Amminadab () is a minor character referred to in the

Book of Exodus The Book of Exodus (from ; ''Šəmōṯ'', 'Names'; ) is the second book of the Bible. It is the first part of the narrative of the Exodus, the origin myth of the Israelites, in which they leave slavery in Biblical Egypt through the strength of ...

. He is the father-in-law of High Priest

Aaron According to the Old Testament of the Bible, Aaron ( or ) was an Israelite prophet, a high priest, and the elder brother of Moses. Information about Aaron comes exclusively from religious texts, such as the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament ...

, brother of Moses. Amminadab is also mentioned in the

Book of Ruth The Book of Ruth (, ''Megillath Ruth'', "the Scroll of Ruth", one of the Five Megillot) is included in the third division, or the Writings ( Ketuvim), of the Hebrew Bible. In most Christian canons it is treated as one of the historical books ...

(and also in the

Gospel of Matthew The Gospel of Matthew is the first book of the New Testament of the Bible and one of the three synoptic Gospels. It tells the story of who the author believes is Israel's messiah (Christ (title), Christ), Jesus, resurrection of Jesus, his res ...

and the Gospel of Luke) as the father of Nahshon, ancestor of King David and therefore the ancestor of

Jesus Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

. This Amminadab was an Israelite mentioned in the lineage of

Jacob Jacob, later known as Israel, is a Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions. He first appears in the Torah, where he is described in the Book of Genesis as a son of Isaac and Rebecca. Accordingly, alongside his older fraternal twin brother E ...

's sons, Exodus 6:14-28. Mathew 1:1-16 shows a full record of ancestors and descendants. The same name is mentioned in the Book of Samuel and 1 Chronicles. That man likely served in the tabernacle. He was one of 112 Levite descendants of Uzziel who received the great honor of bringing the

Ark of the Covenant The Ark of the Covenant, also known as the Ark of the Testimony or the Ark of God, was a religious storage chest and relic held to be the most sacred object by the Israelites. Religious tradition describes it as a wooden storage chest decorat ...

, back to

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

from the Philistines.

History

According to the Biblical genealogies, he was a son of Ram (also known as Aram). He was born during the Israelite exile in

Ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...

. Ram was the great-grandson of Judah. Amminadab was the father of Nahshon, chief of the tribe of Judah ( Numbers 1:7; 2:3; 7:12, 17; 10:14). His daughter Elisheba was

's wife ( Exodus 6:23), making him Aaron's father-in-law."Amminadab", ''Jewish Encyclopedia''
/ref> Amminadab is one of the ancestors of Jesus painted in the lunettes of the Sistine Chapel. In the recent restoration process, the figure of Amminadab was shown to be wearing a contemporary Jewish badge, the wearing of which was being rigorously enforced at the time. Depictions normally occur in a pejorative context, and seem to link this figure from the Jewish past to the Renaissance present. In this case, it appears to place Amminadab as permanently exiled from salvation.

In popular culture

Nathaniel Hawthorne took the name Aminadab (spelled with one "m") for the servant of the scientist Aylmer in his short story, " The Birthmark." In Hawthorne's story, Aminadab is depicted as physical, "uncouth" (literally, unknowing) and even animalistic in contrast to Aylmer. "He seemed to represent man's physical nature; while Aylmer's slender figure, and pale, intellectual face, were no less apt a type of the spiritual element." Paradoxically, perhaps, this animalistic minor character is also the voice of conscience, who, unlike his egotistical boss, is able to appreciate the birthmark that Aylmer wants to remove from his wife's face even at the cost of her life. In the 1956 film '' The Ten Commandments'', Amminadab is portrayed by H.B. Warner. During the Exodus, he is too old and frail to travel, so Bithiah takes his fig tree seedling and assures him that it will be planted in the

Promised Land In the Abrahamic religions, the "Promised Land" ( ) refers to a swath of territory in the Levant that was bestowed upon Abraham and his descendants by God in Abrahamic religions, God. In the context of the Bible, these descendants are originally ...

References

Sources

* {{Authority control Tribe of Judah Book of Exodus people Book of Ruth people Gospel of Matthew Gospel of Luke