Names, and those fascinated by them.

Every once in a while I attend a baby dedication. One of my siblings made another kid, or one of the people in my church wants to get up on stage and have the pastor bless their newborn, and promise before God ’n everybody they’re gonna raise that kid Christian. Hopefully they do!

And sometimes the pastor is really, really into what that kid’s name is. Weirdly into it.

“Oh, you’ve named her Frances! Well, Frances means ‘of France,’ but it also means ‘free person,’ and that means she’s gonna…”

Followed by some prophecy-style declarations over this baby’s future. What kind of person she’s gonna be, what kind of things God’s gonna emphasize in her life, what possible ministries she might do. Something reminiscent of Simeon’s declarations over Jesus, Lk 2.29-32 or Zacharias’s declarations over John. Lk 1.76-79

Did the Holy Spirit tell the pastor any of this stuff? Sometimes! You can kinda tell when

• the pastor has a track record of prophecies which actually come to something—’cause if they’re legitimately from the Holy Spirit, they’d better.
• the declarations veer wildly from what the name literally means. (I’ll explain in a bit why this happens.)

Meanwhile I’ll point out this other oddity: The pastor making all these prophetic declarations over the child, solely based on their name? In some cases he (it’s always a he) doesn’t believe prophecy happens anymore; he’s full-on cessationist. He thinks God turned off the miracles after the bible was completed, and all prophecy ceased until the End Times. But somehow a special exception has been carved out when we’re naming our children. So now he gets to prophesy! Although he’ll never, ever call it that. This is only a “blessing.” A really prophetic-style blessing, same as done by actual prophets in the bible, but still.

So why are name declarations an acceptable cessationist exception to prophecy? Well, ’cause in the scriptures, names are profoundly meaningful. They regularly, accurately predict the namebearer’s behavior and future. Cessationists believe this still holds true today, cessation of prophecy notwithstanding. So they can prophesy over babies all they like. As for actual prophets standing up, telling ’em what the Holy Spirit says to his church, and interfering with his belief he, not the Spirit, runs things around here: Cessationism still totally applies. Isn’t that handy.

The profundity of biblical names.

Yes, in bible times names were meaningful. The ancient Hebrews regularly named their children for something significant which’d just happened. Many American Indian nations practiced the very same thing, so many Indian Christians particularly relate to the Hebrew practice. In fact you see it all over the First Nations Version of the New Testament, ’cause the translators decided to translate everyone’s name by their meaning. Check out Jesus’s Luke genealogy:

Luke 3.23-38 FNV

23Creator Sets Free [Jesus] was about thirty winters old when he began his great work. He was the son, so it was thought, of He Gives Sons [Joseph],

the son of One Above Us [Heli],

24son of Gift of the Great Spirit [Matthat],

son of He Brings Together [Levi],

son of My Chief [Melchi],

son of He Grows Strong [Jannai],

son of He Gathers Much [Joseph],

25son of Gift from Above [Mattathias],

son of Burden Bearer [Amos],

son of He Gives Comfort [Nahum],

son of Protected One [Esli],

son of Light Bringer [Naggai],

26son of Small One [Maath],

son of Gift from Above [Mattathias],

son of He Listens [Semein],

son of He Gathers Much [Joseph],

son of Gives Honor [Judah],

27son of Shows Goodwill [Joanan],

son of Walks Friendly [Rhesa],

son of Born in Village of Confusion [Zerubbabel],

son of Ask Creator [Shealtiel],

son of Burning Light [Neri],

28son of My Chief [Melchi],

son of Clothed in Beauty [Addi],

son of Talks to Spirits [Cosam],

son of Love Beyond Measure [Elmadam],

son of He Looks Around [Er],

29son of Creator Gives Freedom [Joshua],

son of Creator Helps Him [Eliezer],

son of Honored by Creator [Jorim],

son of Gift of the Great Spirit [Matthat],

son of He Brings Together [Levi],

30son of Creator Hears [Simeon],

son of Give Him Praise [Judah],

son of He Gathers Much [Joseph],

son of Creator Shows Goodwill [Jonam],

son of He Builds Up [Eliakim],

31son of He Makes Full [Melea],

son of He Is Ready [Menna],

son of Gift Giver [Mattatha],

son of He Will Give [Nathan],

son of Much Loved One [David],

32son of Original Man [Jesse],

son of He Works Hard [Obed],

son of Moves with Strength [Boaz],

son of He Makes Peace [Salmon],

son of Talks with Snakes [Nahshon],

33son of Noble Relative [Amminadab],

son of He Is Lifted Up [Admin],

son of Lifted Up High [Arni],

son of Circle of Tipis [Hezron],

son of He Breaks Through [Perez],

son of Give Him Praise [Judah],

34son of Heel Grabber [Jacob],

son of He Made Us Laugh [Isaac],

son of Father of Many Nations [Abraham],

son of He Made Them Wait [Terah],

son of Snorting Buffalo [Nahor],

35son of Growing Stem [Serug],

son of Faithful Friend [Reu],

son of Where the Water Divides [Peleg],

son of Over the River [Eber],

son of Shooting Arrow [Shelah],

36son of Made Straight [Cainan],

son of Son of His Mother [Arphaxad],

son of His Name Is Known [Shem],

son of One Who Rests [Noah],

son of Strong Wild Man [Lamech],

37son of Long Arrow [Methuselah],

son of Walks with Creator [Enoch],

son of He Came Down [Jared],

son of Full of Praise [Mahalaleel],

son of Made Straight [Cainan],

38son of Weak Human Being [Enos],

son of Drinks Too Much [Seth],

son of Red Clay [Adam],

son of the Great Spirit.

Pretty cool. Though I’m gonna take issue with some of the interpretations. There are three guys named Joseph in this genealogy, but their names are rendered two different ways—“He Gives Sons” in v23, and “He Gathers Much” in vv24, 26 (though some Greek texts have Ἰωσὴχ/Josech), and 30. True, “Joseph” could be interpreted multiple ways, but the bible gives us the interpretation when Joseph ben Jacob’s mother Rachel gives him his name. (The Schocken Bible calls her “Rahel,” by the way.)

Genesis 30.22-24 Schocken Bible

22But God kept Rahel in mind;

God hearkened to her and opened her womb,

23so that she became pregnant and bore a son.

She said:

God has removed/asaf

my reproach!

24And she called his name: Yosef,

saying:

May YHWH add/yosef

another son to me!

יוֹסֵף/Yoséf, “Joseph,” comes from the verb יָסַף/yasáf, “increase,” and means “he [God] increases.” (The translation also points out the related verb אָסַף/asáf, “gathers, assembles, removes.” So “He Gathers Much” might be the best of the interpretations.

In many cases these children grew up and lived up to the meanings of their names. Whether that’s because the Holy Spirit inspired the parents to give their child a name with prophetic substance, or whether the kid getting called that all their life wormed its way into their subconscious and got ’em to become that way, I’ve no idea. People who are big on miracles lean the one way; people who aren’t lean the other. Pick your favorite interpretation and you’ll find plenty of fellow Christians who support you.

Joseph’s name became prophetic in a few ways: Joseph became the Egyptian pharaoh’s vizier, and increased the pharaoh’s holdings during seven years of plenty, and increased ’em further during seven years of famine. Joseph was also the ancestor of two populous Israeli tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh. His mother Rachel had a lot of descendants. As for Jesus’s adoptive father Joseph: You do realize he also had prophetic dreams like his Old Testament namesake, and that’s likely no coincidence. The NT Joseph likely paid attention to his dreams, hoping to become like the OT Joseph, and God saw his enthusiasm and went along with it.

Which brings us to the New Testament… in which names are far less meaningful. Jesus’s father likely wasn’t given his name because his parents wanted God, or him, to increase; they named him that because they wanted to give their kid a name from the bible. American Evangelicals do the very same thing. Hence there were tons of Old Testament names in first-century Israel; lookit the multiple people named John, James (English for Ἰάκωβος/Yákovos, properly “Jacob”), Mary (Μαριὰμ/Mariám, properly “Miriam”), Simon, Joseph… and Jesus (Ἰησοῦς/Yisús, properly “Joshua”). They’d name ’em after anyone in the scriptures. Paul of Tarsus’s parents even named him after mad King Saul!

Westerners do much the same. We name our kids for family members, for friends, because we’re Christian and want our kids to have “bible names,” and often just because we like the sound of the name. My first name was ’cause my parents liked the sound of it, and means “white.” My middle name is a family name, passed down from my great-grandfather, and means “foreigner.” So it’s only profound when I leave the United States; only then am I a white foreigner. Still, there’s no prophetic meaning whatsoever in either of ’em. Not that wannabe prophets haven’t tried their darnedest to find something, or claim something. But they never bother to identify the actual meanings of those names; they just refer to other people in popular culture with those names. It’s all very superficial, and so full of baloney.

In general the whole “Here’s what your name means!” deal, is an obvious case of trying to take something which was true of ancient Hebrew culture, and insist it's also true of our own. For the most part it's really not. Yes, there are Christians who try to put significant thought into what they name their children, and make it as meaningful and prophetic as they can, and good on ’em for doing so. And on the other end of the spectrum, there are Christians who just want all their children to have matching initials.

My name, same as anyone’s name, is significant only when I do something significant, and make my name that of a person of good character.

Proverbs 22.1 NASB

A good name is to be more desired than great wealth;

Favor is better than silver and gold.

Otherwise my name is mud.

Lastly I should remind you sometimes God renames people. Avram became Abraham, Ge 17.5 Jacob became Israel, Ge 32.28 Simon became Kifa, or Peter. Jn 1.42 Sometimes others rename us, like when Moses gave Hoshea the name Joshua, Nu 13.16 or Gideon’s father Joash renamed him Jerubbaal, Jg 6.32 or the apostles nicknamed Joseph the Levite “Barnabas.” Ac 4.36 And of course we can change our own names, as married women do when they take their spouse’s name.

Jesus told the church of Pergamum he’d give their victors a white stone with a new name on it, Rv 2.17 and many a Christian has leapt to the conclusion this means God has a secret name for everybody; that Abraham and Israel got to hear their names early, but we’ll hear ours once we get to heaven. That’s not actually what Jesus meant; such stones were used as passwords to get you into places. But just as Jesus renamed Simon, there’s no reason he might not give you a new nickname after he takes his throne. If you merit one.

Name declarations that go off on a tangent.

Sometimes one of these blessings will begin by talking about the meaning of a person’s name… but then it’s kinda obvious the person isn’t talking about the meaning anymore. Like when Jacob is blessing and prophesying over his 12 sons:

Genesis 49.16-17 Schocken Bible

16Dan,

his people will mete-out-judgment,

[to all] of Israel’s branches together.

17May Dan be a snake on the wayside,

a horned-viper on the path,

who bites the horse’s heels

so that his rider tumbles backward.

Dan was one of the sons Jacob begat with Rachel’s slave Bilhah. Rachel named him דָּן/Dan, meaning “judge,” because God had been her judge, or done her justice. Ge 30.6 Jacob’s blessing began with the idea of Dan and his tribe doing what’s just… but in verse 17 he stopped making prophecy puns and got into Dan being a snake on the path which bites horses and gets ’em to throw their riders, and what is that all about?

Simple: It’s about Dan’s descendant, Samson ben Manoah, who pulled a lot of insurgent stunts like this against the occupying Philistines. Jg 13-16 It’s about how the Danites, getting tired of getting conquered on a frequent basis, decided to move their entire tribe to the north, invaded the city of Laish, and settled there. Jg 17-18 Ordinarily—well, ideally—Dan did the righteous thing; but when provoked the Danites could be big trouble. The Holy Spirit saw that in Dan’s descendants, probably more so than Dan’s justice. So he put it into Jacob’s prophecy.

And this is what you’ll see in legitimate prophecy: They’ll stop blathering about what the child’s name means, and start actually prophesying So when the baby dedication takes a turn like this, relax; it’s a very good thing. You’re getting some actual blessing for a change.