Editing Fast Fridays: 30 Minutes for God (section)

== Friday, January 17: What's in a name? ==

What’s in a name?

When Moses asks God what he should tell the people to call him, God replies,

'''''I am who I am. Then he added: This is what you will tell the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.''''' (Ex 3:14)

God teaches us something therein about names: they mean something, as do all the Biblical names we encounter. For example, “Simon,” Saint Peter’s given name, means “he who has heard” — which fits Peter’s calling as an Apostle. But “one who listens” may not be quite as solid as a “rock,” as Jesus renamed him so as to mark his “foundational” role (like a rock) in the establishment of the new, worldwide Church.

There’s more to it than just the meaning of a name, for if we look into the Hebrew word for “name”, ''shem'', we see that it becomes theologically significant in terms of how “making a ''shem'' [name] for oneself” is not a good strategy for meriting God’s favor.

=== Common use of "name" ===
<blockquote>''in the name of, good name, bad name, namely. name-dropping, all in a name, name of the game...''</blockquote>

=== Old Testament use of "name" ===

* [https://bible.usccb.org/bible/genesis/4:20 Gen 2:20]: Adam names the animals
* [https://bible.usccb.org/bible/genesis/4:17 Gen 4:17]: Cain names a city after his son
* [https://bible.usccb.org/bible/genesis/4:21 Gen 4:21-24] (inventions, vengeance of Lamech),  
* [https://bible.usccb.org/bible/genesis/4:26 Gen 4:26]: Seth's descendants begin to “invoke the LORD by name”, 
* [https://bible.usccb.org/bible/genesis/6:4 Gen 6;4]:  “men of renown” (i.e. well known names) 
* [https://bible.usccb.org/bible/genesis/12:2 Gen 12:2]: God changes Abram to Abraham
* [https://bible.usccb.org/bible/genesis/11:4 Gen 11:4] “and so make a name for ourselves”
* [https://bible.usccb.org/bible/genesis/11:6 Gen 11:6-8]: "all have the same language, they have started to do this, nothing they presume to do will be out of their reach" 

=== Tower of Babel v. Pentecost ===

* [https://bible.usccb.org/bible/genesis/11?9 Gen 11:9]: 

<blockquote>So the L<small>ORD</small> scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel, because there the L<small>ORD</small> confused the speech of all the world. From there the L<small>ORD</small> scattered them over all the earth.</blockquote>

* [https://bible.usccb.org/bible/acts/2:4 Acts 2:4]

<blockquote>And they were all filled with the holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.</blockquote>

=== New Testament use of "name" [https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/5?43 John 5:43]: ===
<blockquote>I came in the name of my Father, but you do not accept me; yet if another comes in his own name, you will accept him.</blockquote>[https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/14:14 John 4:14]: <blockquote>If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it.</blockquote>[https://bible.usccb.org/bible/hebrews/13:15 Hebrews 13:15]<blockquote>Through him [then] let us continually offer God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name.</blockquote>