What's In A Name?

Early Saturday morning I awoke at 1 AM. I got up, went to the bathroom, and returned to bed. However, I was not able to get back to sleep. The name of someone from the Bible kept repeating itself in my head.

Eliehoenai, Eliehoenai . . .

Who the heck is Eliehoenai anyway? I finally dozed off, hoping not to forget this guy's name until morning so I could look it up. Here's what I found.

Eliehoenai was man's name from the Old Testament. He was a Korahite, and a returning exhile. He was a descendant of David, and both a Simeonite and a Benjamite. He was also a priest of the Lord.

But the cool thing about the name Eliehoenai is in it's meaning. 'El' means 'God' and 'ehoenai' means  'towards Jehovah (are) my eyes.' Basically, it means 'my eyes are on God.' What a cool name!

AND, it is a great reminder for all of us. No matter what situation we find ourselves in, we should always 'Eliehoenai' - look to God.

What does YOUR name mean? My name is Bob, or Robert. It means 'fame, bright, glory, honor, praise, renown, shining, light.' I was named after Robert the Bruce, king of Scotland.

Do our names, given at birth say anything about who we are . . . who we become? What about Jesus?

The name Jesus means 'Yahweh saves' or 'Yahweh is salvation.'

Perfect.

"²⁰Behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him (Joseph) in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” - Matthew 1:20-21

Perfect.

Punctuation

Do you think punctuation in a sentence is important? Let's see.....

My three favorite things are eating my family and not using commas.

Well, I guess that answers THAT question.

Punctuation is VERY important when trying to relate a thought or a concept to someone in writing.

Did you know that in the original Hebrew text of the Old Testament, there were no vowels or punctuation at all? It's true. No spaces between Greek words in the New Testament, or punctuation either. And no verse numbers or headings anywhere in the any original text. Parchment was hard to come by so every square inch counted, I guess.

It wasn't until the Masorites - ancient Jewish scholars - that punctuation was added. That happened between 700 and 1000 AD.

When the New King James Bible was first published in 1611 there were still no quotation marks. There STILL aren't to this day. So how do we really know who said what?

I bring all this up because of one Bible verse - John 3:13

Jesus was talking with Nicodemus about being born again and who is in heaven. Here is the present day New King James Version of John 3:13:

No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.

There is a quotation mark preceeding this verse (back in verse 10 of the NKJV). That would seem to indicate that Jesus said these words. But the KJV still has no quotation marks at all. Read the verse again. It almost sounds as if the Apostle John himself was commenting on who is in heaven.

Remember, there were no quotation marks in The Bible until 1600 years after John wrote all this, and after Jesus' death, resurrection, and ascension.

"SOMEONE" decided when and where they thought quotation marks were used. It wasn't John. And they were way smarter than me.

So, what does all this mean? Pay attention when you read the Bible. Analyze it. Look at all the footnotes and subscripts. She what was changed and when. And pray for the Holy Spirit to guide you as you read.

We should seek the truth above all else. And Jesus IS the truth.

"Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. As a result, many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men." - Acts 17:11-12

How Was Biblical Puncuation Decided? - Christianity.com

Definitions

We Americans have a common language - English. You'd think that communicating with each other would then be easy. Far from it. You see, although we speak the same language, our words often have different meanings and definitions.

Example: Do you believe in God? You might say 'Yes' but is it the same God that I believe in? Umm..... who knows?

Jesus needs to be defined these days because Jesus has several different meanings, depending on the religion. Jesus of the Bible is not the same as the Mormon Jesus or the Jesus of Islam. Make sure to define your Jesus!

Do you believe that Jesus was the result of a physical, sexual relationship between God and Mary? If you do you might be a Mormon. If you believe thay Jesus always was as part of the Trinity since the beginning of time, you might be a Biblical Christian. See what I mean?

And the Jesus is Islam was merely a prophet, not God. This Islamic prophet,  Jesus, was brought forth to proclaim the coming Messiah, Muhammad.

Make sure who you are believing in and praying to before bowing your head or worshipping with others.

"In the beginning was the Word (Jesus), and the Word (Jesus) was with God, and the Word (Jesus) was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind." - John 1:1-4