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The great "I Am"

“I am the One who is” (Exodus 3:14, Septuagint [LXX], 2nd Cent. BC)

“The True Being is eternal, ingenerable, and incorruptible, unto which no time ever brings mutation.” (Plutarch, ca AD 46-119)

“’He who is’ has sent me to you.” (Exodus 3:14, Latin Vulgate, 4th C. AD)

“I am that I am… [God] designated Himself by this name as the absolute God of the fathers, acting with unfettered liberty and self-dependence. This name precluded any comparison between the God of the Israelites and the deities of the Egyptians and other nations and furnished Moses and his people with strong consolation in their affliction, and a powerful support to their confidence in the realization of His purposes of salvation as made known to the fathers.” (Keil & Delitzsch, Commentary on the OT)

“The name is usually translated ‘I AM’ and connotes the personal, eternal, and all-sufficient aspects of God’s nature and character.” (Andrew Hill and John Walton, A Survey of the Old Testament)

“The greatest and best man in the world must say, ‘By the grace of God I am what I am’; but God says absolutely – and that is more than any creature, man or angel can say – ‘I am that I am.’” (Matthew Henry)

“God is not hurried on in the time-stream of this universe any more than an author is hurried along in the imaginary time of his own novel.” (C. S. Lewis)

“God is the great reality.” (J. B. Phillips)

“Believe Me,” said Jesus, “I am who I am long before Abraham was anything.” (John 8:58, The Message)

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