HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Benjamin ( he, ''Bīnyāmīn''; "Son of (the) right") blue letter bible: https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h3225/kjv/wlc/0-1/ H3225 - yāmîn - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (kjv) was the last of the two sons of Jacob and Rachel (Jacob's thirteenth child and twelfth and youngest son) in Jewish, Christian and Islamic tradition. He was also the progenitor of the Israelite Tribe of Benjamin. Unlike Rachel's first son, Joseph, Benjamin was born in
Canaan Canaan (; Phoenician: 𐤊𐤍𐤏𐤍 – ; he, כְּנַעַן – , in pausa – ; grc-bib, Χανααν – ;The current scholarly edition of the Greek Old Testament spells the word without any accents, cf. Septuaginta : id est Vetus Te ...
according to biblical narrative. In the Samaritan Pentateuch, Benjamin's name appears as "Binyamēm" ( Samaritan Hebrew: , "son of days"). In the Quran, Benjamin is referred to as a righteous young child, who remained with Jacob when the older brothers plotted against Joseph. Later rabbinic traditions name him as one of four ancient Israelites who died without sin, the other three being
Chileab Chileab ( he, כִלְאָב, ''Ḵīləʾāḇ'') also known as Daniel, was the second son of David, King of Israel, according to the Bible. He was David's son with his third wife Abigail, widow of Nabal the Carmelite, and is mentioned in , and . ...
,
Jesse Jesse may refer to: People and fictional characters * Jesse (biblical figure), father of David in the Bible. * Jesse (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Jesse (surname), a list of people Music * ''Jesse'' ( ...
and
Amram In the Book of Exodus, Amram (; ) is the husband of Jochebed and father of Aaron, Moses and Miriam. In the Bible In addition to being married to Jochebed, Amram is also described in the Bible as having been related to Jochebed prior to the ...
.


Name

The name is first mentioned in letters from King
Sîn-kāšid Sîn-kāšid (inscribed in akk, 𒀭𒂗𒍪𒂵𒅆𒀉: EN.ZU''-kà-ši-id'') was the king of the ancient Mesopotamian city of Uruk during the first half of the 18th century BC. His precise dating is uncertain, perhaps ca. 1803–1770 BC ( sho ...
of
Uruk Uruk, also known as Warka or Warkah, was an ancient city of Sumer (and later of Babylonia) situated east of the present bed of the Euphrates River on the dried-up ancient channel of the Euphrates east of modern Samawah, Al-Muthannā, Iraq.Harm ...
(1801–1771 BC), who called himself “King of Amnanum” and was a member of the
Amorite The Amorites (; sux, 𒈥𒌅, MAR.TU; Akkadian: 𒀀𒈬𒊒𒌝 or 𒋾𒀉𒉡𒌝/𒊎 ; he, אֱמוֹרִי, 'Ĕmōrī; grc, Ἀμορραῖοι) were an ancient Northwest Semitic-speaking people from the Levant who also occupied la ...
tribal group the “Binu-Jamina” (single name “Binjamin”; Akkadian "Mar-Jamin").
Dietz-Otto Edzard Dietz-Otto Edzard (28 August 1930 in Bremen – 2 June 2004 in Munich) was a German scholar of the Ancient Near East and grammarian of the Sumerian language. He was elected a foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1 ...
: ''Die Nomaden in der altbabylonischen Zeit'' In:
Elena Cassin Elena Cassin, (1909 - June 2011), was an Italian-born French Assyriologist. Biography Elena Cassin studied the history of religions at the University of Rome and obtained her doctorate in 1933. She then went to Paris and attended Charles Fossey ...
,
Jean Bottéro Jean Bottéro (30 August 1914 – 15 December 2007) was a French historian born in Vallauris. He was a major Assyriologist and a renowned expert on the Ancient Near East. He died in Gif-sur-Yvette. Biography He participated with other colleagues ...
,
Jean Vercoutter Jean Vercoutter (20 January 1911 – 16 July 2000) was a French Egyptologist. One of the pioneers of archaeological research into Sudan from 1953, he was Director of the Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale from 1977 to 1981. Biography B ...
: ''Die Altorientalischen Reiche I - Vom Paläolithikum bis zur Mitte des 2. Jahrtausends v. Chr. -'', Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1965 (gleichnamige limitierte Sonderausgabe 2003), S. 170.
The name means "Sons/Son of the South" and is linguistically related as a forerunner to the Old Testament name "Benjamin". According to the Hebrew Bible, Benjamin's name arose when Jacob deliberately changed the name "Benoni", the original name of Benjamin, since Benoni was an allusion to Rachel's dying just after she had given birth, as it means "son of my pain". Textual scholars regard these two names as fragments of naming narratives coming from different sources - one being the Jahwist and the other being the Elohist. Unusual for one of the
12 tribes of Israel The Twelve Tribes of Israel ( he, שִׁבְטֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל, translit=Šīḇṭēy Yīsrāʾēl, lit=Tribes of Israel) are, according to Hebrew scriptures, the descendants of the biblical patriarch Jacob, also known as Israel, thro ...
, the Bible does not explain the etymology of Benjamin's name. Medieval commentator
Rashi Shlomo Yitzchaki ( he, רבי שלמה יצחקי; la, Salomon Isaacides; french: Salomon de Troyes, 22 February 1040 – 13 July 1105), today generally known by the acronym Rashi (see below), was a medieval French rabbi and author of a compre ...
gives two different explanations, based on Midrashic sources. "Son of the south", with south derived from the word for the right hand side, referring to the birth of Benjamin in
Canaan Canaan (; Phoenician: 𐤊𐤍𐤏𐤍 – ; he, כְּנַעַן – , in pausa – ; grc-bib, Χανααν – ;The current scholarly edition of the Greek Old Testament spells the word without any accents, cf. Septuaginta : id est Vetus Te ...
, as compared with the birth of all the other sons of Jacob in Aram.''Jewish Encyclopedia'' Modern scholars have proposed that "son of the south" / "right" is a reference to the tribe being subordinate to the more dominant tribe of Ephraim. Alternatively, Rashi suggests it means "son of days", meaning a son born in Jacob's old age. The Samaritan Pentateuch consistently spells his name "בנימים", with a terminal mem, ("Binyamim"), which could be translated literally as "spirit man" but is in line with the interpretation that the name was a reference to the advanced age of Jacob when Benjamin was born. According to classical rabbinical sources, Benjamin was only born after Rachel had
fasted Fasting is the abstention from eating and sometimes drinking. From a purely physiological context, "fasting" may refer to the metabolic status of a person who has not eaten overnight (see "Breakfast"), or to the metabolic state achieved after com ...
for a long time, as a religious devotion with the hope of a new child as a reward. By then Jacob had become over 100 years old. Benjamin is treated as a young child in most of the Biblical narrative, but at one point is abruptly described as the father of ten sons. Textual scholars believe that this is the result of the genealogical passage, in which his children are named, being from a much later source than the Jahwist and Elohist narratives, which make up most of the Joseph narrative, and which consistently describe Benjamin as a child. By allusion to the biblical Benjamin, in
French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
, Polish and
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
, "Benjamin" (''benjamin''/ ''beniamin''/''benjamín'', respectively) is a common noun meaning the youngest child of a family, especially a particularly favoured one (with a similar connotation to "baby of the family").


Israelites in Egypt

The Torah's Joseph narrative, at a stage when Joseph is unrecognised by his brothers, describes Joseph as testing whether his brothers have reformed by secretly planting a silver cup in Benjamin's bag. Then, publicly searching the bags for it, and after ''finding'' it in Benjamin's possession, demanding that Benjamin become his slave as a punishment. The narrative goes on to state that when Judah (on behalf of the other brothers) begged Joseph not to enslave Benjamin and instead enslave him, since enslavement of Benjamin would break Jacob's heart. This caused Joseph to recant and reveal his identity. The midrashic book of Jasher argues that prior to revealing his identity, Joseph asked Benjamin to find his missing brother (i.e. Joseph) via
astrology Astrology is a range of divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of celestial objects. Dif ...
, using an
astrolabe An astrolabe ( grc, ἀστρολάβος ; ar, ٱلأَسْطُرلاب ; persian, ستاره‌یاب ) is an ancient astronomical instrument that was a handheld model of the universe. Its various functions also make it an elaborate inclin ...
-like tool. It continues by stating that Benjamin divined that the ''man on the throne'' was Joseph, so Joseph identified himself to Benjamin (but not the other brothers), and revealed his scheme (as in the Torah) to test how fraternal the other brothers were. Some classical rabbinical sources argue that Joseph identified himself for other reasons. In these sources, Benjamin swore an oath, on the memory of Joseph, that he was innocent of theft, and, when challenged about how believable the oath would be, explained that remembering Joseph was so important to him that he had named his sons in Joseph's honour. These sources go on to state that Benjamin's oath touched Joseph so deeply that Joseph was no longer able to pretend to be a stranger. In the narrative, just prior to this test, when Joseph had first met all of his brothers (but not identified himself to them), he had held a feast for them; the narrative heavily implies that Benjamin was Joseph's favorite brother, since he is overcome with tears when he first meets Benjamin in particular, and he gives Benjamin five times as much food as he apportions to the others. According to textual scholars, this is really the Jahwist's account of the reunion after Joseph identifies himself, and the account of the threat to enslave Benjamin is just the Elohist's version of the same event, with the Elohist being more terse about Joseph's emotions towards Benjamin, merely mentioning that Benjamin was given five times as many gifts as the others.


Origin

Biblical scholars believe, due to their geographic overlap and their treatment in older passages, that Ephraim and Manasseh were originally considered one tribe, that of ''Joseph''.''Jewish Encyclopedia'', ''Ephraim'' According to several biblical scholars, Benjamin was also originally part of this single tribe, but the biblical account of Joseph as his father became lost.'' Peake's Commentary on the Bible'' The description of Benjamin being born after the arrival in Canaan is thought by some scholars to refer to the tribe of Benjamin coming into existence by branching from the Joseph group after the tribe had settled in Canaan. A number of biblical scholars suspect that the distinction of the ''Joseph tribes'' (including Benjamin) is that they were the only Israelites which went to Egypt and returned, while the main Israelite tribes simply emerged as a subculture from the Canaanites and had remained in
Canaan Canaan (; Phoenician: 𐤊𐤍𐤏𐤍 – ; he, כְּנַעַן – , in pausa – ; grc-bib, Χανααν – ;The current scholarly edition of the Greek Old Testament spells the word without any accents, cf. Septuaginta : id est Vetus Te ...
throughout. According to this view, the story of Jacob's visit to Laban to obtain a wife originated as a
metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wit ...
for this migration, with the property and family which were gained from Laban representing the gains of the Joseph tribes by the time they returned from Egypt. According to textual scholars, the Jahwist version of the Laban narrative only mentions the Joseph tribes, and Rachel, and does not mention the other tribal matriarchs whatsoever.


Benjamin's sons

According to Genesis 46:21, Benjamin had ten sons: Bela, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim, and Ard. The name of his wife/wives are not given, but the
Book of Jubilees The Book of Jubilees, sometimes called Lesser Genesis (Leptogenesis), is an ancient Jewish religious work of 50 chapters (1,341 verses), considered canonical by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church as well as Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jews), where it is ...
calls his wife Ijasaka and the Book of Jasher mentions two wives, Mechalia the daughter of Aram and Aribath the daughter of Shomron. The classical rabbinical tradition adds that each son's name honors Joseph: *''Belah'' (meaning ''swallow''), in reference to Joseph disappearing (''being swallowed up'') *''Becher'' (meaning ''first born''), in reference to Joseph being the first child of Rachel *''Ashbel'' (meaning ''capture''), in reference to Joseph having suffered captivity *''Gera'' (meaning ''grain''), in reference to Joseph living in a ''foreign'' land (Egypt) *''Naaman'' (meaning ''grace''), in reference to Joseph having graceful speech *''Ehi'' (meaning ''my brother''), in reference to Joseph being Benjamin's only full-brother (as opposed to half-brothers) *'' Rosh'' (meaning ''elder''), in reference to Joseph being older than Benjamin *''Muppim'' (meaning ''double mouth''), in reference to Joseph passing on what he had been taught by Jacob *''Huppim'' (meaning '' marriage canopies''), in reference to Joseph being married in Egypt, while Benjamin was not there *''Ard'' (meaning ''wanderer''/''fugitive''), in reference to Joseph being like a rose There is a disparity between the list given in Genesis 46 and that in Numbers 26, where the sons of Benjamin are listed along with the tribes they are the progenitors of. *''Belah'', progenitor of the Belaites, is in both lists *''Ashbel'', progenitor of the Ashbelites, is in both lists *''Ahiram'', progenitor of the Ahiramites, appears in this list but not the first *''Shupham'', progenitor of the Shuphamites, corresponds to Muppim from the first list *''Hupham'', progenitor of the Huphamites, corresponds to Huppim from the first list Becher, Gera, Ehi, and Rosh are omitted from the second list. Ard and Naaman, who are the sons of Benjamin according to Numbers 26, are listed as the sons of Belah and are the progenitors of the Ardites and the Naamites respectively.


In Islam

Though not named in the Quran, Benjamin (Arabic: بنيامين Benyamýn) is referred to as the righteous youngest son of
Yaqub Yaqub ibn Ishaq ibn Ibrahim (Arabic: يَعْقُوب ابْنُ إِسْحَٰق ابْنُ إِبْرَاهِيم, literally: "''Jacob, son of Isaac, son of Abraham''" ar, يَعْقُوب , translit=Yaqub; also later ''Israil'', Arabic: إ ...
, in the narrative of Yusuf in Islamic tradition. Apart from that, however, Islamic tradition does not provide much detail regarding Benjamin's life, and refers to him as being born from Jacob's wife Rahýl. As with Jewish tradition, it also further links a connection between the names of Benjamin's children and Joseph.


See also

*
Benjamin (disambiguation) Benjamin is a figure in the Hebrew Bible. Benjamin may also refer to: ''Benjamin'' as sole name, or religious name * Tribe of Benjamin, one of the Tribes of Israel *Benjamin (Khazar), ruler during the 9th–10th centuries CE * Saint Benjamin (di ...
** For a list of persons with the given name Benjamin see * Tribe of Benjamin *
Paul the Apostle Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...
, also known as Rabbi Shaul—a student of Gamliel or Paul the Jew from the Tribe of Benjamin; see Romans 11:1 and Phillipians 3:5 * Mordecai the Jew, from the Tribe of Benjamin see Esther 2:5 * Queen Esther, also known as Hadassah, the cousin of Mordecai the Jew—see the Book of Esther


Citations


External links

*
"Benjamin"
'' The Jewish Encyclopedia'', 1908: Material on the tribe, its territory, Rabbinical tradition and Islam. {{Authority control Children of Jacob Founders of biblical tribes Book of Jubilees