An Interpretation of God's Name: Yahweh in Exodus 3:14 - Buber's and Rosenzweig's Word Choice in Biblical Translation

Abstract

In this paper, I explain why Buber and Rosenzweig translated the Hebrew God’s name Yahweh into German as ER. Earlier, Mendelssohn had translated it as the Eternal with reference to the Midrash Rabba because Yahweh exists in the past, the future, and the present as an unchangeable, independent being. In the third commandment, God prohibited Moses to pronounce his name; he was not to conjure Yahweh through man’s arbitrary will. Thus Mendelssohn’s translation transforms it into a name of an idol. For Buber and Rosenzweig, God’s name might be rendered the-one-who-is-there or the-one-who-is-present, since Yahweh reveals his name as ‘I will be-there howsoever I will be-there’ (ex 3:14). It means Yahweh is not an idol, but is rather revealed through personal relations like ‘the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob.’ Finally they understand Yahweh as the combination of the original address; Yah (interjection) and Huh (singular third person pronoun). This renders the designation: HE, ER.