(September 27, 2010 at 1:17 pm)theophilus Wrote: Are you sure that's all a name it?
It depends on the culture, you can entertain the idea that names in Judaism were also words, like in many pacific cultures, but do you actually know that is the case?
Quote: That is how we think of names today but some cultures have felt differently and attached great significance to names.
Not so much "attached significance to names" but rather "names were words used in common speak"
Quote:What I read in the Bible makes me think that they had some knowledge about names that we have lost.
This statement is complete nonsense. We didn't lose anything by not using common words as names, we simply improved the convention by having (usually) distinctions between names and words - All it achieved was the ability to be more concise in our use of language.
You could call your child "Autumn" if you wanted, for example. That is a name that is also a word, but do you gain any knowledge by using such a convention? Of course not, you've simply given your child a name that is also a descriptive word.
Quote:In any case God attaches more importance to names than we do.
Says who?
.
