Why I Wrote This Book
 

This book started, appropriately enough, in the maternity ward of our local hospital. My wife had just given birth to our fourth child. She was sharing a room with a young first time mother, Sarah. One day, while I was visiting my wife, we got talking with her about possible names for her new son. Sarah proudly and happily announced to us that she was going to name her new baby boy "Cain". She must have noticed that my wife and I had gone suddenly a little quiet, because she added, "It's a biblical name, you know." Yes, yes, we nodded back, it's a biblical name alright. A few moments more of silence passed, but I knew I would have to say something. I tried to put it as gently as I could. "Ah, Sarah ... do you know who Cain was in the Bible?" "Hmmm, no, not really." "I think you might find", I said, "that Cain was the one who killed his brother Abel. You know, the first murderer." Now it was Sarah's turn to go suddenly quiet. Then she said, "I'm not sure ... is that right?" I replied, "I'm pretty certain ... maybe you could check it out. I think you'll find the story in the front of the Bible, in the Book of Genesis." The next time I saw my wife she told me that Sarah had chosen a completely different name for her new boy! It occurred to me that many people could be in Sarah's position - wanting a biblical name for their baby, but not familiar with all the biblical stories. Of course, they could read the Bible from cover to cover, which would probably take a year or two (depending on how fast you read!) Just to pick out a baby name, that's a pretty daunting task. So I thought it would be handy to have a single text - a single book - that describes biblical names. But from my experience with Sarah, I knew that the book would have to be a lot more than just a list of names and their meanings. It would also have to tell the history of the characters who had the name in the Bible. Back to the main page