“A New Name Written Down in Glory”

This week, the podcast had some fun looking at epic biblical figures who had dual names: Abram and Abraham. Jacob and Israel. Solomon and Jedidiah. Gandalf and Mithrandir.

(actually, that last one might have been from somewhere else…)

If you missed it, you can catch up right here:

Mephibosheth and Ishbosheth

Years ago, a missionary visited our church and preached a message on Mephibosheth- which was the son of David’s BFF, Jonathan. (Jonathan, if you remember, was a son of the wicked King Saul.) After Jonathan died, David- who believed Saul’s descendants to have been wiped out- comes across Mephibosheth and- as the only surviving son of his dear friend- showers him with love. If you’d like, you can read the whole story in II Samuel 9.

One thing that always stuck out to me from that sermon was how Mephibosheth appears in the genealogy of Saul in I Chronicles. The missionary pointed out that his name is different in Chronicles than it is in Samuel.

I Chronicles 8:33-34 - ³³ Ner was the father of Kish, Kish the father of Saul, and Saul the father of Jonathan, Malki-Shua, Abinadab and Esh-Baal.
³⁴ The son of Jonathan:
Merib-Baal, who was the father of Micah.

I know reading biblical genealogies can be about as exciting as reading the phone book, but this “discrepancy” always bothered me. And despite pointing out the inconsistency to us, the missionary didn’t have a clue as to why it was there.

And it isn’t just Mephibosheth who had a pseudonym here; one of Saul’s sons, Esh-Baal, appears differently, too. Compare I Chronicles 8:33 with the underlined name here:

II Samuel 2:8-9 - ⁸ But Abner the son of Ner, commander of Saul's army, took Ish-bosheth the son of Saul and brought him over to Mahanaim, ⁹ and he made him king over Gilead and the Ashurites and Jezreel and Ephraim and Benjamin and all Israel.

After Saul’s death, David became king over a portion of Israel, and Saul’s son Ish-bosheth reigned over another portion. This lasted 7 years and was kind of a transitionary period in Israel’s history from one family dynasty to another. But without getting into that whole story, I just want to point out another “discrepancy” in the names; in one book, Saul’s son is named Esh-baal; in the other, it’s Ish-Bosheth.

(I’m putting the word “discrepancy” in quotes because I don’t believe this is an actual contradiction in the Bible. More on that later.)

While working on this week’s episode, though- which was all about multiple names in Scripture- I finally learned why these two guys had alternative names between Samuel and Chronicles.

Getting Rid of Baal

Chronicles is a book of historical data; it’s honestly one of my least-favorite books to work through each time I read through the Bible, as it contains a lot of lists, names and numbers. In fact, the first 9 chapters of I Chronicles are just genealogies.

9 chapters! So if you’re in a Bible-in-a-year reading plan right now in 2026 and struggling to make it through Leviticus, let me just say, you haven’t even hit the hardest part yet!

But since Chronicles is obsessed with record-keeping, it actually contains Ish-Bosheth and Mephibosheth’s original (or legal) names, which were Esh-Baal and Merib-Baal. And once we understand what those names mean, we’ll understand why they stopped using them.

The word “baal” means master or lord, but that’s probably not all that you think of when you read that word. You most likely associate that with the most famous false god of the Old Testament, Baal- who I’ve done some episodes about.

The word “baal” kind of became “theologically radioactive,” you might say; as Baal worship became more prolific in the ancient Middle East, it became unpopular in Israel to use that word. Probably kind of like how the word “allah” can be used as a generic word for “god” in that region today. Middle Eastern Christians might refer to the God of the Bible as “Allah” on occasion, but that always makes me a bit uncomfortable since it’s a word we Westerners associate with the deity of Islam.

So Esh-Baal’s name meant “Man of the Lord,” but it could also be taken to mean “Baal’s Man.” Merib-Baal’s name meant “One Who Strives with the Lord,” and could also be taken to mean “Baal’s Contender.” So these two guys changed to, or adopted, new identities that distanced themselves from Baal.

Esh-Baal became Ish-Bosheth, which instead means “Man of Shame.” Merib-Baal became Mephibosheth, which means “From the Mouth of Shame”; in other words, one who brings shame. As Mephibosheth was crippled ever since infancy and spent most of his life in hiding- and being a descendant of Saul- this perhaps explains why he felt he brought shame. Also, if Esh-Baal and Merib-Baal were ashamed of their names being associated with this satanic deity, that could also be why they picked new names with “shame” in them.

As Dr. Michael Heiser says in his book Demons, “The Hebrew boset means “shame.” Certain names in the Old Testament that originally had a “-baal” element apparently had that element changed to “-bosheth” to denigrate and eliminate the reference to Baal.”

So that would explain why these names are different from one book to another.

I know this was probably not one of your burning questions from your Bible study, but it was honestly one of mine (I know, I’m weird).

It was actually important to me because I believe the Bible has one author- God- and that since God is perfect, that means His Bible has no contradictions.

Therefore, when I do come across apparent contradictions- such as Saul’s son having a different name from one book to another- I know there’s probably a good reason out there which resolves the issue, even if I don’t know what that is. In this case, the mystery of Merib-baal has been swirling around in my brain for about 10 years; but God is faithful, and He finally led me to an answer.

Coming This Month

I am SO EXCITED about where we’re going on the podcast in February. Things can always change, but here’s my tentative plan for the month:

• February 4- The Days of Noah, According to Enoch. This episode will expand on what the sins of the watchers were; what specific acts they committed with humans in the pre-flood world, as well as the forbidden knowledge they shared with humans.

• February 11- The Days of Jared. This will be another genealogy-focused episode, as we delve into connections between Enoch 6 and the genealogy from Adam to Noah in Genesis 5.

• February 18- The Mystery of Mount Hermon. What is the spiritual significance of this mountain throughout the Bible? It goes from the days of Noah right up to the crucifixion of Jesus.

• February 25- Why does the Bible prohibit the eating of blood? Not that any of us want to, but I plan to explore why this is such a significant sin in the Bible that it’s immediately banned right after the flood waters abate in Genesis 9, and then reiterated as one of the four condemned practices for the Gentile church in Acts 15.

Exciting month ahead, thanks for being on this journey with me!

-Luke

PS: For those who like to read, I converted my recent podcast episode “The Book of Enoch is Legit” into an article for the website. You can check that out here: