Unraveling Biblical Names: A Historical Perspective

Let's say you're a member of the Gad tribe, camping in the Sinai desert about 3300 years ago, and you want to make a request to your president. You approach the president's tent and call out: "Honorable President Elizaphan son of Reuel," only for the president's servant to emerge and say: "Son of who? Are you mocking the president? His father's name is 'Deuel', not 'Reuel'."

Pretty awkward, right? If we rely on the text from the chapter in Bamidbar (Numbers) 2:14, then the leader's name is "Elizaphan son of Reuel". But in Bamidbar 1:14, his name is "Elizaphan son of Deuel"... So what's going on here?

It turns out, according to Ibn Ezra, that both names are correct. The Torah deliberately alternates to teach us both pronunciations. Neither is more accurate than the other. But why and how did these similar names come about?

Ibn Ezra, in his commentary on Kohelet (Ecclesiastes), suggests an interesting idea: since the letters 'D' and 'R' are interchangeable in the ancient square script, and in his time (as in Ibn Ezra's own time), there was no print, everything was handwritten. These two letters often got swapped. The letter 'D' lacked the accent mark it has now, it's a more recent addition. In the Torah script, it's the roundness of 'R' and the squareness of 'D' that matter. Over time, people got used to these interchangeabilities, and eventually, it didn’t really matter whether it was 'R' or 'D'; either would suffice.

According to Ramban, since the meanings of the names are very similar, it was understood they could be pronounced in two ways: "Deuel" – one who knows Hashem, "Reuel" – one who places his interest in Hashem. Focusing on the meaning shows they are one concept. Perhaps these were two praises for the president's father.

Another possibility is that the name "Reuel" was given during his time in Egypt, as it has Egyptian connotations like "Ramses". To distance themselves from Egyptian beliefs, the Israelites later renamed him "Deuel". Still, the old name remained in use, so the Torah used it once for context, then switched to the more Israelite name.

However, if Reuel had to write a divorce, he would have some difficulties. The name in a divorce document must be exact; otherwise, it’s invalid, which could lead to serious issues if a woman thinks she is free but is still married according to Jewish law. During the diaspora, many new names arose, names changed, foreign names and nicknames were added, complicating the practice of name writing in divorce documents. People might call someone by a certain name only to discover it’s a recently adopted nickname from another city.

To assist with this, special books on "People's Names" were written, with an index by the alphabet. Rabbinic authorities documented how each name is written, sometimes studying Biblical language for guidance, for example: Is it David or Dovid? In the prophets, it's sometimes one way, sometimes another. The "Beit Shmuel" writes: It should be according to the Psalms that David himself authored! What about Isaiah or Yeshayah? Again, sometimes this, sometimes that. The "Beit Shmuel" explains it’s likely avoided using Isaiah’s full name because he met a brutal death at the hands of Manasseh, thus social convention prefers using "Yeshayah". And so on. There are numerous complex rules in this seemingly trivial issue – "What's your name?"