by Ștefan Bolea
Open Exodus III.
“And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.” / apparuitque ei Dominus in flamma ignis de medio rubi et videbat quod rubus arderet et non conbureretur (III:2). It is not enough to say that Moses has an archetypal experience; rightly said, the prophet meets with the Archetype / the Self in Flesh and Fire. And is it the Angel of the Lord or the Lord Himself? יְהוָה / YHWH was revealed to Moses.
“And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.” (III.4) Do you think it convenient to be called in the midst of the burning bush? Leaving that aside, note that the Higher is still called the LORD / Dominus / יְהוָה / YHWH.
“And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.” (III.5) It’s getting hotter.
“Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. / […] EGO SUM DEUS […] / אָנֹכִי אֱלֹהֵי.” (III.6) With all due respect, the translation is wrong. I propose the translation-interpretation We Are Elohim(s). „There is no true, only interpretations”, someone once said. There is, but not truth as veritas, but as ἀλήθεια.
“And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God / Deum / הָאֱלֹהִים.” (III.6) Moses is a bit shy, and the Elohims have limited options. Note that we may be dealing with more than one God in One. YHWH and ELOHIMS … Skip a few verses (7-10) in which God the Lord changes his name back to YHWH / יְהוָה, proof enough that we must patient with Moses and the ones who dictated him this fragment.
“And Moses said unto God, Who am I…” dixit Moses ad Deum quis ego sum / וַיֹּאמֶר מֹשֶׁה, אֶל-הָאֱלֹהִים (III.11). Comparing III.6 with III.11, we hint a third name of God, which is still Deus in Latin.
III.6: Deus: אֱלֹהֵי
III.11 Still Deus, but… הָאֱלֹהִים.
I’m no Hebrew specialist, but, from a philological POV (and even a figural one), there are two of Elohims. So far God (if He is One, if He is He) has three faces. YHWH, Elohim I, Elohim II. It is more important what Moses asks God, not his (their) name, because both coincide.
Quis ego sum? / כִּי אֵלֵךְ. The translations are again wrong. Moses really asks what really distinguishes him as a person, as a potential liberator of his people. Who am I against the Pharaoh? Who am I against the God of this world, who does not coincide with Moses’ and Abraham’s God? Moses has reason to be scared. We all do. Not only that we meet with God the Lord (who is Three, and the counting has just begun…), who speaks to us from a burning bush, but we must deal with the Egyptian “Antichrist”.
“And he said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee” (III.12). Observe the symmetry: God speak to Moses and Moses speak to God. Who speaks to God nowadays, besides saints and fools? We have two mechanical shortcuts (pills and cross), while Nobody believes (in Nothing).
To make a long story short, God the Lord has other names. I won’t name them all: the book is open. I even haven’t examined in detail III.4, where Dominus is named five words apart in Hebrew YHWH and Elohim. The most important name of God is not an epithet, as some think, but perhaps the supreme name: “I AM THAT I AM” / ego sum qui sum / אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶׁר אֶהְיֶה (III.14). It is poorly translated again. I propose a different translation: (I Am) Being and Identity, or, in other words, (I Am) Superbeing. If I wanted to sound like Heidegger, I would name the new (super)ontological difference. If his is the one between Sein and Seiendes, mine is one between Superbeing and Dasein. If you are into Jung, God the Lord says: (I and Thou Are) Schatten + Selbst. Nietzsche? Sein + Werden. “God is dead“ is wrongly translated in Latin as deus mortus est. The right way: dominus mortus est. Schopenhauer / Eminescu: Brahman-Atman, and so on…
Language makes reality.
Being is captured through music. Music goes beyond aesthetic. The Numen refuses to be looked at.
But it can be heard as a daimon.
You can stare at the sun but not at the midnight sun.
#
NOTE: Apologies for the virtual Hebrew errors, I’m just learning the alphabet.