Hi Bill,

Your post was well reasoned, and I concur.

One of the things I admire most about the Torah, Writings, and the Prophets of the Old Testament is the commitment of the Jewish writers and redactors, also of YHWH, to the presentation of truth, allowing same to cut howsoever and whomsoever (gr?) it may.

I think the name, ben Abraham, is a generic name meaning "son of Abraham." It is the sort of name converts to Judaism take.

Oddly enough, in the thirteenth or fourteenth century, in France, I think, it became a religious fad among some Christians to take the name of Abraham to themselves. The pietistic implication being, possibly/probably, that as believers in Christ they are sons of the promises made to Abraham by YHWH. See OT Genesis and NT Romans (the figurative language therein about the grafting of wild olive branches into the cultivated olive tree) and Galatians (children of the free woman v. children of the slave woman).

Thanks for posting.

vM