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.