Abram to Abraham. Simon to Peter. Saul to Paul. We see God changing a person’s name throughout the Bible and behind that change, He has a purpose. However, David’s name wasn’t changed. Joseph’s name wasn’t changed. Is there a reason for each name change or is the reason the same for all of them?
I think the easiest explanation may be the correct one in this case. In Scripture, a name is more than a label. It reflects a person’s character, destiny, and role in God’s plan. When God changes a name, it symbolizes a divine transformation and a new identity aligned with His purposes.
Names carried profound meaning, often expressing attributes, birth circumstances, or family hopes. Biblical naming practices mirrored this cultural significance but emphasized theological purpose, showing that God’s renaming conveys eternal significance and authority over human destiny. This is from Bible Hub.
Examples? Abram → Abraham: Abram, meaning “exalted father,” was renamed Abraham, “father of many nations,” when God established His covenant and promised Abraham numerous descendants (Genesis 17:5).
Sarai → Sarah: Sarai, meaning “my princess,” became Sarah, “princess” or “mother of nations,” reflecting her role in God’s promise to bless the nations through her offspring (Genesis 17:15-16).
Jacob → Israel: Jacob, meaning “supplanter,” was renamed Israel, “he who struggles with God” or “God prevails,” after wrestling with a divine being, signifying a spiritual transformation and his role as the father of the twelve tribes of Israel (Genesis 32:28).
The new name reflects a change in character, purpose, or destiny, signaling readiness to fulfill God’s plan. Names like Abraham and Israel serve as ongoing reminders of God’s covenant and the individual’s role in redemptive history, BibleRepository.
Essentially, it represents a person transforming into a “new creation.”
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” 2 Corinthians 5:17
Peter
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Yes, I think like @PeterC said, names are very important and symbolic in Scripture and have more meaning than we often ascribe to them today. So, when God changes a person’s name, it is a way to outwardly communicate a change that has happened internally.
It also makes me think of Revelation 2:17 where God says, “To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it” (emphasis added).
Significance and meaning inevitably become attached to our names, so God is telling us that he wants us (and the biblical figures you mentioned) to be defined by our relationship with him and to remember our redemption and adoption into his family.
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1Corinthians 2:9-13:
**9 **But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which GOD hath prepared for them that love Him.
**10 **But GOD hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
**11 **For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of GOD knoweth no man, but the Spirit of G0D.
**12 **Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of GOD; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of GOD.
**13 **Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Spirit teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
John 3:31 & 34-36
**31 **He that cometh from above is above all: he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth: he that cometh from heaven is above all.,
**34 **For he whom GOD hath sent speaketh the words of GOD: for GOD giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.
**35 **The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into His hand.
**36 **He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the WRATH of GOD abideth on him.
Matthew 25:29→**29 **For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: …
And what about the new name will b given by GOD?
And what about the new name for each one of us? What will be the name of each one of us, or what new name will we have according to GOD’s will, from now on, in His Kingdom that will be conquered as in Revelation 11:15-18?
Philippians 3:20-21
**20 **For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord JESUS Christ:
**21 **Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself.
MALACHI 2:15
**15 **And did not He make one? Yet had He the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That He might seek a godly seed.→(the seed is in the Genealogy→Matthew 1:1-17 begining in Genesis 5, take a look) Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.
Revelation 7:1-5
1 And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.
**2 **And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea,
**3 **Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.
**4 **And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.
To the only wise GOD our Saviour, be Glory and Majesty, Dominion and Power, both now and ever. Amen.
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I’m wondering why a name change was not consistent to all great men of the Bible. By great, I means men who were used by God like Judah’s son Joseph or Moses etc. The name their parents gave them remained after God called them to some great task. And yet others had their name changed. Do you know of any reason this might be?
When God changed a person’s name and gave him a new name, it was usually to establish a new identity. God changed Abram’s name, meaning “high father,” to “Abraham,” meaning “father of a multitude” (Genesis 17:5). At the same time, God changed Abraham’s wife’s name from “Sarai,” meaning “my princess,” to “Sarah,” meaning “mother of nations” (Genesis 17:15). This name change took place when God gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. God also reaffirmed His promise to give Abraham a son, specifically through Sarah, and told him to name his son Isaac, meaning “laughter.” Abraham had another son, Ishmael, through Sarah’s handmaiden, Hagar. But God’s promise to bless the nations through Abraham was to be fulfilled through Isaac’s line, from whom Jesus descended (Matthew 1:1–17; Luke 3:23–38). Isaac was the father of Jacob, who became “Israel.” His twelve sons formed the twelve tribes of Israel—the Jews. The physical descendants of Abraham and Sarah formed many nations. In a spiritual sense, their descendants are even more numerous. Galatians 3:29 says that all who belong to Jesus Christ—Jew, Gentile, male, or female—are “Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.”
God changed Jacob’s name, which meant “supplanter,” to “Israel,” meaning “having power with God” (Genesis 32:28). This happened after Jacob had taken Esau’s birthright (Genesis 25) and stolen Esau’s blessing (Genesis 27), fled from his brother to his uncle Laban (Genesis 28), married Leah and Rachel (Genesis 29), fled from Laban (Genesis 31), and then wrestled with God as he prepared to meet Esau. Jacob had tricked his brother, been tricked by his uncle, tricked his uncle (Genesis 30), and was now going through his brother’s territory to escape his angry uncle. He’d heard that Esau was going to come out and meet him and feared for his life. That night, Jacob wrestled with a man, who later identified Himself as God and is considered a theophany or perhaps a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. Jacob held on to the man until he obtained a blessing. It was at this point that God changed his name. No longer would Jacob be a supplanter and trickster. Rather, he would be identified as having “struggled with God and with humans and . . . overcome” (Genesis 32:28).
In the New Testament, Jesus changed Simon’s name, meaning “God has heard,” to “Peter,” meaning “rock” when He first called him as a disciple (John 1:42). It was Peter who declared that Jesus was “the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). Jesus replied to him as “Simon son of Jonah,” saying that he was blessed because God revealed Jesus’ identity as Messiah to him. He then referred to him as “Peter” and said that Peter’s declaration was the basis, or “rock,” on which He would build His church (Matthew 16:17–18). Peter is also often seen as the leader of the apostles. Jesus occasionally called Peter “Simon” at other times. Why? Probably because Simon sometimes acted like his old self instead of the rock God called him to be. The same is true for Jacob. God continued to call him “Jacob” to remind him of his past and to remind him to depend on God’s strength.
Why did God choose new names for some people? The Bible doesn’t give us His reasons, but perhaps it was to let them know they were destined for a new mission in life. The new name was a way to reveal the divine plan and also to assure them that God’s plan would be fulfilled in them.
J.
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Thanks. “GotQuestions” doesn’t know the answer either. It accounts for why someone’s name is changed, but not why others of the same great influence didn’t. I can live with it.
I thought I answered this. Please let me know if you would like me to try to elaborate.
Have a Blessed day.
Peter
What is in a name @Bestill ? Once you know that, you will appreciate the name changes recorded in Scripture.
Shalom.
J.
I know and am familiar with the many times God changed someone’s name and why He changed it. I was asking why God didn’t change other peoples names. For example: David is anointed as a future king to replace Saul, but God didn’t change His name. Moses was called at the age of 80 to lead his people out of Egypt. God didn’t change his name at that time or ever, and the list goes on. I read the link by ‘gotquestions’ and they did comment on this question by saying they couldn’t answer. They didn’t know.
And we don’t know.
There is a pattern with God changing names in Scripture, but it is clearly selective rather than universal, and it is tied to a specific divine purpose. When God changes a name, Abram to Abraham, Sarai to Sarah, Jacob to Israel, it is almost always tied to a covenantal role or a radical shift in identity and destiny that God wants to highlight. The name change itself signals a new mission, authority, or relational status with God. It is performative as much as it is symbolic.
For figures like David or Moses, the absence of a name change does not indicate neglect or oversight. Their identities were already meaningful, and their call or anointing was communicated through other divine actions, signs, and prophetic affirmation. David’s name already meant “beloved,” which resonated with God’s purpose, and Moses’ name had already functioned as a marker of his identity from birth. God conveyed the transformation of their roles through events, visions, and divine speech rather than altering the lexical content of their names.
In other words, a name change is not a requirement for God to redirect or elevate someone’s mission. It is a literary and theological device, not a universal pattern. God communicates identity shifts in different ways depending on the narrative, cultural context, and intended theological emphasis. That is why some people’s names change dramatically and others remain constant even in extraordinary divine appointments.
2 cents.
J.
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@PeterC and @Johann, the changing of Abram’s name to Abraham comes in Genesis 17 after the previous chapter, in which Abram and Sarah go astray from my God’s covenant plan for them to have a son together. Then, God comes to Abram to call him to obedience. Thus, the name-change means the divine covenant Head asserting his covenant authority over Abram, who has become a covenant-breaker.
Similarly, the Pharaoh of Egypt, who appoints Joseph second in command, changes his name to let him know that Joseph, whose name becomes Zaphnaph-paneah (sp?), is still under the authority of the king.
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For Abram becoming Abraham in Genesis 17, the key point is not primarily that Abram and Sarai “went astray” or that Abram became a “covenant-breaker.” The name change happens as part of God establishing His covenant with Abraham, specifically the covenant of descendants and land. The text emphasizes God’s initiative and promise:
“I will make you exceedingly fruitful… and I will be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee” (Genesis 17:6–7). The renaming from Abram (“exalted father”) to Abraham (“father of many nations”) signals this new covenant role, not a disciplinary assertion. It marks a new identity aligned with God’s purpose, not a correction of failure. Abram is not being punished; he is being elevated into a covenantal position that defines Israel’s history.
Regarding Joseph, Pharaoh does change his name to Zaphnath-Paneah, but the motivation is very different from God changing Abram’s name. Pharaoh’s renaming is a political act: it integrates Joseph into Egyptian authority, signals submission to Pharaoh’s sovereignty, and places Joseph in a new social and administrative identity. It is about human authority and governance, not a covenantal or theological transformation. The similarity ends at the surface of “name change”; the meaning and context are entirely different.
So, in short: Abram’s name change is divine, covenantal, and proactive; Joseph’s is human, political, and subordinate. They should not be conflated as if the mechanisms or meanings are the same.
Gen 17:1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty;N1 walk before me, and be R14blameless,
Gen 17:2 that I may make my covenant between me and you, and R15may multiply you greatly.”
Gen 17:3 Then Abram R16fell on his face. And God said to him,
Gen 17:4 “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be R17the father of a multitude of nations.
Gen 17:5 No longer shall your name be called Abram,N1 but R18your name shall be Abraham,N2 R19for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.
Gen 17:6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make R20you into nations, and R21kings shall come from you.
Gen 17:7 And I will R22establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, R23to be God to you and to your offspring after you.
Gen 17:8 And R24I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and R25I will be their God.”
Gen 17:9 And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations.
Gen 17:10 This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised.
Gen 17:11 You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a R26sign of the covenant between me and you.
Gen 17:12 He who is R1eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or R2bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring,
Gen 17:13 both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant.
Gen 17:14 Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”
Isaac’s Birth Promised
Gen 17:15 And God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but SarahN1 shall be her name.
Gen 17:16 I will bless her, and moreover, I will R3giveN1 you a son by her. I will bless her, and R4she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.”
Gen 17:17 Then Abraham R5fell on his face R6and laughed and said to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?”
Gen 17:18 And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before you!”
Gen 17:19 God said, “No, but R7Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name R8Isaac.N1 I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.
Gen 17:20 As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and R9multiply him greatly. He R10shall father twelve princes, and R11I will make him into a great nation.
Gen 17:21 But R12I will establish my covenant with Isaac, R13whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year.”
Gen 17:22 When he had finished talking with him, R14God went up from Abraham.
Gen 17:27 And all the men of his house, those born in the house and those bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.
ESV.
J.
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See my posts @Bruce_Leiter
Sarai and Hagar
Gen 16:1 R1Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was R2Hagar.
Gen 16:2 And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain childrenN1 by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai.
Gen 16:3 So, after Abram R3had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife.
Gen 16:4 And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, R4she looked with contempt on her mistress.N1
Gen 16:5 And Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my servant to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May R5the LORD judge between you and me!”
Gen 16:6 But Abram said to Sarai, “Behold, your servant is in your power; do to her as you please.” Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her.
Gen 16:7 The angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to R6Shur.
Gen 16:8 And he said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She said, “I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai.”
Gen 16:9 The angel of the LORD said to her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her.”
Gen 16:10 The angel of the LORD also said to her, R7“I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude.”
Gen 16:11 And the angel of the LORD said to her, “Behold, you are pregnant and shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael,N1 R8because the LORD has listened to your affliction.
Gen 16:12 He shall be R9a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he shall dwell R10over against all his kinsmen.”
Gen 16:13 So she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,”N1 for she said, R11“Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.”N2
Gen 16:14 Therefore the well was called R12Beer-lahai-roi;N1 it lies between R13Kadesh and Bered.
Gen 16:15 And Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael.
Gen 16:16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.
God bless.
J.
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@Johann, I prefer to keep the previous context of Genesis 17 of chapter 16 in view. Sarai has made a suggestion to try to fulfill God’s promises with their own efforts to get an heir. Both of them have laughed at different times at God’s promise for them to have descendants, thus showing the unbelief and impatience that is mixed with their belief.
Abraham gives in to her suggestion. But God comes back to Abram in chapter 17 to call him to walk before him blamelessly again. Then, he reinforces his promise to assert his authority in Abraham’s life by renaming him and Sarah and then naming Isaac as his gentile joke pointing out Abraham’s and Sarah’s laughing in disbelief, which would become their joy at God’s seemingly-impossible fulfillment. Thus, there is a similarity between God’s naming and Pharoah’s.
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IIn my meditation and search for understanding regarding the fact that GOD Himself changes someone’s name, what impresses me most is that GOD Himself cites or records the person’s name in His holy book, that is, the original name given by the parents. For example: Abram, a name given by his father Terah, and GOD sealed it in His holy book. To have the name given by one’s parents written in the Bible is already a great privilege, even more so when it is written by GOD Himself. Marvelous. By the way, this biblical event GOD revealed to Moses around 427 years after the flood.
Now, to be sought out by GOD for a personal encounter with the objective of making a covenant, that is unfathomable, it surpasses the limits of our understanding, even of imagination or speculation. And after being found, or rather, visited by GOD Himself, receiving a proposal or CELESTIAL PROMISE of great magnitude, as Abram received, there are no words to express the magnitude of this extraordinary event. This event occurred approximately 352 years after the flood and destruction of humanity. At that time, Abram was 75 years old (Genesis 12:4). Only 8 people had survived the flood: Noah and his family. Abram is a descendant of Shem, Noah’s son (Genesis 11:10-32).
And at the moment when the divine covenant is fulfilled between GOD and Abram, or between the parties, GOD changes Abram’s name by adding only two letters to his original family name, i.e. “ha”. → In this case, Abram becomes Abraham forever.
Therefore, to conclude, in my view, the name change is to seal a union with gifts or promises between GOD and man, or woman, as in the case of Sarah. An alliance between GOD and man can also be celebrated through the giving of a ring by GOD, as He did with the rebellious younger son: → Isaiah 7:14-16 interpreted by JESUS in Luke 15:27 and 32.
These are just details in trying to seek understanding of peculiar biblical events such as a name change or the giving of a ring to sanctify and perpetuate a divine relationship between the parties, between GOD and human beings.
Praise be to GOD.. Amen.
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The only example of God changing someone’s name in the list you gave is Abram to Abraham. If I can nitpick a bit.
When Jesus gave the name Kepha (Greek Petros, i.e. Peter) to Simon bar Jonah, it wasn’t so much a name change (he still had the name of Simon) as it was an additional name.
It’s unclear how Saul became Paul, Scripture doesn’t tell us. In the Acts, he simply starts having a new Greek name: Paul. One tradition I’ve heard of suggests that he had had two names for quite some time, perhaps because as a Jew from Tarsus he was double-named: He had a Jewish name and a Greek name. A part of me, however, likes the theory that he adopted the name “Paul” due to its meaning, “little”, because given his ministry to preach the Gospel to the Greeks he chose a Greek name, and the meaning was significant given his humility: as the “least of the apostles”.
But we really don’t know why Saul of Tarsus started going by Paul, so we can only speculate. Perhaps the Lord did give him this new name, but we can’t say for certain.
What is certain is that name changes, or additional names, always mean something.
Throughout much of Christian history it was common for people to have two names: a birth name and a baptismal name. When someone converted, they’d adopt a new name. As Christianity became the mainstream religion in Europe and some other places, this became a distinction almost without a difference. And when a child was born to Christian parents, they’d choose a Christian name. Though there are still times and places today when adopting a second name, through conversion, is normal (Eastern Orthodoxy immediately springs to mind).
This double naming, or baptismal name, is often understood in the context of where in the Revelation it speaks of those receiving a new name.
As far as double names goes, we have a few examples in the New Testament as well. E.g. John Mark and Jesus Justus. Both are examples of a Jewish name and a Greek name. Which may give credence to the earlier theory about Saul having a double name: Saul Paul.
@TheologyNerd, God gave people names or changed their names, similar to people’s giving other people’s names, for specific purposes:
- People naming other people:
Gen 2:20 The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.
Gen 2:21 So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.
Gen 2:22 And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.
Gen 2:23 Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”
Gen 3:20 The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.
Before the fall, Adam names Eve “woman”; while after the fall, he names her Eve. In their creation, they are equal in status before God as male and female, according to Genesis 1:26-27:
Gen 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
But they have different roles within their marital relationship; she is his suitable helper (2:20). That is the reason he names her to assert her function in their relationship.
Then, after they fall into sin, he names her Eve after God pronounces the curse that he would rule her, the dominant male pattern throughout history, with which Paul disagrees at God’s leading in Ephesians 5:22-27:
Eph 5:22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
Eph 5:23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.
Eph 5:24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.
Eph 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
Eph 5:26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,
Eph 5:27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
A husband must be the servant-leader of his wife by serving all her needs, and God lifts him up to lead the family as the “head.”
In addition, Pharaoh re-named Joseph Zaphnaph-paneah to remind him that, though he was in charge of much in Egypt, he was still under Pharaoh’s authority.
- When it comes to God’s naming and re-naming people, the same meaning comes through. For example, after the sixteenth chapter fiasco of Abram and Sarah’s impatient disobedience whereby Abram had the baby Ishmael through Hagar, God comes to Abram and calls him back to covenant obedience as follows:
Gen 17:1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless,
Gen 17:2 that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.”
Gen 17:3 Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him,
Gen 17:4 “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations.
Gen 17:5 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.
God calls him and Sarai to walk before him in covenant obedience and be “blameless,” because they have not been obedient in the matter of Hagar, and then God immediately re-names him Abraham to assert God’s covenant authority over them. God also re-names his wife Sarah. Then, he names the future miracle child Isaac, meaning laughter, gently joking about their laughter in unbelief when God promises them a child as their heir. Thus, Isaac is called to be God’s covenant child.
Later, in Genesis 22, God in human form wrestles with Jacob and finally shows his divine strength in touching his hip and then asserts his covenant rulership over him by re-naming him “Israel.”
Gen 32:27 And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.”
Gen 32:28 Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.”
Gen 32:29 Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?”
- God’s re-naming of us. Thus, though people nowadays recoil from the word “authority,” God is the covenant, loving, authoritative Ruler of his people and the universe and shows it by giving his people a new name known only to him, as we see in Revelation 2 & 3. He is our perfect, loving Authority:
Rev_2:17 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.’
Rev_3:12 The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name.
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