Hello, my name is. . .
Genesis 35:1-15, “Then God said to Jacob, ‘Go up to Bethel and settle there, and build an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau.’ So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, ‘Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes. Then come, let us go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone.’ So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had and the rings in their ears, and Jacob buried them under the oak at Shechem. Then they set out, and the terror of God fell upon the towns all around them so that no one pursued them. Jacob and all the people with him came to Luz (that is, Bethel) in the land of Canaan. There he built an altar, and he called the place El Bethel, because is was there that God revealed himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother. Now Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse died and was buried under the oak below Bethel. So it was named Allon Bacuth. After Jacob returned from Paddan Aram, God appeared to him again and blessed him. God said to him, ‘Your name is Jacob, but you will no longer be called Jacob; your name will be Israel.’ So he named him Israel. And God said to him, ‘I am God Almighty; be fruitful and increase in number. A nation and a community of nations will come from you, and kings will come from your body. The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I also give to you, and I will give this land to your descendants after you.’ Then God went up from him at the place where he had talked with him. Jacob set up a stone pillar at the place where God had talked with him and he poured out a drink offering on it; he also poured oil on it. Jacob called the place where God had talked with him Bethel.”
There is a heckuva lot of name changing going on here, and I can’t really keep up with it all. But we see God telling Jacob to go to Bethel, which is apparently the place that Jacob will label as Bethel after he arrives. Jacob’s new name, Israel, is confirmed here, perhaps because no one had been calling him by his new name yet. There’s Luz, which Jacob then called El Bethel, which then, I think, became Allon Bacuth. . . Yeah, you get the picture.
So, why all this name changing? Why the need to label things so specifically? Obviously names hold importance, something which I don’t really see holding true today. Names are pretty important throughout the Bible. We see name changes happening, decisions on names being made by God, and the renaming of locations occurring all throughout the texts. And obviously the Jews held names in great regard seeing as we do not know the actual name of God as it was not allowed to be written.
And when Jesus was here on earth (and after) we see his closest disciples, those who would be seen to lead the church in its early years, both receive name changes. Simon became Peter because he was to be the rock of the church, and Saul’s name was changed to Paul after he was humbled before God.
But why? What is so important about a name that would require them to be changed when they do not apply appropriately?
I’m officially curious.
