Chapter VI. On the Correctness of Hebrew Names

LONG before the name of philosophy was known to the Greeks, Moses had been the first throughout all his writing to treat in numberless instances of the giving of names, and sometimes had arranged the names of all things about him in exact accordance with their nature, and at other times referred to God the decision of the new name given to devout men, and had taught that names are given to things by nature and not conventionally; Plato in following him assents to the same opinions, and does not omit to mention Barbarians, and affirm that this custom is maintained among them, hinting probably at the Hebrews, since it is not easy to observe a theory of this kind among other Barbarians.

He says, at all events, in the Cratylus:

[PLATO] ‘The name of anything is not whatever men agree to call it, pronouncing over it some small portion of their own language, but there is a kind of natural correctness in names, the same for all both Greeks and Barbarians.’ [1]

And then farther on he says:

‘So then as long as the legislator, whether here or among the Barbarians, assigns to each thing the form of name that properly belongs to it, whatever syllables he may use, you will not deem him to be a worse legislator, whether in this country or anywhere else.’ [2]

Then again after asserting that the man who understands the correctness of names is a dialectician and a legislator, he next speaks thus: [3]

‘A carpenter’s work then is to make a rudder under the superintendence of a pilot, if the rudder is to be a good one.

‘Evidently.

‘And a legislator’s work, as it seems, is to give a name, having a dialectician to direct him, if the name is to be rightly given.

‘That is true.

‘The giving of names then, Hermogenes, is likely to be no light matter, as you suppose, nor a work for light persons, nor for chance comers: and Cratylus speaks truly, when he says that things have their names by nature, and that not every one is an artist in names, but only that man who looking to the name which by nature belongs to each thing is able to impose its form upon both the letters and the syllables.’

After these statements, and many more, he again brings up the mention of the Barbarians, and then expressly acknowledges that most of the names have come to the Greeks from the Barbarians, saying in exact words: [4]

‘I have an idea that the Greeks, and especially those who live under the Barbarians, have taken many names from them.

‘Well, what then?

‘If any one should try to find how these names are fitly given according to the Greek language, and not according to that language from which each name happens to be derived, you know that he would be in difficulty.

‘Naturally.’

So says Plato. He is anticipated, however, by Moses; for hear what he says, as being a wise legislator and withal a dialectician. ‘And out of the ground God formed all the beasts of the field and all the fowls of the heaven, and brought them to Adam, to see what he would call them. And whatsoever Adam called a living being, that was the name thereof.’ [5]

For by saying ‘that was the name thereof does he not show that the appellations were given in accordance with nature? For the name just now given, he says, was long before contained in the nature, and that in each of the things named there existed from the beginning this name which the said man inspired by a superior power has given it.

Moreover the very name Adam, being originally a Hebrew noun, would become with Moses an appellation of the earth-born man, because among the Hebrews the earth is called Adam, wherefore also the first man made out of the earth is with true etymology called by Moses Adam.

But the name may also have another meaning, being otherwise taken for ‘red,’ and representing the natural colour of the body. However, by the appellation ‘Adam’ he signified the earthlike, and earthly, and earthborn, or the man of body and of flesh.

But the Hebrews also call man otherwise, giving him the name ‘Enos,’ [6] which they say is the rational man within us, different in nature from the earthlike ‘Adam.’ Enos also has a meaning of its own, being in the Greek language interpreted ‘forgetful.’

And such the rational part within us is by nature apt to be, on account of its combination with the mortal and irrational part. For the one being altogether pure, and incorporeal, and divine, and rational, comprehends not only the memory of the things that are past, but also the knowledge of the things that are to come, through the supreme excellence of its vision. While the other close-packed in flesh, pierced through with bones and nerves, and laden with the great and heavy burden of the body, was seen by the Hebrew Scripture to be full of forgetfulness and ignorance, and called by an apt designation ‘Enos,’ which means ‘the forgetful.’

It is written at least in a certain Prophet ‘What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? Or the son of man, that Thou visitest him?’ [7] For which the Hebrew, in the first naming of ‘man,’ contains the word ‘Enos’: as if he said more plainly, What is this forgetful one, that Thou, O God, rememberest him, forgetful though he is? And the other clause, ‘Or the son of man that Thou visitest him? is read among the Hebrews, ‘Or the son of Adam’: so that the same man is both Adam and Enos; the fleshly nature being represented by Adam, and the rational by Enos.

In this way do the Hebrew oracles distinguish the etymology of the two words. But Plato asserts that man is called ἄνθρωπος in the Greek language from looking upward, saying:

‘But man no sooner sees, that is the meaning of ὄπωπε,than he both looks up (ἀναθρεῖ),and considers that which he has seen, that he may be one who looks up at what he sees (ἀναθρῶν ἂ ὄπωπε).’ [8]

Again the Hebrews call the man ‘Ish’ (Εἷς): and the name is derived by them from Ἔς, by which they signify fire, that the man may be so named because of the hot and fiery temper of the masculine nature.

But the woman, since she is said to have been taken out of man, also shares the name in common with the man: for the woman is called among them ‘Issha,’ as the man is ‘Ish.’ But Plato says that the man (ἀνήρ)is so named because of the upward flux (τὴν ἄνω ῥοήν); and he adds----

‘And γυνή (woman) seems to me to be the same as γονή (birth).’ [9]

Again Moses calls the heaven in the Hebrew tongue the firmamentetymologically, because the first thing after the incorporeal and intellectual essence is the firmand sensible body of this world. But Plato says that the name οὐρανός is rightly given to the heaven, because it makes us look upward (ὁραν ἄνω). [10]

Again the Hebrews say that the highest and proper name of God may not be spoken or uttered, nor even conceived in the imagination of the mind: but this actual name by which they speak of God, they call Elohim, from El, as it seems: and this they interpret as ‘strength,’ and ‘power’; so that among them the name of God has been derived by reasoning from His power and strength, by which He is conceived as Allpowerful and Almighty, as having established all things. But Plato says that the names θεός and θεοί (god and gods) were given because the luminaries in heaven are always running (θέειν). [11]

Of some such kind, to speak generally, are the investigations of the Hebrews and those of Plato on the correctness of names. The names also among men, Plato says, have been given with some meaning, and he tries to render the reason of them: for he says that Hector somehow or other is named from having and ruling (ἔχειν καὶ κρατεῖν)because he was king of the Trojans;[12] and Agamemnon because he was very persistent (ἄγαν μένειν),and persevered vigorously and constantly in his determinations about the Trojans;[13] Orestes because of the mountainous (ὀρεινόν)and fierce and savage quality of his disposition;[14] and Atreus, because of his having been a mischievous (ἀτηρόν) sort of person in character;[15] and Pelops as one who saw nothing at a distance, but only the things that were close and near (πέλας).[16] Tantalus, he says, means a most miserable man (ταλάντατον)because of the misfortunes which beset him.[17]

These examples and countless others such as these you will find stated by Plato, in endeavouring to teach that the first men had their names given to them by nature and not by convention.

But you would not say that the explanations found also in Moses are forced, nor framed according to any sophistical invention of words, when you have learnt that the Hebrew ‘Cain’ is translated among the Greeks as ‘jealousy’; and the person in question was judged deserving of this appellation because he was jealous of his brother Abel. [18]

‘Abel’ also is interpreted ‘sorrow,’ because he too became the cause of such suffering to his parents, who by some diviner foresight gave these names to their children at birth.

But what if I should quote Abraham to you? He was a kind of meteorologist, and formerly, while he was acquiring the wisdom of the Chaldees, he had become learned in the contemplation of the stars and in the knowledge of the heavens, and was called Abram; and this in the Greek language means ‘high father.’

But God leading him on from things of this world to things invisible and lying beyond the things that are seen, employs an appropriate change of name, saying, ‘Thy name shall no more be called Abram, but Abraham shall be thy name; for a father of many nations have I made thee.’ [19]

Now it would be long to tell with what thought this is connected: but it is sufficient in this matter also to adopt Plato as a witness to my statement, when he says that some names have been given by a more divine power.

He says indeed in express words:

‘For here most of all ought care to have been taken in the giving of names: and perhaps some of them may even have been given by a higher power than that of men.’ [20]

This very point is also certified by many examples in the sacred Scriptures of the Hebrews; and first of all by Moses, who taught that Abraham, and his son Isaac, and also Israel, received their names from a diviner power. ‘Isaac’ is interpreted ‘laughter,’ bringing with it the token of the virtuous joy, which God has promised to give as a special reward to the friends of God.

His son Israel had formerly borne the name of ‘Jacob,’ but instead of ‘Jacob’ God bestows upon him the name ‘Israel,’ transforming the active and practical man into the contemplative. [21]

For ‘Jacob’ is interpreted ‘supplanter,’ as one who strives in the contest of virtue:[22] but ‘Israel’ is interpreted ‘seeing God,’ a description which would suit the mind in man that is capable of knowledge and contemplation.[23]

Why need I now refer to the perfect wisdom of Moses, or to the sacred oracles of the Hebrews, to explain, by countless other examples, the correctness of their imposition of proper names, when the details of the subject require longer leisure?

To go no farther, the Greeks would be unable to state the etymologies even of the letters of the alphabet, nor could Plato himself tell the meaning or the reason of the vowels or the consonants.

But the Hebrews would tell us the reason of ‘Alpha,’ which with them is called ‘Al’ph,’ and this signifies ‘learning’:[24] and of ‘Beta,’ which it is their custom to call ‘Beth,’ which name they give to a house; so as to show the meaning, ‘learning of a house,’ or as it might be more plainly expressed, ‘a kind of teaching and learning of household economy.’

‘Gamma’ also is with them called ‘Gimel’: and this is their name for ‘fullness.’ Then since they call tablets ‘Delth,’ they gave this name to the fourth letter, signifying therewith by the two letters, that ‘written learning is a filling of the tablets.’

And any one going over the remaining letters of the alphabet, would find that they have been named among the Hebrews each with some cause and reason. For they say also that the combination of the seven vowels contains the enunciation of one forbidden name, which the Hebrews indicate by four letters and apply to the supreme power of God, having received the tradition from father to son that this is something unutterable and forbidden to the multitude.

And one of the wise Greeks having learned this, I know not whence, hinted it obscurely in verse, saying as follows:

‘Seven vowels tell My Name,----the Mighty God, The everlasting Father of mankind: The immortal lyre am I, that guides the world, And leads the music of the circling spheres.’ [25]

You would find also the meanings of the remaining Hebrew letters, by fixing your attention on each; but this we have already established by our former statements, when we were showing that the Greeks have received help in everything from the Barbarians.

And any one diligently studying the Hebrew language would discover great correctness of names current among that people: since the very name which is the appellation of the whole race has been derived from Heber; and this means the man that ‘passes over,’ since both a passage and the one who passes over are called in the Hebrew language ‘Heber.’ [26]

For the term teaches us to cross over and pass from the things in this world to things divine, and by no means to stay lingering over the sight of the things that are seen, but to pass from these to the unseen and invisible things of divine knowledge concerning the Maker and Artificer of the world. Thus the first people who were devoted to the one All-ruler and Cause of the Universe, and adhered to Him with a pure and true worship, they called Hebrews, naming men of this character as travellers who had in mind passed over from earthly things.

But why should I spend more time in collecting all the instances of the propriety and correctness of the Hebrew names, when the subject requires a special treatise of its own. However, speaking generally, I think that even by what has been said I have supplied the evidence of the art of reasoning among the Hebrews: if indeed, as Plato said, it is a task for no mean or ordinary men, but for a wise lawgiver and dialectician, to discover the kind of names naturally belonging to things,----a man such as Moses who has made known to us the Hebrew oracles. So then what follows next after the subject of Dialectics, but to examine what was the condition of the Hebrew people in regard to Physics?