Talk:Rebekah

Romans and Esau

"This prophecy characterizes the future relationship of Esau's and Jacob's offspring, the Romans and the Jewish people, respectively. Rebekah does not share this prophecy with her husband, however."

Is there anything Biblical/factual to back this up? I thought Edom, a tradtional enemy of Israel, was desended from Esau...

  from Strong's -
  Edom = "red"
  1. Edom
  2. Edomite, Idumean - descendants of Esau
  3. land of Edom, Idumea - land south and south east of Palestine 

-- Nothing whatsoever to do with the Bible or Fact to say Romans and Esau are related...

Spelling of Rebekah depends on the translation consulted

There is no single correct English spelling of Rebekah, so it would not make sense to change the spelling to your own version. The following has been copied from the Language reference desk, for the information of those who wonder about the spelling of the name. It demonstrates that it is best to refer to actual text in documents, and not to to "I think" --Seejyb 05:21, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

• I have noticed that there are a number of different spellings for the name of the biblical Isaac's first wife, sometimes even within the same article. All the English translations, from KJV to Modern American, spell the name "Rebekah". The spellings Rebecca, Rebekka, Rebeccah I found in Romantic language (Vulgate, French, Italian, Portuguese) texts, as well as in German and Dutch, i.e. te continental European languages. Should I change all the occurrences of the biblical name to Rebekah (after all, this is an English encyclopedia)? Or should I leave it the way the author of the article wrote it? I suspect that many of the authors err because they have family going by the continental European spelling of Rebecca, unaware that it is spelled differently in the English scripture translations. --Seejyb 14:46, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

• I think you shouls bring it up on the talk pages for each respective article. ?? ???? 16:29, 18 December 2006 (UTC)
• Thanks, I think that is likely best. Those early Hebrew history pages are tend to become battlegrounds for holy wars, what with having 3 religions all claiming intellectual interpretative rights. And for the "all spellings in one article" cases one can correct as for the oldest version. Interestingly, the "Rebekah" article itself was renamed/moved by an editor whose mom is called Rebekah, and is one of only two edits he really made; this name change was correct and survived, the other was to put her name on the April 30 birthday list, which did not last. --Seejyb 23:21, 18 December 2006 (UTC)
• World ORT's translation spells it "Rebecca": [9]. In Hebrew, it's "Reevka" (usually transliterated as "Rivka").-- Mwalcoff 00:03, 19 December 2006 (UTC)
• As far as I know, the Hebrew language name as it's pronounced in contemporary Israel is [riv'k?]. The "short i" is consistent with the CVC pattern (vowel between two consonants), and the transliteration "Rivka" is just fine. Isn't "Rebecca" (the spelling I've found most common in US English) and its variants basically the form of that name as its entered the English-speaking world? -- Deborahjay 20:13, 19 December 2006 (UTC)
• Thanks all. I thought Rebecca was right, and was about to change it, when I reminded myself to "check before change." Then reading through nine English bibles (Genesis 24:15,30 - I know those off by heart now) showed that my assumption was wrong, it is spelled Rebekah in all but the Torah translation that Mwalcoff referred me to. Could the "Rebecca" there reflect Euro-American influence on Jewish English translation / spelling? This gets complicated:-). --Seejyb 00:01, 20 December 2006 (UTC)
• Curious. The only two English translations I have to hand - Knox and Good News - both spell it as "Rebecca", just as I would have expected. As does World Book encyclopedia. Thylacoleo 00:50, 20 December 2006 (UTC)
• Thanks for those. It fits in: Knox is Vulgate, and Good News is All American. I shall copy this to the article talk page, for reference of those editing there in future, and add the list of Bibles consulted, with spelling. We have here potentially a small fox that can ruin the vineyard :-) --Seejyb 04:17, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

Rebekah

• 21st Century King James Version, En
• American Standard Version, En
• Amplified bible, En
• Contemporary English version, En
• King James Version, En
• New American Standard bible, En
• New International version (UK) , En
• New Life version, En
• The Message, En
• Today's New International Version, En
• Young's Literal translation, En

Rebeka or Rebeca

• 1934 Vietnamese Bible
• Dette er Biblen pÃ¥ dansk
• Haitian Creole
• O Livro, Pt
• Reina-Valera 1995, Es
• Reina-Valera Antigua, Es

Rebekka or Rebecca

• Darby Translation, En
• Det Norsk Bibelselskap 1930
• Eberfelder, De
• Good News, En
• Het Boek, Nederlands
• Icelandic Bible
• La Nuova Diodati, It
• Lois Segond, Fr
• Luther Bibel 1545
• Vulgate (Lat) and Knox (En from Lat)
• World ORT, En

--Seejyb 05:21, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

In this case shouldn't the most common English name be used? As far as I know, that's certainly "Rebecca". —Batamtig 00:20, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

Nah. In the interest of the long-suffering Sephardic community, which considers her one of our 4 matriarchs, I recommend moving the article to Rivqa... If you don't get the tongue-in-cheek in there, please drink some borsht and chill out before writing any snappy replies... :-p Tomer^talk 08:11, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

Only the Sephardim consider her one of the matriarchs? I think you must be high on too much rice or lemon-chicken soup or whatever :) —Batamtig 08:22, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

Either you didn't get the tongue-in-cheek in there, or you're being cheeky yourself... :-p Tomer^talk 09:49, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

What? Have smiley's lost their meaning in international standard English orthography? :) —Batamtig 02:24, 29 December 2006 (UTC)