Ambrose of Milan : Christ therefore is and always is; for he who is, always is. And Christ always is, of whom Moses says, "He that is has sent me." — Exposition of the Christian Faith 5.1.26 Ambrose of Milan : The Lord said, I am that I am, thou shalt say, I AM hath sent me unto you. This is the true Name of God -- Eternity. — Letter 8.8 Ambrose of Milan : This is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, who appeared to Moses in the bush, concerning whom Moses says, "He who is has sent me." It was not the Father who spoke to Moses in the bush, or in the desert, but the Son. — Exposition of the Christian Faith 1.13.83 Augustine of Hippo : Perhaps it was hard even for Moses himself, as it is much also for us, and much more for us, to understand what was said, "I am who I am" and "He who is has sent me to you." And if by chance Moses understood, when would they to whom he was being sent understand? Therefore the Lord put aside what man could not grasp and added what he could grasp. For he added and said, "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." This you can grasp. But what mind can grasp, "I am who I am"? — TRACTATE ON THE GOSPEL OF John 38.8.3 Augustine of Hippo : But now the Lord speaks to Moses—you know all this, and I won't keep you longer on it, for lack of time—"I am who I am; he who is sent me." When he asked God's name, you see, this is what was said: "I am who I am. And you shall say to the children of Israel, he who is sent me to you." What's this all about? O God, O Lord of ours, what are you called? "I am called He is," he said. What does it mean, I am called He is? "That I abide forever, that I cannot change." Things which change are not, because they do not last. What is, abides. But whatever changes was something and will be something; yet you cannot say it is, because it is changeable. So the unchangeableness of God was prepared to suggest itself by this phrase "I am who I am." — SERMON 6.4 Augustine of Hippo : Magnificently and divinely, therefore, our God said to his servant: "I am that I am," and "You shall say to the children of Israel, He who is sent me to you." For he truly is because he is unchangeable. For every change makes what was not, to be. Therefore he truly is, who is unchangeable; but all other things that were made by him have received being from him each in its own measure. — ON THE NATURE OF THE GOOD 19 Augustine of Hippo : He is the first and greatest existence, who is utterly unchangeable and who could say most perfectly, "I am who I am, and you shall say to them, "He who is has sent me to you." As a result, the other things which exist could not exist except by him, and these things are good insofar as they have received the ability to be. — ON CHRISTIAN TEACHING 1.32.35 Augustine of Hippo : Then too Plato's definition of a philosopher—one who loves God—contains an idea which shines forth everywhere in Scripture. But the most palpable proof to my mind that he was conversant with the sacred books is this, that when Moses, informed by an angel that God wished him to deliver the Hebrews from Egypt, questioned the angel concerning the name of the one who had sent him, the answer received was this: "I am who I am. Thus shall you say to the children of Israel: he who is has sent me to you," as though, in comparison with him who, being immutable, truly is, all mutable things are as if they were not. Now Plato had a passionate perception of this truth and was never tired of teaching it. Yet I doubt whether this idea can be found in any of the works of Plato's predecessors except in the text "I am who I am, and you shall say to them, he who is has sent me to you." — City of God 8.11 Augustine of Hippo : But God is without doubt a substance, or perhaps essence would be a better term, which the Greeks call ousia. For just as wisdom is so called from being wise and knowledge is so called from knowing, so essence is so called from being [esse]. And who possesses being in a higher degree than he, who said to his servant Moses, "I am who I am" and "He who is has sent me to you." But all other things that are called essences or substances are susceptible of accidents, by which a change, whether great or small, is brought about in them. But there can be no accidents of this kind in God. Therefore only the essence of God, or the essence which God is, is unchangeable. — THE TRINITY 5.2.3 Augustine of Hippo : For although that immutable and ineffable nature does not admit of was and will be but only is (for it truly is, because it cannot be changed), and therefore it was proper for him to say, "I am who I am" and "You will say to the children of Israel, 'He who is has sent me to you,' " nevertheless, on account of the changeableness of the times in which our mortality and our changeableness are involved, we do not falsely say was and will be and is. Was, in past ages; is, in present ones; will be, in future ones. Was, because he was never lacking; will be, because he will never be lacking; is, because he always is. — TRACTATE ON THE GOSPEL OF John 99.5.2 Cassiodorus : So in Genesis [sic] he bade Moses say of himself, "Go and say to the children of Israel, I am who I am. He who is has sent me to you." So he wanted his eternity to be denoted by the present tense. This use of present time ("today") is acknowledged to be peculiar to the divine Scriptures in the sense of perpetuity. — EXPOSITION OF THE Psalms 2:8 Cassiodorus : The phrase "I am" belongs to the divinity. It does not change with time but is always there and remains eternal. So the reply to Moses was "I am who I am" and again "He who is has sent me." But we must first investigate why God alone claims this term which denotes essence for himself. When it was spoken, there were angels, heavenly creatures and all earthly creatures as were decreed to exist. But because he is the only uncreated and eternal nature which did not begin in time and subsists as one divinity in three persons, God alone is rightly said to be, for he needs no one for his existence but ever abides by the strength of his own power. In it there is another mystery: a single syllable, sum ("I am"), is embraced by three letters, so we are taught that the holy Trinity is one God. — EXPOSITION OF THE Psalms 49:7 Eusebius of Caesarea : Everything that has ever existed or now exists derives its being from the One, the only existent and preexistent being, who also said, "I am the existent." … As the only being and the eternal being, he is himself the cause of existence to all those to whom he has imparted existence from himself by his will and his power and gives existence to all things and their powers and forms, richly and ungrudgingly from himself. — PROOF OF THE GOSPEL 4.1 Fulgentius of Ruspe : Hold most firmly and never doubt that the holy Trinity, the only true God, just as it is eternal, is likewise the only one by nature unchangeable. He indicates this when he says to his servant Moses, "I am which I am." — TO PETER ON THE FAITH 9.50 Gregory of Nazianzus : As far then as we can reach, "He who is" and "God" are the special names of his essence; and of these especially "He who is," not only because when he spoke to Moses in the mount, and Moses asked what his name was, this was what he called himself, bidding him say to the people, "I am has sent me," but also because we find that this name is the more strictly appropriate. For the name theos ["God"], even if, as those who are skillful in these matters say, it were derived from theein ["to run"] or from aithein ["to blaze"], from continual motion, and because he consumes evil conditions of things (from which fact he is also called a consuming fire) would still be one of the relative names and not an absolute one, as again is the case with "Lord," which also is called a name of God. "I am the Lord your God," he says, "that is my name;" and "The Lord is his name." But we are inquiring into a nature whose being is absolute and not [into being] bound up with something else. But being is in its proper sense peculiar to God and belongs to him entirely, and it is not limited or cut short by any before or after, for indeed in him there is no past or future. — THEOLOGICAL ORATION 4:18 Hilary of Poitiers : While my mind was dwelling on these and on many like thoughts, I chanced upon the books which, according to the tradition of the Hebrew faith, were written by Moses and the prophets, and found in these words spoken by God the Creator testifying of Himself `I Am that I Am, and again, He that is hath sent me unto you.' I confess that I was amazed to find in them an indication concerning God so exact that it expressed in the terms best adapted to human understanding an unattainable insight into the mystery of the Divine nature. For no property of God which the mind can grasp is more characteristic of Him than existence, since existence, in the absolute sense, cannot be predicated of that which shall come to an end, or of that which has had a beginning, and He who now joins continuity of being with the possession of perfect felicity could not in the past, nor can in the future, be non-existent; for whatsoever is Divine can neither be originated nor destroyed. Wherefore, since God's eternity is inseparable from Himself, it was worthy of Him to reveal this one thing, that He is, as the assurance of His absolute eternity. — ON THE TRINITY 1.5 Jerome : There is one nature of God and one only; and this, and this alone, truly is. For absolute being is derived from no other source but is all its own. All things besides, that is, all things created, although they appear to be, soon are not. For there was a time when they were not, and that which once was not may again cease to be. God alone who is eternal, that is to say, who has no beginning, really deserves to be called an essence. Therefore also he says of him, "I am has sent me." As the angels, the sky, the earth, the seas all existed at the time, it must have been as the absolute being that God claimed for himself that name of essence, which apparently was common to all. But because his nature alone is perfect and because in the three persons there subsists but one Godhead, which truly is and is one nature, whoever in the name of religion declares that there are in the Godhead three elements, three hypostases, that is, or essences, is striving really to predicate three natures of God. — LETTER 15.4 John Chrysostom : Wouldest thou learn also His eternity? Hear what Moses saith concerning the Father. When he asked what he was commanded to answer should the Jews enquire of him, "Who it was that had sent him," he heard these words: "Say, I AM hath sent me." Now the expression "I AM," is significative of Being ever, and Being without beginning, of Being really and absolutely. — HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF John 15 Origen of Alexandria : That the activity of the Father and the Son is to be found both in saints and in sinners is clear from the fact that all rational beings are partakers of the word of God, that is, of reason, and so have implanted within them some seeds, as it were, of wisdom and righteousness, which is Christ. And all things that exist derive their share of being from him who truly exists, who said through Moses, "I am that I am"; which participation in God the Father extends to all, both righteous and sinners, rational and irrational creatures and absolutely everything that exists. — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1.3.6 Pseudo-Athanasius : As there is one Beginning and therefore one God, so one is that Essence and Subsistence which indeed and truly and really is. It is this One who said "I am that I am," and not two, that there be not two Beginnings; and from the One, a Son in nature and truth, is its own Word, its Wisdom, its Power, and inseparable from it. — FOURTH ORATION AGAINST THE ARIANS 1