Over at The Catholic Weekly, I am taking a look at the biblical attitude toward names:
Names are a big deal in Scripture. Hebrew culture and tradition saw names as more than mere labels to slap on people and things so that we wouldn’t just call them thingamajigs or “Hey You!”
When Adam is called to name the animals, he is being given the dignity of assisting God in the work of creation. Adam’s own name reveals who he is: the man made from the earth. Eve’s name likewise reveals her dignity as the mother of the living. Abram’s name (“The Father is Exalted”) is changed to Abraham—“Father of Many Nations”—reflecting the way in which his exaltation of God issues in exaltation by God and the reward he receives of children outnumbering the sand of the seashore.
In short, names name in Scripture. They reveal who somebody is.
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