According to biblical scholars, the real purpose of the story was to indicate that prophecy was not restricted to a select few people.[7] However, the text states that Eldad and Medad were of them that were written down,[8] making them less representative of the general population, although some textual scholars believe that this is a gloss added to the original Elohist[7][9] account, by a later editor who objected to the idea that anyone could become a prophet.[7] The names themselves are hence unimportant to the point of the story, and may have been chosen simply for the sake of assonance;[7] they seem to refer to dad, suggesting polytheism and/or a non-Israelite origin: