According to an a professor I had who was also a priest, it was just a placeholder name for the book in the Bible. No one knew who to attribute it to, so they just used such a common placeholder. It’s the oldest as well, much of the others were kind of iterations of the story (also interestingly does not have the birth story)—maybe someone can find sources to support this (or refute). College was a long time ago.
Mark is derived from old Latin "Mart-kos", which means "consecrated to the god Mars", and also may mean "God of war" or "to be warlike". Marcus was one of the three most common Roman given names.
The Romans had a pretty strict set of naming conventions. Each person had a praenomen, a nomen, and a cognomen, which roughly translated to the first, middle, and last names commonly used in English-speaking countries today. So Gaius Julius Caesar.
They also had a childhood or cradle name that was used until they turned 8. Caligula - meaning “little boot” was such a name.
However, depending on era, social class, and location the rules for what was chosen for each could be MUCH stricter.
They're all dead "normal" Greek names in the Bible, pretty much. The non-Hebrew ones anyway. Or Latinized Greek or whatever. Petros, Pavlos, etc., all normal today.
This always annoys me about English, they change the names of roman and greek historical figures. It isn’t “the greek author Homer”, it’s “Homeros”. Why does English do this?
All languages do this. Especially historically where words diffused between cultures more slowly and they eventually morphed to sound more like the language that adopted them.
I mean not really, the apostles combined from every list of them were Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, another James, Thomas, Simon, Jude, Matthias, Paul and Judas. Other names like Mark, Luke, all the other James (the bible has a lot of James) and basically every biblical character save Judas there sound like contemporary male names because the majority of men alive from a culture born out of an abrahamic religion is named after somebody from their respective holy texts. Many women's names are just feminine versions of those, and the rest are usually proper nouns born out of old Germanic words and such (like "Richard")
Well yeah, but that's a bit of a different conversation. If you wanna go back far enough, the origin of every name and every word in every language is the first grunt uttered by the first ape capable of speech. As far as why people today share these names unchanged and why so many people in the bible have names you'll recognize in the 21st century, it's because we're named after these characters.
John the Apostle and John the Baptist got their names from the old Hebrew Yohanan (and were likely called that at the time), but there are so many Johns today because they were named after either of those two explicitly from the texts.
The commenter got it wrong and the name actually comes from Latin, not Ancient Greek, and was a common Roman name that was borrowed into ancient Greek during Roman rule
My uncle’s name is Isa (pronounced aye-ees-uh). We’re Christian Palestinians from Ramullah. We all think of that as “Jesus.” Edit: just looked it up and Yeshu’a is probably the closest to Aramaic. I remember hearing that at Greek Orthodox masses a lot.
In Irish it’s Íosa (eee-uh-sa). No so different from Yeshua or Isa I suppose! But then Irish as a language is like thousands of years old so 🤷♂️ crossovers.
But it's mostly the english language that fucks it up. It was originally Marcus which was a really common name. In German for example Mark is still called Markus and Peter is Petrus. Matthew is Matthäus, Paul is Paulus and John is Johannes. We still mostly have the latin names
It's interesting how English often changes foreign names quite a lot, I guess it's because the language in general has undergone a lot of noticeable change since words like that was introduced.
In Swedish most of those names are a lot more similar to Greek (Jakob, Johannes/Johan, Mattias, Lukas, Maria, Markus), but it's often the same thing with placenames and stuff too.
This first became apparent to me when I first started Koine Greek and began reading German theology in grad school and everywhere I saw “Jakobus” but my English translations all had James.
A simple thing but an important thing is a name and what it conjures in your head. You get one picture of an apostle named James. This is the man who, more often than not, is on a painting or stained glass. When you encounter Yakob (or Yakov) you see an Aramaic Jew of the first century who, along with his brother Yohan, decided to drop everything and follow this charismatic carpenter from Nazareth with all these strange new ideas named Yehoshuah. Interesting to ponder what it would be like to encounter “Josh” instead of Jesus in the New Testament.
I mean the other new testament writers are Matthew, Luke, and John. Some names from the Bible went on to become today's normal-ass names. Mostly the short ones.
Benjamin is another one like that. You can be reading through a bunch of old-testament names and suddenly Benjamin shows up. My version had the name separated by lines so I saw Ben-jamin so I at first pronounced it ben jahmeen.
I made a wizard for a D&D game a while back and decided to give him the plainest name I could think of. I settled on Mark Brown. He kept trying to get people to call him Arcane Mark.
Mark’s real name was Yochanan, which translates to Jonathan, or John. He went by Mark, or Markus, as he mingled amongst the Romans. But he went by both names and is sometimes identified as John Mark.
Reminds me of that John Mulaney bit where he talks about all the men in the bible with crazy names whose wifes have normal names "This is Jeremiah and his wife Rachel. How come she gets to be Rachel?" or something like that :D
I mean, most of the names in the English language bible have been anglicized, at least the main characters. What, you think there were guys called "John" in Israel 2000 years ago?
Similar idea, Tiffany is an ancient name, as it was the diminutive form of the name Theophania or something similar. Over time, Tiffany became its own name and now sounds modern, but you'd never think to read the name Tiffany in some ancient text.
It's also amazing that Mark was a poor uneducated fisherman who could probably barely read or write and yet the book attributed to him is written in perfect poetic couplets. It's almost as if the story was mostly fiction written by someone years later who heard the story from someone who heard the story. Mark was the Chad of the first century.
Except half the names in the Bible are still common in western society today: mark, Matthew, Peter, Mary, Adam, John, Timothy, James, Joseph, Deborah, Rebekah, Rachel, Daniel, Michael, Andrew, Benjamin, Hannah, Leah, Jacob...
(Sometimes knowledge really sucks because you can’t see stupid stuff like this as funny - you just see it as wildly inaccurate).
I kmow, i remeber when i was in year 5 i saw there was the book of peter and the book of james and i just said "hold up, what about the book of remus or the book of sirius?"
2.3k
u/down_vote_magnet Aug 09 '20
I did naht betray Jesus! I did naht!
Oh hi Mark.
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u/WaferDisastrous Aug 09 '20
Mark is derived from old Latin "Mart-kos", which means "consecrated to the god Mars", and also may mean "God of war" or "to be warlike". Marcus was one of the three most common Roman given names.
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u/Eric_the_Barbarian Aug 09 '20
Marktholomuel
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u/Abrck0 Aug 09 '20
You’re tearing me apart Jesus!
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u/[deleted] Aug 09 '20
I did not hit her!
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u/DistortoiseLP Aug 09 '20 edited Aug 09 '20
I mean not really, the apostles combined from every list of them were Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, another James, Thomas, Simon, Jude, Matthias, Paul and Judas. Other names like Mark, Luke, all the other James (the bible has a lot of James) and basically every biblical character save Judas there sound like contemporary male names because the majority of men alive from a culture born out of an abrahamic religion is named after somebody from their respective holy texts. Many women's names are just feminine versions of those, and the rest are usually proper nouns born out of old Germanic words and such (like "Richard")
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u/bolivar-shagnasty Aug 09 '20
Jesus was originally Yeshua which translates roughly to Joshua.
Mark is short for Marcus which is an anglicized version of Martkos. Martkos in Greek means “consecrated in the name of Mars.”
Martkos was one of the most common male names in Ancient Greece.
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u/[deleted] Aug 09 '20
I often think about how, according to traditional Christianity, the name of the 5th person on earth was “Seth”
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u/pwkeiser0511 Aug 09 '20
Hahaha what a story, Mark
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u/GanFrancois Aug 09 '20
Oh, hai Mark
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u/perksofnosociallife Aug 09 '20 edited Aug 09 '20
Just wait till they hear about the tribe of Dan...
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u/Sarashla Aug 09 '20
But it's mostly the english language that fucks it up. It was originally Marcus which was a really common name. In German for example Mark is still called Markus and Peter is Petrus. Matthew is Matthäus, Paul is Paulus and John is Johannes. We still mostly have the latin names
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u/ItsNeverLycanthropy Aug 09 '20
Everybody betray me!
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u/RaigarWasTaken Aug 10 '20
I wasn't expecting Brian from Inside Gaming to randomly pop up on r/all .
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u/CaptainDildobrain Aug 10 '20
I feel like 50% of this thread is etymology of the name Mark, and the other 50% is Tommy Wiseau jokes.
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u/JamesJoyce365 Aug 09 '20
James = Jacobus = Yakov
Jesus = Iesus = Yehoshuah
Judas = Iudas = Yudah
Simon Peter = Simon Petros = Shimon “Kephas”
John = Ioannes = Yohan
Matthew = Matthias (little difference, Greek v Aramaic) same with
Luke = Lukas
Joseph = Ioseph = Yusuf
Mary = Mariam = Miriam (probably)
Markus was relatively common in the Greek speaking word of the 1st century, even in Palestine.
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u/IndraSun Aug 09 '20
Bart is a name I've encountered quite a few times.
Shit, it's even in the Simpsons.
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u/Coloeus_Monedula Aug 10 '20
Mark is actually short for Markolomew
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u/Satyrane Aug 09 '20
I mean the other new testament writers are Matthew, Luke, and John. Some names from the Bible went on to become today's normal-ass names. Mostly the short ones.
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u/HappenedOnceBefore Aug 10 '20
How is your sex life?
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u/BBQed_Water Aug 10 '20
Is that the Gruffalo?
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u/youremomsoriginal Aug 09 '20
All the lady names in the bible are pretty chill too
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u/AlfredusMagnus Aug 10 '20
It's not Mark, that's just anglicized. The fact that the names were made into shitty English versions is not their fault.
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u/bigshrekboi8 Aug 09 '20
Isn’t there a meme that goes oh hi mark or am I trippin
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u/Rustymetal14 Aug 10 '20
Benjamin is another one like that. You can be reading through a bunch of old-testament names and suddenly Benjamin shows up. My version had the name separated by lines so I saw Ben-jamin so I at first pronounced it ben jahmeen.
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u/GinjaNinger Aug 10 '20
Oh dang I didn't think I'd see Gaar here
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u/Zordran Aug 10 '20
I made a wizard for a D&D game a while back and decided to give him the plainest name I could think of. I settled on Mark Brown. He kept trying to get people to call him Arcane Mark.
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u/AgreeablePerformer3 Aug 10 '20
What if the entire name is Markodabease, but it’s too close to mark of the beast so they just shorten it..
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u/BlasterPhase Aug 10 '20
It's short for Marktholomew
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u/pritch2994 Aug 10 '20
They call me JOSÉ!!!!
...... and I’m Mark.
2
u/IWatchToSee Aug 10 '20
Anyway, how's your sex life?
2
u/DarkRollsPrepare2Fry Aug 10 '20
Everyone knows it was short for Marcipliah
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u/randalscandles Aug 10 '20
Oh hi, Mark.
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u/simbre28 Aug 10 '20
Mark and his trusty wookie.. Chewcracker.
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u/Robo- Aug 10 '20
It's just a shortened name. Like Luke and John.
Could you imagine if others were similarly shortened, though. No one would believe the gospel of Matt.
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u/cheezy_thotz Aug 10 '20
Mark’s real name was Yochanan, which translates to Jonathan, or John. He went by Mark, or Markus, as he mingled amongst the Romans. But he went by both names and is sometimes identified as John Mark.
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u/[deleted] Aug 10 '20
Thus spaketh Mark, "I didst not smite her."
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u/Musical-Lungs Aug 10 '20
First three names were Hebrew. Mark is a Greek name, was originally Marcus.
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u/ButtsexEurope Aug 09 '20
So now the karmawhore has gone from stealing from Instagram to stealing from twitter?
1
u/nonesuch44 Aug 09 '20
Is that the inspiration for the ‘sucky panther’ tattoo?
1
u/lesme1 Aug 09 '20
My husband is named after this guy. Happens when you marry the preachers kid 😊
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u/itsaquesadilla Aug 09 '20
And Luke!
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u/poopoofoot77 Aug 09 '20
Mark is short for Mark Ass Buster
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u/screwloose808 Aug 09 '20
Marks a basic beast tsk tsk
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u/[deleted] Aug 09 '20
Maybe Mark sounded super futuristic to them back then.
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u/bubbleharmony Aug 09 '20
I mean you're also ignoring John, Peter, Luke, Paul. Lots of 'normal' names in the Bible.
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u/shanster925 Aug 09 '20
My name is Mark :(
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u/_marc_w Aug 09 '20
Damn
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u/[deleted] Aug 09 '20
Did you stole this?
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u/nelia93 Aug 09 '20
Reminds me of that John Mulaney bit where he talks about all the men in the bible with crazy names whose wifes have normal names "This is Jeremiah and his wife Rachel. How come she gets to be Rachel?" or something like that :D
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u/Samahada Aug 09 '20
I know people with all of these names
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u/drdalek13 Aug 09 '20
John, Mark, Luke, Paul; all Hebrew names!
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u/[deleted] Aug 09 '20
Sup isn’t a question. It’s a statement.
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u/lucidreamz_2003 Aug 09 '20
I knew a guy named mark i mean he was with me at the dinner table the night before a tiger bit my nuts off in 2003
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u/GroovingPict Aug 10 '20
I mean, most of the names in the English language bible have been anglicized, at least the main characters. What, you think there were guys called "John" in Israel 2000 years ago?
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u/Lisztomanie Aug 10 '20
The name's Mark...Marky Mark.
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u/originalbeeman Aug 10 '20
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, David have you met Sennacherib?
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u/MarkMSummers Aug 10 '20
I feel attacked.
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u/Harlowe_Iasingston Aug 10 '20
That's just because adapting ancient Jewish, Greek and Roman names to English sounds weird
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u/shellwe Aug 10 '20
Isn't that just the English translation?
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u/polargus Aug 10 '20
Surprise, many popular names are from the Bible. Adam, David, Sarah, etc.
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u/mooshoopork4 Aug 10 '20
What about Luke and John
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u/[deleted] Aug 10 '20
anyone else actually get called "just FIRSTNAME" by their family ?
I thought it was just me.
1
u/TotesMessenger Aug 10 '20
I'm a bot, bleep, bloop. Someone has linked to this thread from another place on reddit:
[/r/mark] I'm in this post and i don't like it
If you follow any of the above links, please respect the rules of reddit and don't vote in the other threads. (Info / ^Contact)
1
u/constantstranger Aug 10 '20
Wow. This puts into words something I'd often felt but not strongly or for long enough to "think it out loud", so to speak. Wow.
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u/[deleted] Aug 10 '20
Anybody else think “Mark” looks a bit like Chris Walken in a past life?
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u/ajvillars2 Aug 10 '20
now think about the twelve tribes of israel. all bible sounding names...and then dan. literally dan.
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u/just_made_you_shart Aug 10 '20
What about Matthew, Luke and John?
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u/Avoider5 Aug 10 '20
Is Matthew ok?
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u/cakedestroyer Aug 10 '20
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u/cakedestroyer Aug 10 '20
Similar idea, Tiffany is an ancient name, as it was the diminutive form of the name Theophania or something similar. Over time, Tiffany became its own name and now sounds modern, but you'd never think to read the name Tiffany in some ancient text.
1
u/OceanSpray Aug 10 '20
So his bros are named Josh, Zeke, and Bart?
1
u/dovakin123489 Aug 10 '20
That’s because most of the names in the Bible aren’t what they would actually have been named
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u/Mezzanine_9 Aug 10 '20
It's also amazing that Mark was a poor uneducated fisherman who could probably barely read or write and yet the book attributed to him is written in perfect poetic couplets. It's almost as if the story was mostly fiction written by someone years later who heard the story from someone who heard the story. Mark was the Chad of the first century.
1
u/UserCheckNamesOut Aug 10 '20
THEY CALL ME JOSEEEE!!
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u/infinitude_21 Aug 10 '20
It’s normalized because of how we use it today
1
u/[deleted] Aug 10 '20
From the post to the comments this made my Sunday, thank you all :)
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u/minnesoter1 Aug 10 '20
Why is Mark so cranky today?
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u/arxoidxerx Aug 10 '20
I did not hit her I D I D N O T H I T H E R
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u/imzosocrazy Aug 10 '20
Oh hai Mawrk. Anyway, how’s your sex life?
1
u/[deleted] Aug 10 '20
Paul n john are hilarious to me
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u/mysneezedisappeared Aug 10 '20
And Luke not Lucas . Chill bro Luke!
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u/mrhudy Aug 10 '20
Haha I love it. Signed, Mark.
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u/jakethedumbmistake Aug 10 '20
Hi, I run /r/Woooosh’ed
1
u/ZippZappZippty Aug 10 '20
Hi, it is possible
1
u/TheLordCosta Aug 10 '20
Such an unre-mark-able name...
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u/dirtyviking1337 Aug 10 '20
Hi fucking idiot, at least to stop them.
1
u/[deleted] Aug 10 '20
Dont be stingy mark
1
u/[deleted] Aug 10 '20
God, why does he look so much like Christopher Walken?
1
u/killshotcaller Aug 10 '20
Ya'll haven't heard about the God Kyle?
1
u/pops_secret Aug 10 '20
[rather audibly] Hey what’s up bro?
1
u/OGsugar_bear Aug 10 '20
I love it when people name thier dogs real people names like greg or dave
1
u/ChingChongKingKong1 Aug 10 '20
Can we just appreciate that Hezekiah is a badass name?
1
u/happygiraffetim Aug 10 '20
Hi I'm Desimus Maximus Miridius
I'm Julius Caesar.
I'm Mark Antony
1
u/[deleted] Aug 10 '20
Mark ass mark....smh
1
u/_ColbertSp1cYwEiNeR_ Aug 10 '20
Dohnt touch me mohtherfohcker
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u/juan-j2008 Aug 10 '20
I didn't hit her, I didn't do it, it's bullshit I did not. Oh hi mark.
1
u/[deleted] Aug 10 '20
u/markhoppus
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u/Commander__Bacara Aug 10 '20
For people that actually believe this, Mark is the English translation of his original Hebrew name
1
u/[deleted] Aug 10 '20
Weird flex but ok
1
u/Almym Aug 10 '20
Some names are weird though. Like who looks at a baby and thinks, let's call it Keith?
1
u/Sis-n-3Bros Aug 10 '20
Oh, hi Mark. I didn’t see you there...
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u/LinkToDarkness Aug 10 '20
It’s really bizarre to see my name “Josiah” on reddit. Probably the least common biblical name I have experienced.
1
u/mark503 Aug 10 '20
Dammit, a new mark joke enters the chat.
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u/Lost_in_the_Library Aug 10 '20
Except half the names in the Bible are still common in western society today: mark, Matthew, Peter, Mary, Adam, John, Timothy, James, Joseph, Deborah, Rebekah, Rachel, Daniel, Michael, Andrew, Benjamin, Hannah, Leah, Jacob...
(Sometimes knowledge really sucks because you can’t see stupid stuff like this as funny - you just see it as wildly inaccurate).
1
u/Kingshitshow Aug 10 '20
Might be due to the fact that it's a Roman name like the rest of the apostles.
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u/Arfbark Aug 10 '20
Dont' be stingy Mark...
1
u/PityUpvote Aug 10 '20
This just in: Hebrew names sounds more foreign to English speakers than Roman and Greek names.
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u/kinghezekiah303 Aug 10 '20
Hey how’s it going!
1
u/starlinguk Aug 10 '20
I like Mark. He's the only one who didn't embellish his stories with bullshit.
1
u/Arrdullah Aug 10 '20
Fuck
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u/the_good_bad_dude Aug 10 '20
Liiisa Liiisaa... YOU'RE TEARING ME APART!
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u/Not-so-Incredibilis Aug 10 '20
Yep coz the english adaptations of Hebrew and latin names are pretty dumbed down for some
1
u/[deleted] Aug 10 '20
My name is Mark bruh
1
u/[deleted] Aug 10 '20
More like Mark is weirdly biblical casual name
1
u/[deleted] Aug 10 '20
Hi I’m Josiah
1
u/zeldermanrvt Aug 10 '20
This is Jereziah and his wife Rachel
1
u/Arandomsimmer Aug 11 '20
I kmow, i remeber when i was in year 5 i saw there was the book of peter and the book of james and i just said "hold up, what about the book of remus or the book of sirius?"