by Geoffrey Schmitt

Created on: December 04, 2009   Last Updated: December 06, 2009

The story of Moses and the burning bush is a key defining moment in the Bible. It is important not just because this is when God calls him to go down to Egypt and lead the people free. Rather it is an important moment in the people of Israel because this is when God reveals his name. Moses says to the Lord, When the people ask what God sent you, what shall I say is your name? The Lord replies, I am that I am. Say I am sent you. God's name, correctly transliterated as Yahweh, is the verb, to be.

This is a significant event, because the people of Israel believed that to have and use a name was to have some sense of power. It is also interesting to note that eventhough they knew God's name, eventhough God himself told them, they believed it was too holy to say. They would say Adonai instead, which is like our generic word, god.

The name, Jesus, is the Greek form of the Jewish name Joshua. It means God is Savior/Healer. Everyone's name in the Bible means something. Most people discover names have meaning when they have their first child and begin to look at list of possible names. My name, Geoffrey, means God's peace. It is easy to find these lists on the Internet. Just do a Google search using something like, boys names.

Some names have obvious meanings. I have known women named, Joy, Peace, Faith and even Heaven. Sometimes it seems people live into or contrary to these kinds of names. For example the Joy I knew was very sad, and Peace was often depressed. Maybe the name was too much to bear.

When we baptize we do so in the Name of the Trinity: God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Those baptized as infants receive their Christian name at this time. Some people who are baptized as adults take on a new Christian name. I know a Bishop in Africa who changed his first name to Alpha when he became a Christian. Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. The Bible says Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega; the A and the Z. Bishop Alpha took the name to say it was the beginning of a new life.

A lot of famous people have taken stage names: John Denver, Chevy Chase, John Wayne, and Marilyn Monroe. People change their sir, or last name, when they marry. For a long time it was only women who took their husband's name. It meant they belonged to him and no longer their father. With the coming of women's liberation men also began to change their names and we had the invention of hyphenated sir names.

In the South, some people get stuck with strange first names. They are really

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