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To: Verginius Rufus
It would have been stranger if the text had read “Eshbosheth.”

In the Book of Samuel, Saul's sons are listed as Jonathan and Ish-boshet. "Ish-bosheth" means "man of shame," and it is highly unlikely that anyone, let alone a king, would name their son that. In I Chronicles 8:33, there is a long list of geneologies, in which we learn that Saul's younger son was named "Ish-baal," meaning "man of Ba'al."

The names now make sense; Saul the politician was appealing to the two religious camps in his country, naming his elder son "Jonathan" ("Gift of Yahweh") and his younger son Man of Ba'al.

The scribes who copied the Book of Samuel were literally ashamed to admit Saul's gesture to his pagan subjects, so changed the name to "man of shame."

14 posted on 06/16/2015 12:55:38 PM PDT by Lurking Libertarian (Non sub homine, sed sub Deo et lege)
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To: Lurking Libertarian

I think I disagree...David named one of his children with the -Baal name. This would show that Baal was another name for God originally, then morphed into a false one, like allah...and El...and Adoni...etc


16 posted on 06/16/2015 1:06:51 PM PDT by Jan_Sobieski (Sanctification)
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To: Lurking Libertarian

Or maybe the word ba’al to mean master or owner (as in the Hebrew ba’al habayit) came before it was used as the name of a god.


17 posted on 06/16/2015 1:10:44 PM PDT by jjotto ("Ya could look it up!")
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