NAME, CHANGE OF. In the Old and New Testa ments we read of persons' names being changed. In Genesis xxxii. 2S it is represented that the name of Jacob was changed to Israel. Jesus gave his disciple Simon the name Peter (Luke vi. 14). The Apostle Paul was originally called Saul (Acts vii. 2S). Prof. O. C. White house suggests (Isaiah in the " Century Bible ") that the name Isaiah was perhaps not his original name. He may have assumed i-t in reference to his prophetic mission. It would almost seem that in certain circum stances it was a fairly common practice among the Hebrews to take or receive new names. The practice is found among the Arabs. Burton notes (Al Madinah and Meccah, new edition of Bohn, i. p. 14, N. 3) that " when a man appears as a Fakir or Darwaysh, he casts off, in process of regeneration, together with other worldly sloughs, his laical name for some brilliant coat of nomenclature rich in religious promise." In the West Indies, again, when two prominent men were very friendly, they would bind themselves together more closely by exchanging their names. The ceremony served to make the parties friends for all time. The Mehtars, the caste of sweepers and scavengers in India, worship a saint named VAlmiki. He was originally a hunter named Ratnakar. When he was purified and became a saint, Brahma changed his name from RatnakAr to Valmiki. There are several definite examples of change of name in the Bible. It is possible that the change was made also in other cases—cases in which the Biblical writers have forgotten to mention the fact. In the Old and New Testaments the practice seems to be specially associated with what may be described as cases of a " call " or of conversion. But not exclusively. Naomi, if we may interpret the passage literally, became Marah. One of the kings of Judah is sometimes referred to as Azariah, sometimes as Uzzieh. Prof. K. Marti suggests in his Commentary on Isaiah that Uzziah was perhaps the real name borne by Azariah before he ascended the throne. It is possible that David—which is probably an abbrevia tion of Dodiel, " darling of God "—was not the famous king's original name. David's original name may have been Elhanan, " God is gracious." In I. Samuel xvii. David, the son of Jesse, is said to have slain the Philistine giant Goliath. In II. Samuel xxi. 19 we read : " and
Elhanan the son of Jaare-oregim the Bethlehemite slew Goliath the Gittite, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver's beam." In the parallel passage of the Book of Chronicles (I., xx. 5) we read : " and Elhanan the son of Jair slew Lahmi the brother of Goliath the Gittite, etc." In both these passages there are corruptions, and it is likely that the original and correct text was in both cases the same. In the first passage "oregim " (" weavers ") has evidently crept in after from the following line. In the second passage " Lahmi the brother of " is evidently a corruption of " the Bethlehemite." In both passages " Jaare " and " Jair " are probably corruptions of " Jesse." Originally therefore the two texts may have read : " And Elhanan the son of Jesse the Bethle hemite slew Goliath the Gittite." Most modern critics assume that the story of David's killing Goliath is a later tradition, and that the exploit of Elhanan, one of David's warriors, was transferred to his royal master. It is hardly likely, however, that this could have hap pened. Possibly Elhanan and David were one and the same person. In II. Kings xxiii. 34 we are told that " Pharaoh-necoh made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the room of Josiah his father, and changed his' name to Jehoiakim " II. Chronicles xxxvi. 4). In II. Kings xxiv. 17 we are told that the king of Babylon made Mattaniah brother of the father of Jehoiachin king in place of Jehaiachin, and changed his name to Zedekiah. Why should the king of Egypt have changed the name Eliakim " God establishes " to Jehoiakim " Yahweh establishes "? Why should the king of Babylon have changed the name Mattaniah. " gift of Yahweh " to Zedekiah " righteousness of Yahweh "? It is more likely that the two kings had already borne these two names. The Hebrew word for name is often used, in reference to Yahweh, in the sense of character. It may have been a common practice for persons when they changed their character to change their name. There is much to recom mend the practice. The Tolstoy of later years, to take a modern example, felt himself to be an entirely different person from the Tolstoy of an earlier period.