Gad was the name of the pan-

Semitic Semitic most commonly refers to the Semitic languages, a name used since the 1770s to refer to the language family currently present in West Asia, North and East Africa, and Malta. Semitic may also refer to: Religions * Abrahamic religions ** ...

god In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...

of fortune, usually depicted as a male but sometimes as a female. and is attested in ancient records of Aram and

Arabia The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate. ...

. Gad is also mentioned in the bible as a deity in the Book of Isaiah (Isaiah 65:11 – some translations simply call him (the god of) Fortune), as having been worshipped by a number of

Hebrews The terms ''Hebrews'' (Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and ...

during the

Babylonian captivity The Babylonian captivity or Babylonian exile is the period in Jewish history during which a large number of Judeans from the ancient Kingdom of Judah were captives in Babylon, the capital city of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, following their def ...

. Gad apparently differed from the god of

destiny Destiny, sometimes referred to as fate (from Latin ''fatum'' "decree, prediction, destiny, fate"), is a predetermined course of events. It may be conceived as a predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual. Fate Although oft ...

, who was known as

Meni Meni is a Jewish given name. Notable people with the name include: * Meni Koretski (born 1974), Israeli footballer and manager * Meni Levi (born 1980), Israeli footballer *Meni Mazuz Menachem "Meni" Mazuz ( he, מְנַחֵם "מֶנִי" מָז� ...

. The

root In vascular plants, the roots are the organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often below the sur ...

verb in ''Gad'' means ''cut'' or ''divide'', and from this comes the idea of fate being ''meted out''.

Israelite connection

It is possible that the son of Jacob named ''Gad'' is named after Gad, or that Gad is a

theophoric name A theophoric name (from Greek: , ''theophoros'', literally "bearing or carrying a god") embeds the word equivalent of 'god' or God's name in a person's name, reflecting something about the character of the person so named in relation to that deit ...

, or a descriptive. Although the text presents a different reason, the ( ketub) quotation of

Zilpa In the Book of Genesis, Zilpah ( he, ''Zīlpā'', meaning uncertain) was Leah's handmaid, presumed slave,In Context whom Leah gave to Jacob like a wife to bear him children (). Zilpah gave birth to two sons, whom Leah claimed as her own and name ...

(Gad's mother) giving the reason of Gad's name could be understood that way. How widespread the cult of Gad, the deity, was in Canaanite times may be inferred from the names ''Baalgad'', a city at the foot of Mount

Hermon Mount Hermon ( ar, جبل الشيخ or جبل حرمون / ALA-LC: ''Jabal al-Shaykh'' ("Mountain of the Sheikh") or ''Jabal Haramun''; he, הַר חֶרְמוֹן, ''Har Hermon'') is a mountain cluster constituting the southern end of th ...

, and ''Migdal-gad'', in the territory of Judah. Compare also the proper names ''Gaddi'' and ''Gaddiel'' in the tribes of

Manasseh Manasseh () is both a given name and a surname. Its variants include Manasses and Manasse. Notable people with the name include: Surname * Ezekiel Saleh Manasseh (died 1944), Singaporean rice and opium merchant and hotelier * Jacob Manasseh (die ...

and

Zebulun Zebulun (; also ''Zebulon'', ''Zabulon'', or ''Zaboules'') was, according to the Books of Genesis and Numbers,Genesis 46:14 the last of the six sons of Jacob and Leah (Jacob's tenth son), and the founder of the Israelite Tribe of Zebulun. S ...

(Numbers 13:10, 11). At the same time it must not be supposed that Gad was always regarded as an independent deity. The name was doubtless originally an appellative, meaning ''the power that allots''. Hence any of the greater gods supposed to favour men might be thought of as the giver of good fortune and be worshiped under that title; it is possible that

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousandt ...

, the planet, may have been the ''Gad'' thus honoured - among the Arabs the planet Jupiter was called ''the greater Fortune'' (

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never f ...

was styled ''the lesser Fortune''). Gad is the patron of a locality, a mountain (

Kodashim 150px, Pidyon haben Kodashim ( he, קדשים, "Holy Things") is the fifth of the six orders, or major divisions, of the Mishnah, Tosefta and the Talmud, and deals largely with the services within the Temple in Jerusalem, its maintenance and de ...

, tractate

Hullin Hullin or Chullin (lit. "Ordinary" or "Mundane") is the third tractate of the Mishnah in the Order of Kodashim and deals with the laws of ritual slaughter of animals and birds for meat in ordinary or non-consecrated use (as opposed to sacred use) ...

40a), of an idol (Genesis Rabbah, lxiv), a house, or the world (

Genesis Rabbah Genesis Rabbah (Hebrew: , ''B'reshith Rabba'') is a religious text from Judaism's classical period, probably written between 300 and 500 CE with some later additions. It is a midrash comprising a collection of ancient rabbinical homiletical interp ...

, lxxi.). Hence "luck" may also be bad (

Ecclesiastes Rabbah Ecclesiastes Rabbah or Kohelet Rabbah (Hebrew: קהלת רבה) is an aggadic commentary on Ecclesiastes, included in the collection of the Midrash Rabbot. It follows the biblical book verse by verse, only a few verses remaining without commentar ...

, vii. 26). A couch or bed for this god of fortune is referred to in the

Mishnaic The Mishnah or the Mishna (; he, מִשְׁנָה, "study by repetition", from the verb ''shanah'' , or "to study and review", also "secondary") is the first major written collection of the Jewish oral traditions which is known as the Oral Tora ...

tractate Nedarim 56a).

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Israelite connection

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Further reading