I have trouble accepting the name Holofernes as the proper name of a biblical character and not, say, some component that goes haywire on the Enterprise and brings Genghis Khan to life.
Other names of this sort are Arpachshad (a small but delicious fish occasionally placed on pizza?), Asenath (whose name has the misfortune to be pronounced Osnat in Modern Hebrew; sounds like an Egyptian with post-nasal issues), Malchizedek (which is perfectly acceptable in Hebrew but is often pronounced weirdly in English, as something like mal-cheese-edek), and everyone’s perennial favourite, Habakkuk.
Can you think of any others? What are your favourite funny-sounding Biblical names?
Where in the world?
Licence Information
Except where otherwise noted, Xyre is licenced under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 licence.
Sauf en cas d’indication contraire, Xyre est protégé par une licence Creative Commons Paternité-Partage des Conditions Initiales à l’Identique 3,0.
4 comments
Comments feed for this article
Trackback link
http://www.xyre.org/2008/06/03/biblical-names-that-confuse-me/trackback/
3 June 2008 at 5:42 pm
Friar Yid
Jepthah, or Yiftach in Hebrew. Just comes out weird no matter how you slice it.
Jeroboam also strikes me as rather odd, though I’m not sure I have an exact reason at my fingertips.
3 June 2008 at 9:29 pm
Leigh Walton
18 The Philistines also had invaded the cities of the low country, and of the south of Judah, and had taken Bethshemesh, and Ajalon, and Gederoth, and Shocho with the villages thereof, and Timnah with the villages thereof, Gimzo also and the villages thereof: and they dwelt there.
19 For the LORD brought Judah low because of Ahaz king of Israel; for he made Judah naked, and transgressed sore against the LORD.
20 And Tilgathpilneser king of Assyria came unto him, and distressed him, but strengthened him not.
5 June 2008 at 9:48 am
Friar Yid
“Gimzo also”
I totally thought that said Gizmo. Which would be awesome.
14 June 2008 at 11:44 pm
Sholom
How’s your Greek and Latin? They help to understand how one became the other.
Ye-’Hezk-El becomes Ee-Zee-Kee-El, but not before he rants about dildos.
Another perennial favorite:
A-’Hash-We-Rosh : A-Ha-Sweris : A-Khosh-Vey-Roish : Zer-Zeez