Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Noah

I was doing my daily Bible reading tonight in Numbers and found something curious. Numbers 26:33 states:

"And Zelophehad the son of Hepher had no sons, but daughters: and the names of the daughters of Zelophehad were Mahlah, and Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah."

Is Noah the first gender neutral name? It is in the Bible as both a male and female name! It's curious that nowadays it is more a boy's name because I did some research and apparently the name Noah is very popular as a girl's name in Arab cultures and not used as a boy's name. It is also odd because so many boy's names are used for girls (like Avery...) but not very often is a girl's name used for a boy. It seems that the original form of the name Noah is feminine and the male Noah in the Bible is actually pronounced No -ACH, which is a different name.  Any Bible scholars want to weigh in on this one?

What I learned: Noah is a girl's name in the Bible.

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