Symbolism of names and of the word "name" in the Bible

Krašovec, Jože (author)

In every civilization, there is a clear tendency for people to find a proper name for things, places, human persons, angels and gods / God. Nearly 4,000 geographical and personal names can be found in the Bible of the Old and New Testaments. The main aim of the paper is to show aspects of the interpretation of the meaning of names as symbols, with special attention to the use of the word “name,” which appears in the Bible in very large numbers and in various roles in connection with God. Because the God of the Bible is the highest spiritual and personal being, working in intimate personal dialogue with individual human beings and with the chosen people as a whole, it is often emphasized that no individual name alone can capture and properly express God’s essence. Therefore, God’s names are enriched with many titles and attributes that express the fundamental attributes of God. The search for the meaning of names, titles and attributes is usually not carried out in isolation, but within the direct linguistic and literary context of the use of names. The second stage of the contextual approach in finding the meaning of names, titles, and attributes is an overview of intertextual relationships across all available sources within ancient Israel and in neighbouring cultures. The contextual approach enables the discovery of content and form relationships between related names, titles and attributes that form individual semantic fields. The most basic structure of associating related names, titles, and attributes is the stylistic form of parallelism. At the hermeneutic level, the search for the meaning of names, titles and attributes is based on the principle of analogy. The article is an introductory contribution to the long-term research of the material of biblical onomastics and the history of discussions on the fundamental role and symbolic value of names, titles and attributes. The originality is already shown in the fact that a comprehensive treatment of God’s names, titles and attributes has not yet been carried out.

• Language: English
• Keywords: names, titles, appellatives, attributes, geographical names, personal names, the word ʼnameʼ, role of angels, semantic fields of names and attributes, context, intertextual relations
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: TEOF - Theological Faculty
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Publication date: 01.01.2022
• Year: 2022
• Number of pages: Str. 841-862
• Numbering: Letn. 82, [št.] 4
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-164154
• UDC: 27-277-144.2
• ISSN on article: 0006-5722
• DOI: 10.34291/BV2022/04/Krasovec
• COBISS.SI-ID: 135703043
• Publication date in RUL: 17.10.2024

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Bogoslovni vestnik
• Shortened title: Bogosl. vestn.
• Publisher: Bogoslovna akademija, Bogoslovna akademija, Teološka fakulteta v Ljubljani, Teološka fakulteta Univerze v Ljubljani, Založba Univerze v Ljubljani
• ISSN: 0006-5722
• COBISS.SI-ID: 8745472

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Simbolizem imen in besede "ime" v Svetem pismu

Abstract

V vsaki civilizaciji obstaja jasna težnja, da ljudje za stvari, kraje, človeške osebe, angele in bogove/Boga najdejo ustrezno ime. V Svetem pismu Stare in Nove zaveze najdemo blizu 4000 zemljepisnih in osebnih imen. Glavni cilj prispevka je, prikazati vidike interpretacije pomena imen kot simbolov, s posebno pozornostjo na rabi besede ,ime‘, ki v Svetem pismu nastopa v zelo velikem številu in v različnih vlogah v povezavi z Bogom. Ker je Bog Svetega pisma najvišje duhovno in osebno bitje, ki deluje v intimnem osebnem dialogu s posameznimi človeškimi osebami in z izvoljenim ljudstvom kot celoto, se pogosto poudarja, da nobeno ime samo na sebi ne more zajeti in ustrezno izraziti božjega bistva. Zato so božja imena obogatena s številnimi nazivi in atributi, ki izražajo temeljne božje lastnosti. Iskanje pomena imen, nazivov in atributov pa praviloma ne poteka izolirano, ampak v okviru neposrednega jezikovnega in literarnega konteksta rabe imen. Druga stopnja kontekstualnega pristopa v iskanju pomena imen, nazivov in atributov je pregled intertekstualnih razmerij v prerezu vseh razpoložljivih virov znotraj starega Izraela in v sosednih kulturah. Kontekstualni pristop omogoča odkrivanje vsebinskih in oblikovnih razmerij med sorodnimi imeni, nazivi in atributi, ki tvorijo posamezna semantična polja. Najosnovnejša struktura povezovanja sorodnih imen, nazivov in atributov je slogovna oblika paralelizma. Na hermenevtični ravni pa se iskanje pomena imen, nazivov in atributov opira še na načelo analogije. Članek je uvodni prispevek v okviru dolgoročne raziskave gradiva biblične onomastike in zgodovine diskusij o temeljni vlogi in simbolni vrednosti imen, nazivov in atributov. Izvirnost se kaže že v dejstvu, da celovita obravnava božjih imen, nazivov in atributov doslej še ni bila izvedena.

• Keywords: imena, nazivi, atributi, geografska imena, osebna imena, beseda ʼimeʼ, vloga angelov, semantična polja imen in atributov, kontekst, interkontekstualna razmerja

Projects

• Funder: ARRS - Slovenian Research Agency
• Project number: P6-0262
• Name: Vrednote v judovsko-krščanskih virih in tradiciji ter možnosti dialoga