The Book of all BooksThe Book of all Books
Dr. Azila (Tzili) Talit ReisenbergerHead of Hebrew
University of Cape Town
Lecture 2:
What’s in the name?
Short recap:The Name of The Book
• Bible – Bibliotheca (bibliothèque) – library• Hebrew Bible (in French? German?)• Old Testament (passé?)• TaNaK (Torah/ Nevi’im/Ketuvim)
The Bible
Names of the individual books
• The authors of the book, prophets, main hero/heroine etc • Main theme: Kings, Psalms, Proverbs
• In some cases: English names adhere to above (logic), while Hebrew names of books are words from 1st verse in the book (Shemot, Vayikra etc)
The significance of names
• “A boy named Sue” (part of essence)• “The great Escape” (power of knowing)• Oscar Wilde (treat with care & respect)•…..
Creation by words
Creating something / someone by naming it
The creation of the world by God – was by a word (Michelangelo's error)
Adam as a partner of creation
Naming the animals
Naming the woman
man woman wo-man
איש אשה
האש שיא
אש
יה
Eve – חוהHava
Mother of all living
in English it has no special meaning
In Hebrew LIFE (Le’Haim)
Adam - אדם
Adama (Earth)Adam (human)
dam (blood) Adom (red)
The “namers”
The creators:
Father, Mother, God
Yizhak יצחק
Yizhak צחקי
Laughter
Jacob’s children
Mothers name the sons:
Lea: Reu-benShim-e’nLeviYehu-daIs-sacharZavulun
Lea gives birth to a daughter, and names her (no explanation)
Dina
Rachel names her 2 sons
JosephBen-oni - - -
Ben-jamin
Naming children as a parental discretion: Father or Mother
Judah had a Canaanite wife (the daughter of Shua) Gen 38:2
They had three sons:•Judah named the first one: Er•She named the following 2: Onan
Shela
Names which are turned into ‘Terms’
Sometimes names of Biblical characters are immortalized by turning into ‘terms’ which are used even now, thousands years later:For example: Onan
Sodom
(and Joseph.. which we will see in a minute)
We saw examples of parents naming their children; what about the 3rd partner in creating
life: God ?
• The prophet Hosea and Gomer’s children (Hosea 1:3)
• They had 3 children and God commanded him to call them: – Yisrael (like the valley of Yisrael)
– Lo Ruhama– Lo Ami
another child’s name as a prophecy,
as commanded by God:
Maher Shalal Hash Buzz
Which means: ‘the looters are coming faster than you can imagine’ (Isa 8:4)
A situation ‘names’ the baby
Tamar’s and Judah’s twins: (Gen. 38:29-30)
• Peretz (the one who bursts out)
• Zerach (shiny marker)
• Ben-oni (Gen. 25:18 - son of my sorrow)
• I-Kavod (1Sam 4:21 - no-respect)
Name is part of personality
As the name is the signifier of the personand always stays with her/him, sometimes one
needs to change itAs Jacob changed his son’s name:• Ben-Oni to Ben-Jamin (Benjamin)• Jacob’s name was changed to Isra’el• Hosea’s children
Change or addition of names
Change of name can be induced by 1.The need to record a change of
status2.A wishful thinking (for change of
status)
Change of names
due to change of status
Abramאברם
Abraham םהאבר
Sarayשרי
Sarah השר
Record of a change of status Joseph’s name was changed to:
Zaphnat Pa’a’ne’ach
This gave rise to two Hebrew terms
Zaphnat Pa’a’ne’ach
Zophan–code Pa’ane’ach-Decipher
Another example of a change of name to mark a change in status
• Naomi to Mara (Ruth 1:20)
If there is no change of name, there can be an addition of a name
Sometimes instead of changing the name, another name is added, as the circumstances
dictate or as the needs arise:
Solomon – Yedidya, KoheletGideon - Yerubaal
Surname????Surnames are a modern innovation.
People were known by their : first nameTheir father’s name (or mother’s name)The clanThe tribe or city
(Laban ben Betuel,Yoav ben TzeruyaElimelech of Beit-Lechem Yehuda…)
Fictitious namessymbols / signifiers
The book of Ruth is a didactic narrative:i.e. main Characters who carry historical
significance have “real” names.But secondary characters are ‘called’ by their contribution to the story:
i.e. NaomiElimelechMachlonKilyonOrpah
Names of God
• God has many ‘titles’
El ElyonEl Kano
El Shadday
and many many more
BUT
The name of God
י ה ו ה
Name of God
י ה ו ה
ה י הה ו ה י ה י ה
Amazing isn’t it?
Thank you
I would like to thank Jutta Schoof for editing these notes.
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