The book of all Books - Vula
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Transcript The book of all Books - Vula
The Book of all Books
Dr. Azila (Tzili) Talit Reisenberger
Head 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
איש
אשה
אשה
אש
יה
Eve – חוה
Hava
Mother of all living
in English it has no special
meaning
In Hebrew LIFE (Le’Haim)
Adam - אדם
Adama
Adam
dam
Adom
(Earth)
(human)
(blood)
(red)
The “namers”
The creators:
Father, Mother, God
Yizhak יצחק
Yizhak יצחק
Laughter
Jacob’s children
Mothers name the sons:
Lea:
Reu-ben
Shim-e’n
Levi
Yehu-da
Is-sachar
Zavulun
Lea gives birth to a daughter,
and names her (no
explanation)
Dina
Rachel names her 2 sons
Joseph
Ben-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 person
and always stays with her/him, sometimes one
needs to change it
As 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
status
2. A wishful thinking (for change of
status)
Change of names
due to change of status
Abram אברם
Abraham אברהם
Saray שרי
Sarah
שרה
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
Zophan–code
Pa’a’ne’ach
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, Kohelet
Gideon - Yerubaal
Surname????
Surnames are a modern innovation.
People were known by their : first name
Their father’s name (or mother’s name)
The clan
The tribe or city
(Laban ben Betuel,
Yoav ben Tzeruya
Elimelech of Beit-Lechem Yehuda…)
Fictitious names
symbols / 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. Naomi
Elimelech
Machlon
Kilyon
Orpah
Names of God
• God has many ‘titles’
El Elyon
El Kano
El Shadday
and many many more
BUT
The name of God
יהוה
Name of God
יהוה
היה
הוה
יהיה
Amazing
isn’t it?
Thank you
I would like to thank Jutta Schoof for editing
these notes.