Why did some people's name change in the Bible?

God has authority to give names: cf. Rev. 2:17; and the name given by God indicates that which God sees fit to express in the one to whom it is given. Hence 'name' is characteristic. He altered the names of some persons: Abram was changed to Abraham; Sarai to Sarah; Jacob to Israel; and He gave reasons why they were altered; and the Lord Jesus gave Simon the name of Peter. God also applied to Israel symbolical names: as Lo-ammi, 'not my people;' and Lo-ruhamah, 'not having obtained mercy,' to mark His attitude towards them.

Names in Scripture are significant things. They are not there as in the present day put upon people for their prettiness, or because they run in the family. God did not think it an unworthy thing often Himself to interfere and change or give a name, as we can all remember, and so the Lord with His disciples. There was a reason for the name. It was the expression of what the person was, most generally, or would be, as in Abraham, Israel, Peter, and such like; and so especially with the names of God or of Christ.

And now the nameless man says to the helpless cripple, "What is thy name? And he said "Jacob," which means a, supplanter — a sorry name that — supplanter! What is our common name? Sinner! That is my name, in nature. Now hear the gospel of that moment: "Thy name shall be called no more Jacob (supplanter), but Israel (a prince of God); for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed." You are a prince, says God to him. You have lost your own strength, and your old name, and now you are clinging to Me, and you are strong.

The change of a name, in Scripture, always teaches this truth, that the person who had his name changed was subservient to the one who changed the name. You find in the Old Testament many illustrations of this. God changed Abram's name to Abraham. Pharaoh changed Joseph's name to Zaphnath-Paaneah. Nebuchadnezzar altered Daniel's to Belteshazzar, etc. Again, when Simon, the fisherman of Bethsaida, was brought to Christ by his brother Andrew, we read, "And when Jesus beheld him he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation a stone" (John 1:42). This change of name indicated an immense change in Simon's history, for what is a stone? A bit of a rock! And what is the rock? Christ! And what is a Christian? A living stone. He belongs to Christ, and has His life. You belong to Christ, my fellow-believer. You are no longer a poor sinner in your sins, but since you are converted, and quickened by the Spirit of God, you have your name changed. You are a living stone, for you have had to do with the Son of the living God, and by the reception of the word of the Son of God, which has entered into your soul, you have passed from death to life, and are indissolubly connected with Him.

Here then Jacob is told, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel; for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed." He was to have a new name and place before God, who had prevailed against, and broken him down; thereon Jacob had clung to Him, and He had blessed him. Marvellous moment in his history.

It is not only Divine names that have meanings; there is also meaning in human names at least in Scripture history. Sometimes they were expressive of the faith of those who conferred them; Eve. Noah, and Joseph are examples of this. Sometimes new names were given as marks of lordship or proprietorship. Thus Pharaoh renamed Joseph (Gen. 41:45); Nebuchadnezzar did the same to Daniel and his friends (Dan. 1:7); and the Lord Jesus granted the surname Cephas to Simon the fisherman (John 1:42). And what shall we say of the Saviour's own name and the meaning of it? "Thou shalt call His name Jesus (Jehovah the Saviour); for He shall save His people from their sins " (Matt. 1:21).

There is another element here, a common one to this purport in scripture; God's giving a name to Abram and to Sarai also. It signifies the title of direct authority, and entering into relationship on this ground. So Adam, so Pharaoh, so Nebuchadnezzar. Here God having revealed His own name gives one to Abram in connection with Himself. Thenceforth He is the God of Abraham, revealing Abraham's place, and the sign of the covenant in separation to Himself too; Abraham is the father of many nations; Ishmael even is preserved and blessed; but the promised seed stands alone, also has his name (laughter), the child of mere promise of her whom God named too, intimating, though not revealing, resurrection (compare Rom. 4:19-22). For this world, Israel as to promise holds the place of Sarah thus named, but when dead according to the flesh.

I have no doubt Peter thought it was an extraordinary thing for the Lord to change his name. I have always been known by the name of Simon, and He has taken upon Him to change my name. "Thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone." Let us see, then, the Lord's meaning. The changing of a name always implied that the one whose name was changed was subject to him who changed his name (see Gen. 17:5-15, Gen. 32:28, Gen. 35:10, Gen. 41:45; Dan. 1:7, Dan. 5:12). At that moment the Lord told Simon, You belong to Me; from this minute you are Mine. I do not think Peter forgot it, though he did not take in the truth fully. It was sovereign love that spoke there; and it was a divine Person who spoke to him. He knew what He was saying, and He changed Peter's name. That is what takes place when the Lord meets the sinner. You pass from being a sinner to being a saint. You pass through a change of name, just as Jacob, which means "supplanter," had his name changed to Israel, "a prince with God." What does the Lord say here? "Thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone." And what is a stone? A bit of a rock! And who was the rock? Christ. Did Peter understand that? Perhaps not then; but you remember afterwards, when Jesus asked, "Whom do men say that I the Son of Man am?" that presently "Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said to him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona; for flesh and blood has not revealed it to thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I also say to thee, That thou art Peter" [He confirms his name], "and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matt. 16:13-18).

John 1:40-42. There follows the proper outcome of abiding with Christ — the finding others for Christ. Thus we read that one goes forth from that hallowed place to find his own brother Simon, and having found him "he brought him to Jesus". He did not bring him merely to an outside place, nor to a company in the outside place, but to a Person, to Jesus. And how beautiful is the reception that Simon has. He finds himself in the presence of One Who knows his name, and his father's name, and Who gives him a new name. In telling Simon his name, and his father's name, the Lord lets him know that he is in the presence of One Who knows his whole history from the moment of his birth. In changing his name, Christ claims him for his own, for the right to change a name implies ownership and authority. Thus at the commencement of his spiritual history Peter learns that the Lord knows the whole of his history as a sinner, and yet claims him as His own for ever.

Simon was a ready talker, and amongst the disciples usually the first to speak, but when brought to Jesus he did not have the first word. Jesus at once showed that He knew his name and ancestry, and then gave him a new name. As we see with Daniel and his three friends, great kings asserted their ownership over servants and slaves by changing their names; in like manner when Simon came to Jesus He asserted His claim over him. But by giving him a name which meant "A stone," He did more than this: He annexed him for the building that He had in view, and of which at that moment Simon knew nothing. Simon indeed, as far as the record goes, had nothing to say. What the Lord had in view and what He said was of all moment.

One of the two disciples was Andrew, and he FIRST FINDETH HIS OWN BROTHER SIMON AND HE BROUGHT HIM TO JESUS. He bore an effective testimony to the Lord. "WE HAVE FOUND THE MESSIAS," said he, and he had no difficulty in persuading his brother to come to the One who had become everything to him. And Jesus knew him, and in the way He addressed him He showed His own right to dispose of him as He would, "Thou art Simon, the son of Jona; thou shalt be called Cephas." Great monarchs such as Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar changed the names of those that served them according to their own will, but here the Messiah of Israel exercises His right in this matter and the name that He gives to Simon declares his destiny rather than his character. He was a stone. A stone for a great and imperishable building which is now in course of preparation, composed of living stones. Every believer is what the Lord declared Simon to be. Each has become this by coming to Christ, the Living Stone (see 1 Peter 2). And the completion of this building is the consummation of God's work in this special period of time. It is in Christ, "in whom all the building, fitly framed together, groweth to an holy temple in the Lord" (Eph. 2:22).

Behold then these two fishermen coming to Jesus. Simon means "hearkener." Naturally men's ears are closed to God and to Christ; the brother of Andrew was that day getting his ears opened by the Spirit of God. "When Jesus beheld him, He said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona; thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation a stone." The giving of names is a mark of lordship, or proprietorship. Thus Adam at the beginning gave names to the beasts. Pharaoh gave a name to Joseph, Nebuchadnezzar to Daniel, etc. (Gen. 2:20; Gen. 41:45; Dan. 1:7). Simon thus became Christ's liege man from that day forward. Indeed everyone will sooner or later have to acknowledge the same Lord.