mg01

Genesis is absolutely replete with puns in hebrew relating to etiologies. Bab-El (which is really "gate of god") was so named because that's where YHWH confused (balal) the languages. Zoar (small/little) is so named because when Lot was fleeing Sodom he pleaded with YHWH to let him take refuge there because it was a "little place". Isaac (laughter) because Sara laughed. All of Jacob/Israel's 12 sons and even his daughters contain in their birth stories an explaination for their names. There is a place named "hill of foreskins" because all of Israel was circumcised there. There are two stories of how Beer Sheeba was named. Beth-El is renamed twice after Jacob "wrestles with god". Lots others I can't remember off the top of my head.

Many places in Exodus/Numbers are so named because of events associated with the exodus and wanderings.

In Judges Samson has a hill named after him where he slaughtered the army with the jawbone.

These sorts of examples are found even through Kings where later writers apparently tried to mimic methods/styles in their own writings.

Frankly they are so prevelant, it's hard to see how anyone could mistake them as literal history at all, except that the majority are only recognizable in Hebrew and completely lost in translation.

mg01

In many cases too it is the author himself attributing the name (person or place) not by later tradition, but because of a particular event.

The likely explaination then is the original attribution of the name is lost and the author conceives a new one to kep his story interesting and relevant by attaching it to his own narrative. This is completely ununique in myth.

spamandham

Yes. When you find names that are symbolic, and they fit within stories that are symbolic, the most reasonable conclusion is that the character was constructed for the story.

That doesn't eliminate the possibility of a historical core, but there is no longer any prima facie reason to suppose it.

aa5874

And there are the writings of Josephus that appear to confirm your position.

The name Jesus means "salvation".

Josephus mentioned many persons called Jesus, none were Saviours, in fact Josephus called Jesus the Son of Sapphias a robber and Jesus son of Ananus was declared a madman.

This a partial list of persons called Jesus in Josephus.

• Jesus the son of Gamaliel

• Jesus the high priest

• Jesus the son of Ananus

• Jesus the son of Thebuthus

• Jesus the son of Sie

• Jesus the son of Damneus

• Jesus the son of Sapphias

• Jesus the son of Gamala

The meaning of Jesus is irrelevant to a person's character or duties in the writings of Josephus, however in the NT, with one single person called Jesus, this figure is claimed to be the Saviour, and this Saviour's life on earth as described is fundamentally implausible, from conception to ascension.

So, based on the writings of Josephus, it is reasonable to think that a character that fits a story purely based on the symbolic meaning of his name is likely to be fiction.