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Okay, now I visited another site that said and I quote:
Rebecca...
Rebecca is another name we know as Biblical, and may assume has a Hebrew origin. The Hebrew name for Rebecca is actually Ribqah. Not as eloquent, is it?
and I was wondering if anybody could clear it up for me, is Ribqah or even Rivka the original version from which Rebecca comes from
Rebecca...
Rebecca is another name we know as Biblical, and may assume has a Hebrew origin. The Hebrew name for Rebecca is actually Ribqah. Not as eloquent, is it?
and I was wondering if anybody could clear it up for me, is Ribqah or even Rivka the original version from which Rebecca comes from
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The Hebrew form is Rivka
and to my best of knowledge this is the original form. As Anneza said, B and V are spelled with the same letter in Hebrew, but the form Ribka (or Ribqah) is not likely according to the rules of the language.
and to my best of knowledge this is the original form. As Anneza said, B and V are spelled with the same letter in Hebrew, but the form Ribka (or Ribqah) is not likely according to the rules of the language.
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The thing you should remember is that Hebrew and other Semitic languages don't bother to write down the entire word, unless it's vitally important (like the name of god). They just write the consonants. In the case of Rebecca, this would comfortably give you R-B-K, and you could fill in the vowels yourself.
In English we don't find the -bk- combination comfortable, so English people felt that sticking another -e- in to separate them was an improvement. So Rivka becomes Rebekah, or Rebecca. (Same thing happened with Yahweh and Jehovah; the Y -> J is also pretty usual, and Jehovah has a more English sound!)
As for the -V- turning into a -B-, this is pretty normal. In Hebrew they spell Deborah with a V - Devora - and this is just one more example.
In English we don't find the -bk- combination comfortable, so English people felt that sticking another -e- in to separate them was an improvement. So Rivka becomes Rebekah, or Rebecca. (Same thing happened with Yahweh and Jehovah; the Y -> J is also pretty usual, and Jehovah has a more English sound!)
As for the -V- turning into a -B-, this is pretty normal. In Hebrew they spell Deborah with a V - Devora - and this is just one more example.
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