Presented at
2025 Abraham and His Family Conference
Saturday, May 3 and Saturday, May 10, 2025
Sponsored by The Interpreter Foundation, Brigham Young University Religious Education,
Scripture Central, and FAIR Latter-day Saints
The book of Genesis is largely etiological in character. While etiology abounds in the Pentateuch as a whole and occurs throughout the narrative portions of the Hebrew Bible, Genesis is particularly etiological. In using and applying the terms etiological and etiology, I follow Michael H. Floyd who states that etiology “refers to stories that tell how something came to be or came to have its definitive characteristics. In Scripture such stories are typically told about names of persons and places, rites and customs, ethnic identities and other natural phenomena.” The onomastic dimension of etiology constitutes a key element, not only in the Creation and Primeval History accounts (Genesis 1–11), but also in the Abrahamic narratives that are firmly built upon those accounts (Genesis 12–50).In the study that follows I will endeavor to show how the patriarchal narratives of the Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob cycles (Genesis 12–35) largely revolve around onomastic etiologies that explain names in terms of sacred events. These sacred events include, theophanies, the making and fulfillment of divine covenants and promises, and (relatedly) divine acts and human choices that ensure the preservation and growth of the family of Abraham as a covenant lineage.
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Matthew L. Bowen
Matthew L. Bowen was raised in Orem, Utah, and graduated from Brigham Young University. He holds a PhD in Biblical Studies from the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, and is currently an associate professor in religious education at Brigham Young University–Hawaii. He is also the author of Name as Key-Word: Collected Essays on Onomastic Wordplay and the Temple in Mormon Scripture (Salt Lake City: Interpreter Foundation and Eborn Books, 2018) and Ancient Names in the Book of Mormon: Toward a Deeper Understanding of a Witness of Christ (Salt Lake City: Interpreter Foundation and Eborn Books, 2023). With Aaron P. Schade, he is the coauthor of The Book of Moses: From the Ancient of Days to the Latter Days (Provo, UT; Salt Lake City: Religious Studies Center and Deseret Book, 2021). He and his wife (the former Suzanne Blattberg) are the parents of three children: Zachariah, Nathan, and Adele.
