Dr. Boid Confirmed My Theory

My best friend in the world confirmed that the Mandaean form of the name John - viz. Yuhana - might well be the diminutive form Yonah or 'Johnny' that we have been talking about with regards to the 'sign of Jonah' in the last few posts.

The Qu'ran has an interesting take on the name saying that John's name was unique:

We give thee good news of a son: His name shall be John: on none by that name have We conferred distinction before. [Surah 19: 7]

Christians inevitably attack the statement saying that "there were lot's of people named John before 'John the Baptist.'" But I think they miss the point. I think the Qu'ran is right insofar as the Aramaic name Yonah as a diminutive is actually quite rare - so rare that I think that in fact it was unique to the figure in the gospel.

I am not saying that the form of the name preserved in the Qu'ran - Yahya - was used by John himself. This is clearly an Arabic version of the original. But that's not the point. The Qu'ran says that John's name was unique and, by gosh, I think this preserves an authentic truth lost in the European gospels.

As I noted from the introductory acrostic to many of the Diatessaron texts:

M a tt ai = 'Matthew'
m R q s = 'Mark'
l u Q a = 'Luke'
y o n H = 'John'

The manner in which the name 'Mark' (= Sam. Aram. marqah) is squeezed into the first letter of the first evangelist, second letter of the second evangelist, third letter of the third evangelist and fourth letter of the fourth evangelist necessitates a version of the name John which had the letter 'h' (he) as its fourth letter. It clearly proves that the name 'Yonah' or 'Johnny' was used in the earliest period in the gospel narrative for 'John.'