"I am" and "I will be"
Or "How to speak the word of God."
Exodus 3:14 is (in the King James Version):
And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.
In the original text, this verse says “אֶהְיֶה” (ehyeh / ‘HYH), commonly translated as “I am” and “I will be.”
But why does the rest of the bible say YHWH then (which is the third person singular for the same verb of "to be" in Hebrew)? It seems like Moses, when writing down his divine experience initially, misinterpreted the entire thing and erroneously shifted from first person singular (‘HYH, based on the spelling of אֶהְיֶה, also see here) to third person singular (YHWH), and everyone else just went with it, despite God clearly telling him that "he" actually wants to be addressed as "I am"?
If God must actually be referred to as "I", doesn't this mean that the divine is internal, coming from within each believer, instead of an external, "personal" God?
And does someone know if there have ever been re-translations of the bible in accordance with Exodus 3:14 where it just says "I am/I will be" instead of "Lord" as well as "I" instead of "He", so that the reader can identify with the divine actions?
If you like, try it out! From now on, whenever you read any religious writing of Abrahamic origin (e.g. Judaism, Christianity, Islam), shift your thinking: Instead of literally understanding the text as if God would be a “third person”, just replace it with “I.” All divine strength, all divine power, all divine hope, all divine mercy, all divine meaning is radiating from within yourself.
Also see my post on the Biblical Hermeneutics Stack Exchange.