Etymology of names?
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This was my first post and I still can't believe no one commented on it. The subject of names in the Quran is still a perplexing subject to me. Christian polemists make a big deal over the spelling of Eysy for Jesus, and imply it was done maliciously, but virtually every name in the Quran is unrecognizable in its etymology. This is especially strange in the cases of Abraham, Sarah, Hajar, Ishmael and Issac as all of these names are arabic... in the Bible. In the Quran (the names that are shared) are either wildy variant or etymologically invalid. This is further confused by the Islamic transliteration of extra-Quranic names from the original Hebrew.
Obviously the nature of names has changed dramastically in the course of history. In America we make fun of aboriginals who's names are translated literally as Light-Foot or Wind-Feather (which is pretty much the folk-origin of all the names of Biblical/Quranic figures). And it's a common refrain to say, I'm American, my name don't mean nothing. In the Christian NT virtually all the names are borrowed from the Hebrew Bible, a factor that remains truw to Jews even today -- there are no new Jewish names. Then you have the western latinization/anglization of names. Yeshua becomes Iesou becomes Jesus.
But why the Quranization of names? What quirk of arabic necessitated the swapping out of consonants, and what effects does this have on other words and terms?
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This was my first post and I still can't believe no one commented on it. The subject of names in the Quran is still a perplexing subject to me. Christian polemists make a big deal over the spelling of Eysy for Jesus, and imply it was done maliciously, but virtually every name in the Quran is unrecognizable in its etymology. This is especially strange in the cases of Abraham, Sarah, Hajar, Ishmael and Issac as all of these names are arabic... in the Bible. In the Quran (the names that are shared) are either wildy variant or etymologically invalid. This is further confused by the Islamic transliteration of extra-Quranic names from the original Hebrew.
Obviously the nature of names has changed dramastically in the course of history. In America we make fun of aboriginals who's names are translated literally as Light-Foot or Wind-Feather (which is pretty much the folk-origin of all the names of Biblical/Quranic figures). And it's a common refrain to say, I'm American, my name don't mean nothing. In the Christian NT virtually all the names are borrowed from the Hebrew Bible, a factor that remains truw to Jews even today -- there are no new Jewish names. Then you have the western latinization/anglization of names. Yeshua becomes Iesou becomes Jesus.
But why the Quranization of names? What quirk of arabic necessitated the swapping out of consonants, and what effects does this have on other words and terms?
Many of the names in the bible change during translation. The name of Jesus was reportedly Yeshua, which, if translated directly into English becomes Joshua, but when translated into Greek, then Latin, then English it becomes Jesus which has no relationship to Joshua.