This analysis investigates God's self-revelation in Exodus, indicating the nature of divine identity and biblical monotheism.
The Book of Exodus is the book of God’s revelations. It is framed by two scenes in which God reveals himself to Moses (Exod 3 and Exod 34). In both scenes, statements about God’s identity are placed in God’s mouth that are, logically speaking, tautologies: ›I am who I am‹ (3:14) and ›Yhwh [is] Yhwh‹ (34:6). These statements make it clear that God cannot be defined by anything other than himself. There is no access to God unless he reveals himself. Even then, he remains unavailable. These statements about God belong to a late phase in the development of biblical monotheism.
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Rainer Keßler (2026) studied this question.
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