebrew for Christians, http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Grammar/Unit_One/Aleph-Bet/Yod/yod.html.

^[f] Benner, Jeff A. “Yud.” Ancient Hebrew Research Center, http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/ancient-alphabet/yud.htm.

^[g] Parsons, John J. “Hey.” Hebrew for Christians, http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Grammar/Unit_One/Aleph-Bet/Hey/hey.html.

^[h] “The Letter Hei (ה).” Hebrew Today, hebrewtoday.com/alphabet/the-letter-hei-%D7%94/.

^[i] Ashe, Bethsheba. “#7 The Letters of the Lord: The Letter Heh.” The Times of Israel, 10 July 2023, blogs.timesofisrael.com/7-the-letters-of-the-lord-the-letter-heh/.

^[j] Benner, Jeff A. “Hey.” Ancient Hebrew Research Center, www.ancient-hebrew.org/ancient-alphabet/hey.htm.

^[k] Parsons, John J. “Vav.” Hebrew for Christians, www.hebrew4christians.com/Grammar/Unit_One/Aleph-Bet/Vav/vav.html.

^[l] “The Letter Vav (ו).” Hebrew Today, hebrewtoday.com/alphabet/the-letter-vav-%D7%95/.

^[m] Benner, Jeff A. “Vav.” Ancient Hebrew Research Center, http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/ancient-alphabet/vav.htm.

^[n] Mahardhika, Jimmy Y. The Linguistics of YHWH, the Ontology of The Existent, and the Integration of Universal Consciousness. Revised ed., 28 Aug. 2025. PhilArchive, philarchive.org/archive/MAHTLO-6.

^[o] Pentiuc, Eugen J. “The Hebrew Bible and the Power of Metaphor.” Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, 11 Dec. 2019, http://www.goarch.org/-/hebrew-bible-power-of-metaphor.

Resources for the Invariant B

Janice Eurana Jackson, Linguistic aspect in African-American English-speaking children: An investigation of aspectual “be” (Amherst, Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts Amherst, 1998).

Katie Martin and Raffaella Zanuttini, Invariant be. Yale Grammatical Diversity Project: English in North America, (New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University, 2017).

Lisa J. Green, African American English: A Linguistic Introduction (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 34-70.

Ralph W. Fasold and Carolyn Kessler, Tense Marking in Black English: A Linguistic and Social Analysis (Arlington, Virginia: Center of Applied Linguistics, 1972), 150-183.

Sonja L. Lanehart, The Oxford Handbook of African American Language (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015), 353-370.

Tyler Kendall, Jason McLarty, and Charlie Farrington, Online Resources for African American Language. (Eugene, Oregon: The Online Resources for African American Language Project, 2020)

University of Massachusetts Amherst, Synergy (Amherst, Massachusetts, Fall 1998)

Other References

Hebrew Present Tense: Rules, Chart, and Practice Sentences by Preply Learning Hub

‘I Am Who I Am’? The Real Meaning of God’s Name in Exodus by Dr. Michael LeFebvre, The Biblical Mind

Hello, My Name Is YHWH by Kenneth Way, The Good Book Blog (8 March, 2011)

Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh by Jeffrey D. Oldham, Stanford University (5 March, 2006)

The Name of God as Revealed in Exodus 3:14 by KJ Cronin

Hebrew Tenses by Biblical Hebrew (1 July, 2014)

https://philarchive.org/archive/MAHTLO-6