#tetragrammation

“If it is misleading, or careless of the mystery, to state flatly, “Jesus is the God of Israel”--just as it is not permitted to speak the ineffable name God figured in the Tetragrammation—there is still a way of narrating who Jesus is by telling stories which he has the authority to forgive sins, to still storms, to walk on the sea, to feed the scattered sheep as the true shepherd, to make the deaf to hear and the mute to speak. There is a way to narrate who Jesus is by identifying John the Baptist as the voice in the wilderness who will proclaim Isaiah's gospel message of the end of the exile by crying, “Prepare the way of the Kyrios.” Through the poetics of allusion, Mark gestures toward the astounding truth. Those who have ears to hear will hear.”

Exod 3:13-15: "Moses said to God, 'Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, "The God of your fathers has sent me to you," and they ask me, "What is his name?" Then what shall I tell them?' 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."'"

In English, this makes practically no sense. In Hebrew, it makes slightly more. When one reads the "I AM" in Hebrew, it is known as the tetragrammation YHWH, or as commonly said in English, Yahweh (also Jaweh or Jehovah).

Up until this point, there's really not a specific name for the god of the Israelites. Abraham probably knew him as "El Shaddai," the god of the mountain, as a lot of human-god interactions (like the one in this verse) take place on mountains, i.e. close to the heavens.

Other names include "Elohim" ("he in the highest, god of gods"), from the same "god" root which a lot of the "el"s in the Bible derive their name: Israel, Samuel, Ezekiel, etc. Also in there is "Adonai," which is a general name for "Lord," which is said instead of YHWH because addressing someone by name assumes power over that person (think: "Would his highness care for another cup of tea?"), and the idea is that it would be arrogance to assume power over God. There is some debate as to whether or not the YHWH name is the god's actual name that should not ever be spoken or just a nickname he gave to his people for them to call him so they could say "this is our god."