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Bible Study Why are people's names in the Bible in english?

Riverwolf

Riverwolf

Member
To some this may seem a dumb question. I just got off google searching for an hour. It just seems odd to me. If i was to go to the middle east my name would stay the same. I would not find a translation for it. I think also I would not find many John's, Peter's, James's etc... over there either, at least not 2000 years ago. All google could tell me is that Jesus Christ did not exist as that name is a translation. If the name of towns and places stayed the same, why not people names?
 
If i talk to you will my hair turn pink or was it blue? :lol


Bible names make me crazy. I can't even say most of 'em.

I find this goofy

Mat 4:18 And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers.

Does that mean Andrew was Andrew Peter?


Mat 16:17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.

I give the OT guys made up names. :yes
 
I can't be alone in this. Reading any english Bible and it totally sounds like a bunch of white folks. When they translated did they use phonetics and get the closet sounding english name?
 
Thanks. In retrospect this board has turned out to be nothing like what I was looking for. In my mind I pictured a room full of people, mostly middle aged or older. All the men would have short hair complete with white walls around their ears. They would all wear glasses and shirts with collars.They would smile all the time and smell heavily of aftershave. Thier shoes would be spotless. And the women...yes, they also would be smiling, with white powdered faces and blue hair. They would have plates of cookies and knitting in a bag on the floor. Everyone would have old and expensive looking leather bibles. But the bibles were mostly for show, as everyone in the room had every verse committed to memory. All of my questions would be answered before I could ask them.
Hmmm...what was that movie? Pleasantville?
But, oh well, this works for now. :)
Click to expand...
It was blue ! :lol



I would love to get all the names in english They befuddle me..
 
john-english
juan-spanish
yohan-german
ivan-russian
sean-gealic
jean-french and creole
giovanni-italian
 
peter is a greek name . i doubt his parents called him by that one. his name in hebrew of the day simon(simeon)barjona

simon the son of jona.
 
Riverwolf said:
To some this may seem a dumb question. I just got off google searching for an hour. It just seems odd to me. If i was to go to the middle east my name would stay the same. I would not find a translation for it. I think also I would not find many John's, Peter's, James's etc... over there either, at least not 2000 years ago. All google could tell me is that Jesus Christ did not exist as that name is a translation. If the name of towns and places stayed the same, why not people names?
Click to expand...

The names were filtered through Latin. At one point in church history the powers that were tried to distance themselves from Jewish influences. There was an animosity there! Latin became the lingua fraca of Christendom through Rome and the Vulgate bible.

English uses latin letters so it was easy to just Anglicize the latin renderings!
 
reba said:
River did ever get around to checking out the link ?
Click to expand...

Yes and thank you again.
I even showed it to a good friend who was stumped as I was.
It works like a charm!

I do still wonder if and when the practice stopped. For instance I could move anywhere in the world and my name would stay the same. I would not look for a translation. Perhaps this is only for the written word?
 
I also do not like when works---much less the Word of God---change names in translation. Absolutely unnecessary in most cases and even then... That's actually how we got "Jesus" from what should be translated as Joshua (which should be Yeshua.) The Greek language has no sh sound and names do not end in vowels. Also, J used to be pronounced as Y back in the day, so.... Yeah.

Sacred Name Bible Index - Sacred Name King James Version by johnhurt.com

That is a King James Bible with amendments to replace the LORD with YHVH and replaces Jesus with "Yahshua." Also titles such as God (El, Elohiym, Eloah, etc.) the Almighty (El Shaddai) Elyown (the Most High) and others...

As for names of everyone else such as Moses (Moshe) Shelomo (Solomon) Isaiah (Yeshayahu) Jeremiah (Yirməyahu), James, (Yacov), John (Yochanan), Matthew (Mattiyahu) etc, you can find a Jewish Tanahk or try "the complete Jewish Bible" for both Covenants, but I don't know how solid their translations are and if they use the Masoretic, I wouldnt trust them totally.
Fortunately, sometimes names are translated faithfully. (David, Daniel, etc)
 
hebrew is hard to translate to english.even the hebrews that i used to converse with say that.and they speak it! and read it fluenty!

should i then require you all to say my name in the koine greek that is it supposed to be? as in jason and the argonauts? the name jason is in the bible.
 
Riverwolf said:
To some this may seem a dumb question. I just got off google searching for an hour. It just seems odd to me. If i was to go to the middle east my name would stay the same. I would not find a translation for it. I think also I would not find many John's, Peter's, James's etc... over there either, at least not 2000 years ago. All google could tell me is that Jesus Christ did not exist as that name is a translation. If the name of towns and places stayed the same, why not people names?
Click to expand...

Why is any word in the bible in English?
 
Riverwolf said:
I can't be alone in this. Reading any english Bible and it totally sounds like a bunch of white folks. When they translated did they use phonetics and get the closet sounding english name?
Click to expand...

No. Phonetics has nothing to do with English. The modern Phonetics which is based on Latin alphabets began only in 1867, not known to KJV translators or any translators before 1867.

Even today, English is still handicapped without phonetics. This is why it is quite horrible and sometimes even misleading when names are translated to English.
E.g, The name of Joshua is same as Jesus in Hebrew, but not same in English.
 
jasoncran said:
john-english
juan-spanish
yohan-german
ivan-russian
sean-gealic
jean-french and creole
giovanni-italian
Click to expand...

Thank you!

When I have spent time with people in non-english speaking countries, I expect that they will call me by their version of my name. The names we see in English Bibles today are largely transliterated (not translated, there is a difference) from the Greek of the of New Testament and the Hebrew of the Old Testament. That simply means that they have taken the Greek form of the Hebrew name (in the case of the NT) and approximated the sound using English letters and English rules of pronounciation.

This explains why we have Joshua in the Old Testament and Jesus in the New: Joshua is a transliteraton of the Hebrew form of the name, while Jesus is a tranliteration of the Greek form.

Why some people get worked up about this, I don't understand. It was the Apostles themselves who transliterated Jesus' name from Hebrew into Greek in the first place, so it would seem that they didn't think the original Hebrew spelling or pronounciation was particularly important, rather the truth and grace of the man who bore the name.
 
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