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Names play a very important role in the literature of ancient Near East. It had been believed that names have the power to make true its nature and characters.
Thus having the authority to call names means to have the power to control the power of people or deities represented in their names. According to Egyptian mythology, divine order is controled by hidden names of superior gods to inferior ones.
The English book name of Exodus is called Shemot (Names) in the Jewish tradition in accordance with the second word of Exodus 1:1. This paper purposes to show how names in Exodus 1:1-15:21 are presented, and pursues to interpret the literary and theological significance of names according to the general concept of names in ancient Near East. Methodologically, I will take synchronic approach by which does not raise how the texts had been developed.
It is noteworthy that on the one hand, names are hidden, but are revealed in Exodus 1:1-15:21 on the other. First of all, I’ve done exegetical work with texts in which personal or divine names are revealed and hidden, and classified texts in which names are revealed as follows: ancestors from Canaan (1:1-7), two midwives (1:15), Moses (2:10), Moses’s wife and son (2:16-22), YHWH (6:2-5), Moses’s parents and brother (6:16-20), and YHWH (15:3). The list of hidden names are as follows: Pharaoh (1:8, 11, 15, 17, 18, 19, 22), Moses’ parents and sister (2:1-10), divine name Ehye (3:14), the Sun god Ra (10:10, 12-14, 21-23), and Egyptian gods in ten plagues (7:14-10:29; 12:12).
It is maintained that the motif of revealing and hidden names in Exodus 1:1-15:29 has literary and theological significance. Literary significance can be summarized as follows: 1) The name motif supports that the first part of Exodus is 1:1-15:29. 2) The divine name YHWH plays a key role: YHWH not revealed (1:1-2:22), YHWH alluded (2:23-6:1), YHWH revealed (6:2-14:31), and YHWH proved (15:1-21). 3) Moses’s name alludes future redemption in the Reed Seas. It also has the following theological implications: 1) In 1:1-2:22, YHWH seems to be hidden, but he works secretly to protect the people of Israel. 2) In 2:23-6:1, YHWH appears to Moses without revealing his name, but alluded his assurance of being with Moses. 3) In 6:2-14:31, YWHH is revealed in the struggle with Pharaoh, and destroyed Pharaoh with ten plagues and the great victory in the Reed Seas. 4) In 15:1-21, the power of the name YHWH is proved.
It is concluded that knowing the name YHWH is to know the nature and character of YHWH. The name motif occurs mainly in the first part of the book of Exodus, but in the second (15:22-18:27) and the third parts (19:1-40:38), Israelites learn to know how to live with the name YHWH and to serve the name YHWH. Accordingly it is suggested with certainty that the name ‘Shemot’ be the most appropriate name for the book of Exodus.