Peter,
I was actually thinking of personal names rather than place names. Sorry I was not clear. My note was just an initial observation and a thought, it is not in opposition to much of anything yet.
Here are my initial thoughts in regards to your email.
1) What is the point of shortening the full formal personal name to begin with? The ancient Israelites did not seem particularly adverse to having long formal personal names. ...
... Obviously shortened nick-names were probably quite common but those only make sense relative to the full formal name. I would expect in the context of the OT, the authors would have naturally favored the more formal names over nick-
names. ...
... Even if some of these names are nick-names surely there should be at least some theophoric names that were not shortened? There should be a few personal theophoric name that include YHWH or Elohim if shortening were the process.
2) If one wished to shorten a theophroic name, I do not see any particular motive to shorten the divine portion of a theophoric name. It seems to me that the only point of having a theophoric name is to include God?s name. Shortening the divine element of a person?s theophoric name seems to defeat the entire purpose of having a theophoric name. Why not shorten the non-divine elements?
3) If the names were shortened, they were not shortened by much, if at all in many cases. For example Yahu-natan(Yahu gave)is no shorter than Yahweh-natan when spoken (four syllables each)and only one letter shorter when written. ...
... Yesha ? Yah (Yah saved)is but one syllable shorter than Yesha ? Yahweh. Shama-El is significantly shorter than Shama-Eloah or Shama-Elohim.A one syllable shortening is sufficient to be worthwhile. In fact, Jack, your own name (originally an abbreviated form of "John"), shows that abbreviated forms are not necessarily actually shorter than the originals.
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