Sunday, March 6, 2016

JOHN...TO...JONES : Big Picture 4

Perhaps, this will be the biggest picture yet.  It shows a corridor in time through the languages that became involved in our surname JONES.  First, take a deep breath...then take a look at the figure below.


Wow you might say...but let's begin in the upper left corner.

The Hebrew language was the first to introduce the writing of the name we translate JOHN.  It was around 1000 BC.  The documentation can be found in "The Interlinear Bible -  Hebrew / English" Vol. II, p. 1123.  "Jehohanan" is the English translation, and the story is found in the book  I Chronicles 26:3.

The name carried through the Hebrew, and it was not until the Jewish scholars at Alexandria, Egypt (285-247 BC) translated their books into Greek, that the name appears in a more widely used language.  "Ionathan" [translated Jonathan] is the word. The documentation can be found in "The Septuagint with Apocrypha" by Brenton, p.561.

Now is was the Roman Empire that brought its language [Latin] to the world, and it became the dominate phonetic expression.   It was under this "world administration" that Christianity had its beginnings, and the name JOHN appears frequently in the early Christian writings.   Around 250 AD, the Christians were being driven out of the Empire, and the faith moved to the Islands.  Here it met the Celtic folks who formed the "Celtic Church". [P-Celtic/Brythonic]

Around 400 AD the Roman world was about to collapse and the P-Celtic folks began their own development as linguistic groups.  It was also around this time that the Saxons began their appearance, and the Anglo-Saxon language joined in the fray.  So, by 600 AD the Saxons had accepted Christianity, the Celtic Church had survived, and the Roman center of Church administration all used the surname JOHN. [Only in their own language...Latin being that of the Church.]

So again, before the French [Normans] ever showed up; 1) Latin, 2) Anglo-Saxon , and 3) Welsh were recording the name JOHN in their own languages, transmitted from the Hebrew to Greek.  Now, how "big" a picture can you get?

A summary is shown: