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[Sleepy]

Is there a word for this Christian belief?

This is from [url]biblestudy.org[/url]:

The Bible does mention a few individuals who actually did get a new name directly by God or Jesus Christ. Abram was changed to Abraham (meaning "father of many nations," see Genesis 17:1 - 5) then the Eternal changed his wife's from Sarai to Sarah (which means "mother of many nations," see verses 15 - 16). Jacob, the grandson of Abram (Abraham), was given the name Israel (meaning "someone who prevails with the Eternal," see Genesis 32:24 - 28).

One rather unique example of the Lord giving a new name to humans was when He commanded the prophet Hosea to marry a known whore as a sign of Israel's sin.

When given a new name by God, is there a word for it? When looking it up, I came across “Confirmation Name” and “Christian Name” but I’m talking about the actual process of being given a new name by God.

For example, how would Abraham have said “I have been ______ed”, if there is such a phrase?

Thanks!

[jimwalton]

I've never heard of a "name" or "label" for such a practice, as common as it is in the Bible. But I'm not sure it's a practice just limited to the Bible, however. I think much like Native Americans, when someone had an important thing happen in their lives, someone was renamed to memorialize the event. The more names a king had, for instance, the more powerful he was deemed to be. Archaeologists have found that numerous people had multiple names back in the ancient Near East. And people were renamed as life went on. I'm not aware of any particular term that defines the practice.

Most of the biblical and cultural evidence is assuredly different than the ancient Christian practice of giving someone a confirmation name or a baptismal name.