Marcella  //  Serene  //  Svelte  //  Willowy

Meaning of the name Marcella: ‘Warlike’ ‘God of war’. Super cute nickname possibility Marcy.

Lucia  //  Deep  //  Diverse  //  Dexterous

Meaning of the name Lucia: ‘Light’. Easily shortened to Lucy.

            On Facebook I am a part of several nerd related grounds. Many of them are not Christian. One group in particular, “Galactic Hitchhikers” is almost anti-Christian. This group formed out of a community love for a fantastic novel and its sequels: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Many memes on this page include anything related to sci-fi, space, movie adaptations, quotations, evolution and even Christian shaming. One thing I have noticed, besides the lack of Christian content, was one reason why several of the group’s members find Christianity “bogus”. When I read about it, I thought, “This is a relatively easy problem to solve, if we can get Christians on board.”  Some people are put-off by the Anglican/American pronunciations of Hebrew and Greek names in the Bible. They ask, “How can a dark haired middle-eastern man be named David? Or Joseph? Or fill-in-the blank.” They believe that if we are authentic (and we absolutely should be authentic), how could our English pronunciations infiltrate? To them, they think our pronunciations of Biblical names, were the actual names of everyone we read about, and they can’t stand it.

           As Christians, and especially the preachers of the Gospel, we do not want our actions to deter anyone from coming to the saving power of Jesus Christ. Every decision we make has a cause and effect. So, if people aren’t coming to Christ because of our “simple” pronunciations, then we should change, or at the very least, learn that our pronunciations are actually wrong.

           If we want to be as authentic as possible, we should learn the proper names of all of our favorite Biblical characters, especially when the salvation of others is at stake. To you, it might seen like a silly, insignificant thing, but to those who recognize it, it is significant. I am not suggesting that we learn the proper names and then use them only—we just need to be aware that we, as English/Anglican speakers, are not doing it justice.

           This multi-part series investigates the correct pronunciations of Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek names in the Bible. The source I am going to be using is “The New Strong’s Complete Dictionary of Bible Words (1996) by James Strong. (This is not a complete list of all Biblical names.)

Part 1: Genesis

Adam                                      aw-dawm

Eve (Chavvah)                        khav-vaw

Cain                                        kah-yin

Abel                                        aw-bale

Enoch (Chanowk)                  khan-oke

Seth                                         sayth

Noah                                       No-akh

Shem                                       Shame

Ham                                        Hawm

Japeth                                     yeh-feth

Abram                                    ab-rawm

Abraham                                ab-raw-hawm

Sarai                                      saw-rah-ee

Sarah                                      saw-raw

Melchizedek                          mal-kee-tseh-dek

Ishmael                                   yish-maw-ale

Hagar                                    haw-gawr

Moab                                      mo-awb (We do pronounce this correctly!)

Ben-Ammi                              ben-am-mee (We Do pronounce this correctly!)

Abimelech                              ab-ee-mel-ek

Isaac                                       yits-khawk or yis-khawk

Beersheba                              be-ayr sheh-bah

Nahor                                     naw-khore

Rebekah                                 rib-kaw

Keturah                                  ket-oo-raw

Esau                                        ay-saw

Jacob                                      yah-ak-obe

Judith                                    yeh-ho-deeth

Basmath/Basemath               bos-math

Rachel                                    raw-khale

Leah                                       lay-aw (If we use Star Wars for reference, we pronounce this name correctly too!)

Bilhah                                    bil-haw (We pronounce this name Correctly!)

Reuban                                   reh-oo-bane

Simeon                                    shim-one

Levi                                         lay-vee

Judah                                    yeh-hoo-daw

Dan                                         dawn

Naphtali                                 naf-taw-lee (We pronounce this name correctly)

Zilpah                                    zil-paw (We pronounce this name correctly, for the most part)

Gad                                        gawd

Asher                                      aw-share

Zebulun                                  zeb-oo-loon

Dinah                                      dee-naw

Joseph                                    yo-safe

Laban                                    law-bawn

Israel                                      yis-raw-ale

Shechem                                 shek-em or shek-kem (We use the first pronunciation correctly)

Hamor                                    kham-ore

Deborah                                 deb-o-raw (Sometimes this is pronounced correctly)

Benjamin                                bin-yaw-mene

Potiphar                                 po-tee-far

Tamar                                    taw-mawr

Perez                                       peh-rets

Zerah                                      zeh-rakh

Zaphenath-paneah/

Zapnath-paaneth                   tsof-nath pah-nay-akh

Manasseh                               men-ash-sheh

Ephraim                                 ef-rah-yim

Rameses                                rah-mes-ace or rah-me-sace