"Seven times, 'elohim ("God") speaks hayah ("to be"). In the breath of the Spirit, 'elohim haltingly discloses his second name by his utterances: yehiy (Gen 1:3), yehiy...yehiy (Gen 1:6, 2x), yehiy (Gen 1:14), then hayu (Gen 1:14), hayu (Gen 1:15), then the imperfect yihyeh (Gen 1:29), so resonant with Yah, Yah. In speaking the creation into being, 'elohim speaks his own name, the name hidden from the foundation of the world. YHWH names the Creator, but we can be more specific: YHWH is the content of 'elohim's utterance. YHWH is the spoken God by whom the speaking God speaks the world. Genesis 1-2 thus anticipates the logic of John 1."
The Father's generation of the Son is the ground and prototype for the creation of the world.
"As we saw in chapter five, Genesis 1 reveals a God who speaks and a God who hears ("let us," Gen 1:26), a God who is an eternal communicative, conversational communion. Genesis 1 additionally discloses the God who speaks and a God who is spoken. When 'elohim says "let be," he does not merely speak words of power that form light, a firmament, lights of the heavens. He speaks himself as that creative Word. The creative Word is no mere demiurgic agent of the Creator [as Arius taught]. The creative Word is God himself as spoken. The act by which God creates—saying yehi, "let be" is the same act by which he is God, for God is named both 'elohim and YHWH. God is because he is internally creative, speaking the eternal Word. YHWH is, in brief, the name of the Second Person of the Trinity, and the New Testament affirms this conclusion repeatedly."
1.) Jesus refers to Himself as "ego eimi," I Am on many occasions.
2.) The New Testament specific use of "Kyrios" (Lord) for Jesus carries on the Old Testament use "adonai" (Lord) for YHWH.
3.) Quotations of specific OT YHWH passages are used in the NT of Jesus.
"Our meditation on the name YHWH has led us back from a "metaphysics of Exodus," which focuses on God's eternal act of being, toward a "metaphysics of Genesis," which refocuses attention on God as the boundless source, origin, and giver of existence to everything that is other than God. This encourages us to leave behind vestiges of a theology of God-without-world (often implicit in the metaphysics of Exodus) and move toward a theology of God the Creator. 'Elohim speaks yehi, and 'elohim is YHWH. YHWH names the God who speaks and is spoken, who in his speaking and his being spoken, gives being. To name 'elohim as YHWH is to speak of the God who "calls not-beings as beings" (Rom 4:17; theou tou...kalountos ta me onta hos onta). I argued in chapter four that "Creator" is the first name of God. Now I can reinforce that conclusion: Even when God is named in terms of being—as 'eheyh or YHWH, he is still named as Creator. "To be" is, for God, to be Creator. There is no God but the God who has created."
"For God, to be is to speak. He is eternaly, inherently, necessarily communicative. 'Elohim is God in that he speaks YHWH. God is "I am" in that he speaks "I am." He "will be" in that he speaks "will be." God is God as he speaks an eternal "let be." God knows himself as God only as he eternally speaks himself as Word, only as he, together with the Word, breathes the Spirit who searches the depths of God. He is God only as Speaking and Spoken God are united in loving communication by the Spirit. To put it in terms anachronistic to Genesis, God is God only as the Father speaks the Son, only as he eternally breathes out the "let be" that is the eternal begetting of the Son and the procession of the Spirit. God is God not by retaining life and love and joy, but by their eternal bestowal."
"The Father is not Father except as he generates the Son; nor is the Son the Son except as he is generated by the Father. Nor can the Father generate, or the Son be generated, except through the infinite fertility of their shared Spirit. God is not God without the vitality of eternal processions. Which means, once again, God is God not by retaining life and love and joy but by their eternal bestowal and return, only by the eternal circulation of glory." "The essence of God is a reciprocal self-giving."
"In his perfect harmony with 'elohim and the Spirit, the Spoken God (the logos) is the exemplar of perfect unity in difference. Spoken as the "let be" of creation, he is the strong "unapparent harmony" who creates all apparent harmony. The Spoken God is perfectly tuned to the Speaking God by the Spirit, and so he tunes the differences of creation so they harmonize with himself and with each other."
"God's perfections are not the actions of an undifferentiated God, but of the God who speaks "let be" and energizes all things by the life of his hovering Spirit. God is wisdom in that he speaks Wisdom by the breath of his Spirit of wisdom; he is truth in that he speaks Truth in the Spirit of truth; he is just in that he speaks rightly by the Spirit who clothes the Word with justice; he is good in that he discloses, diffuses, and gives himself in the lyric of his Spiritual song. God is the God that he is, with his perfections, because he is 'elohim, YHWH, and the Spirit; the Speaking God, the Spoken God, and the Spirit who empowers the speaking to be spoken. Because it offers a trinitarian reshaping of ontology, the metaphysics of Genesis sublates the metaphysics of Exodus."
"The Father unfolds himself in his self-gift to the Son, knows and is himself in the Word he speaks and hears, and together they reach the consummation of joy in the passion of the Spirit. Thus the triune God transcends the distinction of potentiality and actuality, because he is an "eternally self-rejuvenating" triune life. He is eternally actualized because he is eternally producing himself in the processions of the Son and Spirit. That this development is eternal, always already realized, does not alter the fact that it is genuine development. The Creator's immutable being is this eternal becoming."
The Father's generation of the Son is the ground and prototype for the creation of the world.
"As we saw in chapter five, Genesis 1 reveals a God who speaks and a God who hears ("let us," Gen 1:26), a God who is an eternal communicative, conversational communion. Genesis 1 additionally discloses the God who speaks and a God who is spoken. When 'elohim says "let be," he does not merely speak words of power that form light, a firmament, lights of the heavens. He speaks himself as that creative Word. The creative Word is no mere demiurgic agent of the Creator [as Arius taught]. The creative Word is God himself as spoken. The act by which God creates—saying yehi, "let be" is the same act by which he is God, for God is named both 'elohim and YHWH. God is because he is internally creative, speaking the eternal Word. YHWH is, in brief, the name of the Second Person of the Trinity, and the New Testament affirms this conclusion repeatedly."
1.) Jesus refers to Himself as "ego eimi," I Am on many occasions.
2.) The New Testament specific use of "Kyrios" (Lord) for Jesus carries on the Old Testament use "adonai" (Lord) for YHWH.
3.) Quotations of specific OT YHWH passages are used in the NT of Jesus.
"Our meditation on the name YHWH has led us back from a "metaphysics of Exodus," which focuses on God's eternal act of being, toward a "metaphysics of Genesis," which refocuses attention on God as the boundless source, origin, and giver of existence to everything that is other than God. This encourages us to leave behind vestiges of a theology of God-without-world (often implicit in the metaphysics of Exodus) and move toward a theology of God the Creator. 'Elohim speaks yehi, and 'elohim is YHWH. YHWH names the God who speaks and is spoken, who in his speaking and his being spoken, gives being. To name 'elohim as YHWH is to speak of the God who "calls not-beings as beings" (Rom 4:17; theou tou...kalountos ta me onta hos onta). I argued in chapter four that "Creator" is the first name of God. Now I can reinforce that conclusion: Even when God is named in terms of being—as 'eheyh or YHWH, he is still named as Creator. "To be" is, for God, to be Creator. There is no God but the God who has created."
"For God, to be is to speak. He is eternaly, inherently, necessarily communicative. 'Elohim is God in that he speaks YHWH. God is "I am" in that he speaks "I am." He "will be" in that he speaks "will be." God is God as he speaks an eternal "let be." God knows himself as God only as he eternally speaks himself as Word, only as he, together with the Word, breathes the Spirit who searches the depths of God. He is God only as Speaking and Spoken God are united in loving communication by the Spirit. To put it in terms anachronistic to Genesis, God is God only as the Father speaks the Son, only as he eternally breathes out the "let be" that is the eternal begetting of the Son and the procession of the Spirit. God is God not by retaining life and love and joy, but by their eternal bestowal."
"The Father is not Father except as he generates the Son; nor is the Son the Son except as he is generated by the Father. Nor can the Father generate, or the Son be generated, except through the infinite fertility of their shared Spirit. God is not God without the vitality of eternal processions. Which means, once again, God is God not by retaining life and love and joy but by their eternal bestowal and return, only by the eternal circulation of glory."
"The essence of God is a reciprocal self-giving."
"In his perfect harmony with 'elohim and the Spirit, the Spoken God (the logos) is the exemplar of perfect unity in difference. Spoken as the "let be" of creation, he is the strong "unapparent harmony" who creates all apparent harmony. The Spoken God is perfectly tuned to the Speaking God by the Spirit, and so he tunes the differences of creation so they harmonize with himself and with each other."
"God's perfections are not the actions of an undifferentiated God, but of the God who speaks "let be" and energizes all things by the life of his hovering Spirit. God is wisdom in that he speaks Wisdom by the breath of his Spirit of wisdom; he is truth in that he speaks Truth in the Spirit of truth; he is just in that he speaks rightly by the Spirit who clothes the Word with justice; he is good in that he discloses, diffuses, and gives himself in the lyric of his Spiritual song. God is the God that he is, with his perfections, because he is 'elohim, YHWH, and the Spirit; the Speaking God, the Spoken God, and the Spirit who empowers the speaking to be spoken. Because it offers a trinitarian reshaping of ontology, the metaphysics of Genesis sublates the metaphysics of Exodus."
"The Father unfolds himself in his self-gift to the Son, knows and is himself in the Word he speaks and hears, and together they reach the consummation of joy in the passion of the Spirit. Thus the triune God transcends the distinction of potentiality and actuality, because he is an "eternally self-rejuvenating" triune life. He is eternally actualized because he is eternally producing himself in the processions of the Son and Spirit. That this development is eternal, always already realized, does not alter the fact that it is genuine development. The Creator's immutable being is this eternal becoming."