In the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Judahites during the wilderness wanderings of the

Book of Numbers The Book of Numbers (from Biblical Greek, Greek Ἀριθμοί, ''Arithmoi'', , ''Bəmīḏbar'', ; ) is the fourth book of the Hebrew Bible and the fourth of five books of the Jewish Torah. The book has a long and complex history; its final f ...

. In the

King James Version The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version (AV), is an Early Modern English Bible translations, Early Modern English translation of the Christianity, Christian Bible for the Church of England, wh ...

, the name is spelled Naashon, and is within modern Rabbinical contexts often transliterated as Nachshon. According to a

Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...

ish

Midrash ''Midrash'' (;"midrash"
. ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. ; or ''midrashot' ...

, he was the person who initiated the

Hebrews The Hebrews (; ) were an ancient Semitic-speaking peoples, ancient Semitic-speaking people. Historians mostly consider the Hebrews as synonymous with the Israelites, with the term "Hebrew" denoting an Israelite from the nomadic era, which pre ...

' passage through the Red Sea, by walking in head-deep until the sea parted.

In the Bible

According to the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Amminadab Amminadab () is a minor character referred to in the Book of Exodus. He is the father-in-law of High Priest Aaron, brother of Moses. Amminadab is also mentioned in the Book of Ruth (and also in the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke) as ...

, descendant in the fifth

generation A generation is all of the people born and living at about the same time, regarded collectively. It also is "the average period, generally considered to be about 20–⁠30 years, during which children are born and grow up, become adults, and b ...

of Judah, and brother-in-law of

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 ...

."Nahshon", ''Jewish encyclopedia
/ref> According to the Greek New Testament, he is also the father-in-law of

Rahab Rahab (; ) was, according to the Hebrew Bible in Joshua 2:1-24, a Canaanite who resided within Jericho in the Promised Land and assisted the Israelites by hiding two men who had been sent to scout the city before their attack. In the New Testam ...

. He was an Israelite and a :Judahite, and a member of the Perezite and Hezronite clans, through his descent from Jacob, Judah, Perez, and Hezron, respectively. According to the

, he was at least 20 years old during the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

in the Sinai, during the

Exodus Exodus or the Exodus may refer to: Religion * Book of Exodus, second book of the Hebrew Torah and the Christian Bible * The Exodus, the biblical story of the migration of the ancient Israelites from Egypt into Canaan Historical events * Ex ...

. By the same account, those of the Israelites who were among the original number that had set out from Egypt, of whom Nahshon was one, did not survive the forty-year sojourn in the wilderness to enter the Promised Land of

Canaan CanaanThe current scholarly edition of the Septuagint, Greek Old Testament spells the word without any accents, cf. Septuaginta : id est Vetus Testamentum graece iuxta LXX interprets. 2. ed. / recogn. et emendavit Robert Hanhart. Stuttgart : D ...

. Nahshon was appointed by

Moses In Abrahamic religions, Moses was the Hebrews, Hebrew prophet who led the Israelites out of slavery in the The Exodus, Exodus from ancient Egypt, Egypt. He is considered the most important Prophets in Judaism, prophet in Judaism and Samaritani ...

, upon God's command, as prince and military commander of the

Tribe of Judah According to the Hebrew Bible, the tribe of Judah (, ''Shevet Yehudah'') was one of the twelve Tribes of Israel, named after Judah (son of Jacob), Judah, the son of Jacob. Judah was one of the tribes to take its place in Canaan, occupying it ...

and one of the

leaders of the tribes of Israel The Twelve Tribes of Israel ( , ) are described in the Hebrew Bible as being the descendants of Jacob, a Hebrew patriarch who was a son of Isaac and thereby a grandson of Abraham. Jacob, later known as Israel, had a total of twelve sons, from ...

. Although his tribe was fourth in the order of the Patriarchs, at the dedication of the

Tabernacle According to the Hebrew Bible, the tabernacle (), also known as the Tent of the Congregation (, also Tent of Meeting), was the portable earthly dwelling of God used by the Israelites from the Exodus until the conquest of Canaan. Moses was instru ...

he was the first to bring his dedicatory offering. His title or role is translated into Modern English variously in the

New Revised Standard Version The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) is a translation of the Bible in American English. It was first published in 1989 by the National Council of Churches, the NRSV was created by an ecumenical committee of scholars "comprising about thirt ...

, as "leader" and census-taker, one of the "heads of their ancestral houses, the leaders of the tribes", "first .. over the whole company", and "prince of the sons of Judah". Nahshon was, through

Boaz Boaz (; Hebrew: בֹּעַז ''Bōʿaz''; ) is a biblical figure appearing in the Book of Ruth in the Hebrew Bible and in the genealogies of Jesus in the New Testament and also the name of a pillar in the portico of the historic Temple in Jeru ...

, the direct male ancestor of

David David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Dam ...

, and thus of

Solomon Solomon (), also called Jedidiah, was the fourth monarch of the Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy), Kingdom of Israel and Judah, according to the Hebrew Bible. The successor of his father David, he is described as having been the penultimate ...

and all of the kings of the

Kingdom of Judah The Kingdom of Judah was an Israelites, Israelite kingdom of the Southern Levant during the Iron Age. Centered in the highlands to the west of the Dead Sea, the kingdom's capital was Jerusalem. It was ruled by the Davidic line for four centuries ...

. He was exactly halfway in the direct male line between Judah and King David. Nahshon is also mentioned in the

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

in the

genealogy of Jesus The New Testament provides two accounts of the genealogy of Jesus, one in the Gospel of Matthew and another in the Gospel of Luke. Matthew starts with Abraham and works forwards, while Luke works back in time from Jesus to Adam. The lists of na ...

In rabbinical literature

Owing to his direct descent from Judah and to his being the progenitor of so many kings, Nahshon is extolled by the

rabbi A rabbi (; ) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as ''semikha''—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of t ...

s as a most noble man. Nahshon's sister

Elisheba Elisheba (; (original) ) was the wife of Aaron, the older brother of Moses and the first High Priest of Israel. She was mentioned once in Exodus 6:23 in the Torah and the Old Testament. In the Torah In the book of Exodus, she was said to be ...

married Aaron, and this is especially mentioned as a hint that one should take care to select a wife whose brothers are noble. The

Midrash ''Midrash'' (;"midrash"
. ''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. ; or ''midrashot' ...

relates that during the Exodus, when the Israelites reached the Red Sea, it did not automatically part. The Israelites stood at the banks of the sea and wailed with despair, but Nahshon entered the waters. Once he was up to his nose in the water, the sea parted. This is the origin of his name "Nahshol", that is, "stormy sea-waves". Nahshon was a model prince, and was called "king". When the princes of the different tribes were required to bring their offerings, each on a separate day, Moses was embarrassed, not knowing who should be the first; but all Israel pointed at Nahshon, saying, "He sanctified the name of God by springing first into the

Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

; he is worthy to bring down the

Shekhinah Shekhinah () is the English transliteration of a Hebrew word meaning "dwelling" or "settling" and denotes the presence of God in a place. This concept is found in Judaism from Talmudic literature. The word "Shekhinah" is found in the Bible onl ...

; therefore he shall be the first to bring the offering." The offering brought by Nahshon is pointed out as having been his own and not that of his tribe. In the account of the offering, the words ''Va'korbano'' ("and his sacrifice") and ''Etodim'' each have a ו (vav), while the same words in the accounts of the other princes' offerings have no ו (vav). This letter, the numerical value of which is six, indicates that Nahshon was the ancestor of six men —

, the

Messiah In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of '' mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach ...

Daniel Daniel commonly refers to: * Daniel (given name), a masculine given name and a surname * List of people named Daniel * List of people with surname Daniel * Daniel (biblical figure) * Book of Daniel, a biblical apocalypse, "an account of the acti ...

Hananiah Hananiah, Hanina, Chaninah, Haninah, Chananiah () or Ananias () may refer to: Hebrew Bible * Hananiah ben Zerubbabel, (Old Testament: Chronicles) * Hananiah of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego * Hananiah (Samaritan), 4th century BC, governor of Sa ...

Mishael Mishael (, "who is what is God") or Misael may refer to: Biblical figures *Mishael (son of Uzziel), cousin of Moses, Aaron, and Miriam *Original Hebrew name of Meshach People Misael *Misael (footballer, born 1987), full name Misael Silva Jansen, B ...

, and

Azariah Azariah ( ''‘Ǎzaryāh'', " Yah has helped") is the name of several people in the Hebrew Bible and Jewish history, including: * Abednego, the new name given to Azariah who is the companion of Daniel, Hananiah, and Mishael in the Book of Daniel ( ...

— each of whom was distinguished for six praiseworthy qualities.

In art

Nahshon is depicted as one of the ancestors of Christ in a lunette in the

Sistine Chapel The Sistine Chapel ( ; ; ) is a chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the pope's official residence in Vatican City. Originally known as the ''Cappella Magna'' ('Great Chapel'), it takes its name from Pope Sixtus IV, who had it built between 1473 and ...

, where a youthful Nahshon is shown wearing a red robe and reading a book."Nahshon", Web Gallery of Art
/ref>

References

{{Authority control Book of Numbers people Tribe of Judah Crossing the Red Sea

In the Bible

In rabbinical literature

In art

See also

References