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Many names in the Old Testament are transliterated and used today. The names from later books -- such as Jonathan (Yonatan), Samuel (Shemu'el), and Joshua (Yehoshu'a) -- all seem to follow basic rules like having a j instead of the Hebrew "yud" and a ch or h for the harsher sounds. However, names from the beginning of Genesis -- Eve (Chavah), Abel (Hevel), Enoch (Chanokh), and others -- sound quite different from their Hebrew originals. Why do these names seem to be transliterated differently compared to later names?

SophArch
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    Because they're 3000 years old? – Hot Licks Jan 28 '16 at 03:17
  • You might want to ask in SE: Christianity, since they deal with translation questions. I can say that Eve, Abel, Enoch and maybe even Melchezedek have been used as names in the USA at least. – GoDucks Jan 28 '16 at 03:19
  • @sumelic Thank you for pointing that out. I modified my language – SophArch Jan 28 '16 at 03:30
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    "Transliterated" if probably the wrong verb here, or at least "transliterated from Hebrew" is the wrong way to think about it. The Old Testament names acquired their current English forms via a process that can be best characterized as a long game of telephone. Each language that it was translated into (and hint: English didn't enter the picture for 1500 years) would "adapt" the names to fit their available sounds. The names then took on a life of their own, quite apart from the translations, leading to English having both James and Jacob, which are really the same name. Sorta. – Marthaª Jan 28 '16 at 03:31
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    We virtually have fist-fights here about what is and isn't "proper" English, even though we have the printing press and a handful of other technological assists. 2600 years ago (IIRC), when the early texts of the Old Testament were being codified, they were lucky to be able to read the parchment scrolls (and likely some details had to be filled in from oral legend). – Hot Licks Jan 28 '16 at 03:31
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    Why would the beginning of the Old Testament be different from the rest though? Most other names seem to follow the basic pattern in my question, but not the ones in the beginning. Why the inconsistency? – SophArch Jan 28 '16 at 03:34
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    I think this is an excellent question about the etymology of frequently used English words. The etymology of any English word will necessarily involve other languages; this is of no consequence. Those who complain about the topicality of questions such as this should reconsider their perspective. – Cerberus - Reinstate Monica Jan 28 '16 at 03:35
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    Here's a relevant book: https://books.google.com/books?id=OSMqVuZCbxoC&pg=PA89&lpg=PA89&dq=Greek+transliteration+Hebrew+bible+names&source=bl&ots=-47aPPc5Va&sig=fu9HXUz3dLZxNopuLa2xoJ-F88o&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjn9JuUycvKAhUY7mMKHReiCrM4ChDoAQg7MAY#v=onepage&q=Greek%20transliteration%20Hebrew%20bible%20names&f=false – herisson Jan 28 '16 at 03:37
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    Can you include in your question the original Hebrew names and their pronunciation for both the early and later names? It might help us form some conjectures. It may just be a historical accident based on who translated which books in what order. Maybe the early books were done by some lazy scribe whereas the later ones were done more faithfully. – DyingIsFun Jan 28 '16 at 03:48
  • Moreover there are many dozen (a hundred?) other names in Genesis 1-11, which I assume you are talking about. Have you checked the etymology and/or transliteration of them all? – GoDucks Jan 28 '16 at 04:00
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    "Hevel" is modern Hebrew pronunciation. The middle consonant was historically b, and was transliterated in all positions using Greek beta, and later using Latin b. This is consistent in all books of the Bible as far as I know, not just Genesis. (Other examples: Caleb, Job, Abraham) – herisson Jan 28 '16 at 04:01
  • @sumelic The problem I now realize I have is with the beginnings and ends of the names. Where there was originally a soft "h" sound it has been replaced by a vowel like Abel. Where there was a hard ḥ it has been replaced by a vowel like in Eve and Enoch. It could be inexperience, but this seems unusual to me – SophArch Jan 28 '16 at 04:05
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    Other names that begin with the ḥ or ch but were not changed to a vowel include Hannah (Chanah), Havakuk (Chavakuk, one of the 12 minor prophets), Haggai (Chaggai). None of these have had their hard ch or ḥ sound replaced by a vowel – SophArch Jan 28 '16 at 04:14
  • @SophArch: Good find; that is an interesting specific question. – herisson Jan 28 '16 at 04:15
  • Are you comparing Early Modern English (eg Authorised Version) to modern Hebrew? Both languages and their respective pronunciations will have changed significantly since the text was written. Chavakuk is usually spelled Habbakuk in English, for example, with a B sound. Variations in the initial consonants may also have occurred. – Andrew Leach Jan 28 '16 at 08:33
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    Keep in mind that a Christian in early England might know at most 20-30 different names from the Bible, and those would be highly subject to effects from local dialect. These "popular" names got widely mutated and then "hardened" in print well before the KJV was written. – Hot Licks Jan 28 '16 at 13:13
  • @HotLicks makes a very good point, and I would extend that same thought back at least a millennium further. Parsing the Bible in 3 time segments (Moses to David, David to return from Babylon, return from Babylon through Christian Era) I notice a pattern in the names you cite. Eve etc are rare in part 1, and don't occur later except as quoted historical names. But names from late in part 1 (forms of Johnathon etc) are actively used even after some major shifts in ancient Hebrew itself, and beyond. Ex: Yehoshu'a > Yeshua > Ieousus > Jesus. Still short of an "answer" but will do some research. – H.R.Rambler Feb 09 '16 at 21:22
  • To further nail down my thought... Let's theorize this path (Hebrew > Greek > Latin > English). I wonder if names that were already archaic at the time of the Greek Septuagint translation were transliterated then from their "early form", but names that had active "modern forms" where translated from "contemporary Hebrew" into their Septuagint forms. Names with diverging middle paths could easily be expected to have differing end characteristics. – H.R.Rambler Feb 09 '16 at 21:43
  • @H.R.Rambler are you saying that names that were reused to name people in the community throughout time (e.g. Abraham) were transliterated normally but names that were not, like Eve, fell into disuse and so were transliterated differently? – SophArch Feb 11 '16 at 01:36
  • @SophArch Yeah that's the research premise that I would begin with personally. The only difference is the word "normal". Each point in a translation timeline has it's own normal. I would say that names that have fallen into disuse get "fossilized" in the normal of an earlier time. – H.R.Rambler Feb 11 '16 at 02:12
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    Here's a related question; I don't know if the answer is accurate though: Why Abraham and not Avraham? – herisson Feb 13 '16 at 21:34

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The loss of the initial heth in Eve, Abel and Enoch (as well as Anna and other names) is due to their journey via Koine Greek, which represented the word-initial aspiration of heth (and he) with a 'rough breathing' diacritic on the initial vowel. Since the breathing marks weren't used regularly, and since the [h] sound was eventually dropped in pronunciation, the names entered Latin and English with no aspiration sound.

It's also important to remember that both the English pronunciation and Modern Hebrew pronunciation have changed significantly since the names were formed. The v in the Latin Eva and ו in חַוָּה‎ were both pronounced w. The intervocalic β in the Greek Ἄβελ (Abel) was closer to a v than word-initial βs were. And Biblical Hebrew had more vowels than Modern Hebrew does (which might partly explain why it's Eva rather than Ava, or Abel rather than Ebel).

Uri Granta
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    Wasn't it the opposite way around – Hebrew intervocalic beth was closer to /b/ than it is nowadays? I don't know of any evidence that Greek beta used to be pronounced differently at the start and middle of words. That might be a reasonable intermediate between the original "b everywhere" pronunciation and the current "v everywhere" pronunciation, but that seems unnecessary as an explanation. – herisson Feb 11 '16 at 20:11
  • My impression was that New Testament Koine had a bilabial fricative in intervocalic position and a b elsewhere, but you're right that this is not needed to explain the use of beta in transliterations. – Uri Granta Feb 11 '16 at 23:51
  • Is there a reason it seems to happen more in early Genesis compared to the rest of the Bible? – SophArch Apr 18 '16 at 14:14