Brandon Simonson
Brandon Simonson, Ph.D., is an instructor of Biblical Studies at Boston University School of Theology and Adjunct Lecturer in Religious and Theological Studies at Merrimack College. He is an Aramaist and historian of ancient Israel, and he specializes in the study of names(onomastics) and the history of religion in the Aramaic speaking worlds of Syria, Mesopotamia, and Egypt during the first millennium BCE. He is currently President of the American Name Society, the oldest American academic organization dedicated to the study of names.
Presenter at
Bible & Archaeology Fest XXIX, November 7th and 8th, 2026
What’s in a Name? Theologies of Hope, Survival, and Resilience in Ancient Israel and the Levant
Personal names in the ancient world are some of the most basic and revealing sources available to us. Among them are theophoric names, which are names that include a divine element and express what people believed the gods were doing in their lives. This lecture explores how personal names in the biblical world speak about God, survival, and the desire for deliverance in times of hardship. Drawing on biblical texts and evidence from the wider Ancient Near East, it shows how personal names can reveal a “theology of everyday life,” offering a glimpse into how non-elite communities related to the divine under empire.
