At the last federal election I put up my hand to help out at a local polling booth.  That experience gave me a new appreciation for the integrity of Australia’s electoral process.  It also made me aware that to do the job that I did it helps to have a liking for names.  I sat behind a table with a huge book containing the names of every voter in the electorate.  The list not only included people names but also place names.  Every voter had their street address and suburb listed.

At times it was rather challenging.  Occasionally I had to ask people to spell their rather unusual names – and there were some ethnic names I dared not try to pronounce for fear of getting them wrong.  I even slipped up on some of the address names – being politely told what the actual pronunciation should have been.  Ah, well, I put it down to experience.

But do you realise that the Bible is also full of names – place names and people names – many of them quite unpronounceable to the uninitiated.

Think of people names and there are numerous examples.  The fourth and fifth chapters of Genesis list the family trees of two divergent streams of humanity descending from Adam and Eve.  The first chapter of 1Chronicles lists over one hundred names of people and tribes.  There are eight more chapters of names that follow. Names, names and more names!  Even the New Testament begins with a list of names.  Matthew chapter 1 gives us the family tree of Jesus, listing forty two generations – almost fifty names kick off Matthew’s account of the life of Jesus.

When it comes to place names the Bible is equally prolific.  The first place-name in the Bible is the Garden of Eden.  The last place-name mentioned is the New Jerusalem in God’s restored creation.  In between there are literally hundreds of place names.  In the 33^rd chapter of the book of Numbers some fifty place names are listed in Israel’s wilderness travel-diary.  The book of Joshua mentions almost as many names as it sets out the boundaries of each Israelite tribe in the Promised Land.  In the New Testament we can trace the travels of Jesus in the Holy Land the missionary journeys of the Apostle Paul simply from the many, many place names that are mentioned.

Names, names and more names – some of them quite unpronounceable for most of us.  Have you ever wondered why there are so many names in the Bible?  I’m not an expert in the religious literature of other faiths but from my limited knowledge I would suggest that no other religious writings so meticulously kept track of place names and people names.  Why?

I once heard a story told by Wycliffe Bible Translators.  Once, many years ago, they decided to work with a primitive tribe that had not heard the Good News about Jesus and where they had no form of writing.  They decided to teach the people to read and to translate Matthew’s gospel into the language of this people group.  The translators decided to skip Matthew chapter 1 – the family tree of Jesus – and begin instead with the story of his birth.  As each chapter was completed they invited tribal leaders and anyone else who was interested, to hear the story read to them.  On each occasion people would gather and listen politely to these wonderful stories from the Bible.  When they got to the end of Matthew’s Gospel they decided that for completeness they also needed to translate the genealogy of Jesus.  When it was done they again gathered their audience and began to read.  But on this occasion the chief of the tribe stopped them.  He told them not to continue until all the adults of the tribe had come to listen.  Only then did they finish their final reading from Matthew’s Gospel.  The chief later explained to them that they had thought that all the Bible stories were fables... legends like the stories they were familiar with.  It was only when the translators read to them about the family tree of Jesus that they realised that they had been hearing stories of real events.

And that’s just the point isn’t it?  Names, names and more names... but it’s to remind us that the story about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus is grounded in time and space with real people and real places.  Our faith is grounded... not in myths and legends... but in real human history.

John Westendorp