[Avodah] Mordechai and Esther

[Lisa Liel]

On Mon, 11 Apr 2005 14:02:12 EDT, T613K at aol.com wrote:

> In Areivim Digest V14 #251 dated 3/18/2005 RMB writes:
> > As I've written on Avodah, IMHO, Esther was named for Ishtar,
> > and Mordechai for her consort, Marduk (Ishtar = Asheirah; Marduk =
> > Baal/El). As we know, each also had Jewish names. How is this mutar? As
> > I also wrote on Avodah, I'm not sure. However, this is nearly the same
> > time as the adoption of Tamuz as a month name.
>
> Fascinating, but I doubt that Mordechai and Esther were named "for"
> Persian gods. Rather, just as Peter, Paul and Mary have become popular
> names in America--so that there are now Jewish Peters, Pauls and Marys
> who are not named "for" the figures in the Xian Bible--so Mordechai and
> Esther must have been common Persian names. And just as many American
> Jews have both English and Hebrew names, so Mordechai and Esther had
> Persian and Hebrew names.

The name Dennis comes from Dionysus, Greek deity of wine and  
drunkenness.  The Yiddish Feivush or Feivel comes from the Greek  
Phoebus, which was a poetic name for Apollo, their deity of the sun.   
That's why you see Shraga Feivel a lot; they have the same basic  
meaning of fire.  But we can even go back earlier than Mordechai and  
Esther.  Shamgar ben Anat.  Anat was a Canaanite goddess.  And the  
name Ehud is Sumerian for House of Shamash (E.UD), where Shamash was  
their sun deity.

There's an Orthodox rabbi whose last name is Christianson, if I'm not  
mistaken.

Lisa