Article May 4, 2015 Issue

Our true family name

Jeannie Ferber

Who wouldn’t love to now understand the family of man in the way the Bible assures us we are made to be: “[God] hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6)?

By definition today, a family name is the name all members of one family share in common. Surnames in the Western world are a relatively recent phenomenon, however. They came about in medieval times and often denoted people’s occupation or the region in which they lived.

But history, even recent history, shows that surnames have sometimes segmented societies and unfairly stereotyped large groups of people. Even more mischievous is the claim that surnames tie us to a mortal history, when, in truth, we all have a name—an identity—that forever links us to God and reveals our eternal spiritual individuality.

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