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ArchivesRe: at the very least I'd be interested if no one else is nt
in reply to a message by beata
Hi, Rebecca!
I hope this is not gonna be too confusing as I have to go a little bit into the structure of the Hebrew language and into the practice of naming in ancient Israel.
The Hebrew version of your name is RIVKAH (btn gives ribqah, but at least in modern Hebrew it is pronounced with a V, V and B basically being the same letter), in Greek (Septuaginta, a Greek translation of the Hebrew bible) it is REBEKKA (no C in the Greek alphabet!), in Latin (Vulgata) you will find REBECCA (no K in the Latin alphabet!). Sometimes you come across REBECKA, but this doesn’t make sense.
Now to RIVKAH and to Hebrew names in general:
- Many Hebrew names represent a whole sentence and even a whole story: DANIEL means “God has restored my right” (“dan” is “right” and “el” is “God”) meaning: God has rehabilitated me (I had always wanted a child but didn’t get one, and all the other women started laughing at me saying I was punished by God; but by giving me this child, God has shown everybody that he loves me and that I have done no wrong).
- Other names are taken from a plant (TAMAR translates “date-palm”) or an animal (DEBORA is the “bee” and RACHEL may have been a “ewe”).
- There are names taken from objects of everyday life (PENINNA means “coral” and DELILAH probably is a “falling curl”).
- The meaning of some names is obvious: JEDIDA and DAVID both mean “beloved one” (so does probably MIRIAM and hence MARIA) and NOOMI translates “delight”.
- The meaning of other names is obscure
What scholars do in this case: a) they start guessing by looking for similar words in Hebrew b) they look around in related languages.
Now REBECCA: There is no verbal root (see below) R-B-Q for the name RiBQah in biblical Hebrew. But there is a similar one in Arabic (unfortunately I can’t read Arabic) and it is said to mean “bind, tie”. There is a Hebrew word “maRBeQ” which means “cowshed”, maybe because cows are tied up there. So scholars have tried to find a name giving motive that has to do with “tie”. So REBECCA has been translated as “entangling, fascinating, charming”. In German there is the word “fesselnd” which means excactly that. “Fessel” is “fetters, tie, bond” in English.
Now is the time to tell something about the Hebrew language:
In Hebrew it’s only the consonants that count. There are vowels and in the Hebrew bible they are noted as little dots and lines around the consonants. The good thing about this system is that you can usually rely on the consonants, they seldom change. Now a great deal of the Hebrew vocabulary and grammar is like a box of bricks: Three consonants form the “root” of a word or grammatical form. Prefixes and suffixes are added to create nouns or mark the state of conjugation. Also the vowels change but this is not crucial. N-Th-N for instance means “give” (like in JONATHAN) and SCH-L-M means “replace, pay” (like in SALOMO). “meSCHaLeMim” would translate “those who are paying”. Got the idea?
Unfortunately often one of the the root-consonants is dropped, sometimes even two and this makes things rather complicated. This is where guessing starts as you can imagine. For example RUTH (only one consonant missing) can have three different roots and hence could mean either “refreshment” or “nice to look at” or else “friendship”. We just don’t know. I'm afraid the same applies to REBECCA.
Andy ;—)
I hope this is not gonna be too confusing as I have to go a little bit into the structure of the Hebrew language and into the practice of naming in ancient Israel.
The Hebrew version of your name is RIVKAH (btn gives ribqah, but at least in modern Hebrew it is pronounced with a V, V and B basically being the same letter), in Greek (Septuaginta, a Greek translation of the Hebrew bible) it is REBEKKA (no C in the Greek alphabet!), in Latin (Vulgata) you will find REBECCA (no K in the Latin alphabet!). Sometimes you come across REBECKA, but this doesn’t make sense.
Now to RIVKAH and to Hebrew names in general:
- Many Hebrew names represent a whole sentence and even a whole story: DANIEL means “God has restored my right” (“dan” is “right” and “el” is “God”) meaning: God has rehabilitated me (I had always wanted a child but didn’t get one, and all the other women started laughing at me saying I was punished by God; but by giving me this child, God has shown everybody that he loves me and that I have done no wrong).
- Other names are taken from a plant (TAMAR translates “date-palm”) or an animal (DEBORA is the “bee” and RACHEL may have been a “ewe”).
- There are names taken from objects of everyday life (PENINNA means “coral” and DELILAH probably is a “falling curl”).
- The meaning of some names is obvious: JEDIDA and DAVID both mean “beloved one” (so does probably MIRIAM and hence MARIA) and NOOMI translates “delight”.
- The meaning of other names is obscure
What scholars do in this case: a) they start guessing by looking for similar words in Hebrew b) they look around in related languages.
Now REBECCA: There is no verbal root (see below) R-B-Q for the name RiBQah in biblical Hebrew. But there is a similar one in Arabic (unfortunately I can’t read Arabic) and it is said to mean “bind, tie”. There is a Hebrew word “maRBeQ” which means “cowshed”, maybe because cows are tied up there. So scholars have tried to find a name giving motive that has to do with “tie”. So REBECCA has been translated as “entangling, fascinating, charming”. In German there is the word “fesselnd” which means excactly that. “Fessel” is “fetters, tie, bond” in English.
Now is the time to tell something about the Hebrew language:
In Hebrew it’s only the consonants that count. There are vowels and in the Hebrew bible they are noted as little dots and lines around the consonants. The good thing about this system is that you can usually rely on the consonants, they seldom change. Now a great deal of the Hebrew vocabulary and grammar is like a box of bricks: Three consonants form the “root” of a word or grammatical form. Prefixes and suffixes are added to create nouns or mark the state of conjugation. Also the vowels change but this is not crucial. N-Th-N for instance means “give” (like in JONATHAN) and SCH-L-M means “replace, pay” (like in SALOMO). “meSCHaLeMim” would translate “those who are paying”. Got the idea?
Unfortunately often one of the the root-consonants is dropped, sometimes even two and this makes things rather complicated. This is where guessing starts as you can imagine. For example RUTH (only one consonant missing) can have three different roots and hence could mean either “refreshment” or “nice to look at” or else “friendship”. We just don’t know. I'm afraid the same applies to REBECCA.
Andy ;—)
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