names in the bible

[identity]

people,
the names in the old testament like aram,joachim,abraham, etc sound clearly jewish/hebrew.but in the new testament and the gospels some names like miriam,isa,jesus(greek form of isus) sound jewish while others like john,peter, paul sound anglo. how is this explained? i am only considering the jewish population here - pontius pilate does not fit into my question.
also the high priest caiphas - is that a hebrew name?

[Talvi]

Paul comes from Saul, John from Yohanan... etc.. they sound "aglo" coz they have been modified? :)

[Wyn]

but in the new testament and the gospels some names like miriam

Hebrew origin, etymology uncertain.


while others like john

John = Yohanan = 'Yahweh is gracious.'


peter

Peter is from the Greek Petros, used to translate the Aramaic Kephas (the names having the same meaning).


paul

Paul is a Greek name.


sound anglo. how is this explained? i am only considering the jewish population here - pontius pilate does not fit into my question.

Names are Latinised as texts are translated into Latin, Hellenised as they are translated into Greek etc. This has happened throughout history. John only sounds 'Anglo' to you because of the large number of English speakers that bear it.


also the high priest caiphas - is that a hebrew name?

It is Aramaic, as far as I know.

[identity]

ancient roman names end with an -us like pontius,julius while modern day italian names end with -o, as in roberto,alessandro,georgio. why is this?

[Magister Eckhart]

ancient roman names end with an -us like pontius,julius while modern day italian names end with -o, as in roberto,alessandro,georgio. why is this?

Simply put:

Tempora mutantur et nos mutamur in illis.

[Eldritch]

ancient roman names end with an -us like pontius,julius while modern day italian names end with -o, as in roberto,alessandro,georgio. why is this?

Are you serious? Languages change over time. Surely Hindu names have changes over the centuries too?

In the case of Italian, the language evolved into its present form relatively recently from Vulgar Latin, if I'm not mistaken. Each city-state in what today is Italy had its own Vulgar Latin dialect.

[identity]

wagnerian, care to translate that bit of latin for me? i am a barely literate injun you see hehe.
eldritch - i would say the majority of hindu names - at least sanskrit names - have been carried on as they are through centuries if not millenia.

[Eldritch]

eldritch - i would say the majority of hindu names - at least sanskrit names - have been carried on as they are through centuries if not millenia.

Yes, I'm (vaguely) aware of this, but what about the names in languages that are descended from Sanskrit?

Like Wikipedia informs me, Sanskrit is roughly in the same position in India as Latin (and Greek) is in Europe, with several modern languages, such as Italian, French, Spanish, Romanian etc. that have developed from it.

[Magister Eckhart]

wagnerian, care to translate that bit of latin for me? i am a barely literate injun you see hehe.
eldritch - i would say the majority of hindu names - at least sanskrit names - have been carried on as they are through centuries if not millenia.

Tempora | mutantur | et | nos | mutamur | in illis.

The times | are changing | and | we | must change | in them.

A looser translation might be "Times change and we must likewise change."

[identity]

good bit of roman wisdom there wagnerian.
eldritch, you are right in pegging sanskrit as amother language for other regional languages in india. but names in snaskrit have survived intact inspite of their derived forms. ex krishna has changed to krishan , kisan and kisna but any number of newborn infants are also named krishna even today. the names from the mahabharat and ramayan have carried on unmolested for the most part. there are vedic names which are not quite in vogue though .