D25-8: In The Hebrew Culture, A Man’s Name Reflected His Reputation And Destiny

In our discussion of Levirate marriage and ancient beliefs about the afterlife, today I want to talk about the meaning of the word “name” as it was understood in Biblical Israel.

In Hebrew, “name” is SHEM.

That’s right.

When we say the term HASHEM, we are literally saying “The Name” implying “The One And Only Name Above All Names”.

Now what’s important to understand is that in ancient times, a person’s name carried much more importance and meaning than it does today.

Literally, SHEM is not just a label telling us how to address a person but also referred to his reputation.

In other words, a man’s name often reflected his character traits or the circumstances he was born under.

A name could also be prophetic in that it pronounced a person’s destiny or a mission that person would fulfill in advance.

For example, Yeshua means “God saves”.

No doubt there was some superstition involved here.

It was believed the key to ensuring one’s spirit remained in existence was to preserve the person’s name.

That’s why even to this day we have tombstones with names engraved on them.

The idea was if a dead person’s name was kept alive and still spoke about, in some mysterious way, his spirit lived on.

Finally, as I mentioned yesterday, the most terrifying prospect for a man in those days was to die minus having given birth to a son.

Why?

Because if that happened, there would be no descendants to keep his legacy alive by uttering it after he was gone or carving it upon monuments.

There would also be no bodies to keep his life essence alive through the succeeding generations.

Nor would there be anyone to tend to his needs when he entered the spirit world.

Again, the idea of one’s very existence being blotted out for all time and forever was a nightmare beyond gargantuan proportions for folks in those days.