Roland

Is it true that the word "Sodom" means "scorched"?

Or that Ai, the name of a city which the Israelites ostensibly conquered and destroyed, means "ruin"?

And that Barabbas means "Son of the Father," making it so that Pilate had to choose between releasing a son of the father or the Son of the Father?

It seems to me that these names give away the game, showing just how contrived much of what is written in the Bible is. Real history certainly doesn't work this way, with names predicting future events or carrying obvious symbolc significance.

Does anybody know of other instances of this kind in the Bible?

Doctor X

While I know "Barabas" is "son" of "father."

Some variants of the passage in Mk read "Jesus Barabas" for "Barabas." Some consider it another pun on the concept of a son of a god.

--J.D.

Llyricist

how about Jesus meaning "the Lord's Salvation"?

Doctor X

It may be . . . I would have to check up on the meaning of "Jeshua"/"Yeshua"--some of the more Hebrew-savy posters may answer it more quickly.

--J.D.

Doctor X

What do you know, Callahan's Secret Origins of the Bible has this:

--J.D.

Doctor X

Anyways, many names in the bible--and, apparently, "in real life,"--have "theophoric" components. A modern example is Netanyahu which has the yahu of YHWH in it.

Callahan as a few more on these:

Sodom:

Ai

Which is, interestingly, why I criticise him on the lack references. He does not give the support for these--as if he came up with them himself. I am sure he did not, nor did he intend to, but I would still like the reference.

--J.D.

DrJim

There is a growing amount of scholarly discussion on the use of word-play in ancient semitic languages, including Hebrew.

Puns and so forth were very common in magical texts, in narratives and in other writings.

While it is easy to see how a fictitious character may get a contextually appropriate name in a story, the scribes could also make puns and "creative" etymologies on common names.

In 1 Samuel 1:20, for instance, baby Samuel is named because Hannah "asked" God for him. Yet, "asked" is a word more closely related to the word fo Saul, the man Samuel later makes king. The life of the two men are inextricably linked in the story. Hannah "loans / dedicates" her son to the service of God: that word too is spelled wiht the consonants of "Saul" 1:28 There are a other places in which the hebrew root is employed.
Ominously, in her psalm of thanksgiving, Hannah says, "The Lord deals death adn gives life, Casts down into Sheol and raises up" (1 Sam. 2: 6, New Jewish Pub. Society). The word Sheol also has the same consonants as "Saul". In the final encounter with Samuel and Saul, Sam is already dead. Saul goes to a necromancer of some sort, who raises him (or his ghost) from the dead. Although the word "Sheol" is not used here, I think the connections should not be missed. Samuel says Saul will soon be with him.

Now, none of this can prove or disprove the existence of either man, but only that the scribes were geniuses at capitalizing on the language. I would be very wary of cliams that a character did not exist in real life simply because of a name that seems to reinforce the message of a text. Of course, there is also some evidence that ancient scribes could CHANGE a word's spelling to make an appropriate pun to draw out additional layers of meaning. In short, names with some symbolic importance in a text remain suspicious, but I would not build too much of a theory of complete fabrication on that evidence alone.


I can't remember how much I paid for it, but there is an excellent study that I highly recommend for those interested in this sort of thingt:
Scott B. Nogel (editor), Puns and Pundits: Word Play in the Hebrew Bbile and Anceint Near Eastern Literature (Bethaisda Maryland: CDL Press, 2000).

The anceint languages are reproduced in transliteration with translations, so even if you don't know the Hebrew alphabet, you can make some sense out of it.

May be worth trying to get it on an interlibrary loan.

JRL

Toto

Puns and Pundits: Word Play in the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Literature

The word pundit (sometimes spelled pandit, but pronounced pundit) is derived from Hindi (via the British Raj), from the Sanskrit pandita, meaning learned.

Mageth

"Adam" means man/mankind, I believe.

"Eve" means "life" or "living".

"Eden" means "pleasure".

"Abel" means "breath".

"Cain" means "possession".

"Nod" means "wandering". - So Cain went into the land of "wandering".

"Seth" means "compensation". So Eve was compensated for the loss of Abel.

I'm not sure what to make of that, but the early names did mostly seem to convey some sort of metaphorical meaning.

Roland

Mageth -

Thanks for the info.

Could the fundie counterargument be that the people and events came first and that the meanings of the words developed FROM those people and events?