Nathan ( he, נָתָן ''Nāṯān'', "Given";

fl. ''Floruit'' (; abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for "they flourished") denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indicatin ...

BC) is a

prophet In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings from the s ...

in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. Hebrew: ''Tān ...

. His actions are described in the Books of

Samuel Samuel ''Šəmūʾēl'', Tiberian: ''Šămūʾēl''; ar, شموئيل or صموئيل '; el, Σαμουήλ ''Samouḗl''; la, Samūēl is a figure who, in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, plays a key role in the transition from the bi ...

Kings Kings or King's may refer to: *Monarchs: The sovereign heads of states and/or nations, with the male being kings *One of several works known as the "Book of Kings": **The Books of Kings part of the Bible, divided into two parts **The ''Shahnameh'' ...

, and Chronicles (especially , ).

Biblical accounts

Nathan was a court

in the time of King David. He is introduced in and as an advisor to David, with whom David reflects on the contrast between his own comfortable home and the tent in which the

Ark of the Covenant The Ark of the Covenant,; Ge'ez: also known as the Ark of the Testimony or the Ark of God, is an alleged artifact believed to be the most sacred relic of the Israelites, which is described as a wooden chest, covered in pure gold, with an ...

is accommodated. Nathan then announces to David the

covenant Covenant may refer to: Religion * Covenant (religion), a formal alliance or agreement made by God with a religious community or with humanity in general ** Covenant (biblical), in the Hebrew Bible ** Covenant in Mormonism, a sacred agreement b ...

God was making with him (, a passage known as ''Nathan's Oracle''), contrasting David's proposal to build a house (i.e. a building) for the Ark with God's plan to build a house (i.e. a

dynasty A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family,''Oxford English Dictionary'', "dynasty, ''n''." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1897. usually in the context of a monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A ...

) for David. Later, he comes to David to reprimand him for committing

adultery Adultery (from Latin ''adulterium'') is extramarital sex that is considered objectionable on social, religious, moral, or legal grounds. Although the sexual activities that constitute adultery vary, as well as the social, religious, and leg ...

with Bathsheba while she was the wife of

Uriah the Hittite Uriah the Hittite ( ''ʾŪrīyyā haḤītī'') is a minor figure in the Hebrew Bible, mentioned in the Books of Samuel, an elite soldier in the army of David, king of Israel and Judah, and the husband of Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam. While ...

, whose death the King had also arranged to hide his previous transgression (). According to Chronicles, Nathan wrote histories of the reigns of both David () and Solomon (), and was involved in the music of the temple (see ). In it is Nathan who tells the dying David of the plot of Adonijah to become king, resulting in Solomon being proclaimed king instead. Nathan presides at the anointing of King Solomon. The

Midrash ''Midrash'' (;"midrash"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. he, מִדְרָשׁ; ...

teaches that two honorary seats flanked the throne of King Solomon, one for Nathan and the other for

Gad the Seer The Book of Gad the Seer () is a presumed lost text, supposed to have been written by the biblical prophet Gad, which is mentioned at 1 Chronicles (). The passage reads: "Now the acts of David the king, first and last, behold, they are written in ...

. A lost

Book of Nathan the Prophet The Book of Nathan the Prophet and the History of Nathan the Prophet are among the lost books quoted in the Bible, attributed to the biblical prophet Nathan. They may be the same text, but they are sometimes distinguished from one another. No such ...

is mentioned in 1 and 2 Chronicles. Although the work appears to have been lost, some speculate that some of its content have been incorporated into the books of Samuel or Kings.

Feast day

In the

Eastern Orthodox Church The Eastern Orthodox Church, also called the Orthodox Church, is the second-largest Christian church, with approximately 220 million baptized members. It operates as a communion of autocephalous churches, each governed by its bishops vi ...

, and those

Eastern Catholic Churches The Eastern Catholic Churches or Oriental Catholic Churches, also called the Eastern-Rite Catholic Churches, Eastern Rite Catholicism, or simply the Eastern Churches, are 23 Eastern Christian autonomous ('' sui iuris'') particular churches of ...

which follow the

Byzantine Rite The Byzantine Rite, also known as the Greek Rite or the Rite of Constantinople, identifies the wide range of cultural, liturgical, and canonical practices that developed in the Eastern Christian Church of Constantinople. The canonical hours ar ...

, he is commemorated as a saint on the Sunday of the Holy Fathers (i.e., the Sunday before the

Great Feast In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the feast of the Resurrection of Jesus, called Pascha (Easter), is the greatest of all holy days and as such it is called the "feast of feasts". Immediately below it in importance, there is a group of Twelve Great ...

of the

Nativity of the Lord Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year, ...

). According to the

Orthodox Church in America The Orthodox Church in America (OCA) is an Eastern Orthodox Christian church based in North America. The OCA is partly recognized as autocephalous and consists of more than 700 parishes, missions, communities, monasteries and institutions i ...

website, the Prophet Nathan is commemorated on December 14.

As a name

Derived from this biblical character, "Nathan" is used as a male first name in various languages.

References

{{Authority control 10th-century BCE Hebrew people 11th-century BCE Hebrew people Books of Samuel people Christian saints from the Old Testament People associated with David 10th-century BC religious leaders

Biblical accounts

Feast day

As a name

See also

References