ELISHA BEN ABUYAH
Certainly Elisha’= Yehoshua. If Avuyah is a deliberate alteration of a symbolic name, then the original would have been Aviya אביה which AT THAT TIME (but not when the name came into existence centuries before) would have been taken to mean “my father is Yah”. The name Avuyah is otherwise unknown, whereas Aviyah is well attested in the O.T. [Note that in these two names there is a consonantal H at the end. The H is not a vowel-letter here]. There is a reminiscence in the altered form Avuyah of the word “avoy” אבוי meaning “Woe!”.
# © 2006 by World Star International Inc. Marcus Julius Agrippa Jr. 
