People are generally unaware of the fact that names, for both people and places, have great interpretive value, or 'meaning', in the Hebrew and Greek languages, the original languages of the Bible. This is typically not so in the English language. We tend to easily skip over names without giving them too much thought in our daily lives. To us, we are born, and our parents simply provide us with a name. Granted, that name might hold great sentiment for some, but in general, our modern society isn't nearly as 'name orientated' as the Israelites of ancient Israel. Back then, names told a story about a person, place or thing and they were deliberately chosen for that very reason. The same was true regarding the use of numbers. Like numbers, names, were generally looked upon as 'descriptive adjectives' containing additional information about a particular person, place or thing. A person's name didn't just provide a simple means of identification to other human beings, but would also contain pertinent information about a person's personality, religious beliefs, class status, employment, general health and a number of other personal attributes. The same was true, and even more so regarding place names. They too, contained valuable descriptive information about a particular location; information designed to help the hearer (or in our case 'the reader') gain a better understanding of the Biblical narrative. For example, let's take a closer look at the word, 'Gethsemane':

Most Christians are familiar with the place known as the 'Garden of Gethsemane' from the gospel accounts of Matthew and Mark, but what does the word 'Gethsemane' truly mean? Does it mean anything at all? All we have to do is simply look up the word 'Gethsemane' using our Online Bible Name Dictionary and we are quick to discover that the word does in fact contain additional information that can help us gain a better understanding the Biblical narrative. How so? Properly translated from the original Greek into the English language, the word 'Gethsemane' means 'Oil Press'. Hence, we have discovered a new truth about this particular Bible location. The place known as the 'Garden of Gethsemane' was originally located in the midst of an olive orchard, a fact that makes perfect sense, considering the fact that it was also located on the Mount of Olives. As you can see from the above example, an Online Bible Name Dictionary can be an extremely useful tool to those interested in learning more about the Bible. It is our hope that you will find this study tool useful in your personal study of the Bible.

Please Note: The Online Bible Name Dictionary is a work in progress.  If the Bible name you are trying to look up is not yet available, please contact us and we will move quickly to provide you with the information you seek. Thank you for your patience.