Dear Digest Readers:

Whoops! Tom Venetianer, in the message reproduced below, saw fit to
"correct" me publicly concerning the names James and Jacob; but please
allow me to point out that his "correction" was entirely misconceived.
Apparently he is unaware that the name James is merely an English variant
of Jacobus -- via the intermediate (medieval Latin) form Jacomus.

The Hebrew name of all the Jameses in the New Testament was Jacob,
including James the brother of Jesus, who is given as "Iakobos" in the
original Greek New Testament Matthew 13:55. Similarly, medieval
documents referring to any of the English kings called James call them
Jacobus. Hence "the Jacobite rebellion" supporting James II after his
abdication in 1688. Similarly, the French Jacobins got their name from
the Church of St. Jacques. Jacques of course comes >from Jacob -- and, as
we all know, " Frere Jacques" is "Brother James" in English.

See also any mid-sized Webster dictionary, but in particular Webster's New
World Dictionary, Third College Edition, page 722, s.v. James, where it
says, in addition to the above, as follows: James comes ">from Jacomus,
later form of Jacobus; see Jacob."

Sorry, Tom, nice try, but we really do have to set the record straight!

Judith Romney Wegner
jrw@...

Subject: *Re: Equivalents to names
From: Tom Venetianer <tom.vene@...>

>Excuse me, but some corrections are in order. You wrote:
>> Each language developed its own

version of each biblical name, usually because linguistic idiosyncrasies
demanded some modification in the spelling, the ending, etc. Therefore
Iakob (Gk), Jacobus (Lat.), Ya`qub (Arab.), Jakob (Ger), Jacques (Fr.),
Jacob (Eng.) and even a few variations containing the letter "m" -- such
as Giacomo (It.), Jaime (Sp.) and James (Eng.), are all genuine
equivalents of each other

None of these three last given names are equivalents of Jacob:

Giacomo is James in Italian, not Jacob. Jacob in Italian is Giaccobe.

Jacob is Jacobo in Spanish and Jaco' or Jacob in Portuguese... Jaime is
James in Spanish and Portuguese.

MODERATOR'S NOTE: We sense a battle brewing over names and their
origins. Both writers have had the chance to say their piece so we'll end
this one here. They are, of course, at liberty to continue privately.
We will naturally publish a joint message >from them should they reach
any consensus on this subject.