– 1 –
In Exodus 3:14 God says: “I am Whom I am”; and in 6:1-3 He calls Himself “Jehovah.” There, even the vocalization “Jahweh” seems to mean: “He is”; or “He causes to exist.”
So too in Genesis 2:4f, In John 8:58, Jesus says: “Before Abram was, I am.” And in Revelation 4:8 (cf. 1:4 & 1:8), the Lord God Almighty is called the One “Who was and is and shall be.” Indeed, from Genesis to Revelation – God’s name always has this same meaning.
Professor Dr. John Calvin comments1 on Exodus 3:14 & 6:2: “The verb in the Hebrew is in the future tense, ‘I will be what I will be’…. It would be tedious to recount the various opinions as to the name ‘Jehovah.’ It is certainly a foul superstition of the [Post-Malachic Judaistic] Jews that they dare not speak or write it, but substitute the name ‘Adonai’….