Real names of Bible characters

[GodLovesCats]

BTW what does your username mean?

 

[Quid est Veritas?]

BTW what does your username mean?

"What is Truth?" - it is Pilate's response in John 18:38 in Latin, which I couple with a depiction of Ecce Homo, Christ being shown to the masses by Pilate.

 

[ViaCrucis]

For years I have been convinced some of the character names are changed in English versions. If you read lists of Hebrew, Greek, or Egyption names for boys and girls, you will not find these names, which are in the Bible:

Adam, Eve. Seth, Rachel, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Ethan, Nathan, Danial, James, Simon, Paul, Saul, Peter, Matthew, Mark. Luke, John, Mary (several people), Martha, Michael, Elizabeth, Phillip, and David. I am sure there are more I don't know about or can't remember.

My question is what were their real names? Are all these familar English names just fillers for a large group of English readers, updated variations of their real names, or the original names of these people?

The English form of the names of biblical figures follow several different rules. Generally the naming conventions have come to us from Hebrew, through Greek, through Latin, to English. However, in the last few centuries it has also become common to utilize some of the original Hebrew into the name in at least some cases. This has resulted in some peculiarities as well.

For example the biblical figure of Joshua ben Nun is Yehoshua ben Nun. Now in Greek he is called Iesous, as both the Hebrew Yehoshua and Yeshua became Iesous in Greek, and Iesus in Latin, and thus "Jesus" in English. But, it is convention to use Joshua to directly render the Hebrew Yehoshua into English. The father of the twelve patriarchs is called Jacob in English, from the Hebrew Yaqov or Yaqob, in Greek and Latin this is Iakobos and Iacobus respectively, but due to a strange quirk became "James" in English; this is why St. James the brother of the Lord is called "James" still, though his name was Jacob, even though we use "Jacob" for the biblical patriarch.

Using a 'J' for the Hebrew Yod ('y') seems really strange until we understand that originally the letter 'J' was invented as an 'I' with a tail, to distinguish it from ordinary 'I'. This specialized 'I' is known as "Consonantal 'I'" and was used in loan names and words, hence the Latin Iesus is pronounced closer to Yesus and Iacobus as Yacobus. We still see this old sound of 'J' in German. However in English the 'J', through French influence, came to have the harder sound we are familiar with today.

So basically we are dealing with centuries and several layers of transliteration and various quirks.

Direct, literal transliterations of some of the biblical names from the Hebrew and Greek of Scripture will often give different pronunciations we are familiar with; but that doesn't mean the standard English renderings are "wrong", names frequently change in different languages. That's why the English John, the Spanish Juan, the French Jean, the German Johan, the Italian Gianni, the Russian Ivan, and the Irish Ian all exist--these are all different permutations of the same base name.

Some of the more literal transliterations of some of these names are Adam for Adam, Seth/Set for Seth, Noach for Noah, Eliyah for Elijah, Yehoshua for Joshua, Moshe for Moses.

With the New Testament there's a couple of factors to consider: The names would have been the Aramaic forms, not Hebrew, but they are transliterated into Greek. And then sometimes there are actual Greek names.

So we have Shimon Kepha, which in Greek becomes Simon Petros, and English as Simon Peter. This is why Peter is often called "Peter" in the Gospels and the Acts, though Paul in his letters retains a Hellenized form of the Aramaic nickname, Kephas (Anglicized as Cephas). Yaqob becomes Iakobos, which becomes James in English, yes it's weird. Paulos becomes Paul. Maryam becomes Maria becomes Mary. Toma becomes Tomas becomes Thomas.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[ViaCrucis]

I'd love someone to explain how we get "James" from "Iakovos" in the Greek.

I haven't looked it up in a while, but I want to say I think it has something to do (at least in part) with the French. There is often a French explanation for why things are weird in English.

Edit: I think I might be on the right track, as looking at "Jacob" in different languages shows "Jaume" and "Jayme" as French variants of "Jacob".

-CryptoLutheran

 

[GodLovesCats]

Let's see here . .

Latin i = English j.
The letters c and k sound the same.
So there is iak or jac.

But were do the m, e, and s in James come from? That is what makes no sense.

 

[ViaCrucis]

Let's see here . .

Latin i = English j.
The letters c and k sound the same.
So there is iak or jac.

But were do the m, e, and s in James come from? That is what makes no sense.

Keep in mind also that names frequently arise from diminutives, abbreviations, and playful variations.

Ex.:
Robert --> Rob --> Bob --> Robby/Bobby
William --> Will --> Bill --> Willy/Billy
Steven --Steve
Thomas --> Tom --> Tommy
Johan --> Hans --> Hansel
Ivan --> Ivanko
Carlos --> Carlito
John --> Jack
Richard --> Rick/Dick --> Ricky

-CryptoLutheran

 

[GodLovesCats]

Jack = John is ridiculous. Only one letter matches. I know many common English nicknames but not a lot of foreign language transliterations like we are discussing (except for Spanish and Italiian Margherita and French Margerite to English Margaret to Margie and Maggie). Coincidentally I have neighbors who use the names Margaret, Margie, and Maggie.

Anyway, it would be interesting to see a roster of actual names (in the English alphabet for pronunciation purposes) for the Bible characters everyone knows.

 

[ViaCrucis]

Jack = John is ridiculous. Only one letter matches. I know many common English nicknames but not a lot of foreign language transliterations like we are discussing (except for Spanish and Italiian Margherita and French Margerite to English Margaret to Margie and Maggie). Coincidentally I have neighbors who use the names Margaret, Margie, and Maggie.

Anyway, it would be interesting to see a roster of actual names (in the English alphabet for pronunciation purposes) for the Bible characters everyone knows.

It has nothing to with letter matching. That was part of my point really. Names evolve and mutate all the time.

However, here's the explanation for the bizarre reason that Jack comes from John,

"the commonest pet-name for John, has caused a good deal of difficulty owing to the natural assumption that it must be derived from the French Jacques and should therefore logically represent James rather than John. The problem was cleared up by E. W. B. Nicholson in a little book entitled The Pedigree of Jack and of Various Allied Names (1892). He showed that there is no recorded instance of Jack, Jak, Jacke, or Jakke ever being used to represent Jacques or James, and that no statement in favor of the French connexion has been produced from any early writer. He then proceeded to elucidate and illustrate with examples the development of Johannes to Jehan and Jan, whence, by addition of the common suffix -kin, we get Jankin, which as a result of French nasalization becomes Jackin, and was finally shortened to Jack. There was a similar development from Jon to Jock (the Scottish form of the name)." - E. G. Withycombe. Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names. Oxford University Press, 3rd edition, 1988.

This suffix of -kin is found also in, for example Hopkins, and is related to the Dutch and Flemish -ke[n]. Other examples here are Dackin (David), Simkin (Simon), and Willekin (William). Some of these have been preserved, such as Willekin as Willkins, and Dackin as Dackins, Simkin as Simkins; as surnames rather than as given names. The -kin suffix indicates smallness and familiarity, as such these represent childhood names, a William becoming a Willekin is like saying "Little William" and is what one might expect the child to have been known by close family members, and called such into adulthood. In the same way that a Thomas may have been known as Tommy to those who knew him as a child.

Jack, therefore, by convoluted means, is derived at by a now archaic and colloquial English naming practices.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[Radagast]

For years I have been convinced some of the character names are changed in English versions. If you read lists of Hebrew, Greek, or Egyption names for boys and girls, you will not find these names, which are in the Bible

Because Bible names were widely used, there were gradual changes in pronunciation.

For example, Jacob -> Jacobos -> Jacomus -> James and Jacob -> Jacobos -> Jaco -> Diego.