By: LovetheSon
What is in a name? When we were born our parents chose what we would be called for the rest of our lives. No chose was given to us in the decision of what that name would be, some of us took on the names of our father, or our mother, and even our grandparents. In biblical times they would give names that had a real meaning. I remember sitting in church one day and in John 18:40- Then they cried again, saying ” Not this man (Yahshua), but Barabbas!” And at that time I was studying Hebrew and it was as if a lightbulb went off in my head, I had seen that name so many times but didn’t realize that if I placed a hyphen between the r and a we get the true meaning of his name “Bar-abbas” which means “son of the father.” So I started thinking that maybe alot of the names had meaning, which I quickly learned they did. Yet that one name Barabbas was the turning point for me.
We might not think that common names have any real meaning like Daniel, David, Abraham, or Adam yet they do:
- Daniel- means “God is my judge”
- David- means ” my beloved”
- Abraham- means “many” or “multitude”
- Adam- means “to be red”
These are just a few examples that I have ran across, the web is a good source for anyone researching names. Just remember that most names don’t have meanings except in their native tongue. Even places that were spoken of in the Bible had meanings to them, God was very prophetic in the names that were given to the people in the Bible, and if we fully research them we find true meaning behind the era in which they lived.
Names are used to identify as well as give identity. People identified God with different names as well;
- EL- meaning mighty, strong, prominent
- Elohim- meaning the plurality of God (though God is one)
- El Shaddai- God Almighty or God All Sufficient
- Adonai- Master, Lord
- Yehovah- Yireh- The Lord will provide
- Yashua- means “Salvtion of God
When we study the names of God we recieve a bigger picture and understanding of who He is, I hope that all will come to understand the importance of the names that are given in Scriptures. Have fun exploring all the names and their meanings. And also God uses names for a purpose either to get a point across or to make a point.
Tags: Adonai, EL, Elohim, God, names, understand, Yahshua, Yehova
