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Old Testament · Step 3
I AM and the Shema: oneness in the Hebrew Bible
Two of the most quoted sentences in the Hebrew Bible concern the being and the oneness of God: the name given at the burning bush, “I AM THAT I AM”, and the Shema, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD”. Ramana Maharshi said the first, with “Be still”, contains the whole of Vedanta. This page gives the Hebrew, the Jewish readings and the Vedantic echoes, and shows where they part.
1. The burning bush (Exodus 3:5, 13–14)
“And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.”— Exodus 3:5, KJV · source · compare: YLT · NRSVue · ESV · NIV
Exodus 3:13-14
| KJVpublic domain | “And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.” | source |
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| Young's Literalpublic domain | “And Moses saith unto God, `Lo, I am coming unto the sons of Israel, and have said to them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you, and they have said to me, What [is] His name? what do I say unto them?' And God saith unto Moses, `I AM THAT WHICH I AM;' He saith also, `Thus dost thou say to the sons of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.'” | source |
| NRSV (NRSVue) (Exodus 3:14)© publisher · short quote | “God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”” | source |
| ESV (Exodus 3:14)© publisher · short quote | “God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”” | source |
| NIV (Exodus 3:14)© publisher · short quote | “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.’”” | source |
Footnotes on Bible Gateway: NRSVue “Or I am what I am or I will be what I will be”; ESV the same; NIV “Or I will be what I will be”.
Jewish interpretive tradition
“I AM THAT I AM — I will be with them in this sorrow — I Who I will be with them in the subjection they will suffer at the hands of other kingdoms (Berakhot 9b).”— Rashi on Exodus 3:14, tr. M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann (1929–34), Sefaria · source
For Rashi (1040–1105), following the Talmud, the name is a promise of presence in history (“I will be with them”), not a definition of pure being. The same Wikipedia article notes that the phrase “might be seen as a promise (‘I will be with you’) or as statement of incomparability (‘I am without equal’)”.
“‘I am’ is the name of God. Of all the definitions of God, none is indeed so well put as the Biblical statement “I AM THAT I AM” in Exodus (Chap. 3). There are other statements, such as Brahmaivāham, Aham Brahmāsmi and Soham. But none is so direct as the name JEHOVAH = I AM.”— Ramana Maharshi, Talks, Talk 106 · source
“Your duty is to be; and not to be this or that. “I AM that I AM” sums up the whole truth. The method is summed up in “BE STILL”.”— Ramana Maharshi, Talks, Talk 363 · source
Ramana heard in “I AM” the pure sense of being that remains when every “I am this or that” drops away: the Self of Advaita, and the So’ham (“I am He”) that Indian practitioners repeat with the breath. That reading has helped many meditators. It is also a reading the Hebrew does not force. Ehyeh can be future (“I will be”), and Rashi hears God’s promise to accompany Israel through suffering. Let “I AM” be a doorway into stillness, and let Rashi’s “I will be with them” remind you that, for the Hebrew Bible, this Being is also a faithful presence in history.
2. The Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4)
Deuteronomy 6:4
| KJVpublic domain | “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:” | source |
|---|---|---|
| Young's Literalpublic domain | “`Hear, O Israel, Jehovah our God [is] one Jehovah;” | source |
| NRSV (NRSVue)© publisher · short quote | ““Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone.” | source |
| ESV© publisher · short quote | ““Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” | source |
| NIV© publisher · short quote | “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” | source |
All three modern translations footnote alternatives: “The LORD our God is one LORD”, “The LORD our God, the LORD is one”, “The LORD is our God, the LORD is one”, “The LORD is our God, the LORD alone”.
Deuteronomy 4:39
| KJVpublic domain | “Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the LORD he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else.” | source |
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| Young's Literalpublic domain | “`And thou hast known to-day, and hast turned [it] back unto thy heart, that Jehovah He [is] God, in the heavens above, and on the earth beneath -- there is none else;” | source |
| NRSV (NRSVue)© publisher · short quote | “So acknowledge today and take to heart that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.” | source |
| ESV© publisher · short quote | “know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.” | source |
| NIV© publisher · short quote | “Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other.” | source |
Jewish interpretive tradition
The Shema is recited morning and evening, and since the Talmud’s account of Rabbi Akiva dying with echad on his lips it has been traditional as a Jew’s last words. For most of Jewish tradition it affirms that Israel’s God is one and is to be served alone. In Kabbalah and especially Hasidism, “God’s Unity means that there is nothing independent of his essence … ‘There is nothing but God’” (Wikipedia, Shema, “Divine unity of the Shema in Hasidic philosophy”). Kabbalah names God beyond all manifestation Ein Sof, “(there is) no end” (Wikipedia, “Ein Sof”). These are noted as parallels inside Judaism, not as the plain sense of Deuteronomy.
“‘I am He’, ‘I am the Pure Self’ — that is the conclusion of the jnanis. But the bhaktas say, ‘The whole universe is the glory of God.’”— Sri Ramakrishna, Gospel, ch. 11 · source
Where the traditions meet. The Shema’s echad and Advaita’s “one without a second” both refuse to divide the ultimate, and the Hasidic “there is nothing but God” sounds, to a Vedantin, very close to non-duality.
Where they differ. Deuteronomy’s oneness is the uniqueness of a God who is other than the world and in covenant with Israel, and the next verse commands love (6:5), which needs a lover and a beloved. Advaita’s oneness is the identity of the Self with Brahman. Ramakrishna himself warns: “It is not good for ordinary people to say, ‘I am He’. The waves belong to the water. Does the water belong to the waves?” (ch. 11). His bhakti reading, the One loved as Lord, is closer to the Shema than the jnani’s “I am He”.
3. “Ye are gods” (Psalm 82:1, 6)
Psalm 82:1
| KJVpublic domain | “God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods.” | source |
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| Young's Literalpublic domain | “God hath stood in the company of God, In the midst God doth judge.” | source |
| NRSV (NRSVue)© publisher · short quote | “God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment:” | source |
| ESV© publisher · short quote | “God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment:” | source |
| NIV© publisher · short quote | “God presides in the great assembly; he renders judgment among the “gods”:” | source |
Psalm 82:6
| KJVpublic domain | “I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.” | source |
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| Young's Literalpublic domain | “I -- I have said, `Gods ye [are], And sons of the Most High -- all of you,” | source |
| NRSV (NRSVue)© publisher · short quote | “I say, “You are gods, children of the Most High, all of you;” | source |
| ESV© publisher · short quote | “I said, “You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you;” | source |
| NIV© publisher · short quote | ““I said, ‘You are “gods”; you are all sons of the Most High.’” | source |
Scholarly note
Scholars debate who the “gods” are: members of a heavenly “divine council”, or human judges and rulers. NRSVue and ESV translate v. 1 as “the divine council”. Verse 7 continues “But ye shall die like men”, so the psalm is a judgment on unjust rulers, not a declaration of human divinity (Wikipedia, “Psalm 82”; Wikipedia, “Divine council”). Jesus quotes v. 6 in John 10:34 when accused of blasphemy (see the Bridge).
“But it is quite different when God Himself, gratified by the aspirant’s devotion, says to him, ‘You are the same as Myself.’”— Sri Ramakrishna, Gospel, ch. 11 (the parable of the king and his cook) · source
“Ye are gods” has been read by mystics in many traditions as a hint of a divine spark in humanity. Ramakrishna’s parable sets the right tone: the cook who seats himself on the throne is called a madman, but if the king invites him, “there is no harm in it”. In Psalm 82 the word is spoken by God, and it is immediately joined to judgment and mortality. Any likeness to the divine is a gift and a responsibility, not a possession.
4. In the image of God (Genesis 1:27)
Genesis 1:27
| KJVpublic domain | “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” | source |
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| Young's Literalpublic domain | “And God prepareth the man in His image; in the image of God He prepared him, a male and a female He prepared them.” | source |
The image of God (tselem Elohim) is the Hebrew Bible’s strongest statement of human dignity, and Jewish and Christian ethics rest heavily on it. It is not a statement that the human self is God. Many Indian teachers would agree that a reflection is not its source: the moon shines, but by the sun’s light. Vedanta’s word for that relation, pratibimba (“reflection”), is a parallel to hold loosely.
New Testament track: Step 3 · Unity with the Father (John 10:30, 14:20, 17:21–23).
Eastern perspective · Vedanta · Upanishads · Gita
Oneness in the Upanishads and the Gita, beside the Shema and “I AM”
The Upanishads ask the same two questions as this page: what is the one reality, and what is the “I”? Their answers, the “great sayings”, sound close to Ramana’s reading of “I AM”. The Shema’s echad is closer to a different strand of Indian thought, the devotional schools that keep God and soul distinct.
The “great sayings” (mahāvākyas)
Vedanta tradition singles out four sentences, one from each Veda, as summaries of the Upanishads (Wikipedia, “Mahāvākya”). Hume’s translations:
“That which is the finest essence—this whole world has that as its soul. That is Reality. That is Ātman (Soul). That art thou, Śvetaketu.”— Chandogya Upanishad 6.8.7 (tat tvam asi), tr. R. E. Hume, The Thirteen Principal Upanishads (1921) · source
“Verily, in the beginning this world was Brahma. It knew only itself (ātmānam): ‘I am Brahma!’ Therefore it became the All.”— Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.4.10 (aham brahmāsmi), tr. R. E. Hume, The Thirteen Principal Upanishads (1921) · source
“For truly, everything here is Brahma; this self (ātman) is Brahma.”— Mandukya Upanishad 2 (ayam ātmā brahma), tr. R. E. Hume, The Thirteen Principal Upanishads (1921) · source
“The world is guided by intelligence. The basis is intelligence. Brahma is intelligence.”— Aitareya Upanishad 3.3 (prajñānam brahma), tr. R. E. Hume, The Thirteen Principal Upanishads (1921) · source
Hume writes “Brahma” (neuter) for what most English books now spell Brahman, the Absolute, and “Soul” or “Self” for Ātman.
“Now, he who on all beings Looks as just (eva) in the Self (Ātman), And on the Self as in all beings— He does not shrink away from Him.”— Isha Upanishad 6, tr. R. E. Hume, The Thirteen Principal Upanishads (1921) · source
“He sees (truly) who sees the supreme lord abiding alike in all entities, and not destroyed though they are destroyed.”— Gita 13.27, tr. K. T. Telang (1882) · source
Three schools, three readings of “one”
| AdvaitaShankara | “Its core tenet is that jivatman, the individual experiencing self, is ultimately pure awareness … non-different from Ātman-Brahman”; the term “literally means ‘not-two’ or ‘one without a second’”. | source |
|---|---|---|
| VishishtadvaitaRamanuja | “Vishishta Advaita means ‘non-duality with distinctions’ … It upholds the belief that all diversity ultimately stems from a fundamental underlying unity.” | source |
| DvaitaMadhva | “God and the individual souls (jīvātman) exist as distinct realities. These individual souls are dependent (paratantra) on Vishnu (Narayana), who alone is independent (svatantra).” | source |
Quoted from the Wikipedia overview of each school (checked Oct 31, 2026). Each school reads the same Upanishad verses, including tat tvam asi, in its own way.
Mapped against the Hebrew Bible
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:”— Deuteronomy 6:4, KJV · source | Dvaita is closest to the Shema’s plain sense: one supreme God, distinct from souls and world, on whom all depend. Madhva, like Deuteronomy, combines strict oneness of God with lasting difference between God and creature. |
|---|---|
“Unto thee it was shewed, that thou mightest know that the LORD he is God; there is none else beside him.”— Deuteronomy 4:35, KJV · source | “There is none else beside him” was read by Hasidic teachers as “there is nothing but God” (see the Jewish box above). That reading is close to Advaita. In Deuteronomy itself the phrase means that no other god compares with the LORD. |
“And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.”— Exodus 3:13-14, KJV · source | Advaita (with Ramana) hears pure Being, the “I am” in everyone. Vishishtadvaita would hear a personal God whose being includes and sustains all beings. Rashi hears a promise, “I will be with them”. |
Ramakrishna’s harmonising view
“Sankara's Non-dualistic explanation of Vedanta is true, and so is the Qualified Non-dualistic interpretation of Ramanuja.”— Sri Ramakrishna, Gospel, tr. Nikhilananda, ch. 38 · source
“the three great systems of thought known as Dualism, Qualified Non-dualism, and Absolute Non-dualism — Dvaita, Visishtadvaita, and Advaita — he perceived to represent three stages in man’s progress toward the Ultimate Reality. They were not contradictory but complementary and suited to different temperaments.”— Swami Nikhilananda on Ramakrishna, Gospel, Introduction (“Summary of His Teachings”) · source
“But the vijnani, who is more intimately acquainted with Brahman, realizes something more. He realizes that the steps are made of the same materials as the roof: bricks, lime, and brick-dust.”— Sri Ramakrishna, Gospel, tr. Nikhilananda, ch. 3 · source
“In a shoreless ocean — an infinite expanse of water — visible blocks of ice are formed here and there by intense cold. Similarly, under the cooling influence, so to say, of the deep love of Its worshipper, the Infinite reduces Itself to the finite and appears before the worshipper as God with form.”— Sri Ramakrishna, Gospel, tr. Nikhilananda, ch. 42 · source
Ramakrishna’s ice in the ocean is a gentle way to hold the Shema and Advaita together: the One who is loved “with all thine heart” (Deut 6:5) and the Infinite without form are, for him, one reality met in two ways. A Jewish reader may decline the comparison, and that is respected here. The Shema asks for love and loyalty, not for a metaphysics.
Where the traditions differ
The Hebrew Bible never says the human self is God; the image of God (Gen 1:27) is a likeness, and Psalm 82 sets “ye are gods” beside “ye shall die like men”. Advaita’s “That art thou” is a claim of identity. Dvaita and much of Jewish thought agree that the distance between God and creature remains.
Light thread
“For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.”— Psalm 36:9, KJV · source
“The sun shines not there, nor the moon and stars, These lightnings shine not, much less this (earthly) fire! After Him, as He shines, doth everything shine, This whole world is illumined with His light.”— Katha Upanishad 5.15, tr. R. E. Hume, The Thirteen Principal Upanishads (1921) · source
“In thy light shall we see light” and “after Him, as He shines, doth everything shine” use one image for one idea: we see by a light that is not our own. The psalmist speaks to a Thou; the Upanishad points to the Self. Both place the source of seeing in the One.