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378 Bush, identifying Himself only as "the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." Having been given his mission, Moses pointed out that when he would come to the Children of Israel and say, "the God of your forefathers has sent me to you, and they will say to me: What is His name?—what shall I tell them?" And God said to Moses: Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh— this is what thou shall say unto the Children of Israel: Ehyeh sent me. And God said further to Moses: Thus shalt say unto the Children of Israel: Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you; This is my name unto Olam, this is my appellation unto all generations. (Exodus 3:13-15) The statement, Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh, has been the subject of discussion, analysis, and interpretation by generations of theologians, biblical scholars, and linguists. The King James Version translates it "I am that I am ... I am hath sent me to you." Other more modern translations adopt "I am, that is who I am ... I am has sent you." The most recent transla- tion by the Jewish Publication Society prefers to leave the Hebrew intact, providing the footnote, "meaning of the He- brew uncertain." The key to understanding the answer given during this Divine Encounter are the grammatical tenses employed here. Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh is not given in the present but in the future tense. In simple parlance it states: "Whoever I shall be, I shall be." And the Divine Name that is revealed to a mortal for the first time (in the conversation Moses is told that the sacred name, the Tetragrammaton YHWH, had not been revealed even to Abraham) combines the three tenses from the root meaning "To Be"—the One who was, who is, DIVINE ENCOUNTERS