---
title: Exodus 3:14
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/exodus-3-14/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/exodus-3-14.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Exodus 3:14
testament: OT
section: Law
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Exodus 3:14

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "I Will Become What I Choose to Become."

## JW Usage

JWs treat Exodus 3:14 as the foundation for God's personal name (Jehovah/Yahweh), derived from the Hebrew "I Am Who I Am" or "I Will Be What I Will Be." The Watchtower denies any connection between this divine self-identification and Jesus' ego eimi statements in John's Gospel, arguing that Jesus' "I am" claims are simple self-identification, not divine-name claims.

## Protestant Usage

God reveals himself at the burning bush as ehyeh asher ehyeh — "I AM WHO I AM" — the ultimate declaration of self-existent, eternal being. The Septuagint renders this as ego eimi ho on ("I am the one who is"). Jesus' unpredicated ego eimi statements in John's Gospel (8:24, 8:28, 8:58, 13:19) echo this divine self-designation. In John 8:58, Jesus says "before Abraham came into existence, I am" — and the Jews understood exactly what he claimed, picking up stones for blasphemy. Isaiah 43:10 has Jehovah using the same phrase: "I am the same One" (NWT) — the Hebrew ani hu rendered ego eimi in the LXX. Jesus stakes eternal destiny on believing this claim: "if you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins" (John 8:24). The hostile witnesses understood the claim better than modern JWs do.

## NWT Issue

NWT renders *ehyeh asher ehyeh* as "I Will Become What I Choose to Become" rather than "I AM WHO I AM" — a future / voluntative reading that obscures the self-existent-being declaration the Septuagint rendered *egō eimi ho ōn* ("I am the one who is"). Load-bearing for the John 8:58 argument: NWT also softens *egō eimi* there into "I have been," so the two texts no longer obviously point to each other. Virtually every major English translation preserves the present-tense self-existent "I AM" at Exodus 3:14, which lets the John 8 *egō eimi* claims echo back to the divine name.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Ego Eimi — 'I AM'](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/ego-eimi.md) — John 8:58 [Deity of Christ]
- [Unless You Believe That I AM — Christology as a Salvation Issue](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/john824-believe-i-am.md) — John 8:24 / Isaiah 43:10 / John 13:19 [Deity of Christ]
- [Abraham Rejoiced to See My Day](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/abraham-saw-my-day.md) — John 8:56 — Jesus Claims Abraham Saw Him in the OT [Deity of Christ]
- [The Trial That Proved Jesus Claimed to Be God](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/mark14-trial-deity-claim.md) — Mark 14:60-64 [Deity of Christ]
- [Liar, Lunatic, or Lord — There Is No Fourth Option](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/liar-lunatic-lord.md) — John 8:58 / John 10:30 / Mark 14:62 [Deity of Christ]
- [The Prologue Has Two Bookends — Read John 1:18 Before You Argue About John 1:1](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/john1-1-and-1-18-inclusio.md) — John 1:1 and 1:18 — the opening and closing of John's prologue say the same three things [Deity of Christ]
- [Always the Father, Always a Son](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/eternal-father-eternal-son.md) — Malachi 3:6 / John 17:24 — if Jehovah never changes and has always been Father, he has always had a Son [Deity of Christ]