Bible - All the Men of the

Bible - All the Men of the

Biblical names have, certainly, a big influence on humanity. It is estimated that more than three quarters of people in the civilized world have names from the Bible. Lim or Lee may be two of the biggest family surnames in China, but there is almost always Johnny, Jimmy, or Judy before the Lim and Lee. There is also Ibrahim, Japheth or Eli after Mohamed. Even my own twins have the name John and James before the family name of Thisayakorn.

Over a century ago, Old Testament names were prominent. Today, however, New Testament names are more popular. John and James hold the lead worldwide.

For Israel, the name of a person is supposed to indicate some characteristic of that person connected with his birth. Names and nature, as well as names and facts, are made to correspond as can be found in the name Moses gave his son (Ex. 2:22), and the naming of Ichabod (1 Sam. 4:21).

Names can be taken from animal like Caleb from dog; Dan from lion's whelp; Achbor from mouse and Parosh from flea.

Names can also be associated with nature like Geshem from rain; Barak from lightening.

Names that originated from the world are Adam from earth, Elah from oak, and Shammar from thorn.

Names given by God are Aram to Abraham; Sarai to Sarah; Jacob to Israel and Oshea to Joshus.

Names may also derive from circumstances, however, trivial or monotonous. We see Biblical names that denote personal quality like Nabal which means fool; names point to an occupation as Asa that means physician; names divinely given before the birth like Jesus and John the Baptist; and so on.

I have not yet gone through each individual page to pick all the names in the Bible. But my educated guess is there are at least over a thousand names of men in this inspired Word of God. I will not be able to list down any significant portion of all the names. So what I will do is to alphabetically name a few outstanding men to keep the article within the limit of 1000 or so words.

Aaron: A mountain of strength, Ex. 6:16-23

Abagtha: Happy; prosperous, (Esther 1:10-11)

Abda: Servant or Worshiper, (1 Kings 4:6)