What can we learn from names? What we call ourselves defines for others
who we are. We're also defined by the labels others apply to us (whether
factual or fabricated), the name of the land in which we live or were born
and the name of the land of our ancestry. We must consider names and labels
as we attempt to trace the people of Israel through history.
In the Bible the people of Israel are sometimes called the sons of
Isaac. God promised that the name of Isaac would continue to identify
Israel as a people (Genesis 21:12).
In biblical times the Hebrew language was written with no vowels. Thus Isaac would
have been spelled simply Sk or Sc in the English equivalents
of the Hebrew characters. We should not consider it astonishing that shortly
after the exile of the 10 tribes the term SaCae (the letters for
the name Isaac with the Latin plural ending "ae") identified the new settlers
in the Black Sea region
of Scythia.
The Assyrians similarly spoke of the emergence of the iShKuza and
the Persian-Medians of the SaKa, both derivations of the name
Isaac. (We have capitalized the S, C and K in these examples
to help you see their derivations.)
The Behistun Rock, a mural carved in stone near present-day Bisitun, Iran,
provides linguistic clues to the understanding of several ancient languages.
The rock relief dates from the reign of Darius I of Persia (ca. 522-486
B.C.). Its depiction of conquered foreign kings paying homage was inscribed
in the Old Persian, Elamite (Susian) and Babylonian languages. One sees
Skuka, king of the temporarily subjugated Asiatic branch of Scythians,
pictured as the last one in line. The Behistun Rock describes him as the
king of the Scythians, Saka or Cimmerians (pronounced "Gimiri" in
Babylonian).
