Aaron (m)
[AIR-uhn, A-ruhn] from Hebrew or Egyptian, possibly meaning ‘bright’ or ‘mountaineer’.
Aaron, Moses’ elder brother and Israel’s first high priest, whose main role was to assist Moses. He served as spokesman for Moses, because Moses was ‘slow of speech’. Aaron held up Moses’ hands in battle (Exodus 17:12). He was involved in several controversies, especially in making and worshipping the golden calf (Exodus 32), and in publicly criticising Moses (Numbers 12). Later, God confirmed his leading role through the rod that budded (‘Aaron’s rod’) (Numbers 17).
Abel (m)
[AY-bull] from Hebrew, meaning ‘breath’.
Abel, Adam and Eve’s second son, who worked as a shepherd. He offered a sacrifice that was acceptable to God, through faith (Genesis 4:1–16; Hebrews 11:4), but was murdered by his brother Cain. When God asked where Abel was, Cain replied, ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’ God judged Cain by making him ‘a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth’.
Variant: Abe.
Abigail (f)
[AB-i-gayl] from Hebrew, meaning ‘father’s joy’.
A woman of beauty, wisdom and faith who saved her first husband Nabal, a rich shepherd, but one who was surly and mean. When David sent his men to Nabal, seeking supplies of food, Nabal insulted them. When David’s men returned to David, he prepared to destroy him. Abigail lost no time in humbly coming to David with a kind offer of food. Her gracious wise diplomacy persuaded David not to attack. She married David after Nabal died (1 Samuel 25).
The name and occupation came into more general use from the ‘waiting gentlewoman’ in the play The Scornful Lady by Sir Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, first performed in 1610. Swift, Fielding and other novelists of the period used the name further and it became popularised by the notoriety of Abigail Hill, lady-in-waiting to Queen Anne, 1704–14, who used her friendship with the queen to try to secure personal favours.
Variants: Abbey, Abbie, Abby, Gail, Gale.
Abner (m)
[AB-nuh] from Hebrew, meaning ‘father is light’.
Saul’s cousin and commander-in-chief in Saul’s army. After Saul died, Abner temporarily upheld the authority of the king’s family. He was murdered by David’s commander Joab who was suspicious when Abner tried to join David (2 Samuel 3:22–38). After Abner’s death, David mourned him, saying, ‘A prince and a great man has fallen in Israel this day.’
Abraham (m)
[AY-bruh-ham] from Hebrew, meaning ‘father of many’.
The chief recipient of God’s promises in the Old Testament and regarded by Jews as the father of their people. Abraham lived in the early centuries of the second millennium BC. His original name was Abram (‘the father is exalted’). The story of Abraham in Genesis is organised around the theme of how God began to fulfil some of the promises he had made to him. When God called Abraham at Ur in Southern Iraq and at Haran, he promised him a land, many descendants, a great name, and said he would become a blessing to many peoples (Genesis 12:2–3). Abraham’s continuing childlessness, however, was a serious threat to all these promises, and during the period of waiting, he attempted to find his own ways of producing an heir (Genesis 15:1–4; 16:1–4, 15–16), though he also grew in faith as God confirmed his intentions in a covenant (Genesis 15:1–6; 17:1–27). Isaac was eventually born when Abraham was 100 years old, but God continued to test Abraham, commanding him to offer his son as a sacrifice.
Abraham’s obedience to God and his confidence that ‘The Lord Will Provide’ (Genesis 22:14) make him the supreme example of faith in the New Testament. Abraham’s final actions in buying a family burial ground and obtaining a wife for Isaac point to a future fulfilment of the promises of land and descendants.
Variant: Abe.
Absalom (m)
[AB-suh-luhm] from Hebrew, meaning ‘father of peace’.
David’s third son, who overthrew his father and was king for a brief time while David fled across the Jordan. David regained the throne as a result of Absalom receiving bad advice, but despite all this, David was grief-stricken at Absalom’s tragic death in an accident (2 Samuel 15:1–18:33): ‘O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!’
Adam (m)
[AD-uhm] from Hebrew, closely related to the word for ‘man’.
The name of the first man as well as the Hebrew word for ‘human race’. He was in the Garden of Eden and given Eve as a helper. They disobeyed God and so brought sin into the world. In the New Testament, Adam usually represents the human race in its sinful rebellion against God (Romans 5:12–21), though he is also the first man and ‘the son of God’ (Luke 3:38). Jesus Christ is described as ‘the last Adam’ (1 Corinthians 15:45).
Variant: Edom.
Adelaide (f)
[a-duh-LAYD] from an Old German name meaning ‘nobility’.
French empress of Germany (931–999). The daughter of Rudolf II of Burgundy, Adelaide became the wife of Prince Lothair of Italy and, after his death, married Otto the Great of Germany in 951. Otto was crowned emperor by Pope John XII shortly afterwards, with Adelaide as his empress. Otto’s family, led by his daughter Theophano, resented Adelaide’s influence and, after Otto’s death, spent the next 20 years working to alienate Otto’s son the emperor Otto II from his mother, finding fault for instance with her unstinting generosity to the poor. Adelaide was obliged to live for a time in retirement from the court but was reconciled with her son Otto before his death, after which she had again to go into retreat.
After Theophano’s death in 991 Adelaide finally returned as regent and used her authority to revitalise the religious establishment, founding and restoring monasteries and promoting the evangelisation of the Slavs. She died at a convent she had founded at Seltz in Alsace.
Variant: Ada.
Adlai (m)
[AD-lay] from Hebrew, meaning ‘my adornment’.
The father of Shaphat, who was responsible for David’s cattle in the valleys (1 Chronicles 27:29).
Adrian (m)
[AY-dree-uhn] from Latin Hadrianus, meaning ‘of Adria’ (the town in Italy that gave its name to the Adriatic Sea).
Adrian (died c.304), martyr of Nicomedia. According to legend, Adrian was a Roman officer stationed at Nicomedia who was so moved by the courage of the Christians he persecuted that he declared himself to be a Christian also. He was thrown into prison, where he was visited by his Christian wife Natalia. Further visits were barred after Adrian was sentenced to death, but Natalia continued to see him by disguising herself as a boy and bribing the gaoler. She attended her husband’s execution and retrieved his remains.
Also the name of the African-born English abbot Adrian of Canterbury (died 710). While serving as abbot of the monastery at Nerida in Italy he was twice offered the post of Archbishop of Canterbury by Pope Vitalian, but turned down the offer both