“The Great Vindication of Our Translation of the Name”: Franz Rosenzweig on the Threefold Unity of Divine Pronouns

Abstract This paper reveals the original teaching from Sinai that Rosenzweig claims to have discovered while translating Exodus 3 with Martin Buber, and why he viewed this discovery as vindicating their decision to translate the Tetragrammaton in the way they did. A report of this discovery is to be found, I show, in the exchange between Buber and Rosenzweig during their translation of Exodus, as recorded in the Working Papers ( Arbeitspapiere ). The significance of Rosenzweig’s account of the divine name only becomes fully clear, however, when viewed against the background of the revelation of the divine name in The Star of Redemption .