"We pass to the important words EGW EIMI. Here there can be no allusion to Exod. iii. 14, 'I am that I am,' as many suppose; because in the Hebrew the verb is future, and the expression ought to be understood as a declaration not of eternal existence but of faithfulness in the performance of what had been promised to the people of Israel...As to the time expressed by EIMI, Mr. Bloomfield justly remarks, 'The present is often so put as to have the force of the imperfect, especially when the thing which is said some time to have been still continues to be,' of which he gives examples. The application we should make of this remark is somewhat different from our author's. We understand 'before the birth of Abraham I have been appointed to that office which I am now filling—I have been as I now am, the Messiah.'" ~from The Monthly Repository of Theology and General Literature 1827
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