By any other name...

"At last Daniel came in before me - he who was named Belteshazzar after the name of my god, and who is endowed with a spirt of the holy gods - and I told him the dream..."

(Daniel 4:8)

Every year a list is complied of the most popular names given to babies - both boys and girls. It's an interesting list to study - especially if you can look at multiple lists from the past, too. Names tend to go in cycles. Some parents follow the trends. Some create trends. Others buck the trends (Skye, Abcde, and Rogue are just a few names of people I've known personally!). Some parents honor their relatives and confer "family names" (Golda Grey and Hilda are two such examples I know!). Others pick names that honor their passions (a coworker of my wife's, and a die-hard Yankees' fan, named his kids Mattingly and Gehrig!).

Today while reading through Daniel, I came across a name reference I'd never seen before. Daniel and his buddies (Hannah, Michael, and Azariah), upon relocation to Babylon from Israel, had been given new names: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego... and Daniel was called Belteshazzar. It's interesting that the storyteller continues to refer to Daniel by his Hebrew name... but his 3 buddies are heretofore known by their Babylonian names (at least by the storyteller). BUT... in chapter 4, after King Nebby has a dream that no one can interpret, he calls in Daniel. But he refers to him by his Babylonian name, Belteshazzar. AND... he states that name hours his (King Nebby's) god, "Bel" (aka Marduk).

Wow!?!? I guess I never thought about WHY the Babylonians changed the Hebrews' names (other than assimilation techniques). And to think Daniel, a servant of the Lord God Almighty, was given a name with a Babylonian god embedded - how ironic. But he didn't freak out, protest, or rebel. He simply was who he was... and it ultimately led to bringing Yahweh (not Marduk) honor, glory, and praise when he was able to interpret the kings' dream.

So... be who you are! Because a rose by any other name...