the book of all books dr. azila (tzili) talit reisenberger head of hebrew university of cape town

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.