Names are perhaps the first things most people notice when coming to a genealogy. Most people can’t get past the names and their pronunciations. Perhaps more people would be inclined to study genealogies if all their names were as simple as David and Moses and Joseph. This cultural barrier ought not interfere with our study of the scriptures. The pronunciation is really of little importance. The recognition of the man represented by the name, however, is vital to the Jewish culture, so we shouldn’t breeze past a person due to their name.
Beyond the reading of genealogies, names take a large role in understanding how to fit them together. There are several peculiar contributions that names add to the study of Genealogies. Among these include: multiple names, name repeats, name spellings, and family names and titles.
The first and last points are the easiest to address. The same individual can have more than one name. In our culture we usually designate two to three names for the same person. One is a working title, another is the family name. In the biblical culture, the common way to use the family name was to call someone the “son of” the family patriarch. This could extend back several generations or just one. Other times a person can have a common title that identifies him like “Pharaoh” or “Abimelech.” Another basis for multiple names lies within languages. The same person may have a different name in another language. Note the Jews during captivity who were known by their Babylonian names instead of their Jewish names: Belshazzar/Daniel, Shadrach/Hananiah, Meshach/Mishael, Abednego/Azariah, Esther/Hadassah.[1] Another name addition could come as a name change. Abram to Abraham, Jacob to Israel, etc. We still often refer to the man as Jacob instead of Israel even though God renamed him. Other cases can be found with similar situations.[2] The text can pull from any of these names, leading to some confusion at times as to the identity of the person currently being mentioned. Usually, to know how to fit things together we must consult a number of passages.
I will defining name repeats as those same names that belong to multiple individuals. This is extremely common in the genealogies and also in some family lines. In Luke’s account of Jesus’ line there are five with the Matthat/Matthias name. In the High priest line there are three Azariahs, two Zadok son of Ahitubs, and two Amariahs.[3] Within close generations there are: two Jonathans (one of Saul, one an uncle of David),[4] two Mephibosheths (one the son of Jonathan, one an uncle of Jonathan),[5] three Maacahs (associated with David or Reheboam)[6] and others. The trouble comes with identifying whether the text intends to speak of the same individual. Usually chronology context settles this, but there are occasions where the timeline is confusing.
Let’s take as an example the wives of Esau. In Genesis 26:34 we read about Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite. In Genesis 28:9 Esau also marries Mahalath the sister of Nebaioth from Ishmael. In Genesis 36:2-3 we find that the daughter of Elon went by the name Adah and the sister of Nabaioth from Ishmael also went by the name Basemath. We must put all three passages together to see that both Adah and Mahalath also had the name Basemath. So we must be sure not to overlap them incorrectly nor assume error. The significance of this means that Reuel the son of Basemath (Mahalath) was not Hittite but Midianite. This may very well help introduce the family of Midianite Reuels’ in Moses’ day (Num 10:29; Ex 2:21; 3:1; Judges 4:11).
Spellings of names doesn’t make it any easier to solve the issue. The most notable name confusion is with Samuel’s lineage. The names given from the three passages differ (1 Chron 6:25-28; 33-38; and 1 Sam 1:1). The question is if these are the same individuals or men of a different portion of Samuel’s line. I have come to the conclusion that they represent mostly the same people. When you compare the names to each other in their respective generations, a consistency appears that indicates the same basic name with a different spelling. Compare the names:
Zephaniah = Uriel
Uzziah = Azariah
Shaul = Joel
Ahimoth = Nahath
Zophai = Zuph
Nahath = Toah = Tohu
Eliab = Eliel = Elihu
Granted, some of these are harder to match than others, but the consistency provides a foundation to make the proposal that even those names that aren’t similar refer to the same individual. Other cases of this kind of name changing or spelling may occur in other places. The fewer passages there are to compare, the more difficult it is to have certainty on the issue.
Spellings of names is mostly a language and translation issue. The title Messiah in Hebrew becomes Christ in Greek. The name Joshua can be represented as Jesus as well. The name Ichabod can be Jacob or James. The NT translators may pick a name in order to differentiate between those who have very similar names. In that same light it is valuable to note that the Hebrew tongue was subject to change and variation like other languages. These changes may be the reason for those name changes in the OT. Perhaps they were changed to better represent a current dialect. My preference is to keep names as close as possible to the textual representation, the earlier the better. In cases where the person is well known, using their known name helps us be clear.
Names represent people in the same way that a noun represents an object it’s speaking of. Language should not change the message. Names are just pointers to the real persons. Genealogies are stuck with names. As their nature is, they deal with names over many years of language and culture. One cannot be too adamant that a name in a genealogy has exclusive rights to only one person. Though the genealogy intends one person, the name could belong to many. Even the identification of fatherhood can leave several options. Likewise, one must also be careful to not discredit an account due to name only, since the same person could be represented by several names. Context is always key. And where context cannot make a definite answer, then the author did not see it as vital to the importance of the genealogy.
[1] Daniel 1:7; Esther 2:7
[2] Examples: Genesis 17:5; 32:28 (35:10); Judges 6:32; 2 Kings 24:17; Mark 3:36; Acts 4:36
[3] 1 Chron 6:4-15
[4] 2 Samuel 4:4
[5] 2 Samuel 21: 7, 8
[6] 2 Samuel 3:3; 1 Kings 15:2, 10