Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 76:1 (Spring 2014)
Article: I Appeared As El Shaddai: Intertextual Interplay In Exodus 6:3
Author: Jared C. Hood

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WTJ 76:1 (Spring 2014) p. 167

I Appeared As El Shaddai:
Intertextual Interplay In Exodus 6:3

Jared C. Hood

Jared C. Hood is Lecturer in Old Testament at the Presbyterian Theological College, Victoria, Australia.

The battle over Exod 6:3 is well known, and the main interpretative options have remained largely unchanged for a century. Is there room for a fresh approach to the passage? After briefly reviewing the usual interpretations, this article proposes that what is taking place in the passage is an intertextual interplay with the narrative of Genesis. Exodus 6:3 needs to be interpreted in correlation with a close reading of Genesis.

I. The Problem Of Exodus 6:3

Exodus 6:3 reads thus:

וארא אל־אברהם אל־יצחק ואל־יעקב באל שדי
ושמי יהוה לא נודעתי להם

And I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as/by El Shaddai,
And [as/by] my name Yhwh I was not known to them.

The problem is seen immediately. The “blunt claim” is that the patriarchs did not know the name Yhwh.1 Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob only knew him by the ascription El Shaddai. Exodus 6:3 is apparently saying that the revelation of the name of Yhwh to Moses is a new revelation, unprecedented in Israelite history. However, Genesis presents abundant evidence of the use of the name Yhwh, not only from the voice of the narrator, but also from the mouth of Yhwh and other protagonists (see below).

WTJ 76:1 (Spring 2014) p. 168

1. The “Question” View

A less subscribed resolution of the problem argues that the verse is to be understood as a question, thus: “and by my name Yahweh was I not known to them?”2 Andersen argues that לא (“not”) indicates a rhetorical question, and should not be connected with what precedes, thus: “Did I not make myself known to them?”3 Garrett sets out the poetic, parallel structure of Exod 6:2c-3 in the following way:4

A אני יהוה

B וארא אל־אברהם אל־�...

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